Today's Fun-Fact Newsletter is all about our human senses: did you know there are in fact many more than five human senses? Though anatomy and most of the rest of the sciences snub it (the fools), the sixth sense refers to the vague, not-really-accounted-for-or-supported-by-scientific-evidence (Riiight... hence the snubbing), your sixth-sense refers to the something-you-just-know-is-right certainty that settles into you, though when pressed you are usually unable to explain how, why, or even from whence it arrived.
The exact number of senses we have is up for debate and varies from person-to-person. Though not necessarily according-to-hoyle senses traditionally, almost no one would fail to include on the list our sense of pain (nociception) and last but not least, is our sense of muscle tension. Though, what a bright world it would be where the weight-lifting could not be exercised without the concomitant slapstick of a bunch of lunkheads running to-and-fro, earnest in their desire to lift weights but clueless as to what amount that weight would be. It exists in my mind, people, if sadly nowhere else.
The ever-curmudgeonly Curmudgeon, always-bearded-and-sometimes-even-affecting-a-tobacco-pipe-because-it's-boss rebels against seasonal wear, and for the dictates of the fashion-world he cares not at all. He wears the same-or-indistinguishable-from-being-so sweater each and every day, for all occasions. Wildlife experts who follow the Curmudgeon, experts in their field, liken it to a badge-of-office, or a uniform to denote their tribe of almost-always-white, middle-aged-males-with-amorphous-bodies that can be observed most days grazing the food courts of the college campus. The pull of the opposite-sex is the one and only thing worthy of forcing them to travel outside the boundaries of the college they never stray far from. Each curmudgeon is limited to the student/faculty roster of teacher's assistants to find love, and every fall they ritually convene to talk about broads, all-a-lather at the prospect of a new set of incoming-students bringing vital lifeblood to enrich their dating pool. It is the the annual highwater mark when it came to broads as such, a beacon that stood alone for all Curmedgeon-kind. It shined out as the one hope for for most of poor Curmudgeon-kind to even get a whiff of strange.
Now educated experts of the animal, this Curmudgeon, whose numbers have been growing in recent years, let's continue as I finish the point I began a while back. To avoid the ire of the Curmudgeon I shall now state that it turns out muscle tension is a sense that falls under the umbrella of proprioeception.
Most folk are aware-of-but-do-not-include our vestibular sense, which is effectively tucked away in our inner-ear. (BONUS!!! Today we include our Side Note Fun Fact at no extra charge! Vestibular is of the same etymological origin as vestibule, ie in a church. What an odd thing for some scientist to decide was not just relevant, but in fact close to the top of the list of all similar things he could compare our inner-ear to.) And here's one last interesting fact in the style you've come to expect and love from the Fun Fact Newsletter: police make use of how our sense of proprioception degrades fairly consistently and obviously when they ask motorists to touch their nose with their finger in a field-sobriety-test. "They've done studies, you know. Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time." (Anchorman)
Finally, interoception refers to the set of senses providing information to the organism about the internal state of the body, at both a conscious and subconscious level. It further includes the brain's receipt and dispatching of signals from the body into specific sub-regions—like the brain-stem, thalamus, and insula to name three.
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Here are another ten that are not yet officially sanctioned, for you perusal, while I sidestep a lawsuit expertly by giving credit for the Top Ten list tradition to the Late Show With David Letterman. Sign up for the free Fun-Fact-of-the-Day Newsletter! Fun-Fact-of-the-Day: fascinating-yet-inane trivia that still comes off as vaguely annoying to share with your friends and family today. Act now!
- Seeing your hand in the dark
- Hearing the difference between hot and cold water
- Having sweat that makes others happy
- Sensing magnetic fields
- Smelling immune system
- Having Superhuman Hearing while Underwater
- Having Skin That Smells And Heals
- Having A Nose That Smells Death
- Life-saving abilities
- Smelling personality
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