Self Reliance

Patients as popsicle

I once packed a patient who had suffered an acute MI (heart attack) and was on the vent into a body bag with ice leaving only the head sticking out. The cardio thoracic surgeon at another facility wanted him packaged and shipped that way via EMS. You should have seen the look on the medics face when he saw the "package".

Now from the AP:

It took five shocks to get Cynthia Crawford's heart to start beating again after she collapsed at Ochsner Clinic a few weeks ago. A dramatic rescue, to be sure, yet it was routine care that she could have had at any hospital.

What came next, though, was not.

As she lay unconscious, doctors placed her in an inflatable cocoon-like pool that sprayed her naked body with hundreds of icy-cold jets of water, plunging her into hypothermia.

"Like jumping in the North Sea," said the cardiologist leading her care, Dr. Paul McMullan.

Days later, Crawford was recovering without the long-term harm she might have suffered.

The rest Study will examine whether frigid water can slow tissue death from heart attack

Product website: Life Recovery Systems

Ghosts of Christmas past part 2

I think this was Christmas 1978?

AP news story as usual based on nothing

AP Enterprise: Deaths loom over self-defense laws

An Associated Press review found a growing number of cases but no clear trend yet in how the law is applied or how cases will be resolved in court.

Well maybe they should wait for a trend before doing a non story stringing together unrelated shootings.

Self defense should not be that complicated. If you are in fear of your life or protecting the life of another its pretty straight forward. Laws requiring you to retreat are asinine.

The guy shooting someone coming out of his neighbors house was wrong and that's very dangerous. I'm glad it wasn't the neighbors kids practicing a fire evacuation plan.

Someone snatching a case of beer and running out of the store is a no brainer as well. The only reason the clerks life was in danger at the time of the shooting was because he chased the guy.

Castle doctrine laws are need to prevent home owners from being prosecuted for protecting themselves. Like this post I made back back when the law was passed in Kentucky about a paraplegic indicted for shooting an intruder.

PETA pushing the EPA for farm tax on livestock flatulence?

Proposed fee on smelly cows, hogs angers farmers

For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.

Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.

It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.

Care to guess who payed for the cow fart study?

Really who could support this kind of nonsense?

The fee would cover the cost of a permit for the livestock operations. While farmers say it would drive them out of business, an organization supporting the proposal hopes it forces the farms and ranches to switch to healthier crops.

"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said.

Well there you go then. So what about all the wild animals that roam my 300 acres I have to pay the state for permission to shoot? There are whitetail deer living off farms all over the country that the state seems to think belongs to them. They eat my crops and pass gas just like cows. I may have to go outside and shoot something to save the ozone layer. Good job PETA in reminding me to thin the herd.

Barney speaks and you missed nothing

Frank: 'To do nothing would be a disaster'

Allowing the U.S. automakers to declare bankruptcy would worsen the credit crisis, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday during an auto bailout hearing.

If the the Big Three Detroit automakers are permitted to "stop paying their debts" through bankruptcy, "it would greatly exacerbate the credit crisis," Frank said in his opening remarks at the House Financial Services Committee hearing.

"For us to do nothing ... in the midst of the worst credit crisis and unemployment situation in the last 70 years would be a disaster, said Frank, who is chairman of the committee.

But if the govt bails them out guess who just payed their debts?

Ranking minority member Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama said the financial crisis has overwhelmed "the reality ... that Detroit is making good cars."

U.S. automakers must not be allowed to fail because it would have a detrimental effect on the economy, Bachus said.

"Having said that," he said. "the No. 1 obligation is to the taxpayers. Government has no money of its own. In order to give ... it has to take."

Well at least Bachus remembers that much. Maybe they just write over every urinal in the capital building.

Ghosts of Christmas past part 1

Yes that's me unknown year with my Marx Guns of Navarone play set.

Christmas

Indictments in boys Uzi death

Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.

The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.

Christopher, of Ashford, Conn., lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin Oct. 26 at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club in western Massachusetts.

Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury was charged because he owns the sponsor of the gun fair, COP Firearms & Training. Two men who brought the automatic weapon to the show, Carl Guiffre of Hartford, Conn., and Domenico Spano, of New Milford, Conn., also were indicted.

Fleury and the club also were indicted on four counts each of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. A conviction on each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, up to $10,000 in fines and the loss of a firearms license for at least 10 years.

Bennett said prosecutors know of at least four children, including Christopher, who fired automatic weapons at the fair. He added that Fleury had wrongly assured Guiffre and Spano that it was legal for children to use the Uzi under Massachusetts law.

The father was not charged because he was a layman and based his decision on information from others who should have known it was too dangerous, Bennett said. The 15-year-old boy who was supervising Christopher with the Uzi also will not be charged, he added.

So blame everyone but the parent?

Pills with Bluetooth?

Edible Electronics Monitor Drugs in Your Body

A biomedical company has created a system to embed tiny computers and sensors into drugs and link them to a cellphone or the internet in a bid to make the monitoring of drug efficacy foolproof.

Proteus' product consists of two parts: an ingestible sensor chip and an external band-aid-like patch. The chips are just 1mm square and 200 microns thick and are attached to pills with a bio-compatible glue. When swallowed the chips send a signal to the patch. The patch has accelerometers and amplifiers to track heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and body angle to determine if the patient is lying down or standing up.

That information is transmitted via Bluetooth to an online repository and can show how the body is responding to the drug, says Savage.

Well so long as its a 1 time use pill that is fine but I'm not gonna dig for it.

Watch out honey I'm about to go off

Man Says Wife Was Accidentally Shot During Sex

A Tri-State woman is in critical condition Wednesday after police say her husband shot her while they were having sex.

Timothy Havens, 38, told Springfield police he was reaching for something on the nightstand when the pistol went off, hitting his estranged wife Carolyn in the upper chest.

Audio of part of the 911 call at the link above. The man seems very calm?

h/t drudge

Gulf of Aden gets crowded as China seeks to join the fray

Call made for China navy to battle Somali pirates

A Chinese general has called for the country's navy to join the fight against Somali pirates, saying the mission would boost China's international stature and give its sailors valuable experience in fighting open ocean combat operations far from their home ports.

Chinese ships have been among those seized in a wave of pirate attacks this year, including the fishing vessel Tianyu No. 8, seized in mid-November.

International warships from NATO and countries including Russia patrol the Gulf of Aden and have created a security corridor in the area under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks have not abated.

"Piracy doesn't just interfere in our country's navigational safety, it also impedes our development and interests," Major General Jin Yinan told state radio.

Hopefully with all these ships looking for a piece of the action there will not be anymore not so friendly friendly fire.

Sexism

From BLACKFIVE: Ask an Infantryman: MAN LANDS IN HOT WATER AFTER SON SPILLS THE BEANS

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are still at odds over something that happened months ago. He, his best friend and my 13-year-old son, "Mark," went to spring training in Florida. On one of the days, they went to lunch at a restaurant that features scantily clad waitresses. My husband told Mark not to tell me about it and to leave the telling to him. When they returned home on Sunday after their three-day weekend, Mark let it slip where they had gone for lunch one day. I hit the roof! Mark is a very young 13. I was furious that my husband took him to a place that Mark described as making him feel "uncomfortable" because of all the skin that was being shown. After I jumped on my husband for doing it, I heard him outside yelling at Mark for telling me before he had a chance to. I'm being accused of overreacting, Abby. Am I? -- PROTECTIVE LIONESS IN ATLANTA

Heh.

Nancy must be crying in her Corn Flakes: GM and Chrysler Considering Bankruptcy to Get Bailout

General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are considering accepting a pre-arranged bankruptcy as the last-resort price of getting a multi-billion dollar government bailout, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with internal discussions.

In response to automakers' bailout plea, staff for three members of Congress have asked restructuring experts if a pre-arranged bankruptcy -- negotiated with workers, creditors and lenders -- could be used to reorganize the sector without liquidation, Bloomberg said.

Publicly GM CEO Rick Wagoner has said bankruptcy would mean liquidation because consumers would refuse to buy cars from a company that might not be able to back warranties or supply parts. Bankruptcy is "way down the list of options," GM board member George Fisher told Bloomberg yesterday in an interview.

Bullshit. There are plenty of parts for your crappy cars. What about the extended warranties that stealerships love to sell? Could not it be worked out where new cars were covered from day 1 under those?

IDF prepares to go it alone against Iran

IDF preparing options for Iran strike

The IDF is drawing up options for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that do not include coordination with the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While its preference is to coordinate with the US, defense officials have said Israel is preparing a wide range of options for such an operation.

“It is always better to coordinate,” one top Defense Ministry official explained last week. “But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination.”

The probability of the attack completely destroying the facilities is not good as Iran has learned from the mistakes of Osirak. The Iranian program is supposedly very deep and spread around multiple sites but a strike may delay completion.

Israel has asked for the green light from the US before.

I can understand Israel being impatient as they undoubtedly do not expect much help from the Obama administration who will likely insist on the UN to handle the problem. Just like they handle all other world problems by debating while Iran continues development. If Israel does go it alone Bush might was well offer the air space as the US will certainly be blamed anyway.

AR-15 mounted anti-zombie device

From AR15.com

He has action videos at the link. A real live functional chainsaw bayonet. Hopefully a mount from Mark LaRue will be forthcoming.

Exercise may cause fat asses to shrink

Exercise may speed weight loss after gastric bypass

Researchers found that of 199 patients who underwent gastric bypass, those who became more active after surgery lost more weight over one year than those who remained relatively inactive.

Well no shit.

German soldiers are 'too fat to fight' Taliban because they drink so much

German soldiers are 'too fat to fight' Taliban because they drink so much (while our boys go dry)

They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.

The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine.

The troops also downed 896,000 pints of beer in the first six months of this year, the Times reported.

The statistics only add to the embarrassment of the country's federal army, Bundeswehr, after a report earlier this year found troops to be too fat, smoked too much and didn't exercise enough.

It showed they lived on beer and sausages while shunning fruit and vegetables.

The parliamentary report claimed that some 40 per cent of all German army personnel are overweight - a higher percentage than in the civilian population.

At the time Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, stated: 'Plainly put, the soldiers are too fat, exercise too little, and take little care of their diet.'

The Times also reported the damning allegation from a senior officer that Germany is failing in its main mission to train the Afghan police. He descibed the efforts as 'a miserable failure'.

Since 2001, 28 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

Maybe they should rename them the Budweiser? Interesting facts but how many pounds of sausage went with all that beer?

Situational Awareness

Rule #1 of robbery don't put down your weapon

Cops: Robber Caught After Putting Gun Down

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Tampa man suspected of armed robbery apparently forgot that the key to a successful armed robbery is hanging on to the gun.

Police said 42-year-old Jerome Haggins, armed with a pistol, entered a Tampa home Saturday night, ordered six men to the ground and demanded they give up their wallets and jewelry.

He then forced them to take off their clothes and noticed that one of the men had not given up his bracelet.

Police said Haggins put his pistol on a table, walked over to the man and snatched the bracelet. But while Haggins was taking the bracelet, police said another victim grabbed the gun and pointed it at Haggins.

The would-be victims held Haggins until police arrived.

Haggins faces multiple charges, including armed robbery. He was being held without bail set.

Held my ass. Should have assumed the douche bag had a second weapon and splattered his tiny brain all over the wall.