WHY ONIONS MAKE YOUR EYES WATER

Onions when growing absorb sulfur from the soil. When you cut an onion you break up their cells, releasing the content of the cell (enzymes). These enzymes then react with the sulfur, creating amino acid sulfoxides. These, then create the highly unstable propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound which in gaseous state move upwards towards your eyes. When it comes in contact with the moisture in your eyes, it forms Sulfuric acid which causes a burning sensation stimulating your eyes (lacrimal gland) to release more tears to wash away the irritant.

Cooking the onion inactivates the enzyme, so while the smell of cooked onions may be strong, it does not burn your eyes. Also you can keep yourself from crying by refrigerating your onion before cutting it (changes the chemistry inside the onion thereby slowing the reactions) or by cutting it under water.

Sources: Today found out
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ROBBERY IN CENTER OF KIEV

In the center of Kiev, Ukraine, a driver of an SUV was attacked and shoot at by four men who stole his 300,000 UAH ($13,000) . The Chief Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine in Kiev Alexander Tereshchuk said: "The event occurred near a bank branch. The attackers blocked his car and took his bag of money, about 300,000 UAH". According Tereshchuk, the attackers fired a gun and the victim was wounded. Moreover, it became clear that the attackers fled the crime scene in a Grey Skoda car. Police are trying to find the culprits.

WHY GETTING KICKED IN THE BALL CAUSES ABDOMINAL PAIN

The testes originally form in the abdomen near the stomach and kidneys. The nerves and blood vessels remain attached in that region, even after the balls drop. So when a guy gets kicked in the balls, the pain involved travels up from each testicle into abdominal cavity, via the spermatic plexus, which is the primary nerve of each testicle, and then to the spine.

In addition to the pain in the stomach area, many men also experience nausea. This is thought to be caused by a huge rush of sympathetic nervous system discharge. So the body's tolerance level for that rush determines whether that person will be someone susceptible to actually vomit when kicked in the nuts.

In other words, getting kicked in the balls results in severe pain in testicles, abdomen, nausea and possibly vomiting.

WHY MOSQUITO BITES ITCH

When female mosquitoes insert their proboscis through your skin to suck some of your blood to be later used to make eggs, they inject you with some of their saliva. Their saliva helps them to drink your blood more quickly, because it has anticoagulant effect (for your blood not to clot). Once the female mosquito is full up of your blood or is disturbed by slapping yourself, they fly away, leaving some of their saliva behind. Your body responds by producing antibodies which bind to the antigens in the mosquito's saliva. This then triggers  the release of histamine.

Histamine is a nitrogen compound that, among other things, triggers an inflammatory response. It also help white blood cells and other proteins to engage invaders (antigens) in your body by making the capillaries of these cells more permeable. So, the histamine ends up making the blood vessels near the bite site swell up. This produce a itchy bump where the mosquito bite you.

Scratching the bump only makes this worse because it causes more irritation and inflammation of the sight, resulting in your immune system thinking it needs more antibodies to get rid of the foreign protein. So the more you scratch, the more it swells and the itchier it gets.

*Only female mosquitoes feed on blood, a male mosquitoes feeds on flower nectar or sweet juices.

WHY IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TICKLE YOURSELF

It's very hard to tickle yourself because your brain anticipates things going on around you in order to help speed up response times. More technically, the cerebellum monitors body movements and can also distinguish between expected sensations and unexpected ones, generally resulting in diminishing or completely discarding expected sensations, while paying much more attention to unexpected ones

So your brain is actively anticipating touch sensations. When it is doing this, it is also actively discarding sensation that it deems unimportant, like when you are typing and it significantly dulls the touch sensation in your fingertips so that you don't really notice it unless you consciously think about it. This same type of thing happens when you try to tickle yourself.

So in a nutshell, you can't usually tickle yourself because there is no element of surprise.

WHY MINT TASTE COLD

There is a chemical in mint, menthol, which is deceiving the brain into thinking that the area the menthol is applied to is cold; even though in fact, it's the same as it was before. More specifically, menthol binds with cold-sensitive receptors in your skin; there receptors contain things called "ion channels", in this case TRPM8. The menthol makes these much more sensitive than normal, so they trigger and you feel a cold sensation, even though everything is more or less the same temperature as before.

This extra sensitivity is why when you eat peppermint, which has a relatively high level of menthol, and then you breathe in deeply through your mouth, your mouth feels extra cold. Your cold receptors are reacting much more strongly than they normally would to the air which is cooler than the inside of your mouth.

Menthol is a compound classically obtained from various mint plants, though now is oftern synthetically made due to the extreme high demand for menthol in a variety of products. Menthol is a waxy, crystalline substance that is somewhat clear or white. Interestingly, it is actually solid at room temperature and melts just a few degrees above room temperature.

WHY BLACK CATS ARE CONSIDERED BAD LUCK

The genesis of the superstitions surrounding black cats including why a black cat crossing your path is considered bad luck.

Black Cats were not always the butt of superstitions, feared, or even considered bad luck. In fact, in early Egyptian times, dating back as fas as 3000 BC, cats (including the black ones) were the rock stars of the animal world, held in high esteem; to kill one was considered a capital offence. It wasn't until the middle-ages in Europe that the black cat's rock star status started to decline as they began to be associated with so-called witches. The hysteria of witches practicing black magic had just hit Europe and alley cats were often cared for and fed by the poor lonely old ladies who were later accused of witchery.

Their cat companions, some of which were black ones, were deemed guilty of witchery by association. This belief was taken up a notch when a folklore involving a father and son in Lincolnshire in the 1560's started making rounds. The pair were said to have been traveling one moonless night when a black cat crossed their  path and dove into a crawl space. Because of the folklore, they threw rocks at the black cat until the weak injured creature ran out into a woman's house, who at the time was suspected of being a witch. The next day, the father and son came across the same woman and noticed she was limping and bruised and believed that to be more than just a coincidence. From that day on in Lincolnshire, it was thought that witches could turn into black cats at night.

The belief of witches transforming themselves into black cats in order to prowl streets unobserved became a central belief in America during the Salem with hunts. Even today the association of black cats and witches holds strong during Halloween celebrations, despite the holiday's religious beginnings. Thus, an animal once looked on with recognition became a symbol of evil omens in some parts of the World.

However, in some cultures, the black cat is still respected and a symbol of good luck even today. The Scottish believe that a strange black cat's arrival to the home signifies prosperity, while Pirates of the 19th century believed if a black cat walks towards you, it's a sign of bad luck, but it's good luck if it walks away from you. In the English Midlands, a black cat as a wedding present is thought to bring good luck to the bride.