Sep 06, 2015 Chivalrous young hero Linghu Chong of Mount Hua sect is suspected of stealing a coveted manual known as the Evil-warding Sword Manual, a legendary secret manual that.
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LaughLaugh and the world laughs with you,Weep and you weep alone.Ella WheelerWilcox, Solitude(1883)Then she laughed. It was almost a racking laugh. It shook her as the wind shakes a tree. I thought there was puzzlement in it, not exactly surprise, but as if a new idea had been added to something already known and it didn't fit. Then I thought that was too much to get out of a laugh.Philip Marlowe, describing Eddie Mars' wife ( The Big Sleep, 1939:196)We never read of His laughing, though I am sure he did.-Billy Graham (1955:v)Your mouth was twisted open, your tongue wasstuck out halfway, your lips were pulled back and your nostrils were flared.Though you felt pleasure, your face suggested pain. Your cheeks turnedand you doubled over, gasping.
Your stomach, chest and ribs ached. You werehelpless, unable even to speak.Robert Brody, 'Anatomy of a Laugh'(1983:43)Rhythmic vocalization. Human laughter variesgreatly in form, duration, and loudness (see, e.g., Ruch 1993, Ruch and Ekman2001). A common form of laughter includes sudden, decrescendo (i.e., strongonset to soft ending), forced-expiration bursts of breathy vowel sounds (e.g.,'hee-hee,' 'heh-heh,' 'ha-ha,' or 'ho-ho-ho') given in response toembarrassment, excitement, or humor.
In extreme form, aninvoluntary spasm of the respiratory muscles, accompanied by an, flared nostrils, and forwardmotions of the head and torso. In mean-spirited form,laughter (esp. Group laughter) may be directed at enemies and persons with whomwe disagree or dislike, as a form of aggression-out. Thismocking-aggressive laughter resembles the group-mobbing vocalizations ofhigher primates.Usage: To laugh is human ('Man is the only animal who laughs,' notedthe French philosopher Henri Bergson; but see below, Primatology I).Chemically, according to some researchers, laughter provides relief from stressby releasing pain-killing, euphoria-producing endorphins,enkephalins, dopamine, noradrenaline, andadrenaline. Socially, laughter binds us as friendly allies unitedagainst outsiders, and against forces beyond our control.
Psychologically, thecomic laugh (in response, e.g., to funny jokes, puns, and satire) is a recentdevelopment perhaps linked to the evolution of(see below, Speech).Anatomy. Diverse facial,jaw, and throat muscles are involved in the laugh, including levator labiisuperioris, risorius, mentalis, depressor anguli oris(the 'frown' muscle), orbicularis oris, buccinator, anddepressor labii inferioris (Ruch 1993). Laughter may beaccompanied by a general lowering of muscle tonus and an increase in bodilyrelaxation, leading one, e.g., to 'collapse in laughter' (see Ruch 1993).3. In laughing, the abdominal muscles and diaphragm contract in arespiratory 'fit,' not unlike sneezing. Zygomatic and risoriousmuscles of the face contract in a grimacing smile; mandibular muscles mayrhythmically contract as the lower jaw quivers.
In a belly laugh, heartbeataccelerates, blood pressure rises, and vocal cords may uncontrollablyvibrate.Conscious control. 'Does the low level of consciouscontrol that we have over our own laughter reflect the typical level of controlthat non-human animals have over their own species-typical vocalizations?'
(Provine 1996).Contagious laughter. 'Consider the bizarre eventsof the 1962 outbreak of contagious laughter in Tanganyika. What began as anisolated fit of laughter (and sometimes crying) in a group of 12- to 18-year-oldschoolgirls rapidly rose to epidemic proportions.
Contagious laughter propagatedfrom one individual to the next, eventually infecting adjacent communities. Theepidemic was so severe that it required the closing of schools. It lasted forsix months' (Provine 1996).Exhilaration. Laughter is frequentlyassociated with-and thus may be aof-the of exhilaration (Ruch 1993). According toRuch (1993), exhilaration is a 'pleasurable, relaxed excitation' which beginswith a 'sudden and intense increase in cheerfulness, followed by a more or lesspronounced plateau and a prolonged fading out of the emotionaltone.' Life history.
The human laugh is partly learned, partlyfamilial, and so highly contagious that we readily respond to televised 'cannedlaughter' (see, ' TV II'). As infants, we laugh reflexivelynear the 10th week of life. When very old we may cackle, as the larynxbecomes inelastic with age.Literature. 'There waslaughter of warriors, voices rang pleasant, words were cheerful.' 'And Laughter, holding both his sides.' -JohnMilton ( L'Allegro; ca. According to Esquire magazine, more thananything else, women want men to make them laugh ( Spokesman-Review, Feb.7, 1999).Primatology I.
Stimulated by the, laughter has much in common with animal calls. Gorillas andchimps 'laugh,' e.g. (i.e., give breathy, panting vocalizations), when tickledor playfully chased.Primatology II. 'It is noteworthy thatchimpanzee laughter occurs almost exclusively during physical contact, or duringthe threat of such contact, during chasing games, wrestling or tickling.
(Theindividual being chased laughs the most.) Although people laugh when tickled,most adult human laughter occurs during conversation, typically in the absenceof physical contact' (Provine 1996).Solitary laughter. 'In theabsence of stimulating media (television, radio or books), people are about 30times more likely to laugh when they are in a social situation than when theyare alone' (Provine 1996).Speech. 'One of the keyfeatures of natural laughter is its placement in speech. Laughter is notrandomly scattered throughout the speech stream.
The speaker and the audienceseldom interrupt the phrase structure of speech with laughter. In our sample of1,200 laughs there were only eight interruptions of speech by laughter, all ofthem by the speaker.
Thus a speaker may say 'You are going where?. Ha-ha,'but rarely 'You are going. The occurrence of laughterduring pauses at the end of phrases suggests that a lawful and probablyneurologically based process governs the placement of laughter in speech-aprocess in which speech has priority access to the single vocalization channel.The strong and orderly relationship between laughter and speech is akin topunctuation in written communication (and is called the punctuation effect)'(Provine 1996). The average speaker laughs about 46 percentmore often than the audience' (Provine 1996).RESEARCH REPORTS: 1. It isscarcely possible to point out any difference between the tear-stained face of aperson after a paroxysm of excessive laughter and after a bitter crying-fit'(Darwin 1872:207). Laughing strengthens bonds ofcomradeship (Van Hooff 1967:59).
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Laughter is moresocial than humorous (Van Hooff 1967:59). Our laughresembles the great ape's relaxed open-mouth face (esp., its 'rhythmic,low-pitched staccato vocalizations and. Boisterous body movements' (VanHooff 1967:60).
'For example, they deaf-and-blind-born childrensmile and laugh as we do when they are happy and emit the correct sounds whenthey do so' (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1971:12). People in goodspirits may laugh 100-to-400 times a day (Fry 1983). Human laughter'seldom exceeds 7 seconds' (Ruch 1993). Laughter may be vocal orvoiceless, may include all vowel and many consonant possibilities; it frequentlybegins with an initial 'h' sound, most usually as 'he-he,' grading into 'ha-ha'(Ruch 1993). Robert Provine, who studied 1,200 bouts oflaughter in malls and public places, characterized the verbal remarks thelaughing accompanied as 'not funny' (Angier 1996). Provinefound that a.
Laugh vocalizations last about 75 milliseconds,separated by rests of 210 milliseconds; b. Average speakerslaugh 46% more than listeners; c. Male speakers laugh onlyslightly more than male listeners; d. Female speakers laughconsiderably more than female listeners; e. Male speakers laugh7% less than female listeners; f. Female speakers laugh 127%more than male listeners; and g.
Speakers usually laugh at theend of complete phrases (rather than in the middle), as a kind of nonverbalpunctuation.Neuro-notes I. Visual, auditory, tactile, and vestibular (but rarelysmell or taste) cues stimulate laughter's complex, reverberating chain of eventsinvolving areas of the brain stem, and frontal lobes, as well as centers ofthe motor and cognitive cerebral cortex.Neuro-notes II.1. 'Researchers may have found the location of the sense of humor inthe brain, according to their presentation at the 86th Scientific Assembly andAnnual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago,Illinois. Humor appreciation appears to be based in the lower frontal lobes ofthe brain, a location associated with social and emotional judgment andplanning, according to imaging research' (Flapan 2000). 'As withalmost any behavior, we found that laughing at a joke involves several parts ofthe brain,' said Dr. Dean K.
Shibata assistant professor of radiology at theUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. 'Our fMRI imagingresults show that while the ventromedial frontal lobe is likely the center fortelling you what's funny, the accompanying laughter and feeling of mirth may betriggered by connections to other areas of the brain including the nucleusaccumbens; see which are involved in motor control movingthe mouth and positive emotions' (Flapan 2000).Neuro-notes III.
Mirror neurons: As in human beings, the laughter of an individual chimpanzee can trigger imitative laughter in chimps nearby (source: Davila-Ross, Marina; Allcock, Bethan; Thomas, C.; and Kim Bard (2011). 'Aping Expressions? Chimpanzees Produce Distinct Laugh Types When Responding to Laughter of Others,' in Emotion, Vol. In both species, imitative laughter is likely due to mirror neurons.Neuro-notes IV.
Mirror neurons: 'Rapid facial mimicry (RFM) is an automatic response, in which individuals mimic others' expressions. RFM, only demonstrated in humans and apes, is grounded in the automatic perception-action coupling of sensorimotor information occurring in the mirror neuron system. In humans, RFM as in laughing seems to reflect the capacity of individuals to empathize with others. Here, we demonstrated that, during play, RFM is also present in a cercopithecoid species ( Theropithecus gelada) in the 'play face,' thought to be homologous with human laughter.' Source: Mancini, Giada, Ferrari, Pier F., and Elisabetta Palagi (2013). 'Rapid Facial Mimicry in Geladas.'
In Scientific Reports (Vol. 3, 28 March 2013; also.Copyright 1998 - 2016 (David B. Givens/ )Photo of 'Smile, Surfacing' (Fiesta Mexicana, Spokane, Washington, USA) by Doreen K. Givens (copyright 2007).
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