Useless Body Parts...

If a body part is useless, why have it? Or has the value just diminished over time and evolution? I had a conversation the other day with a group of friends about wisdom teeth and how changes in the human diet over time have made them pointless, to the point where a small percentage of people no longer grow out wisdom teeth. Then there are those other body parts that get cut out like they're nothing. Nowadays, when an appendix or tonsils get chopped out, the patient is home the same day. A couple of weeks ago, I got into another conversation with a friend on these body parts on the list of questionable value. Here are a few that I looked up info on.


Male nipples?

I hadn't really thought about this one until a few months ago when I saw it joked about on a show I can't remember. But really, if nipples are for nurturing children and providing milk to a child, why would men have them. And when you look at other animals like a dog, only the female is born with nipples. So I googled...

http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/07/20/nipples-and-more/

"The reason men have nipples is because our lactiferous ducts develop before testosterone enters the fetal picture. (Yes, we all start as females.) In fact, male mammary tissue can be stimulated to lactate. In Aka culture of Africa - reportedly home of the best fathers on earth - the dads frequently suckle their babies while mom goes off to hunt.

Nipples are not the only thing men and women have in common. Men also possess a “leftover” uterus. It hangs off the prostate gland. We have a lot of useless body parts leftover from previous adventures in evolution. Wisdom teeth, the coccyx, the appendix, and in fact, body hair are all unnecessary remnants of our evolutionary past. Who knows what we’ll look like a few million years from now! (I predict text message thumbs.)"

Interesting, right? So onto the appendix...


Appendix?

Everyone knows at least one person who's now without an appendix. And these people seem to live long happy lives, so why do we have them in the first place. So I googled...

http://www.worldhealth.net/p/the-appendix-does-have-a-use-re-booting-the-gut-.html

"The US scientists found that the appendix acted as a "good safe house" for bacteria essential for healthy digestion, in effect re-booting the digestive system after the host has contracted diseases such as amoebic dysentery or cholera, which kill off helpful germs and purge the gut.

This function has been made obsolete by modern, industrialized society; populations are now so dense that people pick up essential bacteria from each other, allowing gut organisms to regrow without help from the appendix, the researchers said."

And here's one I hadn't even thought about until I had this useless body parts conversation...

Philtrum?

I doubt most people are even aware of its proper name but it's the indentation between the upper lip and nose. I know the name in English and Korean only because of its significance in martial arts; it's used to help determine the height of certain blocks and chops. But anyway, why the dip there? So I googled...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philtrum

"The philtrum (Greek philtron, from philein, "to love; to kiss"), also known as the infranasal depression, is the vertical groove in the upper lip, formed where the nasomedial and maxillary processes meet during embryonic development.

The philtrum allows humans to express a much larger range of lip motions than would otherwise be possible, which enhances vocal and non-verbal communication.

The ancient Greeks used to believe that the philtrum was one of the most erogenous spots on the human body, hence the etymology."

I would have thought the phithrum, out of all the body parts I've mentioned, would have the least value but it's apparently rather significant. Who knew?


And the writer's comment from the first link is something I wonder too... what will we look like as we evolve farther and are nipple-less men just around the corner? Hmm....

Here We Go... Again.

There are 3 words at my martial arts school that can cause either extreme relief or fear when heard. The emotion depends on whether you've been through it yet or not. Those words are "Il Gup Evaluation". This is the 5-6 hour hell to qualify for black belt testing. The actual black belt test is nothing in comparison to this evaluation. The evaluation test is 3 years worth of terminology and material repeated multiple times that is already enough to drop you but also includes a killer endurance section that'll have you doing a billion kicks, laps, push-ups, etc., that make your body tremble from sheer exhaustion and put you on the verge of passing out (which I nearly did twice). And this is all without a single bathroom or water break. I had to mentally and physically prepare for months, not missing a single day of training in the last month leading up to it. The evaluation was possibly the hardest thing I've done in my life and, unlike many other people, I was fortunate enough to pass the first time. I still remember my sheer joy upon hearing I passed, not just because it meant I was closer to my goal of black belt, but more importantly in that moment, I would never have to go through that hell again!

What I didn't think about at the time is I am also training in sword, which has a different belt progression. So you probably know where I'm going with this... On Saturday after sword class my instructor said the dreaded words, "We're thinking the Il Gup Evaluation will be in January. And it will difficult, as it should be." My stomach dropped and I couldn't control yelling out, 'January?!?!' I'm in the first sword training class ever at my school so we never really know when things will be put on us, since were the first group to do everything. But this was the biggest shock of all. We knew this test was coming but thought we'd get more time, more notice, more anything. My other Il Gup Evaluation, I had the date on my calendar for months, not less than a month. I can't believe I'm going to go through this again, but as we always say at my school... "this is what we do", crazy as it all may be.

So, here I go yet again, this time with the goal of getting my official Samurai status, which I guess is kinda cool. :-) Hopefully, I don't pass out...

Frickin' Freezin'...

After 4 days of snowing, the snow is taking a break... so that it can be ridiculously cold! It's nearly zero degrees out. It's wrong that you can hurt from standing outside for 5 seconds, but this temp does it. Anyway, after hiding inside all day (working from home), I ventured outside. I opened my car door and heard it crack *loudly* like it was falling off. The engine started but I could almost hear it saying, "are you crazy, woman?" as it labored a second longer than normal. I never really warm-up my car, but today my engine said "hell no" so it was required. Then I notice my front windshield had a nice coat of ice on it. As I'm waiting for it to defrost, I see there is also an equally thick layer on the *inside* of the windshield. So I start trying to wipe some of it from the inside 'cause it's barely defrosting. I try to roll down my window and of course that's frozen shut. After about 10 minutes of getting my car in the mood for travel, it's finally good, so I head off. I get a block away and watch multiple police cars pulling someone over and I think maybe I should have taken my car's hesitance as a sign and stayed home as I might be passing a developing shout-out of some sort. Anyway I kept moving and I don't know what became of the police thing.

Anyhoo... I love the winter, but I can do without the extremes. As I sat in the cold waiting for my car I started thinking, I need to plan yearly trips to the Caribbean during the coldest, snowiest part of winter.

I'm not looking forward to facing the cold again tomorrow... but it's the office holiday party so I'll happily brave the cold for good, free food and drinks. :-)