Blog Posts by Book of Odds

facial hair

The phrase "growing a beard" never made much sense. It implies an active function carried out by the beard wearer. In actuality, facial hair grows on its own, its landlord merely condoning the process. This is not just a semantic grievance; in today's society, facial hair carries with it-besides the occasional food particle-a certain stigma.

The clean-shaven face implies youthful civility. The polar opposite-a beard that never saw the sharp end of a knife-demonstrates almost a carnal defiance of authority. Then there's everything in between: mustaches, goatees, Van Dykes, soul patches, mutton chops, and the Fu Manchu, among others. Many have graced the face of Brad Pitt.

Despite all these creative facial options, approximately 1 in 2.17 men aged 15-30 is clean-shaven. The goatee (hair completely surrounding the mouth) is sported by 1 in 4.76 young men, making it the marquee beard for today's young adult. It's a curious choice for the most popular unshaven look, because it

Vegetarian;veganOmnivores like to argue that a meal without meat doesn't feel like a meal, but the vegetarian lifestyle is growing in popularity-maybe with good reason. Veggie restaurants are on the rise, and tasty protein-alternatives are readily available in local grocery stores. A diet full of plants, fruits, and grains and low in animal fat can go a long way towards maintaining a healthy weight and enviable cholesterol levels. And research increasingly suggests that vegetarianism might not only be good for your body-it's also good for the environment.

So what's a meat-lover to do? If you are not ready to completely forgo your steak tips, some nutritionists suggest a healthy alternative is to go vegetarian-with a side of meat.

Vegetarians themselves come in several varieties, from vegans who eat no animal products at all, to ovo-vegetarians, who eat dairy and eggs, to others who split the difference. The choices are often not only based on health concerns, but also involve moral and ethical

body temperature

Your armpit is not normal.

Its temperature falls consistently below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The underside of your tongue probably isn't normal, either; hot drinks, gum-chewing, and birth control pills all change what the thermometer says. Body temperature is a degree higher in the afternoon, and a degree lower in the elderly.

In fact, normal isn't even normal: 98.6 degrees is an overestimate of average body temperature. A German doctor named Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich came up with it by sticking a foot-long mercury thermometer into 25,000 people's armpits for 15 minutes each. It was the mid-nineteenth century, so he averaged the readings by hand. This average became the medical standard for normal body temperature. And Wunderlich's thermometer wasn't even calibrated correctly-it read a good 3 degrees too low.

So what IS normal? A team of researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine tried again in 1992. They used digital thermometers, oral

dental care;teethFirst smile, first tooth-some of the most anticipated kid "firsts" revolve around those pearly whites. Sadly, for many kids, the "first cavity" milestone is just around the corner. The odds a child age 2 - 11 has cavities in his or her primary (baby) teeth are 1 in 2.37. Those odds jump to 1 in 1.84 (54%) in families below the poverty line.

While oral health in the United States population overall has historically improved over time, the CDC reported that in young children, decay in primary teeth increased 17% from 1994 to 2004. And the recent recession has only made things worse. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 26 million children are without dental insurance. And finding cash for preventative dental care has become a stretch for many parents-hence the projected 17 million children from low-income American families who go without dental care every year.

Cavities can start even before a child's first birthday, and the problem often worsens over time.

"Honey, I've got genital herpes" is a phrase no one wants to hear upon entering a romantic relationship, but the prevalence of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) is rather high.

There are at least eight human herpes viruses-including chickenpox and Epstein-Barr-but only two are related to genital herpes: herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2). HSV-1 usually causes oral herpes, resulting in sores around the mouth commonly called "cold sores" or "fever blisters." HSV-1 can also cause genital herpes and can be passed by sexual contact, including but not limited to oral sex, although many people contract the virus through nonsexual means in early childhood. HSV-2 causes genital herpes, which can include symptoms such as painful blisters that break open into sores.

The odds are 1 in 5.81 that a person 14-49 has genital herpes caused by HSV-2. Women are more likely to have it (1 in 4.33) than men (1 in 8.93), possibly because male-to-female transmission of the virus

multiple marriages;divorce Larry King has just announced his split from his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, amid reports that they've both had affairs (see our article, The State of Affairs: How Many People Cheat?). They have been married since 1997, making their union the longest in his storied marital career-which so far has involved a total of six women. Like serial bride Elizabeth Taylor (who last week denied rumors she would be taking husband number nine), King has one repeat in his long string of nuptials. He married Alene Atkins twice.

We all know the pitfalls of "Hollywood marriages," how the combination of money, beauty, and movie-set lustfulness (known in the industry as "showmance") seems to create a cycle of pre-nup, divorce, pre-nup. But what about regular people who happen to bounce through multiple marriages? These days, it's not so unusual for Americans to marry and divorce…and remarry, and divorce again. 1 in 10.19 people 15 or older is divorced, a startling statistics. 1 in 11.76 men ages

allergies;pollen

Allergy season. For some poor souls, it seems to last most of the year. But as the old song says, "Spring can really hang you up the most"-especially when those heavy clouds of pollen arrive to make life a misery for vast numbers of hay fever sufferers.

The 2010 allergy season is shaping up to be a bad one. Atlanta is suffering near-record pollen counts this spring. And unusually warm weather in some parts of the country, including New England, have kicked off the sneezing season early.

In the US overall, the odds an adult will have hay fever in a year are 1 in 13.22, but some age groups suffer much more: for adults 45 - 64 it's 1 in 10.56, and the odds an adolescent 12 - 17 will have hay fever in a year are 1 in 6.94 (14%). Income levels matter too: curiously, rich people are significantly more likely to suffer from hay fever than those with more modest means. And women are more susceptible, with odds of 1 in 11.82 versus 1 in 15.13 for men.

Hay fever odds also vary by

sex;virginityReading through CDC reports on Americans and sexual behavior, you might get the impression that this august agency is-well, if not inappropriately interested, then at least nosy in that whispering-in-the-back-of-math-class kind of way. A large study posed not only the standard questions about sex (gave? received? how many times in the past 12 months?), but also inquiries like (I'm paraphrasing but not by much) "Has a male/female ever touched your you-know-what?" and "Has anyone ever put their you-know-what you-know-where? (And how about here?)"

Let's face facts: These are questions everyone wants to know the answers to, and we count on the CDC to get them. Of course, the answers are crucial for public health, and asking if someone has ever been tested for an STD is legitimate inquiry from that perspective. Still, asking when citizens lost their virginity-or probing as to why they haven't-can seem like Big Brother has hopped into our sack. That said, we sure have learned some juicy