Male
A male organism is the physiological sex that produces sperm. Each spermatozoon can fuse with ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male cannot reproduce sexually without access to at least one ovum from a female, but some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Most male mammals, including male humans, have a Y chromosome, which codes for the production of larger amounts of testosterone to develop male reproductive organs. Not all species share a common sex-determination system. In most animals, including humans, sex is determined genetically, but in some species it can be determined due to social, environmental, or other factors. For example, Cymothoa exigua changes sex depending on the number of females present in the vicinity; the existence of two sexes seems to have been selected independently across different evolutionary lineages. The repeated pattern is sexual reproduction in isogamous species with two or more mating types with gametes of identical form and behavior to anisogamous species with gametes of male and female types to oogamous species in which the female gamete is much larger than the male and has no ability to move.
There is a good argument that this pattern was driven by the physical constraints on the mechanisms by which two gametes get together as required for sexual reproduction. Accordingly, sex is defined operationally across species by the type of gametes produced and differences between males and females in one lineage are not always predictive of differences in another. Male/female dimorphism between organisms or reproductive organs of different sexes is not limited to animals. In land plants and male designate not only the female and male gamete-producing organisms and structures but the structures of the sporophytes that give rise to male and female plants. A common symbol used to represent the male sex is the Mars symbol, ♂ — a circle with an arrow pointing northeast; the symbol is identical to the planetary symbol of Mars. It was first used to denote sex by Carl Linnaeus in 1751; the symbol is called a stylized representation of the Roman god Mars' shield and spear. According to Stearn, all the historical evidence favours that it is derived from θρ, the contraction of the Greek name for the planet Mars, Thouros.
The sex of a particular organism may be determined by a number of factors. These may be genetic or environmental, or may change during the course of an organism's life. Although most species with male and female sexes have individuals that are either male or female, hermaphroditic animals, such as worms, have both male and female reproductive organs. Most mammals, including humans, are genetically determined as such by the XY sex-determination system where males have an XY sex chromosome, it is possible in a variety of species, including humans, to be XXY or have other intersex/hermaphroditic qualities, though one would still be considered genotypically male so long as one has a Y-chromosome. During reproduction, a male can give either an X sperm or a Y sperm, while a female can only give an X egg. A Y sperm and an X egg produce a male, while an X egg produce a female; the part of the Y-chromosome, responsible for maleness is the sex-determining region of the Y-chromosome, the SRY. The SRY activates Sox9, which forms feedforward loops with FGF9 and PGD2 in the gonads, allowing the levels of these genes to stay high enough in order to cause male development.
The ZW sex-determination system, where males have a ZZ sex chromosome may be found in birds and some insects and other organisms. Members of the insect order Hymenoptera, such as ants and bees, are determined by haplodiploidy, where most males are haploid and females and some sterile males are diploid. In some species of reptiles, such as alligators, sex is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. Other species, such as some snails, practice sex change: adults start out male become female. In tropical clown fish, the dominant individual in a group becomes female while the other ones are male. In some arthropods, sex is determined by infection. Bacteria of the genus Wolbachia alter their sexuality. In those species with two sexes, males may differ from females in ways other than the production of spermatozoa. In many insects and fish, the male is smaller than the female. In seed plants, which exhibit alternation of generations, the female and male parts are both included within the sporophyte sex organ of a single organism.
In mammals, including humans, males are larger than females. In birds, the male exhibits a colorful plumage that attracts females. Boy Female Gender Male plant Male pregnancy Man Masculinity Gentleman Wedgwood, Hensleigh. "On False Etymologies". Transactions of the Philological Society: 68
Western world
The Western world known as the West, refers to various nations depending on the context, most including at least part of Europe and the Americas, with the status of Latin America in dispute. There are many accepted definitions, all interrelated; the Western world is known as the Occident, in contrast to the Orient, or Eastern world. Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome are considered to be the birthplaces of Western civilization: the former due to its impact on philosophy, democracy and art, building designs and proportions, architecture. Western civilization is founded upon Christianity, in turn shaped by Hellenistic philosophy and Roman culture; the ancient Hellenes had been affected by ancient Near East civilizations, including Judaism and Early Christianity. In the modern era, Western culture has been influenced by the Renaissance, the Ages of Discovery and Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolutions. Through extensive imperialism and Christianization by Western powers in the 15th to 20th centuries, much of the rest of the world has been influenced by Western culture.
The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in the theological and emphatical division between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. West was literal, opposing Catholic Europe with the cultures and civilizations of Orthodox Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the remote Far East, which early-modern Europeans saw as the East. By the mid-20th century. Worldwide export of Western culture went through the new mass media: film and television and recorded music, while the development and growth of international transport and telecommunication played a decisive role in modern globalization. In modern usage, Western world sometimes refers to Europe and to areas whose populations originate from Europe, through the Age of Discovery. Western culture was influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East, such as Phoenicia, Ancient Israel, Minoan Crete, Sumer and Ancient Egypt, it originated in its vicinity.
Over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal areas and absorbing. They expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western and Southeastern Europe. Christianization of Ireland, Christianization of Bulgaria, Christianization of Kievan Rus', Christianization of Scandinavia and Christianization of Lithuania brought the rest of present-day European territory into Western civilization. Historians, such as Carroll Quigley in "The Evolution of Civilizations", contend that Western civilization was born around AD 500, after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West experienced a period of first, considerable decline, readaptation and considerable renewed material and political development; this whole period of a millennium is known as the Middle Ages, its early part forming the "Dark Ages", designations that were created during the Renaissance and reflect the perspective on history, the self-image, of the latter period.
The knowledge of the ancient Western world was preserved during this period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire and the introduction of the Catholic Church. Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the influence of the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Islamic world, due to the successful Second Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial revolutions peaked with the 18th century's Age of enlightenment, through the Age of exploration's expansion of peoples of Western and Central European empires the globe-spanning colonial empires of 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Catholic missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity. There is debate among some as to. Whether Russia should be categorized as "East" or "West" has been "an ongoing discussion" for centuries; the term "Western culture" is used broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, specific artifacts and technologies.
Western culture may imply: a Biblical Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking and either ethic or moral traditions, around the Post-Classical Era and after. European cultural influences concerning artistic, folkloric and oral traditions, whose themes have been further developed by Romanticism. A Graeco-Roman Classical and Renaissance cultural influence, concerning artistic, philosophic and legal themes and traditions, the cultural social effec
San Francisco
San Francisco the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, the fourth-most populous in California, with 884,363 residents as of 2017, it covers an area of about 46.89 square miles at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second-most densely populated large US city, the fifth-most densely populated U. S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is part of the fifth-most populous primary statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area; as of 2017, it was the seventh-highest income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $119,868. As of 2015, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $154.2 billion, a GDP per capita of $177,968. The San Francisco CSA was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2017, with a GDP of $907 billion.
Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the US, the San Francisco CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2017, at $93,938. San Francisco was ranked 14th in the world and third in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2018. San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi; the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. San Francisco's status as the West Coast's largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900, when around 25% of California's population resided in the city proper. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.
It became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "hippie" counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes along liberal Democratic Party lines. A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, its Chinatown district. San Francisco is the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Gap Inc. Fitbit, Salesforce.com, Reddit, Inc. Dolby, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pinterest, Uber, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation and Weather Underground.
It is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the De Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the California Academy of Sciences. As of 2019, San Francisco is the highest rated American city on world liveability rankings; the earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay. Seven years on March 28, 1776, the Spanish established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís, established by the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system ended, its lands became privatized.
In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, Mexico ceded the territory to the United States at the end of the war. Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography; the California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849; the promise of great wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.
Some of these 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships and hotels.
Yogi Aaron
Yogi Aaron is a Canadian yoga teacher and author of the book Autobiography of a Naked Yogi. Under the name Aaron Star he founded the Naked Yoga movement in New York City, which incorporates elements of both partner and tantric yoga and is performed while being nude. At 18, Star began working out at a Vancouver community center, he realized that keeping in shape was a lifelong responsibility and became a student of yoga in 1991 and a teacher in 1997. He travelled across the world visiting numerous yoga ashrams and retreat centers, studying with yoga teachers including Bryan Kest, Rod Stryker, Swami Rama, as well as with other spiritual masters in the Himalayas. Star arrived in Manhattan in 2001 and within a short time was offering retreats in different countries, it was during a retreat in Hawaii that Star and his longtime student, first discussed creating "a community, yoga-based… and where people can heal their spirits." Six years they purchased property in Costa Rica and formed what is today known as Blue Osa.
Star popularized the idea of practicing Hot Nude Yoga which garnered a large following of men in the gay community of New York. Since it has spread out in Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston, he started the Hot Nude Yoga movement in Chelsea, New York in 2001 in the building on the Southwest corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue. Star speaks on various topics, most on freedom of oneself and how to be free along with being comfortable with oneself. Fulfillment of life's purpose is another common topic he writes about. Star wrote Autobiography of a Naked Yogi in 2015. In it, he details how an upbringing in 70’s British Columbia, Canada along with a confrontational childhood and a brutal boarding school education set him on an altogether different trajectory; however instilled with determination and a love for the great outdoors he strove to understand himself in landscapes. Reviewing the book, BroadwayWorld wrote that "Yogi Aaron's narrative is one of empowerment, imbued with a sense of adventure." Star’s Hot Nude Yoga classes received criticism for its heightened sensuality.
The book Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives calls Hot Nude Yoga "A promotion of sexual expression that would have scandalized the likes of Swami Sivananda", while it was defined as "soft-core pornography" by Stewart J Lawrence in The Guardian Joshua Stein, editor for OUT Magazine, who has attended the class wrote that the quality of yoga was diminished by heightened sensuality and according to The Associated Press, Hot Nude Yoga seems to be a "form of sensualized tantric yoga practiced nude."
Yoga for therapeutic purposes
Yoga for therapeutic purposes is the use of modern yoga, consisting of postures called asanas, as a gentle form of exercise and relaxation to maintain or improve health. This postural form of yoga is practised in classes, may involve meditation, breath work and music. At least three types of health claim have been made for yoga: magical claims for medieval haṭha yoga, including the power of healing. Modern yoga exercise classes used as therapy consist of asanas and relaxation in savasana; the physical asanas of modern yoga are related to medieval haṭha yoga tradition, but they were not practiced in India before the early 20th century. The number of schools and styles of yoga in the Western world has grown from the late 20th century. By 2012, there were at least 19 widespread styles from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga to Viniyoga; these emphasise different aspects including aerobic exercise, precision in the asanas, spirituality in the haṭha yoga tradition. These aspects can be illustrated by schools with distinctive styles.
Thus, Bikram Yoga has an aerobic exercise style with rooms heated to 105 °F and a fixed pattern of 2 breathing exercises and 26 asanas. Iyengar Yoga emphasises correct alignment in the postures, working if necessary with props, ending with relaxation. Sivananda Yoga focuses more on spiritual practice, with 12 basic poses, chanting in Sanskrit, pranayama breathing exercises and relaxation in each class, importance is placed on vegetarian diet. At least three different types of claim of therapeutic benefit have been made for yoga from medieval times onwards, not counting the more general claims of good health made throughout this period: magical powers. Medieval authors asserted that haṭha yoga brought physical benefits, provided magical powers including of healing; the Hatha Yoga Pradipika states that asanas in general, described as the first auxiliary of haṭha yoga, give "steadiness, good health, lightness of limb." Specific asanas, bring additional benefits. These claims lie within a tradition across all forms of yoga that practitioners can gain supernatural powers.
Hemachandra's Yogashastra lists the magical powers, which include healing and the destruction of poisons. Advocates of some schools of modern yoga, such as B. K. S. Iyengar, have for various reasons made claims for the effects of yoga on specific organs, without adducing any evidence; the yoga scholar Andrea Jain describes such claims in terms of "elaborating and fortifying his yoga brand" and "mass-marketing", calling his book Light on Yoga "arguably the most significant event in the process of elaborating the brand". Jain suggests that "Its biomedical dialect was attractive to many." For example, in the book, Iyengar claims that the asanas of the Eka Pada Sirsasana cycle tone up the muscular and circulatory systems of the entire body. The spine receives a rich supply of blood, which increases the nervous energy in the chakras, the flywheels in the human body machine; these poses make the breathing fuller and the body firmer. The history of such claims has been reviewed by William J. Broad in his 2012 book The Science of Yoga.
Broad argues that while the health claims for yoga began as Hindu nationalist posturing, it turns out that there is "a wealth of real benefits". Researchers have studied the medical and psychological effects of yoga in a wide range of trials and observational studies, sometimes with careful controls, providing evidence of differing quality about yoga's possible benefits; the various types of claim, the evidence for them, are discussed below. Much of the research on the therapeutic use of modern yoga has been in the form of preliminary studies or clinical trials of low methodological quality, including small sample sizes, inadequate control and blinding, lack of randomization, high risk of bias. For example, a 2010 literature review on the use of yoga for depression stated, "although the results from these trials are encouraging, they should be viewed as preliminary because the trials, as a group, suffered from substantial methodological limitations." A 2015 systematic review on the effect of yoga on mood and the brain recommended that future clinical trials should apply more methodological rigour.
The practice of asanas has been claimed to improve flexibility and balance. A review of five studies noted that three psychological and four biological mechanisms that might act on stress had been examined empirically, whereas many other
Dashanami Sampradaya
Dashanami Sanyasi is a Hindu monastic tradition of "single-staff renunciation" associated with the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The disciples of Adi Shankaracharya are called "Dash Nam Sanyasi" as the Title is further divided into ten groups viz. Giri, Bharati, Aranya, Aashram, Saraswati and Parwat. Dashnam Sanyasins are associated with the four Maths in four corners of India, established by Adi Shankaracharya. All the disciples were Sanyasins who embraced sanyas either after marriage or without getting married. Single-staff renunciates are distinct in their practices from Shaiva trishuldhari or "trident-wielding renunciates" and Vaishnava traditions of Tridandi sannyāsis. In the 8th century a section of the were organized by Adi Shankara into four maṭhas. However, the association of the Dasanāmis with the Shankara maṭhas remained nominal. Any Hindu, irrespective of class, age or gender can seek sannyāsa as an Ēkadaṇḍi renunciate in the Dasanāmi tradition. Ēkadandis were known during what is sometimes referred to as "Golden Age of Hinduism" See Gupta rule and Gupta and Pallava periodThe "Golden Age of Hinduism" flourished during the Gupta Empire until the fall of the Harsha.
During this period, power was centralized, along with a growth of long distance trade, standardization of legal procedures, a general spread of literacy. Mahayana Buddhism flourished, but orthodox Shrauta Hinduism was rejuvenated by the patronage of the Gupta dynasty; the position of the Brahmans was reinforced and the first Hindu temples emerged during the late Gupta age. The Mahābhārata, which reached its final form by the early Gupta period mentions "ēkadaṇḍi" and "tridaṇḍi"; the Ēkadaṇḍis existed in the Tamil country during the south-Indian Pandyan dynasty and the South-Indian Pallava dynasty. Being wandering monastics, they were not settled in the brahmadeyas or settlement areas for Brahmins. There existed tax free bhiksha-bogams for feeding the Ēkadaṇḍi ascetics in the ancient Tamil country.Ēkadaṇḍis and Tridandis were active in Eastern India, appear to have existed there during the North-Indian Gupta Empire. According to R. Tirumalai, "There appears to have been no sectarian segregation of the Shaiva and Srivaishnava".
At the beginning of what is referred to as "Late classical Hinduism", which lasted from 650 till 1100 CE, Shankara established the Dasanami Sampradaya. See Late-Classical Age and Hinduism Middle AgesAfter the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire, power became decentralized in India. Several larger kingdoms emerged, with "countless vassal states": in the east the Pala Empire, in the west and north the Gurjara-Pratihara, in the southwest the Rashtrakuta dynasty, in the Dekkhan the Chalukya dynasty, in the south the Pallava dynasty and the Chola dynasty; the kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms. "The great king was remote, was exalted and deified", as reflected in the Tantric Mandala, which could depict the king as the centre of the mandala. The disintegration of central power lead to regionalization of religiosity, religious rivalry. Local cults and languages were enhanced, the influence of "Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism" was diminished.
Rural and devotional movements arose, along with Shaivism, Vaisnavism and Tantra, though "sectarian groupings were only at the beginning of their development". Religious movements had to compete for recognition by the local lords. Buddhism lost its position, began to disappear in India. Shankara, himself considered to be an incarnation of Shiva, established the Dashanami Sampradaya, organizing a section of the Ēkadaṇḍi monastics under an umbrella grouping of ten names. Several other Hindu monastic and Ēkadaṇḍi traditions remained outside the organization of the Dasanāmis. Adi Shankara organized the Hindu monastics of these ten sects or names under four maṭhas or monasteries, with headquarters at Dvārakā in the west, Jagannatha Puri in the east, Sringeri in the south and Badrikashrama in the north; each maṭha was headed by one of his four main disciples. Monastics of these ten orders differ in part in their beliefs and practices, a section of them is not considered to be restricted to specific changes made by Shankara.
While the Dasanāmis associated with the Shankara maṭhas follow the procedures enumerated by Adi Śankara, some of these orders remained or independent in their belief and practices. The association of the Dasanāmis with the Smartha tradition or Advaita Vedānta is not all-embracing. One example is the Kriyā Yoga tradition that considers itself eclectic, with ancient unchangeable beliefs, outside the ambit of differences in the understanding of Vedanta. Other examples are the Tantric Avadhūta Sampradāyas and Ekadaṇḍi sannyāsa traditions outside the control of the Shankara maṭhas The Dasanāmis or Ēkadaṇḍis founded, continue to found or affiliate themselves with, maṭhas and temples outside the control of the Shankara maṭhas; the Advaita Sampradaya is not a Shaiva sect, despite the historical links with Shaivism: Advaitins are non-sectarian, they advocate worship of Siva and Visnu with that of the other deities of Hinduism, like Sakti and others. Cont
Walking stick
A walking stick is a device used to facilitate walking, for fashion, or for defensive reasons. Walking can be sought by collectors; some kinds of walking sticks may be used by people with disabilities as a crutch. The walking stick has historically been known to be used as a defensive or offensive weapon and may conceal a knife or sword as in a swordstick. Walking sticks known as trekking poles, pilgrim's staffs, hiking poles, or hiking sticks, are used by hikers for a wide variety of purposes: to clear spider webs or part thick bushes or grass obscuring the trail. Known as an alpenstock, from its origins in mountaineering in the Alps, such a walking stick is equipped with a steel point and a hook or pick on top. A walking stick can be improvised from nearby felled wood. More ornate sticks are made for avid hikers and adorned with small trinkets or medallions depicting "conquered" territory. Wood walking sticks are used for outdoor sports, healthy upper body exercise, club and family memorials.
They can be individually handcrafted from a number of woods and may be personalised in many ways for the owner. A collector of walking sticks is termed a rabologist. Around the 17th or 18th century, a stout rigid stick took over from the sword as an essential part of the European gentleman's wardrobe, used as a walking stick. In addition to its value as a decorative accessory, it continued to fulfil some of the function of the sword as a weapon; the standard cane was rattan with a rounded metal grip. The clouded cane was made of malacca and showed the patina of age: Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane; some canes had specially weighted metalwork. Other types of wood, such as hickory, are suitable; the most common accessory, before or after purchase or manufacture, is a hand strap, to prevent loss of the stick should the hand release its grip. These are threaded through a hole drilled into the stick rather than tied around. A clip-on frame or similar device can be used to stand a stick against the top of a table.
In cold climates, a metallic cleat may be added to the foot of the cane. This increases traction on ice; the device is designed so it can be flipped to the side to prevent damage to indoor flooring. Different handles are available to match grips of varying sizes. Rubber ferrules give extra traction on most surfaces. Nordic walking poles are popular in Europe. Walking with two poles in the correct length radically reduces the stress to the knees and back; these special poles come with straps resembling a fingerless glove, durable metal tips for off-road and removable rubber tips for pavement and other hard surfaces. Various staffs of office derived from walking sticks or staffs are used by both western and eastern Christian churches. In Islam the walking stick is considered a Muslims are encouraged to carry one; the Imam traditionally delivers the Khutbah while leaning on a stick. Ashplant – an Irish walking stick made from the ash tree. Blackthorn – an Irish walking stick, or shillelagh, made from the blackthorn.
Devil's walking stick – Made from Hercules plant. Shooting stick – It can fold out into a single-legged seat. Supplejack – Made from a tropical American vine serves as a cane. Penang lawyer – Made from Licuala. After the bark was removed with only a piece of glass, the stick was straightened by fire and polished; the fictional Dr. Mortimer owned one of these in The Hound of the Baskervilles. So did Fitzroy Simpson, the main suspect in "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", whose lead weighted stick was assumed to be the murder weapon. Makila – Basque walking stick or staff made from medlar wood, it features a gold or silver foot and handle, which may conceal a steel blade. The Makila's elaborate engravings are carved into the living wood allowed to heal before harvesting. Kebbie – a rough Scottish walking stick, similar to an Irish shillelagh, with a hooked head. Whangee – Asian, made of bamboo a riding crop; such a stick was owned by Charlie Chaplin's character The Tramp. Malacca – Malay stick made of rattan palms.
Pike Staff – Pointed at the end for slippery surfaces. Scout staff – Tall stick traditionally carried by Boy Scouts, which has a number of uses in an emergency Waddy – Australian Aboriginal walking stick or war club, about one metre in length, sometimes with a stone head affixed with string and beeswax. Ziegenhainer – Knotty German stick, made from European cornel used as a melee weapon by a duellist's second; the spiral groove caused by a parasitic vine was imitated by its maker if not present. In North America, a walking cane is a walking stick with a curved top much like a shepherd's staff, but shorter. Thus, although they are called "canes", they are made of material heavier than cane, such as wood or metal. In the United States, presidents have carried canes and received them as gifts; the Smithsonian has a cane given to George Washington by Benjamin Franklin. It features a gold handle in the shape of a Phrygian cap. In modern times, walking sticks are only seen with formal attire. Retractable canes that reveal such properties as hidden compartments, pool sticks, or blades are popular among collectors.
Handles have been made from many substances, both manmade. Carved and decorated canes have turned the function
