THE LEFT LANE
Survive sky disasters and office karaoke

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Better read this stuff before you need it. Find out how to survive if your parachute fails to open or how to land a plane (first, "push, pull, carry, or drag the pilot" from the controls) at www.worstcasescenarios.com.

Now let's talk "real-life" worst-case scenarios, on a humor Web site that tells how to avoid a karaoke office party, blood pudding, and marriage to Billy Bob Thornton: modernhumorist.com/mh/0006/worst.

O gum all ye faithful: Here's a wad of trivia

It's not penicillin or the computer chip, but it is a fun invention. Chew on these tidbits about gum, compliments of America's Original Dubble Bubble and Bazooka Bubble Gum:

• More than 100,000 tons of bubble gum are chewed each year.
• You burn 11 calories an hour chewing gum.
• Swallowed gum does not block or stick to your stomach.
• Peanut butter or mayonnaise will remove bubble gum from the hair.
• Remove gum from clothing by applying ice to the spot to harden the gum, then scrape off.
• To blow humongous bubbles, pop several wads of gum and chew several minutes until the sugar is consumed. Sugar isn't elastic, so it will pop your bubble before it reaches maximum size.
  
  
  

This is your brain on yuks, it turns out

Heard the one about the scientist and the brain scan? A new study shows that humor tickles some of the same brain regions as cocaine. Neuroscientists from Stanford University took pictures of the brains of 16 people as they looked at 42 funny and 42 unfunny cartoons. The funny ones activated areas known to be part of the brain's reward system, the scientists reported last week in Neuron. Understanding humor may help develop treatments for people with depression and other disorders.