18 Stupid Human Tricks

1. If your throat tickles, scratch your ear!
“When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”

2. Experience supersonic hearing!
If you're stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It's better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you're trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.

3. Overcome your most primal urge!
Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? You are male? Then fantasize...
Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won't feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.

4. Feel no pain!
German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the painconducting structures of the spinal cord.

5. Clear your stuffed nose!
The easiest, quickest, and cheapest way to relieve sinus pressure is to alternately thrust your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then press between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you'll feel your sinuses start to drain.

6. Fight fire without water!
Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle.
When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you're on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity's in your favor.

7. Cure your toothache without opening your mouth!
Just rub ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and index finger. A Canadian study found that this technique reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared with using no ice. The nerve pathways at the base of that V stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

8. Make burns disappear!
When you accidentally singe your finger on the stove, clean the skin and apply light pressure with the finger pads of your unmarred hand. Ice will relieve your pain more quickly, Dr. DeStefano says, but since the natual method brings the burned skin back to a normal temperature, the skin is less likely to blister.

9. Stop the world from spinning!
One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance, the
cupula, floats in a fluid of the same density as blood.
“As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional footonthefloor wisdom.

10. Unstitch your side!
If you're like most people, when you run, you exhale as your right foot hits the ground.
This puts downward pressure on your liver (which lives on your right side), which then tugs at the diaphragm and creates a side stitch, according to The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Men. The fix: Exhale as your left foot strikes the ground.

11. Stanch blood with a single finger!
Pinching your nose and leaning back is a great way to stop a nosebleed if you don't mind choking on your own O positive. A more civil approach: Put some cotton on your upper gums just behind that small dent below your nose and press against it, hard.
“Most bleeds come from the front of the septum, the cartilage wall that divides the nose,” says Peter Desmarais, M.D., an ear, nose, and throat specialist at Entabeni Hospital, in Durban, South Africa. “Pressing here helps stop them.”

12. Make your heart stand still!
Trying to quell firstdate jitters? Blow on your thumb. The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing, says Ben Abo, an emergency medical services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. It'll get your heart rate back to normal.

13. Thaw your brain!
Too much ice-cream too fast will freeze the brains of lesser men. As for you, press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much as you can. “Since the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, your body thinks your brain is freezing, too,” says Abo. “In compensating, it overheats, causing an icecream headache.” The more pressure you apply to the roof of your mouth, the faster your headache will subside.

14. Prevent nearsightedness!
Poor distance vision is rarely caused by genetics, says Anne Barber, O.D., an optometrist in Tacoma, Washington. “It's usually caused by nearpoint stress.” In other words, staring at your computer screen for too long. So flex your way to 20/20 vision. Every few hours during the day, close your eyes, tense your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. Tightening and releasing muscles such as the biceps and glutes can trick involuntary muscles like
the eyes into relaxing as well.

15. Wake the dead!
If your hand falls asleep while you're driving or sitting in an odd position, rock your head from side to side. It'll painlessly banish your pins and needles in less than a minute, says Dr. DeStefano. A tingly hand or arm is often the result of compression in the bundle of nerves in your neck; loosening your neck muscles releases the pressure. Compressed nerves lower in the body govern the feet, so don't let your sleeping dogs lie. Stand up and walk around.

16. Impress your friends!
Next time you're at a party, try this trick: Have a person hold one arm straight out to the side, palm down, and instruct him to maintain this position. Then place two fingers on his wrist and push down. He'll resist. Now have him put one foot on a surface that's a half inch higher (a few magazines) and repeat. This time his arm will cave like the French. By misaligning his hips, you've offset his spine, says Rachel Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., coowner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. Your brain senses that the spine is vulnerable, so it shuts down the body's ability to resist.

17. Breathe underwater!
If you're dying to retrieve that quarter from the bottom of the pool, take several short breaths first essentially, hyperventilate. When you're underwater, it's not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it's the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin' ain't right. “When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity,” says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. “This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.” It'll buy you up to 10 seconds.

18. Read minds!
Your own! “If you're giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep,” says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as longterm memory.

How to Screw Over The Extended Warranty Process

If you do get an extended warranty, push for a lower rate. Nearly half of the cost is profit, so if you're buying a 2 year plan for you laptop that's running you say $200, you could easily talk them down to $170 or less.
What if you don't want an extended warranty? Make sure there is a cancellation clause to the warranty plan. If you want to try and save money, get an expensive protection plan then refund it. Ask them to give you a big discount on the unit itself and you will pay full pop for the expensive protection. Expect up to $150 to be knocked off the price of the computer. Then as soon as possible, return the protection plan, and keep the discount on the computer. All discount will always be applied to the product, not the protection plan itself. This only works in there is a cooling off or refund clause for the protection plan.

Here's How You Voice Your Dissatisfaction

For quite some time, we have experienced incomplete service in using Bell Mobility service.

For more than one year, we have seen that calls going into these numbers (250-6x1-xxxx, 250-8x8-xxxx, 250-8x8-xxxx, 250-8x8-xxxx and 250-6x1-xx) or coming from these numbers to other telephones have not completed their calls. The first three of the above numbers were part of a single plan. The fourth number was held by [Screwed Customer]. This has led to great deal of miscommunication. We have, as we detail below, attempted to find a remedy to the problems to our dissatisfaction through your customer support network. To limit the damages that your incomplete services caused, we have been forced to discontinue service for two of the phones (661-4xxx and 661-6xxx) through the Bell Mobility. Since that time, those two phones have suffered no loss of service.

In these cases, the caller will either hear a ringing until the call goes to voice mail; or we will receive a caller is not available; or the call will go directly to voice mail). After detecting that this was a problem, we began attempting calls through to the numbers while the caller and receiver were in each other's company. There is a lot of variability to this issue. On a given day with a given phone, the range of failed calls exceeds 75%. Three of the phone were of one brand and two were of another. Three of the phones had message center features and a different two of this did not. The only common feature and point of failure was the Bell Mobility network.

In May, we contacted the technical support for Bell Mobility. We feel the experience was poor, but the representative supposedly opened a trouble ticket 0004942xxx (6019xxx). We waited until June 1st for resolution or some form of an update. On June 1st, I called back. I learned that the trouble ticket was improperly prepared. The representative could not transfer me to the technical support staff. She collected my home number that I could be reached at that time-- the same land line I was using to place the support call. I was assured that a technical support representative named, "Enza", would call back directly. She did not. We have found the technical support and customer service to be very poor. In April, we discovered that email messages sent to our phones were not longer going through. Upon discussion with your technical support staff, they said that they problem had been going on the Greater Victoria area for approximately three weeks. We were not informed that an important feature of service was faulty. This caused damages as some of the emails were critical notices that I needed to receive. When we asked why we were not informed, the representative had not reply. When we brought this matter up to sales associates at the Bell retail outlet at Hillside Mall in Victoria, they were largely confused and they claimed that they did not hear.

We are dissatisfied with both the quality of service and persistent technical problems experienced while using the Bell Mobility network. These constitute incomplete service and void the terms of agreement. Going forward, what follows are four options to pursue. If both parties can have a dialogue regarding this matter, we feel that all parties would benefit from Option B. If Bell Mobility cannot respond, we will exercise Option A as that clearly ends this agreement with no interaction from Bell Mobility. We require that a representative from Bell Mobility respond via written correspondence to the above address. We view this as a serious matter that requires your immediate attention.

Option A) We pay the balance indicated on the most recent statement that we have on the most recent statement in our possession (Bill Date: May 1, 2007) of the outstanding remainder of $284.55. This will end all agreements between our two parties. In this option, we both agree that no more monies or products will expected or exchanged between either party.

Option B) We pay the balance for our regular service as indicated on the most recent statement in our possession (Bill Date: May 1, 2007) of the outstanding remainder of $284.55. Should another bill for regular services be received by our party before the conclusion of this discussion, we will pay for those regular services. We will surrender the two telephones we possess to a Bell retail service outlet; in May of 2007, a third cellular telephone was stolen. If you can convey the depreciated cash value of that telephone, we will pay that as well. This will end all agreements between our two parties. In this option, we both agree that no more monies or products will expected or exchanged between either party after this return of the equipment we hold.

Option C) Bell Mobility offers up a significant sum of relief and credit our account. A majority of calls we have attempted to place and the majority of calls that other have attempted to place to our cellular telephones have not been received, we feel it is fair to excuse a majority of the amounts billed for basic service. As we have been suffering with Bell's incomplete service for an excess of one year, it is a fair compromise to credit us for 51% of the last three months of regular services (approximately $235); and agree to work to resolve the technical issues that have spawned the incomplete service we have experienced. Should Bell Mobility agree to this Option, we would continue to use our Bell Mobility service on the good faith that the incomplete service we experienced was a thing of the past.

Option D) We resolve this matter via litigation through the Small Claims Courts. We feel this would not be productive for either party, but we do need a decided resolution to this matter. Should we be forced to exercise this option, we are content to canvas the general public for Bell Mobility users and introduce any of those who agree to testify that they have had experiences in common with our own. Given the dissatisfaction that we have discovered from an informal survey, we are confident that we can introduce a very large number of Bell Mobility users who have also experienced incomplete service. While we would not ask all of them to resolve their matters of incomplete service through our approach, many of them may do so after learning that they are not alone in their situation; should any of them do so and request our aid, we would be willing to offer testimony, et cetera. We cannot provide an estimate of the damages we would seek, but they would amount to closure of the agreement, a significant refund for the services we paid for but did not receive, and any other damages that we would be advised we could seek for the protracted inconvenience we have experienced.

If we do not receive a written response postmarked no later than July 10th, 2007, we will carry on and exercise Option A as outlined above. Should your billing department view anything outstanding that we have resolved by exercising this option, and should they attempt to collect money they may view as outstanding, we will need to resolve the matter via Option D. Should your billing department pass this matter onto third party collection, we would be forced to launch immediate litigation against that third party; dependant on that outcome, we may also be forced to carry out litigation against Bell Mobility after that time.