Word: upright
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just begun, and his therapist was busily testing the strength in his arms and neck, checking to see whether my father - a six-foot, three-inch-tall man who once weighed as much as a linebacker - could do something as simple as keep his back and neck in an upright, seated position. It was a test my father was failing miserably; his shoulders were hunched over, and his chin seemed glued to his chest. And in a therapy room bustling with the noise and activity coming from other patients re-learning how to walk, my father still kept falling asleep...
Superficially persuasive as this view is, it ignores certain basic realities. It assumes, for instance, that organisms are little more than agglomerations of special-purpose mechanisms, each of which can be tracked independently of the "packages" of which they form part. We speak of the "evolution of upright walking" or the "evolution of the hand," often without realizing that legs and hands can only be parts of the story...
...species that prides itself on its athletic prowess, human beings are a pretty poky group. Lions can sprint at up to 50 m.p.h. when they're chasing down prey. Cheetahs move even faster, flooring it to a sizzling 70 m.p.h. But most humans--with our willowy spines and awkward, upright gait--would have trouble cracking 25 m.p.h. with a tail wind, a flat track and a good pair of shoes...
...problem if you plan ahead, says the Pudding Guy. Phillips, who manages utilities at UC Davis, admits that with his latest jag, his tray table might no longer be in the fully upright position. "I think we have enough miles already," Cindy said when he insisted on completing the last four flights in the Latin Pass promotion. Phillips argued that the miles could be used on TWA and USAir as well as at several major hotel chains. They'd never have to pay for another flight or hotel as long as they lived...
...formalized as Bambiraptor feinbergi, with a bow to the family that bought the specimen for the museum. But there is nothing deerlike about it. A kin of the ferocious velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame and more distantly of mighty T. rex, Bambi is a type of dromeosaur, small, upright-walking meat eaters that lived during the late Cretaceous period...