Snippets about ourselves, our faces mostly.

[mismused]

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[CharleyH]

Things about your face, yourself, that you may not have known, or thought of. No citations other than as may be noted, so if you're interested in anything, google it, or PM me.

"Expressions communicate our emotions faster, more subtly and more effectively than words ever do."

And yet we know so little about our "expressions." For instance, we are said to be capable of up to 7,000 expressions. Hmm! This I did try to google, but as yet have not found an itemization of what all they might be. Anyone know? I'd love to know them, or see them listed.

We also have 18 different "smiles." There's the real one wherein the eyes crinkle at the edges, and sometimes the eyes sparkle. No crinkling of the eyes, not a real smile. That can be good, or it can be bad. Letting you know there's no harm intended, or hiding the heck out of something, possibly malevolent.

Our faces began about 520 million years ago with Pikaia, a fish, naturally, with a primitive mouth. The eyes began with the Conodont, and her tongue had fifteen teeth. Wonder how she chewed, how she used them?

The jaw came about 430 million years ago with the Acanthodian. Now we could chew for real. A whole fish, however, was found in one of the fossils. Must have been really hungry, or the fishy was pretty smallish.

I'm sure most of you know it, but just in case, in the womb, we still have gill slits at the sides of our neck in the womb that get sealed before we're born. Wonder if any were born without them getting sealed?

". . . the story of the human face reminds us that it evolved essentially top make us more efficient eating organisms. Did God start out this way?

When we first walked, we had nostrils so we could get more oxygen than we could while in the water (Acanthostega).

Skipping to now, somewhat, our DNA is 98 percent the same as a chimp.

"We, homo sapiens, appeared about 200,000 years ago." Yes, I know there is much to say about that, and differences in homo sapiens, but hey . . .

"Pale skin, hair and eyes of Europeans probably appeared only about 40,000 years ago."

"Our skin is waterproof, and bacteria proof, and if dark, sunproof (mostly so). Melanin is a form of colourant. It lies in the bottom layers of the skin. A lot of melanin makes our skin dark, a tlittle, and our skin is lighter."

Out of Africa, and to Sweden, about 17,000 to 10,000 years ago, not enough sunlight penetrated the sklin, not enough Vitamin D, which enables calcium to be laid down in the bones. Human remains from then reveal inadequate calcium deposits - too dark to allow the weak sunlight through.

People with little melanin generally have little in their eyes too, causing them to appear blue. Blue is the rarest of eye colors. Wonder how many different colors, or combination of eye colors there are?

Lips are a darker more pink color than our skin because they are so thin that the blood beneath the surface is visible.

Enamal of our teeth is the longest lasting feature of our face. Really? Hmm!

Chins. No clearly defined function. Wow! Some with very large chins have a lot of potential wasted space, huh?

"Six billion faces, and every one of them is unique. No single gene has been found to be directly responsible for a single facial feature." Wonder if that still holds true?

"High cheekbones are a myth - it is nothing to do with bones, but rather the way the fat is distributed under the skin. Greta Garbo famously had teeth removed so that her cheeks would reced, making her 'cheekbones' look higher." How about that?

"A pregnant woman's skin darkens, indicating her condition."

"Our iris pattern is unique . . . even more accurate than fingerprinting."

'Light and shade give us a necessary three-dimensional image of the curves, bumps and detailed contours of a person's face."

Expressions: check out John Gottman's "Love Lab" on the I'net. Kewl. He's expert (so they say) at being able to tell just by observing how we react with each other (no words needed) whether we'll divorce or stay together with amazing accuracy (75% in 3 minutes, 85% in fifteen minutes). "Non-verbal expression is more revealing of emotions than verbal interactions."

"Women's facial muscles are smaller than men's, and their facial fat hides them better. Yet women are more facially expressive overall because they respond more openly to emotion than men do."

"The best human lie detectors were between 70 and 80 percent accurate. They were secret service agents." *Gulp!*

Now here's a real jewel of info:

"Prolonged eye-to-eye contact of more than ten seconds indicates that one of two things are about to happen - the two people are preparing to fight, or make love!"

"Prolonged eye contact activates the nervous system, forcing up our heart rate and blood flow. It is an unconscious reaction. (Italics mine). . . . Intimate eye contact stimulates the hypothalamus to send hormones flooding into the system, creating a physiological reaction similar to panic."

About smiling and yawning, "Scientists have little idea why these expressions became contagious in humans, but in no other animals."

"When the brain realizes we are smiling, it releases the hormonal response that usually accompnies our state of feeling happy." (Got that Roxy? Thought you'd like that one.)

Beauty gets attention, beauty pays. Babies stared more at "beautiful" faces from the git-go. Teachers, not knowing who was who in Missouri, rated beautiful persons as being superior, good, etc, those not so beautiful as being less so.

Symmetry is seems to be what is most judged in making one beautiful. Oddly, when ovulating, women's earlobes become more evenly matched in size at this time.

Here's a real jewel:

"Evolutionary theorists suggest that a high degree of symmetry may be an indication of particularly good genes, and perhaps resistant to the sorts of desease that can cause asymmetrical development.

And in research studies, men and women with highly symmetrical bodies were asked about their sex lives. They reported havingb had a greater number of sexual partners, and starting intercourse at a yonger age, when compared with people rated as equal in facial attractiveness but with less symmetrical bodies."

No biggie there, huh? But . . .

"Biologists Raqndy Thornhill and Karl Grammer tested teh feffect of pheromones on humans. They asked a number of men to sleep with the same T-shirt for three nights, without the aid of deodorant. The shirts took on the pheromones of the men. Meanwhild, they measured the men's faces for symmetry, and asked a group of women to assess teh attractiveness of each man's face, based on its degree of symmetry.

After three nights, another group of women were given the T-shnirts. They had no idea which of the men had worn which T-shirt. They were asked to smell each shirt and give it an attractiveness rating! The surprising result was that teh most symmetrical men were also the owners of the most attractive smells. But only when the women were ovulating - in ohter words, when their bodies were primed for sex - because they were ripe to conceive. The rest of the time the T-shirts were rated as uniformly horrible!"

Okay, that's enough (or maybe too much). I'm tired. Hope you enjoyed, and if you care to comment, please do.

Peace. I wish you all love.

PS: Up to 7,000 distinctive expressions? Up to 18 different smiles?

First and as always, I always aspire to a Stanislavsky mode of writing ... and while I reluctantly and oft times jokingly answered on other threads, my reason for writing in this manner is to get down gesture and movement and most importantly IDIOSYNCRASY in a character. No character is like me, although all are a part of me, no human is like another yet only because idiosyncrasies really make us stand apart. (EXAMPLE: ideas do not make us different because we can all have the same ideas, but we are all different in manner and gesture). This is my initial reaction, mismused. I will go back and read the whole post now.

Love your post ... can't say I am privy to the knowledge, but I love it, miss mused .

 

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[CharleyH]

BTW? You are asking a lot of questions many are not prepared to answer. I LOVE IT.

 

[CharleyH]

This thread deserves a wee bump in my eyes too.

 

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[curiositykitten]

Very interesting post. On the subject of faces, I've reached a point where I look into the mirror and the one staring back at me does not seem to be me at all. Am I alone here and going crazy? First wrinkles? Effects of gravity? But that's not all of it either. Just one of those random thoughts.

 

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[cloudy]

Laugh lines around the eyes - just from smiling genuinely, I think.

I like this explanation. I'm keeping it.

 

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[FatDino]

Aha! I finally found something to give you - take it, it's yours.

PS: It doesn't make sense. They have proven that protons live longer than the age of the universe itself, and atoms have protons, and atoms change, but don't die - well, mostly, half life, and all that. Still, if we have to measure in "half-lives," why do we age? Why aren't those atoms and protons working full time on us?

They do work full-time, that's why we're here. They just don't get paid and that pisses them off, so after a long life of heavy labor and not getting a penny, they protest and strike. And that's when we....well, you know, get back to mother Earth.

 

[curiositykitten]

I understand that as we age we experience a loss of colagen. That makes the face wrinkle. Laugh lines around the eyes - just from smiling genuinely, I think. May you age younger.

So what are the results of genuine sadness?

 

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