Life Expectancy

Swaziland has the lowest life expectancy in the world, only 39.6 overall. Then for men 39.8 years and 39.4 years for women. Im sure your wondering why it's so ridiculously low?

Life expectancy in the U.S. is much higher, not the highest in the world, but it’s in the top quarter. The overall expectancy is 78.2 years, then 75.6 for men and 80.8 for women.

Swaziland is a small, landlocked country a bit smaller than New Jersey. There is a lack of water and it is also one country suffering from very high rate of HIV/AIDS infections, actually the highest rate in the world. Seventy percent of these people only live on less than one US dollar per day! That can give you a pretty good idea of why the expectance is so low..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wz.html

Here is a link to let you do your own investigating to see how the life expectancy calculator works and what it looks at. http://calculator.livingto100.com/calculator

This is one more link to a different calculator if you would like to compare between the two calculators as I did.

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/VirtualAge.php

It does take a few minutes to do, but it’s so interesting!! It may not be all that easy for younger people to take it though, it looks at a few things that would be in the future for some, but you can still try and see.

Personal Space

There are many different preferences for distance between two people in any given culture. There are intimate, personal, social, and public distances to be aware of. Many can be similar, but the ones that are different have the likelihood to cause discomfort or confusion for one or both of the people in the situation.
In America, our cultural norm for social distance is four to twelve feet! Then, for the Saudi Arabians, their ideal distance for conversation is only nine to ten inches.
This difference in distance could cause a problem, such short distance has a great chance of making any person uncomfortable. Say someone starts talking, just friendly conversation, but even a stranger that wasn't known and they came that close to me I would back up quite a bit. It's just an awkward situation most people would not like being in. Each person has a comfort zone, it is important that space needed is given. Invasion of this comfort zone probably has people freaking out a bit inside when it happens, but to be polite most will just try to step back and continue conversation. Well, untill they can leave, then say they're glad that's over.
It all depends on who you are talking to, if it's a close friend or a person your in a relationship with, your bubble won't be very large because you are both comfortable with eachother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_space

http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/personal/space.html

Eye Contact

Eye contact is considered a sign or honesty and strength in many cultures, but in some cultures it is instead, taken as a rude gesture as well as a way of showing disrespect. Eye contact occurs when two people catch each other’s eyes. One culture that views direct eye contact as a form of disrespect is the Asian culture. Direct eye contact can also be considered aggressive in many cultures.

http://danddsmommie.spaces.live.com/blog/cns8B586E30788FB99!233.entry

In the U.S we normally start a conversation with eye contact, but after a short period of time we let our eyes glance to the side, then re-connect with the other‘s. It is a bit uncomfortable if your talking to someone that doesn’t break eye contact. It’s almost as if they want to stare you down to win a game. For the Asian culture, too much eye contact can be looked at as disobedience as well.
One example to further show our different view on eye contact would be if a child gives direct eye contact to his or her parents, in the Asian culture, it is sometimes looked as that the child is challenging the parent or parents’ authority. Here, in the U.S. a parent may get upset if their child isn’t looking at them at all. They may think that he or she isn’t listening or that they aren’t being taken seriously (disrespected).

http://go-getglobal.com/g3blog/2007/11/09/eye-contact-asian-style/

In the North American culture, we value eye contact for the most part. It shows a sign of honesty and respect, however, it can be a bad thing if it turns into a ‘stare down’. A stare down would be a way to show anger or become a bit of a challenge for the other person. So if your from another part of the world, I wouldn’t suggest staring at a big guy with muscles, even if it’s okay in your culture!

In the U.S. it is also said by some that one that cannot make eye contact with another, he or she is untrustworthy. Luckily, not everyone goes by that saying.