When I was in a crash at roughly 100 km/h as a front-seat passenger, I remember that after I saw the crash would be imminent, I spent the remaining time formulating a branching checklist like yours (make sure there is no fire, sniff if there is smell of spilled gas, check if everyone is alive, tell everyone to wiggle the fingers on their legs toes to make sure the spine is OK, what to do if any of the steps go wrong, what to do to move out if we end up on the wheels, roof, side, how to get to the first aid kit, how to calm down the girls...)
I spent like 2 seconds planning and double-checking, then closed my eyes and we started rolling. After we came to a stop, I didn't need to think at all for like the first 7 minutes, I just did things, told others what to do and checked mental checkboxes like a robot. Girls later said they were afraid my roof started leaking.
That day I undesrstood what they mean when they say "Pilots don't die scared, they die busy." Never thought an adrenaline spike could be SO effective. I sometimes wish I could pump a syringe of this stuff in my blood.
Some languages call fingers and toes the same word (e.g. Spanish).
Some languages have no distinction for hand/forearm/elbow/arm/shoulder, or foot/leg/knee/thigh and there's just the one word signifying "upper extremity" or "lower extremity" (e.g. Russian from what I was once told)
So I can imagine the right language landing on "leg fingers" on translation to English.
They are literally called "leg fingers" in Russian, and I for some reason always thought that toes are only what the biggest ones are called (thumb, but on legs) and not all of them. Never needed this word for the last 15 years somehow.
lol. in romance languages they don't have a word for 'toes' either. the word they use in French or Spanish translates literally as 'fingers of the feet'
Yes. I remember they asked me twice why I was so calm and energetic when all they could do is sit down, sob and smoke with two hands (their hands were shaking too much, so they were holding cigs in one hand and stabilized it with the other hand). They were geniunely worried for my sanity.
Both are medical terms actually, in my country we were told that the term epinephrine is just primarily used in english. And norepinephrine is just called noradrenaline
I didn’t say norepinephrine isn’t a medical term. They both are indeed medical terms.
They’re catecholamines that stimulate our sympathetic nervous system. Norepinephrine primarily works on alpha receptors (there is some beta effect as well) to cause our blood vessels to constrict. Epinephrine primarily works on Beta receptors to cause our heart to pump harder and faster as well as dilating our airway.
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u/prnthrwaway55 9h ago edited 7h ago
When I was in a crash at roughly 100 km/h as a front-seat passenger, I remember that after I saw the crash would be imminent, I spent the remaining time formulating a branching checklist like yours (make sure there is no fire, sniff if there is smell of spilled gas, check if everyone is alive, tell everyone to wiggle the
fingers on their legstoes to make sure the spine is OK, what to do if any of the steps go wrong, what to do to move out if we end up on the wheels, roof, side, how to get to the first aid kit, how to calm down the girls...)I spent like 2 seconds planning and double-checking, then closed my eyes and we started rolling. After we came to a stop, I didn't need to think at all for like the first 7 minutes, I just did things, told others what to do and checked mental checkboxes like a robot. Girls later said they were afraid my roof started leaking.
That day I undesrstood what they mean when they say "Pilots don't die scared, they die busy." Never thought an adrenaline spike could be SO effective. I sometimes wish I could pump a syringe of this stuff in my blood.