Tuesday, December 11 2018

09:15 We drive over to Bishops Cleeve to buy a pair of slippers for Lois and even more Christmas presents for some of Lois's 15 relatives in Oxford. In the middle of all the Christmas shopping we swing by Lowrys café to recharge our batteries. We also pop into the village's hardware store and buy a lamp we can use next to the computer. We come home.

This is how the time goes when you’re preparing for Christmas, and the morning has disappeared. Lois has back problems at the moment and I have to drive her here and there - I'm happy to help her with her to-do list, but it means I don’t get much alone time and my own to-do list gets longer and longer.

12:45 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

15:00 I get up and listen a little to the radio, an interesting programme in the  "Crowd Science" series that tries to answer the question “Why do women on average live longer than men?”. The host of the programme is the charming Marnie Chesterton.

An interesting program. It turns out that the story is the same world over, from Russia to Rwanda: women live longer than men. But there are local factors: in some countries, wars are killing an extra quota of men, while in countries where there is a bad health care system, more women die earlier than elsewhere. The difference between men and women's life expectancy is approx. 4 years in Britain, but it skyrockets to 13 years in Russia, probably because of alcoholism.

However, the world over, women's benefits start before they are born. The mortality of male babies is 20-30% higher than females, perhaps because of their chromosomes. Women have two sets of X chromosomes while the male has a set of X and a set of Y:-  X chromosomes are important for protecting life, and women have a backup set, while men do not.

The two-sex chromosome pattern is the same in all species except in birds where the situation is reversed: and male birds, with their double set of X chromosomes, live longer than the females, which seems significant.

A lot of boys are born prematurely (14%), and the birth of male babies is more dangerous anyway because of their larger heads and bodies - boys are 20% more likely to need caesarean section.

Men's mortality skyrockets after puberty and especially between 16 and 20 - the hormone changes and the testosterone, which make men bigger, taller, stronger, faster, also lead to risky behaviour: fights, car accidents, with men dying both as the causes of accidents and the victims. They are just more likely to be out on the street, or in dangerous places in general.

Men's puberty is a major factor. It has been discovered in Korea where there has been a tradition of male eunuchs that eunuchs have a much longer life than other men. In a study that involved approx. 80 eunuchs, 3 of them lived to over 100, and one only died after he turned 109 – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!

a typical Korean eunuch – and I know why he’s laughing !!

Oestrogen is the female equivalent of testosterone - it prepares women's bodies for pregnancy. Women store fat just beneath the skin, where there is immediate access when the woman begins to feed the baby. Men save less fat and it tends to be stored around men's internal organs, which means a higher risk of cardiovascular problems and type 2 diabetes.

Fat around the organs means more inflammation and over a long period of time can lead to arthritis, cancer and heart attacks - yikes! It makes men older and sicker. However, high levels of oestrogen protect women from higher levels of inflammation.

Because women have to bear the stresses of pregnancy, they have developed (unknown) mechanisms for being generally more all-round adaptable. It is important for the survival of humanity that women survive  pregnancy and are able to nourish the child, both before and after birth. And when there are crises such as epidemics or famine, statistics show that more women than men survive.

Men can still father children when they are quite old. But it's a bit of a mystery why women survive so long after menopause. According to one theory, women have "inherited" this greater lifespan from men, even though it’s not useful for reproduction, just as men have "inherited" nipples from women, even though they do not need them. "Women who have reached menopause are like men's nipples" is the conclusion ha ha! But the jury is still out on that one, I suspect! Scientists haven’t got all the answers yet.

a typical woman in menopause with hair dryer cranked down to "ice cold":  such women

"can be compared to a man's nipples", according to one of the programme’s experts

- good grief, what madness !!!!

It would not be easy to evolve a longer-term fertility period for women, because it would mean a radical change in the design of women's ovaries - men can easily continue to produce sperm, but a woman's eggs are already all formed when she is born - no new eggs will be produced in her later life.

However, the story is not 100% good news for women. Oestrogen levels decrease in women’s 40's, and after menopause, women suffer from more inflammation than men, leading to more rheumatism: women live longer, but they may be sicker, it seems. But on the other hand, even in old age men still display more risky behaviours: they tend not to visit the doctor for example.

The host of the program, the charming Marnie Chesterton

laughing with some of her girlfriends  at men's shorter lifespan ha ha!

But it's not 100% good news for women either ...

One last observation: the difference between men and women's life expectancy is getting smaller and smaller: because of feminism and the struggle for equality, young women's behaviour has become more risky and they have begun to be more like young men in this way.

Aren’t gender studies totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else?

On further reflection, I do not think I would have been happy to have been an eunuch, or even a bird, when all’s said and done.  And I don’t really want to sleep in a tree every night either - I'm absolutely sure about that. A bird in a cage, maybe yes, as long as some nice person came along to feed me every day: it has always been my ambition to go out of the house as little as possible, but it seems harder and harder to achieve this ambition now I’m retired, damn it!

I read a long time ago that birds are actually the only visible phenomenon we have now that reminds us of the millions of years in which dinosaurs dominated the world. Some dinosaurs evolved and became birds, and the rest died because of a meteorite, or something similar.

The respected commentator Edwin F. Blakely was known for his ambition to finally unite the world's two major traditions: people and lizards (source: Onion News).

In a thoughtful interview, Blakely explained, "I guess you could say that I have always been a status- conscious person.

"But I'm not one of those ‘to the manner born’ types who, in spite of looking and speaking like an ordinary human being, is actually one of an ancient breed of lizard aliens residing on another plane of reality, who have secretly controlled humanity since the dawn of time.

"However, that does not mean that I can’t still seek to improve my position in the New World Order.

"Warm-blooded though I may be, I remain a viable candidate and I firmly believe that given the chance my particular DNA would blend well with an advanced reptilian species bent on subsuming humans to its unknowable will."

the respected commentator Edwin F. Blakely

Blakely has a valid point of view, no doubt about it. And one his ancestors was Queen Elizabeth I. of England, so he must have a little blue blood in his veins, which probably helps.

However, on further reflection, I think I’d prefer to become an eunuch than  a lizard, although they both tend to look a bit slimy. Eunuchs tends to lubricate themselves in oil, I’ve noticed. I would just hate that!

But back to reality!

16:00 Lois asks me to drive her over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket. Her sect is holding its weekly Bible seminar this evening in Brockworth library:  tonight’s seminar is the last in the current  "semester" and all attendees are going to bring snacks - Lois has agreed to provide sausage rolls. The traffic is awful - it's the time that mothers pick up their children at schools: it's worse than rush hour nowadays. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

17:30 We have dinner, two ready-meals from CookShop, and eat a little earlier than usual. Afterwards we go out. Lois is going to take part in her sect’s bible seminar. She still has back problems and she has asked me to drive her over to Alf and Mari-Ann's house. They will drive her over to Brockworth. I drop Lois off in front of Alf and Mari-Ann's house and drive home.

19:00 I have a little alone time and watch a bit of television. The most recent episode of "First Dates" is on.

This show is mine and Lois's favourite dating show, where participants go on a date and eat at a special restaurant with a potential partner that the TV channel has chosen for them.

Tonight we see a widow, 70 years old, who lost her husband a year ago. She says the worst thing was that he suffered from dementia in his last years. He had no memories and she could not talk to him about their wedding 40 years earlier, or their honeymoon or their past vacations. He had forgotten "all the wonderful things we had done together" like climbing mountains, the people they had met, etc. He finally died of gastroenteritis.

Yikes, scary - shared memories are so important in my opinion. After my late father moved into a nursing home in 1997, Lois and I noticed that what pleased him most was talking to my mother about the old days - unfortunately, she tried to avoid visiting him as much as possible and it was Lois and I who had to go in her place. Poor dad !!!!!

We also see a lesbian couple tonight:  one comes from Scotland and the other from the county of Berkshire. But they love both London's red buses. The Scottish woman likes the 43, but the English woman prefers a night bus, the 69.

Unfortunately, Lois is not at home so I cannot check with her if the women are actually talking about buses or about sex positions. So the jury is still out on that one.

22:00 Lois comes home. I go to bed, but Lois needs to relax and wind down after the evening's stimulating Bible seminar, and she continues to watch a bit of television. She does not wake me up when she hops into bed with me at 11 o'clock - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

09:15 Vi kører over til Bishops Cleeve for at købe et par hjemmesko til Lois og endnu flere julegaver til nogle af Lois’ 15 slægtninge i Oxford. Midt mellem julegavekøbene smutter vi ind i Lowrys-caféen for at genoplade vores batterier. Vi kigger også ind i landsbyens isenkræmmerforretning og køber også en lampe vi kan bruge ved computeren. Vi kommer hjem.

Således går tiden, mens man forbereder sig på jul, og formiddagen er forsvundet. Lois har rygproblemer for tiden og jeg er nødt til at køre hende her og der – jeg er glad for at kunne hjælpe til med hendes gøremålsliste, men dette betyder, at jeg har lidt alenetid og min egen gøremålsliste fortsat bliver længere og længere.

12:45 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:00 Jeg står op og lytte lidt til radio, et interessant program ”Crowd Science”, der prøver at besvare spørgsmålet, hvorfor lever kvinder i gennemsnit længere end mand? Programmets vært er den charmerende Marnie Chesterton.

Et interessant program. Det viser sig, at historien er den samme verden over, fra Rusland til Rwanda: kvinder lever længere, end mænd. I nogle lande, kriger dræber flere mænd,mens i lande, hvor der bare er et dårligt sundhedsplejesystem, flere kvinder dø tidligere. Forskellen på mænds og kvinders levetid er ca. 4 år i Storbritannien, men den stiger op til 13 år i Rusland, sandsynligvis på grund af alkoholisme.

Men verden over starter kvinders fordel før deres fødsel. Mandlige babyers dødelighed er 20-30% højere, end de kvindelige, måske på grund af deres kromosomer,. Kvinder har to sæt X kromosomer, mens de mandlige har et sæt X og et sæt Y: X-kromosomers er vigtige for at beskytte livet, og kvinder har et backup sæt, mens mænd ikke gør.

De to køns kromosommønster er det samme i alle arter, bortset fra fuglene, hvor situationen er omvendt: og mandlige fugle, med deres dobbelt sæt X-kromosomer, lever længere, end de kvindelige, hvilket virker betydeligt.

Flere drenge bliver født for tidligt (14%), og fødslen af mandlige babyer er mere farlig på grund af deres større hoveder og kroppe – drenge er 20% mere sandsynlige at have brug for kejsersnit.

Mænds dødelighed ryger i vejret efter pubertet og specielt mellem 16 og 20 år – hormonforandringerne og testosteronet, der gør mænd større, højere, stærkere,hurtigere, fører også til risikabel adfærd: slagsmål, også bilulykker, både som forårsagen til ulykken, og offeret for ulykken. De er mere sandsynlige at være ude på gaden eller i farlige steder generelt.

Mænds pubertet er en stor faktor. Det er blevet opdaget i Korea, hvor der har været en tradition af mandlige eunukker, at eunukker har en meget længere levetid, end andre mænd. I et studiet, der involverede ca. 80 eunukker, 3 levede op til over 100, og en døde, da han fyldte 109 – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

en typisk koreansk eunuk – han griner, og med rette!!

Østrogen er den kvindelige ækvivalens af testosteron – det forbereder kvinders kroppe på graviditet. Kvinder lagrer fedt lige under huden, hvor der er øjeblikkelig adgang, når kvinden begynder at fodre babyen. Mænd lagrer mindre fedt, og det har tendens til at blive lagret omkring mænds indvendige organer, hvilket betyder en højere risiko for kardiovaskulære problemer og type 2 diabetes.

Fedt omkring organer betyder mere betændelse og over lange periode kan føre til gigt, kræft og hjerteanfald – yikes! Det gør os ældre og sygere. Men høje niveauer af østrogen beskytter kvinder fra højere niveauer af betændelse.

Fordi kvinder skal bære stresserne af graviditeten, har de udviklet (ukendte) mekanismer for at bliver mere tilpasningsdygtige. Det er vigtigt for overlevelsen af menneskeheden, at kvinder overlever og kan støtte barnet, både før og efter fødslen. Og når der er kriser såsm epidemier eller hungersnød, overlever flere kvinder, end mænd.

Mænd kan stadig få børn, når de er ganske gamle. Men det er lidt af et mysterium, hvorfor kvinder overlever så lang tid efter overgangsalderen. Ifølge en teori, har kvinder arvet denne større levetid fra mænd, selvom den ikke er nyttig for formering, ligesom mænd har arvet brystvorter fra kvinder, selvom de ikke har brug for dem. ”Kvinder der er kommet i overgangsalderen er ligesom mænds brystvorter” er konklusionen ha ha! Men det er juryen stadig ude om, mistænker jeg! Forskerne har ikke alle de svar endnu.

en typisk kvinde i overgangsalderen med hårtørrer skruet ned til ”iskold” –

sådanne kvinder ”kan sammenlignes med en mands brystvorter”

- du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Det ville ikke være nemt at udvikle en mere langvarige fertilitetsperiode for kvinder, fordi det ville betyder en radikal forandring af design i kvinders æggestokke – mænd kan uden besvære fortsætte med at producere sperm, men en kvindes æg er alle formerede, da hun bliver født – ingen nye æg bliver fremstillet derefter.

Det hele er imidlertid ikke 100% gode nyheder for kvinder. Østrogenniveauer aftager i 40’erne, og efter overgangsalderen lider kvinder af mere betændelse, end mænd, der fører til mere reumatisme: kvinder lever længere, men de er sygere, lader det til. Men på den anden side viser mænd stadig mere risikabel adfærd: de har tendens ikke at besøge lægeren for eksempel.

Programmets vært, den charmerende Marnie Chesterton

griner med nogle af sine veninder af mænds kortere levetid ha ha!

Men det hele er ikke  100% gode nyheder for kvinder...

En sidste observation: forskellen på mænds og kvinders levetid bliver mindre og mindre: på grund af feminisme og kampen efter ligelighed, er unge kvinders adfærd blevet mere risikabel, og de er begyndt at ligne unge mænd på denne måde.

Er kønsstudier ikke helt fascinerende? Hvem ville ønske at studere noget andet?

Ved nærmere eftertanke synes jeg ikke, at jeg ville have været glad for at have været en eunuk, eller endda en fugl, når alt kommer til alt. Jeg har ikke lyst til at sove i et træ hver nat – det er jeg helt sikker på. En fugl i en bur, måske ja, så længe en eller anden sød person kom hver dag for at fodre mig: det har altid været min ambition, at komme ud af huset så sjældent som muligt, men det virker sværere og sværere at opnå denne ambition, nu hvor jer er pensioneret. Pokkers!

Jeg læste for længe siden, at fugle faktisk er det eneste synlige fænomen vi nu har, der minder os om de millioner af år, hvor dinosaurer dominerede verden. Nogle dinosaurer udviklede sig og blev til fugle, og de tiloversblevne uddøde på grund af en meteorit, eller noget lignende.

Den respekterede kommentator Edwin F. Blakely var kendt for sin ambition om endelig at forene verdens to største traditioner: mennesker og firben (kilde: Onion News).

I et betænksomt interview, forklarede Blakely, ” Jeg tror du kunne sige, at jeg altid har været et statusbevidst menneske.

”Men jeg er ikke en af disse typer med en skæbne fra fødslen, som på trods af at se ud og snakke som et almindeligt menneske, er faktisk en af et gammelt race af aliener i firbenform, der bor på et andet virkelighedsplan, som i hemmelighed har kontrolleret menneskeheden siden tidernes morgen.

”Det betyder dog ikke, at jeg imidlertid ikke kan forsøge at forbedre min stilling i den Nye Verdensorden.

”Selvom jeg er varmblodet, forbliver jeg en levedygtig kandidat, og jeg tror fast på, at mit særlige DNA vil have en god chance for at blande sig godt sammen med en avanceret reptilisk art, der er fast besluttet  på at manipulere mennesker til sin mystiske vilje.”

Edwin F.  Blakely

Blakely har et gyldigt synspunkt, ingen tvivl om det. Og en hans forfædre var dronning Elizabeth I. af England, så han må have lidt blåt blod i årerne, hvilket sandsynligvis hjælper.

Men ved nærmere eftertanke ville jeg foretrykke at blive til en eunuk, end til et firben, selvom de begge to ofte ser lidt slimede ud. Eunukker har tendens til at smøre sig selv i olie. Det ville jeg hader!

Men tilbage til virkeligheden!

16:00 Lois beder mig om at køre hende over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked. Hendes sekt holder sit ugentlige bibelseminar i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek: dette seminar er det sidste i dent nuværende ”semester”, og alle deltagere skal medbringe snacks – Lois har aftalt at forsyne pølseruller. Trafikken er forfærdelig – det er tiden, mødre henter deres børn ved skolen: det er værre, end myldretiden nu til dags. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

17:30 Vi spiser aftensmad, to færdigretter fra CookShop, lidt tidligere end normalt. Bagefter skal vi ud. Lois ønsker at deltage i sin sekts ugentlige bibelseminar, der finder sted i aften i byen Brockworths bibliotek. Hun har stadig rygproblemer, og hun har bedt mig om at køre hende over til Alf og Mari-Anns hus. De skal køre hende over til Brockworth. Jeg sætter Lois af foran Alf og Mari-Anns hus og kører hjem.

19:00 Jeg har lidt alenetid og ser lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit af ”First Dates”.

Dette show er Lois’ og min yndlings-datingshow, hvor deltagere går ud på en date og spiser på en special restaurant med en potentiel partner, som tv-kanalen har valgt til dem.

I aften ser vi en enke, 70 år gammel, der mistede sin mand for et år siden. Hun siger, at det værste var, at han led af demens under sine sidste år. Han havde ingen minder, og hun kunne ikke tale med ham om deres bryllup 40 år tidligere, deres bryllupsrejse eller ferier. Han havde glemt ”alle de vidunderlige ting, vi havde lavet sammen”, som at klatre bjerge sammen, folk de havde mødt osv. Han døde endelig af gastroenteritis.

Yikes, skræmmende – delte minder er så vigtige efter min mening. Efter min far i 1997 flyttede ind til et plejehjem, bemærkede Lois og jeg, at det, der mest glæded ham var at snakke med min mor om de gamle dage – desværre prøvede hun at undgå at besøge ham så meget som muligt, og det var Lois og jeg, der måtte gå i hendes sted. Stakkels far!!!!!

Vi ser også i aften et lesbiske par: den ene kommer fra Skotland, og den anden fra grevskabet Berkshire. Men de elsker begge to Londons røde busser. Den skotske kvinde kan godt lide 43’eren, men den engelske kvinde foretrækker en natbus, 69’eren.

Desværre er Lois ikke hjemme, så jeg ikke kan tjekke med hende, om kvinderne faktisk taler om busser eller sexstillinger. Så det er juryen stadig ude om.

22:00  Lois kommer hjem. Jeg går i seng, men Lis trænger til at slappe af og geare ned efter aftenens stimulerende bibelseminar, og hun fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn. Hun vækker mig ikke, da hun kl 23 hopper op i sengen til mig  - zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!