Colors of Summer

Every great dream begins with a dreamer.  

Always remember, you have within you the strength, 

the patience, and the passion to reach

 for the  stars to change the world    

~ Harriet Tubman 

These summer days have been long, rising early and heading outside for chores can feel less than desirable.  But the early morning hours are so preciously quiet, filled with bird songs, cool air, a vast sky, and the slight touch of dew.  There is so much to be done in a day.  Waking before the sun makes the day longer, a secret farm women (and men) must have known forever.

As the day is slowly beginning to unfold, I pause to appreciate some of the vibrant colors nature is producing.  Gravensteins in the orchard have been dropping like by the bucketful during the windy nights.  

An abundance of greens and purples decorate the garden with splashes of orange pumpkins everywhere, no longer able to hide under their large leaves.  Tomatoes starting to ripen on the vine, juicy red, yellow, gold, Green Zebra, and Purple Cherokee. 

Japanese Tricolor corn takes center stage in a bed by the barn, while the heirloom Bloody Butcher corn towers over our heads.

Strawberry sun tea steeps in the driveway.  

A satisfying experiment, Tree Spinach dazzles us with her hot pink inner leaves. 

The Blue Hubbard squash are forming down the hill, soon to be a knobby deep blue gray.

The big white rooster continues his crow while sleepy hens emerge from their slumber.  (The ducks who have been awake most of the night are the party animals around here.)  And an eager, hungry, orange jersey awaits her breakfast of alfalfa and grain.  How does she always know there is just an apple or two in my pocket for her?  It must be that nose!

Yes, there is always something to be done but summer on this little homestead is a marvelous place indeed.  

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1st Survival Summer Course Basic Survival Medicine Personal Hygiene

After a long long pause due to fatherhood, here I am again to go on covering the rituals of survival, a course started this last Summer here in The Toxicologist Today.

When ones on survival mode hygiene is a must for infections and disease can weaken the individual. Poor hygiene can reduce the chances of survival. If a bath is impossible, a cloth and some water will do the trick. Feet, armpits, crotch, hands and hair are prime areas for infection. In the absence of water you can go for something as simple as an "air" bath; this can be easily made by removing as much cloths as possible and exposing the body to the sunlight for at leas 60 minutes.

If soap is a commodity you do not have at your disposal, use ashes or sand, or use a recipe that consists of animal fat and wood ashes to cook your own soap. The recipe consists of:

- extracting grease from animal fat by cutting the fat into small pieces and cooking them in a pot;

- adding enough water to the pot to avoid fat from sticking to the vessels wall;

- remember to cook this mixture slowly with frequent mixing;

- when the fat is rendered transfer it to another container to harden;

- place the ashes in a container with a spout near the bottom;

- pour water over the ashes and collect the liquid that drips out of the spot in a separate container (this mix is called the potash or lye).

- In a cooking pot, mix two parts grease to one part potash/lye, give it some fire to thicken and cook. Cut it into bars if it will make it easier to use.

The following video helps you understand the making of soap with pig lard and wood ashes. Watch it, understand it and maybe try it. I promise Ill be here soon to keep covering the hygiene part of this survival course:

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1st Survival Summer Course Medical Emergencies Breathing problems

All right, so imagine youre out there in the wild, not London, thats too tacky for you; think of a place where you lose yourself for days. Youre surrounded by wild animals and feeling exhausted for walking miles without seeing a way out. Suddenly, you and your mate look ahead and a gay bear is in musth and cannot wait a second anymore. It invests against the two of you violently striking your mate down after a violent chest hit. You realize he has sustained an injury. "Ohhh, thats bad", you say to yourself, only to verify that hes going weaker and weaker with severe bleeding. In the meanwhile you start panicking and find yourself in shock. Its when you look around and see yourself alone in an immense flood of wild noises, rotten berries, a gay bear and dark green leaves that camouflage the thousand dangers you are to face. Scenario set, what would you do to correct your equilibrium once again?

Aforementioned Gay Bear 

Lets start with the breathing problems since your mate might as well be raped by this horny bear if you do not help him straightaway. To start with, stop panicking, its not going to help you in anyway. I remember a day when my wife (by then my girlfriend) decided that she neednt my help to reach that set of blankets high up on the closet and after falling she hit her chest against the bedside table. In less than two seconds she turned from golden-tan to sick purple as her residual air was expelled from the lungs when hitting the furniture. One of my mates, startled by the fusion of noise, color change and my girls incapacity to breath by herself; started panicking and caused more upset than the issue I already had in hands. My immediate idea was to tell her to go fetch some water, to just remove her from the scene so I could assess the magnitude of whatever was going on without having the third party causing even more entropy. After that initial assessment I proceeded the way I was taught.

1) Check if the victim has a partial or complete airway obstruction. If he/she can cough or speak, allow him/her to clear the obstruction in a normal natural way. Just hold hands and reassure the individual that you are there and nothing bad is going to happen. If the scenario seems a lot more serious then be prepared to clear the airway yourself and proceed with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (only if the individual is unconscious). With a completely obstructed airway you will have to give him/her abdominal thrusts until you clear the obstruction.

2) With your finger sweep through the subjects mouth and clear of any alien objects, broken teeth, soil particles, etc.

3) Apply the jaw thrust method, i.e., grasp the hands of the persons lower jaw and lift with both hands, one on each side, moving the jaw forward. Rest you elbows on the same surface the person is lying on if you need stability. Proceed with opening the persons lips if theyre closed by gently opening the lower lip with your thumb (see image below).

4) Once the airway is open, pinch the persons nose close with your thumb and forefinger and blow two complete breaths into his/her lungs. Mind that you need to allow the lungs to deflate after the second inflation; only them you can:

- "look for his/her chest to rise and fall,

- listen for escaping air during exhalation,

- feel for flow of air on your cheek."

5) If this forced stimulation hasnt worked then youll have to proceed to maintain the persons breathing by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

6) People can vomit during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, especially people who suffered drowning, so check the passages for vomit and clear it periodically.

7) Do never ever forget about your Red Cross Manual, ever again.

Now, that crazy bear from before is now pants down moving towards you once again... but thats only next week.

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New Year New Label New Books

2014 started nearly a month ago but the Christmas Spirit is here to stay, so imbued of that holy magnificent giving-away spirit I decide to keep offering me stuff that I really desired for. Note that I never mentioned "need for", even though it is stuff so good that its inherent quality make these items utterly necessary.

I talk you guys about BOOKS. One of my passions. I read on the way to work and I read on the way home. Sometimes, most of the times actually, I skip taking the bus that would shorten my trip to work to some direct/boring 8 minutes in a  bad traffic day, and I delight myself with a good reading in a 30 minutes walk that makes me wish for more. 

I enjoy the fresh air and also the very interesting things I put my eyes on.

Recently Ive been reading 8 books at a time. Odd? No. I get bored very easily if the intensity of the literature in kind of roller-coasting through my retinas. But then I thought it would be great to start a book label here in the blog, literature concerning science obviously, but not that boring tedious amalgam of heavy weight wording with loads of definitions, concepts and formulas. This is to be interesting above all; interesting and enticing. 

For starters, let me introduce you one of the four books I just purchased through Amazon, on some very indulging prices. Some are used but who really cares?, as long as I can read the words and see the images properly, Im game!

Title: "Forensics"

Author: Richard Platt

Label: Kingfisher Knowledge

Year: First published in 2005

Price: £2.15, used but in a very good state

Public review stars: 4 stars

Public comment: 

Starting quote from book:

Link: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uEZrWdQt5ZUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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UPDATE ON THE 06TH OF FEBRUARY AFTER READING HALF OF THE BOOK:
OK, its quite acceptable as you learn new things. But its a very general approach to forensics. Nice for kids or people who have no knowledge at all on forensics and thrive on it. If youre a student on your GCSEs and need a career enlightenment, this book "might" help you slightly on your decision making. I would rate it for "teenagers" and people with no knowledge of science whatsoever.
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I will come back soon to you guys with info on the other three I bought. Just let me handle primordial things better because being a dad, doing a PhD and writing up is a tough challenge :D

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1st Survival Summer Course Medical Emergencies Lifesaving steps when Bleeding Part 1

Whoa! It has been quite a long time since I last posted on this course that has been dragging since last Summer. This is the real Summer Course, indeed! Last February I wrote about breathing problems, this time we have to focus on something a little more fatalistic - lifesaving steps when bleeding -, either you do them right or you leak!!

What happens when youre facing a severe bleeding?

The loss of 1 liter of blood produces mild symptoms of shock, 2 liters a severe state that puts you in extreme danger, whereas 3 liters usually ends up in death.

The strategy always starts by the same common sense practice, which sounds easy but when ones severely bleeding might be really tough to handle. Avoid worsening shock by interpreting the 1939 slogan from the British government that has been used for decades...

Like the Swahili phrase says, no worries. If you act cool youll survive it. Just look for the cause of the injury. In severe bleeding a person can die in a matter of minutes if there is no fluids replacement. Assess what is the area of major bleeding:

Arterial (issues bright red blood in pulses corresponding to the rhythm of the heartbeat) - arterial bleeding is the most significant bleeding injury for the blood in the arteries is in very high pressure, therefore big volumes of blood can be lost in a short period.

Venous (a steady flow of dark red/maroon blood) - returning to the heart through blood vessels. Can be usually controlled more easily than arterial bleeding.

Capillary (low volumes of blood from the capillaries) are very easy to control.

What to do for controlling external bleeding?

Direct pressure, Indirect pressure (pressure points), elevation, digital ligation and tourniquet.

Direct Pressure is very effective. Apply pressure over the wound strongly enough to stop the bleeding but also for a long period of time to allow thrombocytes to seal off the damaged surface. If bleeding is still active after half an hour than a pressure dressing is the next step (watch the video for instructions). Apply this dressing in a tight fashion, but avoid impairing circulation to the rest of the affected area. It is very important that after applying the dressing you do not remove it, even when the dressing becomes blood soaked. Leave it on for 1-2 days after which a new and smaller one will do a better job. In the long-term survival, make fresh, daily dressing changes and inspect for signs of infection.

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The microwave militia is bad for your mental health

A few weeks ago my mum, very customarily, emailed me a compilation of web articles about the dangers associated to the use of microwaves. I read it vertically in a flash, but lacking time for an appropriate evaluation decided to dedicate my time to other posts. Now, on a Saturday morning with my wife on my side and my baby resting asleep, boring Bundesliga highlights showing on TV, Pepe Guardiola distributing autographs in a very safe-mode competition where only one team wins the title, my eyes were incapable of doing more than reading slowly... conditions are perfect to analyse this microwave issue carefully.

The question here is understanding if an appliance used on a daily basis by basically everyone in the modern world is threatening our health or some anal retentive people have been saying more than they actually know.

Many articles widespread in the Internet blatantly state that the Russians banned the microwave back in 1976 following a study that was used to evaluate health hazards. Well, the Internet is flooded constantly with misinformation or really poor sourcing. The microwave was never banned in Russia, and if you need reassurance this page contains plenty references to make you sure of that. Biased? I dont think so, for in the bottom of the page there are article references for you to read through if necessary be. It seems that conspiracy theorists confused financial incapacity to buy a microwave back in the days with a supposed ban elevated on grounds of health and safety research.

The immediate question is then if microwaves do actually present any short or long-term health hazards. Where some crazy heads claim that there are countries that have banned the microwave, truth surfaces and tells you straight away that that is a perfect lie. No country banned the microwave, what happens is that different regions have different regulations in place to control electrical and electronic appliances; but such is a regulation, not a ban altogether.

What about health concerns in using microwave to prepare food? The microwave works by emitting microwave-band electromagnetic radiation of 2.5GHz through food. Molecules with electric dipoles in them (water is the perfect example - see image) vibrate/rotate along this electromagnetic field with friction creating heat (dielectric heating). Molecules that have a more complex structure are not affected at all. Thus, the microwave presents a clean, clear, straightforward way of heating food.

The myth must end immediately until someone really produces scientific-supported information. Until then, there is a great webpage [Skeptoid] deconstructing the myth and doing for us what science should be doing, allowing progress, knowledge and understanding with the least damage possible. So lets look at the facts that Skeptoid analyses:

"ever since microwave ovens came on the market in 1954, not one person has ever exhibited a single symptom of any illness resulting from having eaten microwaved food, or from having used water that had been microwaved.Burns are the exception, but burns are caused by heat from any source; thats not unique to microwaves." [1]

"chain email, and many of these web sites, also state that giving a plant water that has been microwaved will kill it. There is even a series of unsourced photographs of two plants, one of which withers and dies while its sibling flourishes. The awesome web site Snopes.com tested this particular claim. They all did exactly the same." [1]

"Probably the most flagrant error that the Microwave Militia propagates is that microwaved food or water contains what they call "radiolytic compounds" — new chemicals created by the tearing apart of molecules in a microwave. These new chemicals are said to be dangerous, cancerous, radioactive, unnatural, or otherwise harmful. This is a demonstrably false claim. Radiolysis, which is a real process and which the Militia believes creates these radiolytic compounds, is the process by which molecules are dissociated under ionizing radiation. Water can be dissociated under ionizing alpha particle bombardment, which is a natural process. Microwave radiation, as mentioned earlier, is not ionizing radiation. It is thus scientifically incapable of causing radiolysis. The differences between microwave radiation and alpha radiation are huge. With the claim that microwaves cause dissociation of water molecules, the Microwave Militia is either deliberately lying, or they are grossly ignorant of the very subject on which they claim superior expertise." [1]

There are loads of studies available and you can make your own judgement, but facts are facts and it is a fact that the only issue associated to microwaves is using the wrong container for heating food in a microwave, as the wrong vessel can leak toxic substances if not prepared to accept microwave radiation. Apart from that, these stories are just bullocks.

[1] Are microwave ovens safe? - Skeptoid, Critical analysis of Pop Phenomena; [http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4080], last visited on the 07th of December 2013, last update on the 25th of December 2007.

1st image taken from [http://we-are-star-stuff.tumblr.com/post/63702840093/are-microwave-ovens-dangerous-the-typical]

2nd image source unknown

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