Author: Val Prozorova

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Why Do Hiccups Happen?

Universal and annoying, everyone knows what hiccups feel like. Scientifically, it’s the involuntary contraction of the diaphragm and a closure of the vocal cords – causing the classic ‘hic’ sound we associate with hiccups. In layman’s terms, the muscle just beneath your lungs tenses and relaxes quickly, pushing air up against your voicebox. Why do you get hiccups? Though hiccups are a reflex, meaning something our body does that we can’t control, unlike sneezing and coughing, which help clear our airways, hiccups seem to have no useful purpose whatsoever. Once started, hiccups have a regular rhythm, and usually go away

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Quirkyalone: someone who is single and does not feel the need to date for the sake of it

More and more, millennials and the generations directly preceding them are turning away from what was once a culturally accepted phenomenon: pairing up from a young age, and staying with a partner – any partner – through high school, to college, to marriage, children, and death. For some reason, generations older than those born in the last twenty years find the concept of not wanting to do this to be something on the edge of taboo. To them, the idea of someone happily existing as a single entity – by choice, no less – is seen as unnatural. Because surely

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Cynophobia: The Fear of Dogs

Unlike the fear of spiders, snakes or rats, the fear of cats (ailurophobia) and the fear of dogs (cynophobia) are not particularly common zoophobia fears. That said, those that do suffer from them are subjected to seeing the source of their fear everywhere they go. Cats and dogs are the most common household pets, from rural households to urban ones, and although to most of us the idea of fearing creatures we live in harmony with is strange, to some, the very idea of sharing a home with descendants of wolves is inconceivable. Perhaps that’s where cynophobia finds its source.

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Ailurophobia: The Irrational Fear of Cats

As similar to “allure” as the word looks, Ailurophobia could not be farther from the meaning. Ailurophobia (also known sometimes as felinophobia, gatophobia and elurophobia) is the irrational fear of cats. Big and small cats, black and ginger cats. Cats of all types and traits. It is difficult to say what exactly is the source of such a fear, though some psychologists believe that unlike other phobias, ailurophobia is actually a form of hatred, rather than fear; a level of detestation so great it grows to horror. This is similar to that of phobias of snakes and rats, where initial

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Zoophobia: A Fear of Animals

To most of us, the idea that someone could fear all animals comes across as almost absurd. Animals are in our daily lives, even if we aren’t able to have a pet of our own. We see pigeons and sparrows on the streets, people walk their dogs on the beach… In some countries, farm animals are a common thing to see in public parks, grazing behind wire fences and bothering no one at all. But for some people, such scenes bring about terror and panic. The question is, why? Certainly fear of wild animals, such as wolves or boars, have

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