 |
|
|
|||||
I broke its neck. When making a vase at the potters wheel, I torqued its slippery neck clear off the pot as I tried to thin it into a graceful curve. I find vases gratifying to make and their shapes especially pleasing to the eye. But vases also must be handled with particular care because one part of their body the neck is often so narrow that it can be easily broken. That day at the wheel, I realized that it was not unlike the human neck. Though only a small portion of the human body about 1% by surface area our necks have an outsize influence on our psyche and culture. From selfies to formal portraits, the neck positions the head in expressive poses. The necks vocal cords vibrate to make meaningful words and moving songs. We passionately kiss it and spritz it with alluring perfume. We use it to nod our head in agreement, tilt our head in confusion and bow our head in prayer. Ornaments such as necklaces can express fashion sense as well as signal wealth and status. Collars can accent the face in portraits as well as denote occupational class, blue collar versus white collar. Yet, for all its aesthetic and expressive potency, the neck is also a site of fear and deep vulnerability. Villains and vampires zero in on the neck. Stressful days at work make us clench our neck muscles until they ache. A pleasant meal can be jolted into terror if a morsel slips into the wrong tube in the neck, sending us into a coughing fit. For millennia, people in power have oppressed their subjects by exploiting the narrowness and fragility of the neck a dark history of dominating and terrorizing one another using shackles, nooses and guillotines. The widely circulated video of George Floyds murder was a brutal reminder that violent asphyxiation is hardly confined to the distant past. Marie Antoinette’s execution by guillotine on 16 October 1793: at left, Sanson, the executioner, showing Marie Antoinette’s head to the people. [Art: Wikipedia] As I became aware of the significance of the neck in culture, I began to explore how these two attributes its expressive vitality and unnerving vulnerability could coexist and be concentrated so intensely in one small region of the body. Eventually, it became a book. I am foremost a biologist, and in writing my book, I came to see that the necks vitality and vulnerability are rooted in its biology: The neck performs an especially wide variety of crucial functions, and it is the product of a quirky evolutionary history. The neck does so many things, all at the same time. For example, it transports over 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of blood, air and food between the head and the torso every single day. It moves the head every six seconds on average to direct our visual attention. Its vocal cords vibrate hundreds of times per second with every spoken word. But this multifunctionality, this vitality, is possible only because of its vulnerability. To be mobile and flexible, the neck must be narrow, and so it is easily strained. Its crucial transport tubes the windpipe, esophagus and blood vessels must also be thin and near the surface, making them easily punctured and compressed. From water to land Our vertebrate ancestors invented this peculiar contraption as they evolved from water to land. Our fish ancestors had no neck because they needed a single rigid axis to move efficiently through water. Since moving around on land did not require a stiff spinal column, early terrestrial vertebrates evolved flexibility just behind the head, enabling them to widely scan the environment and to direct their mouths toward prey without moving their whole bodies. Picture a zebra swinging its head side to side surveying the savanna for predators, or a lizard tilting its head down and to the side to snap up a crawling bug. Early land vertebrates also evolved lungs, and this transformation freed up the gill structures that fish used for breathing to evolve into various useful and sometimes problematic neck structures, such as the voice box, tonsils and the little flap that separates the windpipe and esophagus. American Flamingo by Robert Havell and John James Audubon, 1838. [Art: National Gallery of Art] This repurposing of scraps left over from the gills of our distant ancestors contributed to the diverse capacities of our neck. But as products of a quirky evolutionary renovation, humans and other land vertebrates live with a jerry-rigged design that fates us to carry many collateral vulnerabilities at the neck. The peculiar human neck While the human neck retains the basic design of our ancestors, its nonetheless quite unusual among vertebrates. Most land vertebrates elevate their bodies on four legs, so their necks must be long enough to lower their heads to the ground to feed and strong enough to raise it up high to look around. Again, think of a zebra feeding on the savanna. Because humans walk on two legs, we balance our head atop our spine. Since we use our hands to grab our food, we dont need strong neck muscles to move the head around. So, compared with most mammals our size, our necks are relatively weak, making them more prone to strain and injury. As another milestone in human evolution, the voice box migrated to a relatively low position in the neck, and this unusual placement contributes to our capacity to make an especially broad range of vocal sounds that we use for speech. However, this descent of the voice box within the throat also makes us more susceptible to choking and sleep apnea. The neck epitomizes the dual nature of the human condition, the ways in which beauty and frailty are often entwined, two sides of the same coin in our biology, in our relationships and, yes, even in ceramic vases. Kent Dunlap is a professor of biology at Trinity College. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Oscars are less than a month away, but before Hollywoods biggest night, the folks across the pond have their turn to celebrate. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTAs) will take place on Sunday, February 16, at Londons Royal Festival Hall. Historically viewed as a strong predictor of the Oscars, the BAFTAs just might offer a sneak peak of whats to comeespecially in this unconventional year full of controversies, disasters, and shifting front-runners. Heres everything you should know and how to tune in. What does Prince William have to do with it? As part of his royal duties, the prince of Wales is the president of BAFTA. He and his wife, Kate Middleton, often attend the big event looking quite stunning. It was announced on Tuesday that neither will attend this year. Instead, William prerecorded a special video message. Last year, he attended solo because of Kates cancer treatments. She is back to public-facing royal duties but still has a reduced schedule. Who is hosting the 2025 BAFTA awards? Just because the Windsors will not be present, that doesnt mean other celebrities wont abound. David Tennant will host for the second year in a row. The boy band Take That will perform their hit song Greatest Day, which was used in the opening scene of best film contender Anora. Jeff Goldblum, who played the Wizard of Oz in Wicked, will tickle the ivories during the always-moving In Memoriam segment. Who are some of the standout nominees? Lets not forget the nominees, although not all will attend. After offensive tweets were brought to light, Emilia Pérez actress Karla Sofía Gascón is not expected to be present. She is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a BAFTA. Last week she issued a statement saying that she hopes her work can speak for itself. My silence will allow the film to be appreciated for what it is, concluding: I sincerely apologize to everyone who has been hurt along the way. Despite the controversy, the show must go on and there is plenty of spotlight for the year’s biggest contenders. Edward Bergers Vatican thriller Conclave reigns supreme here with 12 nominations. Jacques Audiards musical offering Emilia Pérez is a close second with 11, while Brady Corbets immigrant story The Brutalist, with nine nominations, is nothing to scoff at. Timothée Chalamet will be doing double duty, representing both Dune: Part Two and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Check out the full list of nominees on the BAFTA website. Beyond the competitive categories, Warwick Davis will be honored with the BAFTA fellowship. This lifetime achievement award celebrates his impressive body of work in films such as Star Wars, Willow, and Harry Potter. How can I watch or stream the 2025 BAFTA awards? If you live in the UK, tune into BBC One or stream it on iPlayer at 7 p.m. local time. For those of us in the United States, BritBox has the exclusive streaming rights and the ceremony begins at 2 p.m. ET. You can sign up directly with the streaming service and even take advantage of a seven-day free trial. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can also catch the action by adding BritBox to your subscription. There’s a free trial option here as well. Whatever way you decide to watch, a pot of tea and some biscuits would be excellent refreshment choicesor a gin and tonic depending on your mood.
Category:
E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. U.S. single-family home prices, as measured by the Freddie Mac House Price Index (which uses the repeat-sales methodology), rose 3.9% in the calendar year 2024. During that same timeframe, overall U.S. consumer prices rose 2.9%. Among the 384 metro-area housing markets that the Freddie Mac House Price Index tracks dating back to 1975, these are the 10 metros that saw the biggest year-over-year home price increase in 2024: Kingston, New York: +13.5% Springfield, Ohio: +11.8% Glens Falls, New York: +11.7% Binghamton, New York: +11.5% Cumberland, Marylandd-West Virginia: +11.4% Syracuse, New York: +10.9% Utica-Rome, New York: +10.5% Atlantic City-Hammonton, New Jersey: +10.5% Jacksonville, North Carolina: +10.3% Vineland-Bridgeton, New Jersey: +10.3% Among those same 384 metro-area housing markets, these 10 metros saw the biggest year-over-year home price decline in 2024: Punta Gorda, Florida: -8.6% Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida: -7.6% North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida: -4.7% Homosassa Springs, Florida: -3.3% Sebastian-Vero Beach, Florida: -3.2% Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida: -2.7% Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas: -2.5% San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas: -2.3% Ocala, Florida: -1.9% Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, Florida: -1.8% !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||