Blog Posts by Book of Odds

Posted By: Zachary Turpin
kissing expert;why do we kiss

Photo courtesy of William Cane

Why do we kiss?

The main reason is to express our affection, our love for our partner. Another reason is cultural-we're surrounded by TV shows and movies where kissing is extremely important in a romantic context, so we learn through a kind of osmosis. And the third reason is, as Freud pointed out, we all go through various stages of development, the first of which is the oral stage, and so, certainly it's still a part of our pleasure drive-oral contact is a lot of fun.

In your book you say that the lips have a lot of nerve endings.

Yes, they do. The tip of the tongue has more nerve endings than any other part of the body. It's extremely sensitive. And most people don't realize the lips themselves have taste sensors so it's not only the tongue but the inner part of the lips that can taste things; so when you kiss you're actually tasting your partner.

A kiss can mean so many different things, can even convey

Posted By: Jennifer Berglund

genealogy;tracing family history

IStock Photo 3708498 © Lokibaho

Genghis Khan, the famous Mongolian emperor, has long been considered the father of the Mongolian nation, but modern DNA evidence traced his legacy far beyond his imperial borders. In 2004, Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes identified him as "the most successful alpha male in human history," leaving his mark on the genetic blueprints of more than 16 million people alive today.

But how in the world did Dr. Sykes figure this out? It's not as if he retrieved a DNA sample from Khan's 782-year old corpse (which, by the way, is nowhere to be found). The answer's actually much more mainstream than you might think-all it took was some modern-day DNA samples and a little detective work on Oxford Ancestors, a leading provider of DNA-based services for personal ancestry research.

In fact, nowadays you don't have to have a PhD to make similar fascinating discoveries about yours or anyone else's genealogy. A plethora of online

Posted By: Shannon Fischer
Valentine's Day

IStock Photo 8335713 © quavondo

Valentine's Day is supposed to be a day of romance and hope, when secret admirers make themselves known, and when couples in love exchange tokens of their everlasting passion. It's a day when millions simultaneously experience that frisson of anticipation, on edge for a rose or twelve, or maybe even a small, velvety box.

Mind you-there's a downside. If no gifts appear, or if the wrong gifts appear, that anticipation can turn in an instant into disappointment and dismay. That's the thing about Valentine's Day: for every heart that soars sky high, there are many more that wind up bruised and sore and full of aches instead. Sometimes it can seem less like a holiday and more like an emotional minefield.

It starts early. In grade school, February 14th can be a little bit of a popularity contest. Some desks end the day piled high with Scooby-Doo cards and sticky handfuls of foil-wrapped chocolates. Some desks finish up

Posted By: Lynn McCrystal
Valentine's Day

IStock Photo 9472576 © Khuong Hoang

A Valentine's Odds Statement

When my mother died in 2005, neither my siblings nor I thought my dad would last for long. To our surprise, he slowly reorganized his daily habits and moved forward with a steady, slow-paced life. Eight months after the funeral his furnace spat black smoke throughout every room in his house, destroying most of the interior and its contents. Again, he forged on and with minimal hesitancy handed the project of redoing the house to my sister and me. We convinced him to knock down major walls, pull up old carpets, update his windows and doors, and redesign the kitchen, creating an open, light-filled living space. The project took over six months and in hindsight eerily paralleled my dad's own process of rebuilding his life.

On most Saturday mornings I would call him from the sanctuary of my car, before I moved on with the rest of my day. It was our time together, unimpeded by the

CANDY HEARTS AND VALENTINE DREAMS Posted By: Rosalind Wright
Valentine's Day;NECCO

Be Mine… True Love... First Kiss.

Have you ever opened a Valentine hoping there was a candy heart inside? And not just any candy heart-certainly not Go Away or As If (remember those?)-because it wasn't just the yummy hit of flavored sugar you were after. It was the sentiment stamped on the front. Crazy 4U. That's the candy heart you were hoping for.

Chocolates may be able to boost our endorphin level, but only Sweethearts® candies can reveal if the girl sitting two desks away returns our crush. And the tiny hearts, not to mention the hopes that go with them, aren't just for kids. The odds your traditional candy heart will say Marry Me are 1 in 40.

Sweethearts candies were invented just after the Civil War, at a time when the practice of exchanging Valentines and other novel forms of romantic expression were surging in popularity. They were originally called "Motto Hearts," formed in the shape of a cockle or

Posted By: Kathleen Minnix
history of the bra;who made the first bra

IStock Photo 10139436 © Photoevent

It's a lot to ask from one small piece of fabric. Conceal but also entice. Not to mention enhance or minimize, flatten or uplift. Contained in just 2 cups and bit of strapping are the vanities of millions of women, not to mention the fantasies of countless men. We just got a recent reminder of those fantasies when an Australian banker was caught ogling pictures of Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr on live TV.

The odds a sexually active woman picks at least one occasion to wear something sexy for her partner are 1 in 1.41 (70%). There's no better occasion than Valentine's Day, but for the guys about to venture into Victoria's Secret to buy something red and lacey for their Valentine, a bit of advice: you might want to factor in some comfort along with sex appeal.

It was a personal revolt against her own very uncomfortable corset that spurred 19-year-old Polly Jacob of New York to whip together the first

Posted By: Jessica Ruvinsky

love at first sight;infatuation

IStock Photo 3812622 © Jacob Wackerhausen

"I knew I wanted to marry Kate when I met her," Tom Cruise told T: The New York Times Style Magazine. "I bought the ring shortly after that first date." That's so romantic that only half of us think it's even possible: The odds an American believes in love at first sight are 1 in 1.92 (51%). Meanwhile, 1 in 2.5 of us have experienced it ourselves.

There's not much debate surrounding the simpler notion of attraction at first sight. Sight says a lot: An interested man's eyes will linger for 8.2 seconds on average, compared to the 4.5-second glance he gives a woman he finds less attractive. But only 1 in 4.55 unmarried adults puts physical appearance at the top of the date-worthy qualities list. The real search is for someone who is looking back at you; research confirms that direct eye contact is sexy.

So can you find that "one true love"-in whom 1 in 1.35 (74%) adults believes-just by looking? Probably

Posted By: Shannon Fischer

(IStock Photo 5058065, Georgiana Palmer)

Men's and women's sexual experience differs.

Between bed sheets across the nation, Americans make use of billions of dollars worth of condoms and oral contraceptives, and still bear more than 4 million children.

There's a lot of sex going on in this country.

But even with millions getting in on the act, not everybody's got the same take on the experience. 1 in 2.33 (43%) of U.S. men think about sex at least once a day and when they get it, they like it -- 1 in 1.2 U.S. men (or 83%) report enjoying that hair-mussing, headboard-banging activity a great deal. Yet a much smaller proportion of women feel the same. Only 1 in 7.69 (or just 13%) of U.S. women think about sex on a daily basis, and only 1 in 1.69(60%) really enjoys herself when she gets it. In fact, the odds a woman in the U.S. doesn't enjoy sex at all are 1 in 14.29 (7%) compared to only 1 in 50 (2%) men who reports the same.

It's not