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November 13, 2009
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Friday the 13th, and sneezing.

I found a great article about Friday the 13th, and I wanted to share it with everyone.

QUOTE

The fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobics and if you suffer from it you are not alone.

Dr. Donald Dossey, who is one of the foremost experts on phobias and fear of Friday the 13th in the country, said 18 to 20 million people in the United States are afraid of Friday the 13th. In fact the fear of Friday the 13th is so prevalent that Dossey devoted a chapter to it in his book "Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun: Mythical Origins, Scientific Treatment and Superstitious Cures."

Today, even more people may experience the Friday the 13th jitters than usual.

"We're seeing an uptick in phobias and superstitions," he said. "The sale of astrological and folklore books is increasing astronomically - no pun intended."

In a telephone interview from his home in North Carolina on Thursday, Dossey explained that in times of war, high unemployment and uncertainty people are looking for answers.

Human beings are always trying to find a way to take care of their anxiety and fears," he said. "That's how superstitions got started. Anytime people are more stressed and more fearful we see an increase in superstitious and phobic behavior."

Dossey said the fear of the number 13 predates Christianity and has its roots in a Norse legend of 12 gods at a dinner party. According to legend, a 13th uninvited guest crashed the party and killed the god of joy and gladness, which caused the entire earth to go dark. Dossey said Fridays are feared because witches' covens met Friday and because Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday.

"When you combine 13th and Friday you have the most insidious day in the year," he said. "It's like a double whammy."

Dossey added the fear of the number 13 and of Friday the 13th is so ingrained in our culture that the United States Navy will not launch a ship on Friday the 13th, 80 percent of hotel elevators don't have a 13th floor showing on the elevator button and an estimated $800 million in business is lost in the United States on Friday the 13th.

Dossey said superstitions are more common than believed.

"Everyone is superstitious whether they will admit it or not," he said. "If someone says they're not superstitious ask them if they say 'Bless You' when someone sneezes? People used to believe when someone sneezed the soul could fly out of the body and that is why we say bless you. Superstitions are, by definition, worn out belief systems."

Dossey said he isn't afraid of Friday the 13th but he freely admits he has his own superstitions and lucky rituals.

"I knock on wood and cross my fingers," he said. "When I'm appearing on TV I wear my purple boxer shorts. They are my lucky shorts."

Dossey said if someone is suffering from paraskevidekatriaphobics and it doesn't interfere with normal activities they should just try to relax but if a phobia interferes with a job or relationships, he suggests seeking treatment.

If you're still a little nervous about bad luck today here's another little tip to get you through unscathed - try standing on your head, chewing a piece of beef gristle and swallowing it. Dossey said that technique is designed to bring good luck and it comes from a book of old English magic.

After reading that, I was wondering about the history of sneezing, and I came upon this article:

QUOTE

The custom of saying "God bless you" after a sneeze was begun literally as a blessing. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the plague (his successor succumbed to it). Gregory (who also invented the ever-popular Gregorian chant) called for litanies, processions and unceasing prayer for God's help and intercession. Columns marched through the streets chanting, "Kyrie Eleison" (Greek for "Lord have mercy"). When someone sneezed, they were immediately blessed ("God bless you!") in the hope that they would not subsequently develop the plague. All that prayer apparently worked, judging by how quickly the plague of 590 AD diminished.

The connection of sneezing to the plague is not the first association of sneezing with death. According to Man, Myth, and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, many cultures, even some in Europe, believe that sneezing expels the soul--the "breath of life"--from the body. That doesn't seem too far-fetched when you realize that sneezing can send tiny particles speeding out of your nose at up to 100 miles per hour!

We know today, of course, that when you sneeze, your heart doesn't stop, nor will your eyes pop out if you can keep them open, nor does your soul get expelled. What does get expelled are hundreds upon thousands of microscopic germs. The current advice when you sneeze is to cover your mouth with your arm rather than your hand. That way, all those germs won't be on your hands when you touch the countless things you're going to touch in the course of the day (don't tell us; we don't want to know).

Hope you enjoyed the read!
Source(s):
http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2009/11/13/news/news05.txt
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1...-after-a-sneeze

Posted by: XGhozt

August 27, 2009
Comments (9)

Heroes of Newerth Beta Keys!

Okay so many(if not all of you) know about the extremely popular Warcraft 3 Custom Game, DotA. So S2 Games decided to take DotA to a whole new level, and with Icefrogs permission, they created Heroes of Newerth. It's basically a standalone DotA game where you join one of many DotA rooms and play.

Some cool features:
1) Levels: Each time you play a game, you gain experience. This helps you level up. There are 3 Tiers to the game, Noobs Only, Noobs allowed and No noobs allowed. Noobs are considered anybody from level 1-6. When you're past that range, you cannot join a Noobs only game. This helps from Pros stomping noobs and a bunch of raging.

2) Autobalance/Lock system: Host has the ability to Auto-Balance the teams, which rearranges them based on their Win/Loss ratio so the teams are balanced. Host can also Lock slots of his choice, which keeps them in the same team after autobalance.

3) Organization: HoN is extremely organized, making it easy to find the perfect game. Unlike Warcraft, when creating the game you choose from many options such as Game Mode(AP,RD,etc), Tier(Noobs only, etc), and such. This helps players refine their searches by being able to organize the games into categories.

The only problem: It's a closed beta so you need a beta key. For those who don't have any, here's a link!

Heroes of Newerth Beta Keys

There are only around 4,000 left so hurry!

Posted by: Rdy2Killz

August 26, 2009
Comments (10)

[Tutorial] How to pick a secure password

Hello everyone, today I'm going to teach you how to pick a secure password. I've been using this method for years now, and I've never had any trouble with it. It will stop every password cracker and it's very easy to remember your password. It involves several steps, which you can get fast at over time. So, let's begin?

The first step, is to pick 3 words of your choice. Let's say, "the red tree", for instance. I just picked this at random, but you can pick things that are relevant to you, like your favorite number, color and city. It really doesn't matter, just something that is easy for you to keep track of.

The second step is to turn it into the password format, which would be "theredtree", we don't was spaces in the password, while valid, just adds length and get's in the way later.

Now, we add capitalization to the equation, this step is optional, but all the well more secure. One good way is to do the first letter of each word that you previously picked. And then the last letter of the password. In this example, it would become "TheRedTreE".

But we're not done yet, next we add numbers. Here's a great way to keep track of what goes where:

I = 1
S = 5
E = 3
T = 7
O = 0

Based on that, our password now becomes: "7h3R3dTr3E"
You want to try and keep the numbers to every other character, because it's organized. This way we don't have too many. You don't have to make the password this complicated, because even just doing one or two letters will make the difference.

Now we need to add something to the end the password, to make it unique. It can be your birthday, your favorite numbers, random numbers that you already remember. Or something relating to those 3 words. In this case, for the example, we'll use 00.

So our password, has now become "7h3R3dTr3E00".

The last step is what makes the password secure, it's the make or break for most passwords, the symbol character. You need to add a symbol in your password, something that's easy to type. We don't want your password to take you 10 minutes to enter in, so let's pick an easy finishing symbol, like the comma, the period, or the quote.

Finally, the finished product is this: 7h3R3dTr3E00'

All you have to do is keep track of what numbers stand for what, and that every other letter is either capitalized, or numbered. And anyone can remember at the end it's 00'. So all you have to remember is, the red tree. With that said, goodluck everyone!

Thanks for reading.

Posted by: XGhozt

April 21, 2009
Comments (17)

Was almost in a small accident today

So, I was on my way home from college, and it's like 6:15pm (earlier today). Their was an Ambulance driving in apparently the same direction. Which was odd, because in this area you don't generally see them driving around without their lights on. So, I was just thinking about how it would be ironic for something to happen and have the ambulance already there.

There's a section of highway on my way home that does some really large turns downhill, under an overpass, and then back up hill over another overpass. And everyone always drives 50-60 around this bend. And right under the over pass, for some reason everyone always drive 20-30. Mind you, this is during peak commute hour. On a good day with no traffic you could hit this turn at 80 no problem.

So anyway, the ambulance is 2-3 cars back now, and I see the traffic, as usual and I just let my car cost down hill around the corner slowing down as we all group up under the usual overpass. But then out of no where I see this car (of an older model) fly by me down this hill. But he's in the other lane (to my left) where as I'm on the far right lane for the exit after doing under this overpass.

And just as I join the rest of the cars in this slow downhill turn, this other car that flew past me is slamming on his breaks, and tries to desperately avoid hitting any cars in front of him. Unfortunately, by the time he'd slowed down and my traveling at 15mph had caught up to him.. he smashed into the guy in front of him. And this was right next to my car. So, I was passing the accident and had to avoid fly debris as both cars involved in the accident were pushed all over the road.

But then, the ambulance that was on the same path I was heading, pulls over next to the accident vehicles to help. And all of the traffic behind me comes to a complete stop. And luckily I was stuck in that, and my car wasn't hit by any of the debris. But when you're going 15-20mph and a car slams into another car literally 10 feet away from you it's really freaky. I had all my windows down so I hear and saw the whole thing.

I don't think anyone was hurt, it was just a fender bender, and he wasn't going very fast by the time he bit the other car (which wasn't moving at all). So, at most maybe some whiplash. Anyway, I just had to post, it was pretty freaky actually seeing it happen, and amusing that the ambulance was right behind us.

There have been hundreds of accidents like this at this same place, and I've passed maybe 10 in the last 2 months. That's the only reason I even know to slow down and really watch out at this turn and I keep having to wait in traffic and driving by all these cars on the side of the road.

Posted by: XGhozt