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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Bloody hell ....... I must have something seriously wrong with my brain!
I can switch her from clockwise to counterclockwise at will and I can just as easily get her to swing her leg one way, then the other, without completing a full revolution.
Do I need to seek professional help??
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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While we're on the subject of brains and math/s (elsewhere), it seems to be the case that boys are somehow more attuned than girls to mathematical thought processes. Since boys and girls have been universally studying the three R's for over two generations, it can't be down to early years' training, so is the male brain more left than right for a biological reason?
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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Testosterone levels in the womb (at a particular stage?) are implicated in (brain and hand) handedness, as I recall.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Seems then I can blame my mother, as per usual; would it have made a difference having a dad who was a maths prof? Officially there is no biological difference between male and female intellect, even such an august body as the British Royal Society denies it... "There is no convincing evidence of innate gender differences in mathematical ability."
If you ask a maths teacher they will tell you there's a marked preponderance of boys in their class ('A' level of course, it's compulsory up to 'GCSE' level).
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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'Convincing' appears to be the operative word there.
Yes, a maths prof would probably make a difference. An arse-burger, frinstance, is far more likely to have an engineer for a father. (My father and maternal grandfather were engineers: I didn't stand a chance.)
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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It was during an 'A' level maths class, about forty years ago, that I suddenly woke up in a panic and ran off, to become ....... an engineer! - - And yes, amongst my many offspring there are one or two arse-burgers.
An example of Lamarckian evolution?
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| Hatty wrote: | | While we're on the subject of brains and math/s (elsewhere), it seems to be the case that boys are somehow more attuned than girls to mathematical thought processes. Since boys and girls have been universally studying the three R's for over two generations, it can't be down to early years' training, so is the male brain more left than right for a biological reason? |
I think it must be a yin and yang thing. Maybe the differences between the sexes is why humans are more successful than any other creatures. (I am assuming that everyone thinks that the sex differences among humans are far greater than any other species.)
But then again, maybe not, countries that have greater equality between the sexes are more successful than countries that have lower levels of equality.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| I am assuming that everyone thinks that the sex differences among humans are far greater than any other species |
How strange. Although this is the first time I've thought about the matter (so congratulations on a new insight, if it is your own and not just down to my ignorance) but I would say the exact opposite. Every time I watch a nature programme (for instance, cuckoos last night) I am forcibly reminded that human beings are quite unusual in being the same, male and female. But for cuckoos and a few others, only the birds seem to have adopted our mating-for-life-and-sharing-the-chores philosophy. And a few mammals now I come to think about it.
I hope I am not being too New Mannish here. The bloke going off to kill mammoth and wifey spring-cleaning the cave is also a stereotype. Remember, shopping is the new hunting!
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| Remember, shopping is the new hunting! |
No. It's just the old gathering - - always the domain of women!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I think you're wrong, Chad. Yes, until the other day, shopping was considered gathering ie women's work, but now it has the psychology of the hunt, at least the non-food bit does. Very soon women will be consigned to watching football matches while the Head-of-the-Family marches off to Bluewater. (That's like the Arndale Centre for readers from t'North.)
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Nah, psychology my arse. Women have always squabbled over the best bits of animal skin or whatever to make their pretty frocks and stuff - - this is no different. If the thing you're after ain't moving (or at the very least breathing) it's still gathering in my book and best left t'women folk.
Mind you - - shopping for cars or computers ............. you're right. - - Wouldn't want t' trust that t' t'other 'alf!
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Just been soaking in a nice hot bath, mulling over this topic and the one over on the 'Origin of Species' thread, about man's aquatic predecessors. - - As I was nodding off I could have swore I heard the wife shout:
'Stop eyeing up that mermaid and get your lazy backside over here; I need your assistance. - - I can't get the top off this bloody limpet.'
Some things never change! ..... (And yes I did manage to run the bath myself - actually).
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| Every time I watch a nature programme (for instance, cuckoos last night) I am forcibly reminded that human beings are quite unusual in being the same, male and female. |
Could the viewer, unlike the great Attenborough, tell the difference between a male and a female bird (the cuckoo variety)? If women didn't wear frocks or long hair, or carry handbags, would they be distinguishable from their male counterparts? Come to think of it, cross-dressers are rather luvverly in general. I suppose feminine accoutrements are the equivalent of plumage though usually male birds are the show-offs.
Is homosexuality confined to our species alone? Oops, I've got a feeling Stephen Fry would be sounding his horn by now, the answer must be 'no'.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| Is homosexuality confined to our species alone? |
Yes. - - It's called bestiality when you involve other species.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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There's a lot of chit-chat in the arts pages about an exhibition of Van Dyck (Anthony not Dick) revolutionising portraiture in these benighted isles. He was probably seen as almost-British being Flemish yet, unlike British-born artists, was able to move freely around in France and Italy and learn the techniques of the leading masters.
Van Dyck was a member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke, the most famous and possibly the first artists' guild, which, as in Delft, was obligatory if a painter was to be permitted to ply his brush and to sell his work. The absence of a British school of painting seems to hinge on this monopoly, access to materials was perhaps controlled as well as access to painterly techniques? By the time the Antwerp guild lost its monopoly in the eighteenth century British painting had taken off.
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