The Art of the Silent Fart

Wait to hear a pop, then release the rest of the piggybacking fart.
by Edwin of awkwardlist.com

Photo from Matias Jaramillo’s flickr

The whole world needs to be able to fart freely, because nobody wants to hold it in for so long that you explode, and we all know that you should never force such a thing. You see, by the time farts come out, most of it is composed of nitrogen. If you’re a nervous person who swallows a lot of air and digests things quickly, your farts may contain a lot of oxygen.

Why do they stink?

Small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans in the mixture (compounds that contain sulfur) makes them smell. Bacterial fermentation and digestion processes produce heat as a byproduct, which create bubbles that are small, hot, and heavily concentrated with stinky bacterial metabolic products. Aka the silent-but-deadly.

If you skipped the last paragraph because I used chemistry, I’m not offended.

In order for you to fart silently, there are a few techniques out there that can help you out:

1. Let out a little gas (you may hear a pop) and then release the rest piggybacking on the opening the pop made. If you can stop the pop, you’re golden.
2. Squat. A band conductor once suggested this to us, and even though I haven’t tried it.. I still don’t endorse it. It’s risky.
3. Muffle the sound somehow.

Didn’t think you’d be getting a lesson on flatulence this morning, right? Haha! You’re welcome!

Any awkward fart stories out there?

PhotoLedger: Flying by Sachigusa Yasuda

Sachigusa Yasuda, an artist from Tokyo, features a desolate perspective on being an elevated ground. 

She takes us to the view of looking down the earth from a skyscraper through her digital photography. And it was excellent.

The experience of her Flying photos was as if you were on the edge of a building’s window, your eyes coordinating with your mind in magnifying the distance to the ground. Some people feel nauseated by the photo, fearing the heights.

What do you feel about this? I’m kept between praising human’s brilliance of industrial design and longing for the natural view we should be seeing but obstructed by these buildings.

Getting People’s Attention

7 billion people in the world and each has their own unique personalities. 

Photos from photoXpress; TJ Sengel’s and Julie, Dave & Family’s flickr

Some of them loved to be in the center of attention at all times. For the diminishing number of people, they keep their private lives intact. There are instances though that we need to attract people’s attention.

Applying for a job, impressing a person, boosting your ego – there are many situations in which you’ll have to get people’s attention. Being too shy isn’t filling up anyone’s social credential, and a feed of attention once in a while won’t hurt, isn’t it?

At those times I feel the need to have people’s focus on me, I wear red shirt. Red color is dominating. It can easily be spotted against any other color and it is memorable. When there’s a rubbish know-it-all I’d want to outperform, I speak out louder than usual and let what my brain got to outsmart. But those are rare times.

People who act the craziest get the most attention; that is not the norm of my actions though. I’m usually a composed and relaxed dude. The only way I’ll act stupid and crazy is when I went beyond my body’s alcohol tolerance threshold.

I’ve seen some techniques in screens. People utilize a prop, most times a cute dog or a baby. It’s some kind of a chick magnet. According to the survey of Askmen.com, “being a great father or husband” is the main plus factor that defies a real man. Taking care of a baby would shift heads of women. In a study of University of Austin scientists, a woman’s face is mostly important to 75% of men. I agree with that, the eyes, the smile, the skin are all attention grabber. I guess makeup is a prop to get attention too.

Extremes looks can shift heads as well. We’ve been hyped with recurring news of Lady Gaga’s outfit, sometimes meaty, sometimes see-through, or Katy Perry’s new unnatural hair color. The peculiar extremes will surely get attention with raised brows.

How do you get people’s attention?

Sources:

Great Male Survey: Gender And Success; Askmen.com

10 Traits Men Appreciate Most in Women; Genius Beauty

 

Alternative Therapies

Snakes as your masseuse and urine as your facial wash.

I can have a massage therapy every week – I feel rested and cozy. But I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me because I’m not satisfied with that. Doing the same things over and over is terribly boring. Let’s see what alternative therapies I’ve got at my disposal.

Snake Massage Therapy

Photo from oddstuffmagazine.com

This is supposed to be relaxing, but how can you do that when snakes are dancing in your face and body? The snakes used are non-venomous but you would only know for sure if you didn’t die, and they still can bite. This is for the tough-hearted.

Past Life Regression Therapy

Photo from Kathryn Cartwright’s flickr

If you have breathing difficulties, you probably have been buried alive in your past life. This therapy digs the unresolved issues of your previous self, which it claims to be the root of your health problems.

Laughter Therapy

Photo from Craig Cochrane’s flickr

All you do in this therapy is laugh. You force yourself to laugh and continue to laugh until the session ends. People laugh because they’re happy, but people can be happy when they laugh too. It must be liberating to laugh like crazy.

Maggot Debridement Therapy

Photo from Steven Depolo’s flickr

Maggots can clean your infected wounds. You immerse your wound, say your cut finger, in a whirlpool of maggots and they kill the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in it. I’m sure my doctor can come up with something stronger than antibiotic. I’ll pay, I promise but not the Maggots.

Urine Therapy

Photo from SuSanA Secretariat’s flickr

I’ve watched this in television and people really drink their own urine  kidding aside. They also use urine as facial wash for babies in China. They believed that urine can cure. Dare to put this in your bucket list?

Bee Sting and Leech Therapy

Photos from healthyfellow.com; OakleyOriginals’ flickr

For some reason people disliked mainstream medicine, they let the bees stung them and leeches suck them. If you prefer the leech one, you have to immerse yourself in turpentine first.

Sound Therapy

Photo from Tess Watson’s flickr

Sound frequencies can heal, apparently. It can put balance in your body. It can “act like vitamins and minerals”. Give me the sound of vitamin A plus iodine!

Beer Therapy

Photo from beerbath.eu

Oh how can you not love this? You bathe in beer. Drink while it rejuvenates you. This is how people in Czech Republic, Austria and Germany roll.

Ho’oponopono

Photo from lightsoflove.us

This is a Hawaiian practice that targets the root of an illness like the past life regression therapy. If there’s dispute, anger or guilt, you have to be “sorry” and “make it up” and see the magic in your life.

Virtual Dolphin Therapy

Photo from Patrik Jones’ flickr

Just imagine dolphins swimming in the calm sea. I know, it’s softening.

What therapy would you try?

Sources:

Top 10 Weird Health Therapies; TopTenz.net

12 Most Bizarre Modern Alternative Medical Treatments; WebEcoist

 

What if.. You Sleep 2 Hours a Day

Because you can survive with 2 hours of sleep, screw that 8 hours minimum!

Sleeping in Work. Photo from foxnews.com

Sleep is a shitty waste of time. 8 hours of sleep entraps a third of your day and all you do is nothing. That time can be used to consume miles of productivity and/or leisure, but we just lie down and succumb to weakness.

Sleep is important, I know that. It is our natural defense against stress. It regenerates our body cells for optimal function and it feels damn good to be well rested. We cannot take it out entirely, but we can reduce it to save more time.

8 hours of sleep is called the monophasic sleep cycle, and it is very inefficient. In that cycle, we sleep once a day but it doesn’t mean that all the 8 hours are used effectively. Real sleep, the deep trance where we dream and truly begin resting, is happening during REM stage. To get to the REM stage in the 8 hours sleep cycle, we have to remain put and count sheep before we got there.  And once you get to REM stage, it doesn’t last until you wake up. It only amounts to 20% of your 8 hours sleep.

Polyphasic sleep cycles only need 2 hours of sleep, most if not all is in REM stage. It means that there’s no waiting for the dream to visit us because it’ll arrive right away. The dreams you’ll have, reportedly, will be more vivid and you’ll feel relaxed and your mind is more clear every after waking up.

There are four Polyphasic sleep cycles to choose from, which was succinctly explained in HighExistence. Just to give you an idea, there is the Uberman sleep cycle where you sleep 20 – 30 minutes every 4 hours throughout the day. See, you’ll feel refreshed six times a day and you have the whole day freed!

The one caveat is the terrible transition from monophasic to polyphasic. If you shifted to polyphasic, you won’t have REM in your firsts 20 – 30 minutes naps. Your body is not adjusted to the new cycle yet, but in time, your body will learn to have REM on every nap you’ll have. Your body will adapt to the new cycle just like moving to a place in different time zone – it takes a while but it’ll happen. Until your body mastered having REM on every 20 – 30 minute naps, you’ll feel tired because technically, you may not be dreaming.

Not many people have tried this. We don’t know the long term effects of this. There are accounts, people like Steve Pavlina who tried it and reported being totally fine or more than fine after gaining more hours of their lives. Some people visit doctors and remained in full health. The only thing they would caution is during the transition because it’ll be tough.

Honestly, this is enticing. Infants live in a polyphasic sleep cycle but lost it when they grew up as they learned monophasic. But the world adults live in is not ready for it. If you are maintaining a career, you cannot really sleep every 4 hours of work or else get thrown out of your building. I also take calculated risks, and I haven’t learned enough about this 2 hours sleep so I won’t jump to it just yet.

Just imagine the wonders you could do with additional 6 hours everyday! Do you think polyphasic will work for you?

More Moments for you:
A Token from Virtues
What Your Birth Order Says About You
Life’s Best: Baby PhotoVideo

Sources:

Alternative Sleep Cycles: You Don’t Really Need 6-8 Hours! HighExistence

Polyphasic Sleep Log – Day 1; StevePavlina.com

Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep; National Institutes of Health