Women Are Bad Drivers...

Well not really. But they are stereotyped for a reason. Whether you want to accept it or not, women are biologically different than men. We are not physically equal, and that doesn’t mean women are weaker than men. It just means they are different. I can think of three things off the top of my head that most people don’t know. Let’s start from the top and work our way down.

Andrew and Heidi (Her Blog)

The eyes! The window to the soul… Also our brains. These two little round organs in our head are so complex, it’s amazing. They are involved in everything we do from walking to sleeping. And each set of eyes are unique in more ways than one. Men and women have different eyes. Women have much better peripheral vision then men. They can see up to 45% better than men, out of the corners of their eyes. This is why women never get caught staring at a hot guy, or why your mom ALWAYS knows what you are doing, like she has eyes in the back of her head. Women are fantastic at reading body language simply because they can take in, and process, the entirety of what they are seeing. Their enhanced peripheral vision and ability to read body language is where the whole “Woman’s Intuition” thing came from. But women evolved the ability so that they could understand their babies, to better care for them.  Think about it, when a baby cries you always see the dad looking confused and then mom comes over and says “Oh, she just wants to be fed. I swear sometimes I think you are blind.” Fathers normally don’t learn to read their children like a mother can until much later. 

Men on the other hand have much better depth perception then women. The reason for this is for hunting. Society (for the most part) evolved with men being hunters and women being care givers and gatherers. Men have eyes that are ideal for spotting animals at a distance, judging how far away it is, and using that to essentially hunt and kill the animal. 

When it comes to driving women tend to be more defensive because they can see what is going on to their sides. But because men have to turn their head to see, we think women are being reckless and oblivious. Also, because men have better depth perception we can see how close we are to objects and other cars. Men always notice when women stop short, or get ridiculously close to a garbage can and it scares the crap out of us. All of this compounded has created the stereotype of women being bad drivers. When in reality, men are just as bad if not worse, because men need to feel macho. And showing off usually end up in an embarrassing accident… 

The next part of the body is one not many people think about… until they bang it. The elbow! Men and women have joints that differ slightly from one another. For example, the elbow. Women’s elbows bow out slightly. This is because, as I have stated earlier, women have usually been gatherers/care givers. The bowing of the elbow makes thing very easy to carry, such as an infant, or armfuls of fruit and vegetables. And on the contrary, men’s elbows are set more inward.

 My friend Erica and her beautiful baby girl Tessa.

Holding a baby is so natural for a woman, give a baby to a guy and chances are he will hold it like a football...

Humans haven’t always been hunter/gathers. Many scientists believe that the early human was a scavenger. Surviving off the carcasses of already dead animals. It wasn’t until humankind started using tools did they develop weapons for hunting. And the earliest hunting tool, was nothing more than a sharp stick. Men have evolved as hunters, and if we evolved throwing spears, it makes sense that men’s elbows are set inward. Because tucking the elbow in provides a very straight and strong throw. We have survived for so long because we adapted to hunting. Men were able to spot game from a distance and chuck a spear into it to bring it down. While women, got their smart on and, learned what plants were edible, how to grow them, and how to harvest. If not for one gender or the other we may have died out. But together men and women evolved and adapted into the perfect survivalists. 

The last thing I want to discuss is more of a subject then a body part. But none the less it is a physiological difference in men and women. Men are great sprinters and women are… well slow. They can’t help it, it’s just true. Women are terrible sprinters.

 Heidi and Andrew in a foot race. I don't think he is even trying....

 As Christopher McDougall says 

“The fastest woman to ever run the mile did it in 4.15. I can throw a rock and hit a high school boy who can run faster than that 4.15. For some reason, you guys are just really slow.” 

You can see one of his talks on running Here.

But don’t let this sound like women are by any means weaker or less efficient at running then men. It is quite the opposite. Women get stronger as the distances increase. 50 and 100 mile races take female running to a whole new playing field. So while women may not be fast, they can certainly go the distance. 

 Women have only even been able to run marathons since the 1980's. Before that they were banned because it was thought that the uterus would tear and fall out. Now women have some of the fastest times in the world in races that span 50 to 150 miles!

I could go on and on, but the point will always be the same. Men and women are no better or worse than one another, they are both good and bad at different things. It is like comparing seafood to chocolate, they are just in two completely different places in the same world. 

I'd like to thank Heidi, Andrew, and Erica for letting me take/use pictures of them for this post.  Also my friends for their continual support. Thanks guys =]

The Moon!!!

The moon is made of cheese. The moon has a man on it. The man on the moon lives off of the cheese, so therefore the moon is slowly getting smaller. These are some thing we know to be fact. But I’m sure there are plenty of things about the moon that you don’t know. 

The moon is actually responsible for a lot of stuff. Like the tides in the ocean, or volcanic activity. But we don’t actually know how the moon got there. The best theory that scientists have today is something called the “Giant Impact Hypothesis”. The hypothesis says, that while the Earth was just a baby, a big proto-planet came out of nowhere and crashed into the Earth. While giant pieces of both the proto-planet and Earth are flying about gravity kicks in. The large amount of junk being tossed around forms What the Earth is today, and a smaller amount goes to make the moon.

The moon is a natural satellite for the Earth, and at about a quarter of the Earth’s diameter, it is the biggest moon in comparison to its planet in the solar system. And when you look at the moon you are actually seeing the face, called the Lunar Near Side. The other side of the moon is called the Lunar Far Side… Man, scientists get crazy when they name stuff. Anyways, the moon, like the Earth, rotates. And while you would think that, if that were the case then you would be able to see all sides of the moon. But the moon and the Earth rotate and orbit in a kind of unison. Like they are dancing, and the Lunar Near Side is always the side that looks at us. So they next time you look at a full moon and think “Man, that crater looks familiar…” it’s because you have seen it your whole life!

The moon is known for playing tricks on us too. Think about it, when does a full moon look biggest? When it is on the horizon, at its farthest visible position from your location. It looks smallest when it is in the middle of the sky, the closest it can be to your location. Why is that? 

Well, it’s actually an optical illusion. Your brain knows that the moon is massive. And when the moon is right next to something, like trees, or buildings, you brain will blow the image up to make it look bigger in comparison! And when the moon is in the middle of the sky, your brain has nothing to compare its massive size to, and so it looks smaller. 

Another cool trick is when the moon changes color. Have you ever see the moon on the horizon and it was an orange-red color? This is because the light coming from the moon is being refracted (bent) through particles and chemicals in the atmosphere. When the light is bent we see every color but the orange-red colors, and so this is the color we see. Light being refracted in the Earth’s atmosphere is also why the sky is blue, and why sunsets turn purple some times. An easy example of refraction is a straw in a glass half filled with water. The light gets refracted in the water and the straw looks like it’s not one solid line, same concept. 

There is a lot more to the moon then meets the eye. And as far as things to look at, it’s one of my favorites.