Beware of local delicacies

An tourist in Spain stopped at a local restaurant following a day of sightseeing. While sipping his sangria, (The blood-red color of this beverage inspired its name, which is derived from the Spanish word for "blood." Sangría is made with red wine, fruit juices, soda water, fruit and sometimes brandy and cognac) he noticed a sizzling, scrumptious looking platter being served at the next table. Not only did it look good, the smell was wonderful. He asked the waiter, "What is that you just served?" The waiter replied, " Ah senor, you have excellent taste! Those are bulls testicles from the bull fight this morning. A delicacy!"

The tourist, though momentarily daunted, said, "What the hell, I'm on vacation! Bring me an order!" The waiter replied, "I am so sorry senor. There is only one serving per day because there is only one bull fight each morning. If you come early tomorrow and place your order, we will be sure to save you this delicacy!"

The next morning, the tourist returned, placed his order, and then that evening he was served the one and only special delicacy of the day. After inspecting the contents of his platter, he called to the waiter and said, "These are delicious, but they are much, much smaller than the ones I saw you serve yesterday!"

The waiter shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Si senor. Sometimes the bull wins."

Chief Justice John Roberts

Chief Justice John Roberts was on ABC news today. He referred to Oliver Wendell Holmes's quote "Certitude is not a test of certainty." He went on to elaborate that having strong belief in something ain't enough (certainty), you gotta be able to explain why something is the way it is.

Now, applying this theory, there ought to be a reason for everything; love, hate, ego, power, money.....

God is excluded from this process, this is where faith comes in, I suppose.

Co-action effects

Research on "co-action effects," has found that eating and drinking behavior is greatly influenced by the actions of others, though few people seem to notice the effect. Keeping up with the Joneses syndrome comes to mind.

Example 1: Men taking part in a beer taste-test drank twice as much on average when paired with a heavy drinker versus a buddy who was not imbibing at all. Seen this at the 2006 Oktoberfest.

Example 2: When smokers see other folks smoking or smell cigarette smoke, they feel the urge to smoke themselves. But this might be, in part, related to natural lowering of nicotine levels?

I saw this subject in an article written by Laura Rowley. Laura is a columnist on Yahoo Finance.

Genetics and Personality Relationship

I believed from experience and observations that genetics played a big factor in determining personality. A study indicates that I was wrong about this but not entirely.

Research findings at Centre for Statistical Genetics at University of Michigan indicate that genetics account for:

• 51% of height, weight and overall body shape.
• 25% of heart function
• 40% of blood features such as sugar and cholesterol
• ONLY 19% of personality traits such as extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

December 27, 2006: I don't think the results of this study are written in stone