RalphCinque

Someone sent me a clearer image of the photo which shows that her fingers were curled. I didn't know that until now.

OH, it's an anatomical question alright, and a biomechanical one too. I taught a course in Ergonomics, and I have also done consulting with companies concerning safe lifting on the job, etc. And I think you are making much too big a deal about the camera and the focus. The woman was waving her hand, presumably, but she wasn't moving her whole body. And, we are looking at large elements here, so a little bit of blur doesn't have any importance at all to the question. And the question is: how is the woman holding that girl? To my eyes, it doesn't look like she is holding her at all. The angles that we see on the girl suggest a sitting position, and furthermore, sitting on a firm surface. I am aware that a mother often holds her child by having him or her sit on her hip, straddling her. It's a common thing, but it isn't happening here. For one thing, if you blow the picture up, you can see that both of the child's legs are in front of the mother. Here is a comparison with a woman who has her child sitting on her hip. Biomechanically, they are vastly different. And, I don't think the apparent action on the right could be duplicated experimentally. So, do you think the woman on the right has got one arm underneath that child and is holding her up with it, supporting her weight with it, with that one arm alone? Because I don't see anything else being recruited here to help in the process. Do you think she has the strength to do that?

No. They're watching a motorcade. And if they were moving significantly, it would have blurred the image. Why try so hard to make excuses to justify this? The girl is obviously in a sitting position with both her knees and hips flexed at close to 90 degrees. That is not the configuration of a child being held. A child being held has no bearing with the Earth. The person holding them becomes like their planet. And so, they orient themselves towards that person. And when I say orient I mean they seek to get support from the person. But, that girl is obviously getting support from something underneath her buttocks. And, it's got to be something firm because she is in a very extended state otherwise. By that, I mean that even though her joints are flexed, she is lengthened otherwise. Look how lengthened her back is. She's doing a good job of "sitting up straight." How could she do that if she were dangling in someone's arms? And how could she be sitting on that woman's arm? First, the woman would not be strong enough, and second, it would not be nearly firm and stable enough for the girl to get the support to lengthen herself like that. Can you sit as tall on a soft pillow as you can on a firm bench? Look, this is a Science forum, and I came here because I expected to find people with an education in Anatomy and Physiology to look at this from a kinesthetic perspective. Is there anybody here who meets that qualification? And can we save the wisecracks for drinking time? And I have another question concerning this hand. The person is waving at the limo, and the hand is visually obscured on the right side. But, there are no visual obstructions through the length of the hand from wrist to fingertips. Therefore, why do the fingers look so short and blunted, like that of an amputee. I'll provide a normal hand for comparison. Remember, this is a Science forum. It's not for clowning around. Thank you.

Very well. Then, let me ask a related question to another image in the same photograph, which I can post here. So, there will be no routing to my blog, which I was not seeking anyway. I didn't see before how to attach images. This question pertains to Physics, Anatomy, and Biomechanics- areas of science. Focus on the little girl in the pink dress. To my eyes, she appears to be sitting. The way she is configured looks like a sitting posture to me. But, what could she be sitting on? Do you think that the woman who is waving her right arm is supporting the weight of the girl with her left arm? Holding her up? With one arm? Would she be strong enough? How much do you think the girl weighs? So, does the woman have her left arm stuck out and is the girl sitting on it? Because it does look like the girl is sitting on something. And we are seeing none of the adjustments that usually take place when a woman holds a child. Most often, women hold children to the greatest mechanical advantage. And, it comes down to trying to get gravity to work for you, rather than against you. It usually entails leaning in such a way that the weight of the child can be heaped upon the body weight of the woman, such that her strongest bodily muscles (those of her lower extremity, her hips, etc.) can do the work, rather than putting all the load on her relatively weak arms. But, in this case, the woman is doing nothing of the sort. If she's supporting the girl's weight, she is doing it solely with the strength of her left arm and nothing else. She's not recruiting any other muscles. The woman is not leaning at all. I maintain that it would take an uncanny amount of strength to do that. I'll add that another thing that women do is exploit the principle of counterbalance, which is what enables two equally weighted children to remain an aloft on a see-saw without expending any energy. So, in the case of holding a child up, it means leaning opposite to the child, and that creates the counterbalance. I'll attach an example. But obviously, this other woman isn't doing that. So, how is this child being supported?

I added some further analysis. It is one weird image. They monkeyed with that arm; that's for sure. http://oswaldinthedoorway.BlogSpot.com/2015/02/lets-assume-that-image-on-right-is.html

Thank you for responding.

There is a famous picture of President and Mrs. Kennedy minutes before he was shot in Dallas that was put on the cover of TIME magazine for the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 2013. It is a very odd picture showing Jackie waving, but her arm doesn't look right in the picture. Is it her left arm or her right? Researchers seem to be evenly divided about that, but having some background in Anatomy, I believe the correct answer is: neither. Please take a look at it and render an opinion. But, could we please limit it to Anatomy students and teachers? I wish only to discuss this on the basis of anatomy. Thank you. http://www.oswaldinthedoorway.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-have-worked-up-these-seven-graphics.html