Is male sex the weaker?

Image via Wikipedia A potentially contentious thought as its quite contrary to commonly accepted ideas.

Males are commonly more heavily muscled and taller than their female counterparts. These differences mean that females are frequently regarded as being weaker than men. These arguments can be considered to be sexist and therefore of no consequence.

As illogical as the argument is, it is still taken as being fact. A point to dispute the assertion, is that females generally outlive men by 5 to 10 years (at least in western societies). Surely this indicates that the male is flawed or at least weaker?

There are low level differences between the sexes and these can account for the variation in lifespan. These factors are looked at by the scientific community. Put in perspective, the scientific variables point to fact that the sexes are equal except that factors that make up a male result in his body being worn out before hers.

There is another less attractive proposition. In the past childbirth was a pretty dangerous occupation for both the woman and the child. The large number of deaths would have had an impact on the surviving females. Charles Darwin pointed out that evolution was based on the concept of natural selection.

So has society in the past had an impact on the human species? Have we effectively practiced selective breeding by caring more for boy children in the past so as to ensure that they survived through to maturity? Has the predilection of the paternalistic society put males at a disadvantage?

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Getting out there

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAfter much deliberation, I eventually completed an article targeted specifically for publication. Amazing to me StickyMinds allowed it through their filtering process. While it has been a while in coming, I have managed to get an article in a real location.

The idea for the article actually stemmed from a blog posting. The blog posting arose out of doing a little training of folks on QTP. A seemingly varies path but I'd have to say that it does help to clear things in your own mind by pointing them out to others.

The idea for another potential article now needs to resolve itself into a bit of action. The idea for this one arose out of the writing of the other - not so much a sequel but another on clarifying a concept in test automation.

In putting up a list of the things I've done, I see that there are only a few and they are pretty far apart. They also seem to be based on a theme. At least I've done a few things...

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Information Transfer

It would seem that besides wanting to be free, it seems that information has trouble presenting itself in a way that can be easily assimilated. There are a lot of ways of presenting data:

• Lists
• Maps
• Tables
  
• Graphs
• Diagrams
• Paragraphs

The question is though what works best. The context is an obvious starting point. It does not make much sense to use a paragraph when noting which items need to be bought at the store. Lists may be a convenient way to capture a large amount of information, but do they enable easy information transfer?

It seems that the easiest means of passing information on to another person is to present to them in a standard form. A colloquial conversational type of document is more likely to transfer information than any of the list-based mediums.

Lists are hard. They take a lot of effort to process adequately and the longer the list the worse this gets. This is because there is no flow of ideas. My personal experience is that I skim lists and go back to them and treat them as independent entities. Lists cannot contain information that is critical to the view being expressed.

Tables may be an efficient way of consolidating information. The problem is that they can't be read. The association between the various cells is via the header of the column and the row. There is a discontinuity.

Information is transferred by the story it creates as it moves through the various stages. The critical feature of the story is the progress. I can't say for sure, but I'd recommend a growth in complexity of the topic as the story progresses. This builds on the information already imparted.

Quick Notes on Families

It seems that there have been a number of different family states between men and women through the ages and in different cultures.

The most common bond has been the conjugal family which consists of a man, woman and their children.

Another well known form of bonding is polygyny wherein a man has many concurrent wives. The practice of polygyny is quite rare and mostly practiced by the wealthy classes. Concubinage is fairly common among the upper or leader classes through history and is a form of polygyny.

A rarer form of bonding can also occur in that a woman may have many several concurrent husbands. This has at least been noted in Tibet among the Todas where all brothers marry the same woman to create a polyandry relationship.

The various bonding types are probably a reflection of the dominance of patriarchical societies as there have been very few matriarchcal societies although the Mosuo women are still in control within their corner of the world.

A seemingly disturbing but apparently common practice was wife sharing. This was the practice of sharing your wife with another man for a special occasion or simply for an overnight visitor. It seems that this can still be found in the modern world.

Hxaro and Sharing

Image via WikipediaHxaro is a cultural aspect of the San. It basically involves the creation of obligation as a means of insuring against the future.

Understanding the San way of life provides ethnographic insight into the Late Stone Age cultures in southern Africa. This means that a potential understanding of how people lived in the last 2000 years can be gained.

Hxaro is interesting - especially when considered in light of gift giving within the Roman Empire. The mechanics around hxaro, involve the manufacture of a gift which is then handed to a specifically chosen person. The gift is usually something decorative or practical - not food. The gift may be kept and used by the recipient or passed on to someone else. When a hxaro gift is passed on it forms a chain of responsibility with the subsequent recipients inheriting an obligation to the original giver. The partners in hxaro may allow the relationship to drop or may foster it. Dropping a hxaro partner becomes more difficult once a chain has been established.

In choosing a hxaro partner, the environmental factors are considered. Having a wide range of potential partners means that there is more scope when some difficulty arises within the environment. When the region cannot support a tribe or family group they manufacture gifts to take to their established hxaro partners in other regions. As the relationship is birectional, the hxaro process has the effect of sharing the risk.

Gifts in Roman times were primarily used as a means of gaining support for illicit practices and other general bribery. It's quite refreshing to come across a practice that is mutually beneficial as well as establishing an obligation for both partners.

Animation Fun

Pivot Stickfigure Animator can be a problem in that it illustrates a tendency for the macabre. However, my own misguided musings aside, its also extremely easy to use and a bunch of fun.

Hello world

Seems appropriate to start with the most common of all starting points.

What does it do? Not much. Just a way of starting out and being able to do a basic operation of displaying a message - which can be a good thing.