A Book Devoted To Crooked Smiles

A commenter linked to this site in the comments, and I just found its fascinating to view.

First it noted that in old images, faces were symmetrical and often did not smile, and it showed this image as an example:

They all actually look a little unusual to me, because of their symmetry. And yet I like it.

He then showed pictures of people smiling in olden times, and noted that even though smiling in photos was rarer, when you saw it the smiles were symmetrical.

Then he showed modern pictures, where people smile, and noted how the smiles are so often crooked:

Notice they are all right sided smiles. And strangely enough, I will bet all of those bottom people are ardent leftists, and the top people would be horrified by their beliefs and desires for the nation. I can’t help but wonder if that is related.

There are other images at the link, click over and check them out. The author offers an interesting hypothesis.

I don’t know enough to make a conclusion from the smiles themselves. I see too many possibilities. Are neurological systems dialed back and weaker for some reason, and the left side of the expression is failing before the right side? Is there an increase in psychological Machiavellianism, and the disparity in smiles on left and right is a sign of a more manipulating psychology that is accustomed to smiling consciously to manipulate, and not reflexively. Is it just more customary to smile a practiced smile in photos in these days of conflict-avoidant rabbitry, something taken to the extreme when soyboys throw their mouths open in photos in a silent scream of exhilaration? Were the olden smiles only gained by genuinely making the object of the photo laugh honestly, and since the smiles today are social/conscious and not organic/reflexive they are crooked? I can’t say.

I look at the older photos though, and I do feel neurological systems in those people that are “popping.” It is almost like they are more alive. I even notice the eyes are a little more open, and awake. I feel much more relaxed looking at them, even as I ponder how wild those guys would probably look when jacked on adrenaline, and in the heat of a battle.

In contrast, look how sleepy the modern eyes look. I look at the newer photos, and the eyes are just a little more like slits and the faces look just a little more sleepy, especially among the children at the site. I feel like if you jacked those lower photos on adrenaline, and activated their nervous systems, the eyes would open up a little more, they would sit a little more upright, the faces would look a little more alive, and maybe they would smile less and look more focused. They would look more like those first pictures.

I find that interesting, because heavy metals do dull nervous systems. Nerves transmit their impulses by allowing small metal ions like sodium and calcium to explode through ion channels in large numbers all at once, explosively. Large heavy metal ions like lead wedge into, and clog those ion channels, slowing the flow of the smaller ions and dulling the nerve impulses by reducing their explosiveness. With sufficient heavy metal exposure, and clogging of the ion channels, nerve transmission is killed, beginning with numbness of the extremities like the fingers and the toes, where long nerve-lengths produce a cumulative loss of signal to the dulling of the heavy metal toxicity.

I am puzzled by this phenomenon though, and see several options.

First is heavy metal toxicity. We do know arsenic has been infiltrating our food supply, in everything from rice, to apple and grape juices our children love. Fluoride is added to drinking water and may alter the metabolism of metals like Aluminum, and alter brain development in children. Lead paint has been around for some time as well. Mercury in seafood is everywhere, and people rarely keep track of how much they ingest. All of these may be a major difference from the colonial American environment.

Then there is the r-ification of society. Does dulling amygdalae through reduced development produce people who are not as engaged in the world, and whose neurological systems are not as turned on?

And of course, there are infective agents. Herpes viruses infect nerves, creating infection and inflammation, to say nothing of other, uncharacterized viruses which might not be characterized or noted if the only symptom of them is a slightly crooked aspect to expressions and diminutions in energy which barely anybody notices anyway.

And there are always vaccines, which basically have young children mounting immune responses to pathogens which they would not have seen in the past.

It is an interesting trend, if true, which might bear much more rigorous research and analysis.

Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because you can’t trust a two-face

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Anonymous
Anonymous
6 years ago

Maybe making an expression when you don’t feel like it is harder because you have to work more to make the non-cooperative half of your face go along with it? I’ve always hated faking expressions, maybe that’s part of why.

Ron
Ron
6 years ago

There is so much pain in the faces of the men. So much hurt. Then I noticed the military uniforms. God almighty.

We have far more information than we ever had before. We have formalized our understanding of the psychology and effects of combat. They had nothing like what we have today. Even anesthetic was denied them. What those men went through.

It’s interesting that the black lady in the middle also has an expression of stoic pain, there is a lot of strength and determination in those eyes. How different from today.

Pitcrew
Pitcrew
6 years ago

General Ripper was right, flouride has been known about for a while. That’s why the Cabal made sure to ridicule it in Dr. Strangelove.

But how did the Cabal know this by 1962? Unit 731 or Dr. Mengele perhaps?

Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
6 years ago

i avoid drinking out of aluminum cans. the research is inconclusive, but there is a hypothesis that acidic drinks, beer-soda, cause aluminum to leech into the drink. better safe than sorry.

similar story with baking powder that use aluminum compounds.

SebastianX1/9
SebastianX1/9
6 years ago

In his novel “Group Portrait with Lady,” which is a kind of female bildungsroman set in pre-WW II Germany, Heinrich Boll describes one of her edgy, rebellious lovers as having that slightly crooked smile that borders on a smirk which was considered a sign of progressivism in the 1930s. Now THAT I found interesting and had not thought about it for close to 20 years until this post.

It’s the smile of an atheist.

SteveRogers42
SteveRogers42
Reply to  SebastianX1/9
6 years ago

It works for Ellen Barkin, though — I gotta say.

Aeoli Pera
6 years ago

There are six basic emotions, as indicated by natural, spontaneous facial expressions. The only asymmetrical facial expression is disgust. Therefore, an asymmetrical smile conveys disgust as well as happiness.

Kharmii
Kharmii
6 years ago

My dad always says that heavy metals and flouride deaden the third eye. Imagine that we’ve been turned into such bleary-eyed farm animals through the poisoning of our food and water that what was once normal brain function is now seen as an extrasensory gift.

anon
anon
6 years ago

If you are concerned about aluminum, this study, although small in size, demonstrated the removal of aluminum from the body and some of the dementia participants improved on cognitive tests.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22976072

Abstract

There has been a plausible link between human exposure to aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease for several decades. We contend that the only direct and ethically acceptable experimental test of the ‘aluminum hypothesis’, which would provide unequivocal data specific to the link, is to test the null hypothesis that a reduction in the body burden of aluminum to its lowest practical limit would have no influence upon the incidence, progression, or severity of Alzheimer’s disease. Herein we are testing the hypothesis that silicon-rich mineral waters can be used as non-invasive methods to reduce the body burden of aluminum in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and a control group consisting of their carers and partners. We have shown that drinking up to 1 L of a silicon-rich mineral water each day for 12 weeks facilitated the removal of aluminum via the urine in both patient and control groups without any concomitant affect upon the urinary excretion of the essential metals, iron and copper. We have provided preliminary evidence that over 12 weeks of silicon-rich mineral water therapy the body burden of aluminum fell in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and, concomitantly, cognitive performance showed clinically relevant improvements in at least 3 out of 15 individuals. This is a first step in a much needed rigorous test of the ‘aluminum hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease’ and a longer term study involving many more individuals is now warranted.

The protocol involves drinking 500ml of silicon rich water twice a day (morning/evening) over a 12 week period. The water has to be drunk within a 10 minute period. Here in the US, Fiji water meets the silicon content requirements.

Its a cheap, safe and easy way to remove the aluminium, with the side benefit of potentially improving your brain function.

The author, Exely, has several interesting publications. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Exley%20C%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=16988476

His publications are also posted here: https://www.keele.ac.uk/aluminium/publications/

Sam J.
Sam J.
Reply to  anon
6 years ago

Thanks for this comment. Very interesting.

mobiuswolf
6 years ago

The smile you make when you think, “Yeah, right,” is also crooked, but I think looks different.

Michael
Michael
6 years ago

The old photo’s look way more dignified than the photos of modern people trying to smile. Maybe that is why we are currently living in clown world.

SteveRogers42
SteveRogers42
6 years ago

Just wondered if this edgy, “woke”, lopsided hairstyle is a subconscious effort to accent or emulate the “crooked face syndrome”.

https://www.billboard.com/photos/428546/skrillex-makeovers-beyonce-katy-perry-photos

I see less-extreme lopsided haircuts quite often on the sick. lame, and lazy in the Pacific Northwest.