Who started the "like" epidemic?

Okay, people blame California for the "valley girl" dialect; but I don't think this crazy epidemic could have spread so far, so fast just from one state.

I walked in the park yesterday and overheard a conversation of some middle aged women and one of them said "like" unnecessarily many times. I often find myself doing it as well; especially when I'm nervous. Has the word become another "filler" like "um," and "uh"?

I remember it becoming popular when I was in Jr. High. I don't know why it caught on so quickly and has stayed around so long. It doesn't happen when I write. It just seems to be a speech disease.

What do you think? Do you, like, think it's, like, just a filler? Or is it, like, something else?

What causes tiredness?

Okay, this is more of a personal question, but I just don't understand my sleeping, or lack thereof. I have been tired for the past... 6 or 7 years. I know some of it can be accounted for by lack of sleep, going to bed late, etc. But many times when I have gotten "enough" sleep, I'm still tired. And I know that some/most of the tiredness is mental exhaustion. I think too much and that wears me out! So my body might be tired because my brain never rests.

I've tried many things and haven't found anything that works. I've been exercising and that helps to get my body tired at the end of the day, but not my racing thoughts. I don't get it. Suggestions?

Food likes and dislikes: nature or nurture?

Why is broccoli a difficult food to enjoy? Is it texture? Taste? But some people like broccoli. The question is, do we learn our tastes or are we born with them?

Certain things are associated with experience (ie. I can't eat twizzlers anymore because I ate too many once and threw up all evening). But why are some people more susceptible to hot/spicy foods than others? Some enjoy the heat, for others it is downright painful.

Do our tastebuds stay the same, or do they "learn" in a sense? What do you think?

Why are many Mormons mean?

Okay, I know this is a different answer for each specific case of meanness, but I want to explore this. I work in Park City, Utah and most, if not all of my co-workers are not LDS. I was talking to one of my co-workers the other day and the fact came up that I was Mormon.
He told me that he wouldn't make fun of Mormons around me. And he told me that when he was in school the people who were meanest to me were LDS kids. They made fun of him because he was a different religion. I felt awful and I wanted to apologize that someone of our religion would be so rude.
But I realized that I went to school with mostly mormons and they were the ones that were rudest to me too. I just don't understand this hypocrisy. I find it sad that we aren't more inclusive. This guy now has a permanent bad impression of Mormons and probably our religion as well.
For our religion that preaches tolerance, charity, and love why do the followers not practice those most basic of principles?
A negative question, but one that needs to be asked and a situation that needs to be changed.

What's with this fad of Trolling?

So a "troll" as defined by Wikipedia is "In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response."

I understand sarcasm; I love sarcasm! But this whole swearing at people for the sake of causing an emotional response is a little ridiculous. I don't understand why people feel like they need to express themselves like that.

There is enough negativity and horrible stuff in this world that people on the Internet with nothing to add to society should add to it by cussing up a storm at random people.

But I fear that people will never get over this fad. I feel that negativity spreads like a fungus. Just as a smile is contagious, a bad mood is infectious. When there are always people around with nothing positive to say, it brings everyone down.

I can only laugh at these ridiculous, pointless comments for so long. I believe it needs to be stopped. But what can I do? I'm only one blogger in a whole ocean of bigger bloggers, writers, and unfortunately, trolls.

What causes an itch?

Thinking about the fact that out skin is comprised of millions of skin cells that are forever flaking off and then being replace, what is the real cause of an itch? I'm not talking about itches with other reasons, fungus, dandruff, etc. I mean just a regular itch. I have no idea about this one. Help anyone?

Why don't we look more closely at word origins?

I have been making connections in my mind about words. Lately, not because I'm perverted, I've been thinking of the word masturbation. I've been thinking about the root "turb" because the only other words I associate with that root are disturb, perturb, and bioturbation. So I looked at the word root, "turb" comes from the root which means, "disturb, confuse, turmoil or crowd." Interesting. Also part of the word is: stuprare "defile" (oneself), from stuprum "defilement, dishonor."

So something that the world seems as normal and acceptable, taking the actual word apart shed some light on the actual repercussions of that action.

Word origins... informative.