The Medical Thread

...I remember reading the contortionist's attempt (the link at the bottom of the page). Good times. I don't think it's physically possible to walk into a doctor's office in some of those poses, but if any of you folks would like to try... Please don't. It's not good for you.

Two points on that — a couple of those poses are clearly moments taken from the heroine being in motion — I'd say the first one, she's stepping forward, and in the last one she's clearly in motion — twirling with the swords.

Any pose can be "impossible" if you take one momentary instant of movement and stop it at that point. You ever seen a photo of a major league baseball pitcher in mid-pitch? The Human Body does not move like that! Except, It does. Seriously, take a look at any one of the four images here◊ and then tell me he'd be right if he said "but these are not poses that suggest strength. You can’t fight throw a ball from these stances."

The others, I admit that the seated one is difficult, but it's not impossible. For one thing, she's on a hard surface, he's on a nice squishy couch.

The fact that he can't pop one hip up like in the other pictures is no evidence that it's Impossible; it's evidence that he's male and they're female, and that means that his pelvis and hip joints are different. I can get easily as much hip pop as any of those covers just standing, and I'm fat, fifty and female. It's that last one that's important — I've got girl hips and he doesn't. Female friends of mine who dance? they can get an even more pronounced hip pop. And it doesn't hurt. Watch a belly dancer sometime...

And that's not even getting into my objection-on-principle to "I can't replicate it therefore it's impossible" reasoning.

edited 15th May '14 10:46:49 AM by Madrugada

Hmm, I guess I was being a bit narrow-minded when I posted that. I particularly agree with what you said about "I can't replicate it, therefore it's impossible" attitude.

I'm not sure what kind of motion those title girls were in, though. I mean...what, were they doing tacky dance or something?

The ones doing the "standing, twisted at the waist" thing? Imagine you're walking. Someone standing behind you calls your name. Turn to see who it is, without stopping and turning your feet. Now, look at the position you're in. Yes, the cover pose is somewhat more extreme than that, but it's NOT impossible. If you're in motion, it's fairly easy.

edited 15th May '14 11:05:17 AM by Madrugada

I don't think they are impossible, just...rather uncomfortable and awkward. I should have made that clear when I posted that. ^^;

And if that had been his premise, I'd be ok with it. It's when the claim is made that "it's impossible", and when the point that it's a static picture of a moment of motion within a larger motion is ignored that sticks in my craw. You can move through positions that you can't hold.

edited 15th May '14 11:07:44 AM by Madrugada

You got a point there.

...I should try those poses one of these days.

Maddy, I don't think his post actually says that it's impossible - at least, I don't see it outright stated anywhere, just that it's unnatural. I will concede that he's probably not the best candidate to mimic some of these poses, and that only the last pic is actually related to the idea of having an action shot - the rest are all just static poses (except maybe the first, which could be a depiction of walking). In fact, I think an argument can be made for the "hand-on-hip / hip-sway" pose to reflect an idea of attitude and assertiveness rather than physical strength and combativeness. Now, whether they successfully accomplish that is another discussion altogether, and I'm not going to go into that.

Now, if you're going to address me, since I'm the idiot who raised the issue of physical possibility, I'm still standing by my statement that trying out some of those poses isn't a good idea, and that it's not physically possible to walk (again, note the emphasis) into an office in those poses... but admittedly, the only reason I'm retaining that latter bit is because I don't think any of them are actually walking poses - or at least, attempting to walk while maintaining the pose's key features (which to me are either the hip-cock or turning bust and hips to the camera at the same time) is just not feasible. (Don't give me any crap about swords-dancing into an office. I'll call Security.)

edited 15th May '14 11:49:14 AM by Pyrite

True, he doesn't quite use the word "Impossible." (The contortionist's blog post linked a the end does.) But the whole thrust (heh) of his post is that these poses are unnatural and painful. And they are, if you 1) try to hold them as a static pose, or 2) are a guy.

I'm not going to argue with you, either, that you can't walk in any of them (except the first one — that is a walking pose — look at the way her rear foot is positioned — she's in mid-step. Compare it with this guy walking◊ —- he's even got the same crossing-over, weird-foot-angle-thing going on with his rear foot.)

edited 15th May '14 12:04:07 PM by Madrugada

Mice with multiple sclerosis-like condition walk again after human stem cell treatment

Bioprinting 3-D liver-like device to detoxify blood

First test of pluripotent stem cell therapy in monkeys is successful

The way I parse it, the contortionist's argument actually says that he finds it impossible to pull off those poses, but he gives the population the benefit of the doubt: there may be people who might be able to pull those comic-book poses off, but they'd be a very small minority, out of proportion to the frequency at which it's seen in comic book art.

Now if we're going to discuss those in a medical standpoint, I guess the question is, "What's the normal range of motion of the human spine, and does regular anatomy even allow us to bend that way?"

edited 15th May '14 11:06:24 PM by Pyrite

Mothers' sleep, late in pregnancy, affects offspring's weight gain as adults

Illuminating neuron activity in 3-D: New technique lets scientists monitor small worm's entire nervous system

Ground breaking hip and stem cell surgery completed using 3D-printed implant

Keywords hold our vocabulary together in memory

Human heart beats using nearly billion-year-old molecular mechanism

edited 19th May '14 12:30:03 PM by rmctagg09

Optical brain scanner goes where other brain scanners can't

Engineers invent a way to beam power to medical chips deep inside the body

People more likely to choose a spouse with similar DNA, research shows

edited 19th May '14 7:47:16 PM by rmctagg09

The last ones has been Common Knowledge for a while actually. Personally I blame Star Wars

There's a difference between an observation and a confirmation, which is what the article is doing.

Taste test: Could sense of taste affect length of life?

Cognitive test can differentiate between Alzheimer's and normal aging

Chemists develop new approach to detect counterfeit medicines such as Viagra

Functional nerve cells from skin cells

edited 21st May '14 11:55:52 AM by rmctagg09

Blocking pain receptors extends lifespan, boosts metabolism in mice

A glimpse into nature's looking glass -- to find the genetic code is reassigned: Stop codon varies widely

I kind of expected that first one. Still surprised that the ability of regrowing limbs is apparently linked to faster aging though...

It makes sense, regrowing limbs is very metabolically costly.

The control of dendritic branching by mitochondria

Promising discovery in fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Sound and vision: Visual cortex processes auditory information, too

How touch can trigger our emotions

Because Roy isn't around to do the honours.