h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is true. When Sir Robin Knox-Johnson became the first person to single handed circumnavigate the World non-stop in 1968/69 it took him 313 days at an average speed of 4.02 knots. He didn't have the advantage of GPS and satellite weather forecasts.

I believe Ellen MacArthur averaged around 20 knots.

Donald

Stamina and mental strength: again, this is different for different events, methinks. A road run, even with a backpack, is unlikely to be held over a period of more than 1 day, even if it's 100km. Most people can entertain themselves for 1 day mentally, regardless of gender.

A round the world yacht race? Well, you're looking at a few weeks or a couple of months, these days...how long did MacArthur take?

Similarly, mountain-climbing or (Ant)Arctic crossings...in the good old, bad old days when these were an exclusively male preserve* they took months, sometimes years, but nowadays?

So, if you want to look at field where men and women compete equally in the modern world, over a period of more than a couple of months, the examples are few and far between. The male example that springs immediately to mind is Terry Waite, in the field of being taken hostage. Who is the female equivalent? (This is an honest question: I don't know the answer, but I'm sure someone does) and how do they measure up?

RF

* But see "Big Sur", by Ursula Le Guin

While I agree that time is a factor, but it isn't always.

Imagine yourself at the foot of a 2000 foot mountain after hiking 50 miles or so with a 50 kg pack on your back. You are cold, wet, tired and hungry. Every bone and muscle in your body aches but the only way you can achieve your objective is get to the top of that mountain.

Do you say sod it, I've had enough. I'm cold, wet, tired and hungry and every bone and muscle in my body aches. If I give up, they will soon send a rescue helicopter out for me or do I carry on.

Thats when the mind games start. It all depends on how much you want to achieve your objective. If you are still standing you are still capable of putting one foot in front of the other, you keep going and you keep telling yourself, nothing lasts forever.


Donald

Yes Donald. Mind games can alter the physical state.
And on the other side to that, if people want to gain control over someones mind they deprive them physically. Isn't that right? That's the beginning of brainwashing someone.

It's not necessary to physically deprive someone to brainwash them. Effective brainwashing is a bit more subtle than that.

An example is the number of suicide bombers that have blown themselves to smithereens because they have been brainwashed to believe that it will give them a place in paradise. Most religious cults use brainwashing to indoctrinate it's followers.

Using the mind to push yourself to extreme physical effort is a form of self imposed brainwashing.

Donald

Women do have more stamina where it counts: on average they live longer. Any woman here above the age of about 24 is not allowed to gloat .

Q: Why do men most men die before their wives?
A: Because they want to.

RF

Hmmm. I don't see suicide bombers as being brainwashed. A lot of people believe they go to heaven when they die, without being brainwashed.

Well, there are different varieties of 'Being made to believe something despite a lack of objective evidence'.
Being shown the true path
Being given faith
Being indoctrinated
Being brainwashed
Being misinformed

It depends to some extent on the nature and strengh of the studen't prior opinions, whether the teacher actually believes what they are telling the student, the describer's viewpoint on the position the student is being led to, and whether it can be shown the inculcated belief is demonstrably (or probably) right, wrong, or unprovable.

Technically, I suppose the idea of brain-washing is one of re-programming someone by breaking down and removing prior unwanted beliefs from someone's brain and then inserting the desired beliefs.

If someone was brought up from birth to believe more or less in a particular paradise after death, and just had their thoughts strengthened or manipulated a little to make them into a suicide bomber, I'd have thought that was largely indoctrination than actual brainwashing.
On the other hand, a Buddhist pacifist converted by other people to be a suicide bomber in another faith would seem a better candidate to fit the 'brainwashed' description.

If I was to be kidnapped by a radical wing of the Church of England, pschologically manipulated until I renounced atheism and logic and became a real believer, and then released to participate in the world of church socials, tea with the vicar, and bring-and-buy sales, and belief in a nice heaven like an English village, and I did Good Works the rest of my life, I'd *still* have been brainwashed.
It's the nature of the process that really helps determines the name, not the severity of the outcome.

Is stamina the ability to 'keep going' at something or is it about physical strength? If the former then the analogy about rucksacks, mountains and other strenuous activities while carrying a boulder are not really relevant.

Stamina IMHO is more the ability to carry on despite feeling that you are flagging. Childbirth has been quoted earlier on in the thread but only in regard to pain. We all know that the pain involved 'would kill a man', but ability to withstand pain is not stamina. More important I think is that labour can last for days, yet women are able to carry on, without sleep (and in pain) for that time. Once a baby is born, certainly historically it would be the womans role to care for the child while the man works to provide for the family. This would mean that it is the woman that wakes every three hours or so to breastfeed the sprog, has to not only physically look after the child, be totally sleep deprived etc but also act as a feeding station. Nowadays she is also expected to hold down a job too. Stamina? Definately a woman's area of expertise.

>> More important I think is that labour can last for days, yet women are able to carry on, without sleep (and in pain) for that time. <<

Do they have a choice? Once labour has started there is no choice but to grin and bear it - or have an epidural.

Stamina is about carrying on when there is a choice. Physical strength only plays a minor part.

Donald

I was under the apparent misaprehension that stamina was the ability to physically carry on, regardless of choice. Your argument seems to be that stamina is a purely mental thing - which I disagree with (although I do agree that mental strength can play a huge part in overcoming physical fatigue). I agree that pure physical strength does not constitute stamina, but surely (as I tried to point out with my comments about caring for a newborn) stamina is the abillity to eke out the bodies reserves (physical and mental) for longer?

Perhaps the question of what stamina is should be clarified.

Definition--the staying power and strength to resist or withstand prolonged physical or mental exertion--endurance.

http://www.allwords.com/wow.php?getDate=2000-03-29

I just think assuming a suicide bomber is a brainwashed fanatic rather someone who did a concious choice, is a bit simplified. But brainwashing does seem to need a mental breakdown. Most people find God at some point in their life when they are physically down, like after the death of a loved one.

>> But brainwashing does seem to need a mental breakdown. <<

So I would suggest that someone who deliberately blows themselves up has something going on between their ears that is radically different than the rest of the human race, something they wearn't born with.

>> Most people find God at some point in their life when they are physically down, like after the death of a loved one. <<

Do they? I didn't In fact I would say that with a lot of people it will have the exact opposite effect. In my case God didn't enter into in one way or the other.