Tagged by Barbie!

Hi David,
Here are your questions!

1. What is the very first thing you would buy if you won a lottery?
2. Whose shoes would you most like to walk in for one day?
3. What's the first thing you do when you find yourself bored?
4. Are there movie quotes you and your family say to one another?
5. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Well, Bloggers, it's happened again! Your humble Blog author has been tagged with more essay questions designed to elicit passions, dreams, hopes, and fears. Some of these questions were answered without hesitation and others pondered. Prizes may await the first woman, (see previous post), who correctly guesses which answers were spontaneous and were not carefully considered!

1a. Lottery cash? Um, maybe a sailboat.

2a. Shoes?

3a. The first thing to come to mind when bored is to look for something to read.

4a. No; we expect one another to be able to think for ourselves.

5a. Liberator of the troops in George's War to Become a Man.

Tuesday's Word: woman

A woman is a female human. The term woman (irregular plural: women) usually is used for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. However, the term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "Women's rights".

1 Etymology
2 Age and terminology
3 Biology and gender

Etymology

Symbol of the planet Venus, also used to indicate the female gender among animals which reproduce sexually
The English term "Man" (from Proto-Germanic mannaz "man, person") and words derived therefrom can designate any or even all of the human race regardless of their gender or age. This is indeed the oldest usage of "Man" in English. This derives from a Proto-Indo-European root *man-" meaning hand. A similar cognate is Old Norse "mund", hand. The distinctive and dexterous hands of humans, compared to those of other animals, are the basis of this term and the similarly derived term, "manual" (from Latin "Manus", hand), by hand.

In Old English the words wer and wyf (also wæpman and wifman) were what was used to refer to "a man" and "a woman" respectively, and "Man" was gender neutral. In Middle English man displaced wer as term for "male human", whilst wyfman (which eventually evolved into woman) was retained for "female human". ("Wyf" also evolved into the word "wife".) "Man" does continue to carry its original sense of "Human" however, resulting in an asymmetry sometimes criticized as sexist.

A very common Indo-European root for woman, *gwen-, is the source of English queen (Old English cwēn primarily meant woman, highborn or not; this is still the case in Danish, with the modern spelling kvinde), as well as gynaecology (from Greek gynē), banshee (from Old Irish ban) and zenana (from Persian zan). The Latin fēmina, whence female, is likely from the root in fellāre (to suck), referring to breastfeeding.

The symbol for the planet Venus is the sign also used in biology for the female gender. It is a stylized representation of the goddess Venus's hand mirror or an abstract symbol for the goddess: a circle with a small equilateral cross underneath (Unicode: ♀). The Venus symbol also represented femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for copper. Alchemists constructed the symbol from a circle (representing spirit) above an equilateral cross (representing matter).

Age and terminology

Painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau- Bather
Womanhood is the period in a female's life after she has transitioned from girlhood, at least physically, having passed the age of menarche. Many cultures have rites of passage to symbolize a woman's coming of age, such as confirmation in some branches of Christianity, bat mitzvah in Judaism, or even just the custom of a special celebration for a certain birthday (generally between 12 and 21).

The word woman can be used generally, to mean any female human, or specifically, to mean an adult female human as contrasted with girl. The word girl originally meant "young person of either sex" in English; it was only around the beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically a female child. Nowadays girl sometimes is used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried woman. During the early 1970s feminists challenged such use, and use of the word to refer to a fully grown woman may cause offence. In particular previously common terms such as office girl are no longer used.

Conversely, in certain cultures which link family honor with female virginity, the word girl is still used to refer to a never-married woman; in this sense it is used in a fashion roughly analogous to the obsolete English maid or maiden. Referring to an unmarried female as woman may, in such a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced, which would be an insult to her family.
In some settings, the use of girl to refer to an adult female is a vestigial practice (such as girls' night out), even among some elderly women. In this sense, girl may be considered to be the analogue to the British word bloke for a man, although it again fails to meet the parallel status as an adult and the only true American English parallel to girl is boy. Gal aside, some feminists cite this lack of an informal yet respectful term for women as misogynistic; they regard non-parallel usages, such as men and girls, as sexist.

There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman. The term "womanhood" merely means the state of being a woman, having passed the menarche; "femininity" is used to refer to a set of supposedly typical female qualities associated with a certain attitude to gender roles; "womanliness" is like "femininity", but is usually associated with a different view of gender roles; "femaleness" is a general term, but is often used as shorthand for "human femaleness"; "distaff" is an archaic adjective derived from women's conventional role as a spinner, now used only as a deliberate archaism; "muliebrity" is a "neologism" (derived from the Latin) meant to provide a female counterpart of "virility", but used very loosely, sometimes to mean merely "womanhood", sometimes "femininity", and sometimes even as a collective term for women.

Biology and gender

The human female reproductive system
In terms of biology, the female sex organs are involved in the reproductive system, whereas the secondary sex characteristics are involved in nurturing children or, in some cultures, attracting a mate. The ovaries, in addition to their regulatory function producing hormones, produce female gametes called eggs which, when fertilized by male gametes (sperm), form new genetic individuals. The uterus is an organ with tissue to protect and nurture the developing fetus and muscle to expel it when giving birth. The vagina is used in copulation and birthing (although the word vagina is often colloquially and incorrectly used for the vulva or external female genitalia, which also includes the labia, the clitoris, and the female urethra). The breast evolved from the sweat gland to produce milk, a nutritious secretion that is the most distinctive characteristic of mammals. In mature women, the breast is generally more prominent than in most other mammals; this prominence, not necessary for milk production, is probably at least partially the result of sexual selection. (For other ways in which men commonly differ physically from women, see Man.)

Spectral karyotype of a human female. The XX combination is formed at the 23rd week of gestation. - National Human Genome Resource Institute
An imbalance of maternal hormonal levels and some chemicals (or drugs) may alter the secondary sexual characteristics of fetuses. Most women have the karyotype 46,XX, but around one in a thousand will be 47,XXX, and one in 2500 will be 45,X. This contrasts with the typical male karotype of 46,XY; thus, the X and Y chromosomes are known as female and male, respectively. Unlike the Y chromosome, the X can come from either the mother or the father, thus genetic studies which focus on the female line use mitochondrial DNA.
Biological factors are not sufficient determinants of whether a person considers themselves a woman or is considered a woman. Intersexed men and women, who have mixed physical and/or genetic features, may use other criteria in making a clear determination. There are also women who have, or have had prior to surgical intervention, a typically male physiology (trans, transgendered or transsexual women; there are varying social, legal, and individual definitions with regard to this issue). (See gender identity.)

Although fewer females than males are born (the ratio is around 1:1.05), due to a longer life expectancy there are only 81 men aged 60 or over for every 100 women of the same age, and among the oldest populations, there are only 53 men for every 100 women.[citation needed] Women have a lower death rate than men, and on average, live five years longer.[citation needed] This is due to a combination of factors: genetics (redundant and varied genes present on sex chromosomes in women); sociology (such as not being expected in most countries to perform military service); health-impacting choices (such as suicide or the use of cigarettes, and alcohol); the presence of the female hormone estrogen, which has a cardioprotective effect in premenopausal women; and the effect of high levels of androgens in men. Out of the total human population, there are 101.3 men for every 100 women (source: 2001 World Almanac).
Most women go through menarche and are then able to become pregnant and bear children.[1] This generally requires internal fertilization of her eggs with the sperm of a man through sexual intercourse, though artificial insemination or the surgical implantation of an existing embryo is also possible (see reproductive technology). The study of female reproduction and reproductive organs is called gynaecology. Women generally reach menopause in their late 40s or early 50s, at which point their ovaries cease producing estrogen and they can no longer become pregnant.
To a large extent, women suffer from the same illnesses as men.[citation needed] However, there are some diseases that primarily affect women, such as lupus. Also, there are some sex-related illnesses that are found more frequently or exclusively in women, e.g., breast cancer, cervical cancer, or ovarian cancer. Women and men may have different symptoms of an illness and may also respond differently to medical treatment. This area of medical research is studied by gender-based medicine.

During early fetal development, embryos of both sexes appear gender neutral; the release of hormones is what changes physical appearance male or female. As in other cases without two sexes, such as species that reproduce asexually, the gender-neutral appearance is closer to female than to male.

Your blog author loves women! Especially the ones which are soft, sweet, and smell nice!

Wiki

Tuesday's Word: rhetoric

Rhetoric (from Greek ῥήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of spoken and written language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. In this sense, there is a divide between classical rhetoric (with the aforementioned definition) and contemporary practices of rhetoric.
Historically, Classical Rhetoric has its inception in a school of Pre-Socratic philosophers known as Sophists. It is later taught as one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. In ancient and medieval times, grammar concerned itself with correct, accurate, pleasing, and effective language use through the study and criticism of literary models, dialectic concerned itself with the testing and invention of new knowledge through a process of question and answer, and rhetoric concerned itself with persuasion in public and political settings such as assemblies and courts of law. As such, rhetoric is said to flourish in open and democratic societies with rights of free speech, free assembly, and political enfranchisement for some portion of the population.
Contemporary Studies of Rhetoric have a more diverse range of practices and meanings than was the case in ancient times. The concept of rhetoric has thus shifted widely during its 2500-year history. Rhetoricians have recently argued that the classical understanding of rhetoric is limited because persuasion depends on communication, which in turn depends on meaning. Thus the scope of rhetoric is understood to include much more than simply public--legal and political--discourse. This emphasis on meaning and how it is constructed and conveyed draws on a large body of critical and social theory (see literary theory and Critical Theory), philosophy (see Post-structuralism and Hermeneutics), and problems in social science methodology (see Reflexivity). So while rhetoric has traditionally been thought of being involved in such arenas as politics, law, public relations, lobbying, marketing and advertising, the study of rhetoric has recently entered into diverse fields such as science, religion, journalism, history, literature and even cartography and architecture. Every aspect of human life and thought that depends on the articulation and communication of meaning can be said to involve elements of the rhetorical.

Wiki

Uses for Duct Tape

Planting trees? Nothing gives seedlings a better start than duct tape around the trunk. It gives them a feeling of power and superiority and simultaneously prevents pests from gnawing at their bark.

Jerry Falwell

Mr. Falwell’s Legacy

By Mustang Bobby Wednesday, May 16, 2007 Permalink

Seeing as how Fred Phelps and his sorry family have announced that they’re going to picket the funeral of Jerry Falwell, I thought about writing about his passing and the interesting legacy that he’s left behind. But Alan Wolfe of Salon.com beat me to it, and he says pretty much what I was thinking.

One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? Falwell will always be remembered for his “700 Club” comment in the wake of Sept. 11: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’” Even though Falwell later apologized, the damage had been done: A sacred moment had been used for profane purpose.

And that, really, is Falwell’s legacy. To the religious life of the United States he made no significant contribution. But to the political life of the country, he made one: He founded the Moral Majority. In so doing, Falwell managed to take something holy — one does not have to be a Christian to admire the life and teachings of Jesus Christ — and turned it into something partisan and divisive. Falwell, the quintessential conservative Christian, was always more conservative than Christian. To the extent that history will remember him, it will be as a politician, not as a preacher.

[…]Instead of pondering Jerry Falwell’s legacy, we would be better off asking how this man ever become a public figure in the first place. America has had more than its share of religiously inspired demagogues — Dr. Fred Swartz, Billy James Hargis, Carl McIntyre come to mind — but they are forgotten figures, marginal even to the times in which lived. One would like to believe that the United States has become a bigger and better country since the days when men like them preached about captive nations and denounced the pernicious influence of rock ‘n’ roll. But then there is Jerry Falwell. In death, as he did in life, he reminds us that demagoguery never dies; it just changes its form. Jerry Falwell expressed great hate for a lot of his fellow Americans. It is no wonder that so many of them will greet his death with something less than love.I didn’t hate Jerry Falwell. Hating someone requires that you actually care about them, and Jerry Falwell meant nothing to me personally.

The greatest legacy you can achieve is to leave the world a better place than you found it. I don’t believe Mr. Falwell did that, and I believe that a great deal of the fear and divisiveness in this country can be attributed to him and his work. I did not like the fact that he was very skillful at taking something as intensely personal and spiritual as a religious belief and turn it into a political weapon, nor did I like it that he used his considerable abilities as a huckster to grow rich by exploiting the greed, fear, and paranoia of the foolish and the weak.

But Mr. Falwell’s death means nothing to me, and that is perhaps the most damning thing you can say about someone and their life.

Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Tuesday's Word: VO2 max

VO2 max

(Redirected from Maximum Oxygen Uptake)

The correct title of this article is VO2 max. It features superscript or subscript characters that are substituted or omitted because of technical limitations.

VO2 max is the maximum capacity to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise. (The derivation is V̇ - volume per time, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum). It is also called maximal oxygen consumption or maximal oxygen uptake. Expressed either as an absolute rate in litres of oxygen per minute (l/min) or as a relative rate in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml/kg/min), the latter expression is often used to compare the performance of endurance sports athletes.

1 Measuring VO2 max
1.1 Fick Equation
1.2 Cooper test
2 VO2 max Levels

Measuring VO2 max

Accurately measuring VO2 max involves a physical effort sufficient in duration and intensity to fully tax the aerobic energy system. In general clinical and athletic testing, this usually involves a graded exercise test (either on a treadmill or on a cycloergometer) in which exercise intensity is progressively increased while measuring ventilation and oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration of the inhaled and exhaled air. V̇O2 max is reached when oxygen consumption remains at steady state despite an increase in workload.

Fick Equation

VO2 max is properly defined by the Fick Equation:
VO2max = Q(CaO2 − CvO2)
where Q is the cardiac output of the heart, CaO2 is the arterial oxygen content, and CvO2 is the venous oxygen content.

Cooper test

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper conducted a study for the United States Air Force in the late 1960s. One of the results of this was the Cooper test in which the distance covered running in 12 minutes is measured. An approximate estimate for VO2 max (in mL/min/kg) is:

where d12 is distance (in metres) covered in 12 minutes. There also exist several other reliable tests and VO2 max calculators to estimate VO2 max.

VO2 max Levels

VO2 max varies considerably in the population. The average young untrained male will have a VO2 max of approximately 3.5 litres/minute and 45 mL/min/kg.[citation needed] The average young untrained female will score a VO2 max of approximately 2.0 litres/minute and 38 mL/min/kg.[citation needed] These scores can improve with training and decrease with age.
In sports where endurance is an important component in performance, such as cycling, rowing, cross-country skiing and running, world class athletes typically have high VO2 maximums. World class male athletes, cyclists and cross-country skiers typically exceed 80 mL/kg/min and a rare few may exceed 90 mL/kg/min for men and 70 mL/kg/min for women. Three time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond is reported to have had a VO2 max of 92.5 at his peak - one of the highest ever recorded, while cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie measured at an astounding 96 mL/kg/min.[citation needed] It should also be noted that Daehlie's result was achieved out of season and that physiologist Erlend Hem who was responsible for the testing stated that he would not discount the possibility of the skier passing 100 mL/kg/min at his absolute peak. By comparison a competitive club athlete might achieve a VO2 max of around 70 mL/kg/min. World class rowers are physically very large endurance athletes and typically do not score as high on a per weight basis, but often score exceptionally high in absolute terms. A less size-biased measure is to divide by rather than mass. Male rowers typically score VO2 maximums over 6 litres/minute, and some exceptional individuals have exceeded 8 L/min.
To put this into perspective, thoroughbred horses have a VO2max of around 180 mL/min/kg. Siberian dogs running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sled race have VO2 values as high as 240[[1]].

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Had lunch with my mother at the local Woman's Club where she is a past president. This phot was taken in the garden behind the house, Five Oaks.

Five Oaks was designed by noted Cleveland architect Charles F. Schweinfurth and built 1892-1894 for Mr. and Mrs. J. Walter McClymonds. The name was adopted from five oak trees that stood on the lawn. An oak motif, employing designs of the acorn, leaf, and tree, is used extensively in the house.

The exterior is an eclectic type of architecture, the design which Schweinfurth was working with at the time. There are features of Gothic, Romanesque, Tudor, and French Renaissance.

Three entrances lead to the grand hall and its imposing staircase with two landings. Large doorways open from this hall to the music room, reception room, south parlor, library, dining room and billiard room. The kitchen and two pantries are at the rear. Five fireplaces grace the first floor, each with decorated mantel and unique marble facing.

Wood of mahogany and oak, all hand carved, is used for finishing and decorating on the first floor. Walls are painted and stenciled or decorated, many in gold leaf or silver.

Many artifacts from the McClymonds' travel are distributed throughout the rooms. These include oil paintings, pictures, sculptures, vases, and some pieces of furniture.

The second floor consists of a large central hall off which doorways lead to five bedrooms, one of which is a large master bedroom and one a bedroom-sitting-room combination. On the third floor there are also three bathrooms, a linen closet, and sewing room; the fireplaces number five.

The third floor has a ballroom, minstrel balcony, and two rooms that were used for card playing and serving of refreshments. To the back are two bedrooms and a bath for the accommodation of any live-in help.

Tuesday's Word: Blues

blues: African-American form of secular folk music, related to jazz, that is based on a simple, repetitive poetic-musical structure.

This week's Word was borrowed from Blogger extraordinaire, Melissa!

From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, this Blogger loves the blues!

Essentials of Music

Get set! Point! Fire!

On May 04, 1970, the Ohio National Guard shot students at Kent State University. 4 dead, 9 wounded. Republican Governor James Rhodes sent the soldiers to Kent to stop Vietnam War protesters. This post is dedicated to the memory of Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. America had turned on its own. Read about the SHOOT order.

Tuesday's Word: frustration

Noun
Singular frustration
Plural frustrations
frustration (plural frustrations)
The act of frustrating, or the state, or an instance of being frustrated
A thing that frustrates
The feeling of annoyance when one's actions are criticized or hindered
Anger not directed at anything or anyone in particular

Bloggers, there is a pretty photo of tulips awaiting you. They stupid thing won't copy and paste! Any ideas?

Wikitionary