DESIGER

When solids and liquids, such as mineral acids, ammonia, cyanides, and mercury, are heated, many poisonous gases are released.
Among these poisonous gases, are mineral acids, ammonia, cyanides and mercury.
Other types of poisonous gases are specially manufactured for war purposes.
Poisonous gases affect the body in various ways, and many are potentially fatal.

Gas poisoning symptoms

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide, and mixtures that contain it, prevent the blood from carrying oxygen to tissues;

Hydrogen Sulfide Poisoning

Hydrogen sulfide causes respiratory paralysis;

Carbon Tetrachloride Poisoning

Carbon tetrachloride damages the liver and kidneys;

Carbon Disulfide Poisoning

Carbon disulfide produces nerve damage and ultimately causes paralysis and psychoses;

Tear Gases Poisoning

Tear gases such as xylyl bromide, severely irritate the eyes, nose, and throat;

Nerve Gases Poisoning

Various nerve gases prevent the proper functioning of nerve impulses;

Chlorine and Phosgene Poisoning

lung irritant gases, such as chlorine and phosgene, attack the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs;

Vesicant gases Poisoning

Vesicant gases, such as mustard gas and lewisite gas (containing arsenic), cause blisters and ulcers on the skin;

Nauseant gases Poisoning

Nauseant gases, such as chloropicrin, induce vomiting;

Nose irritant gases Poisoning

Nose irritant gases, such as diphenylchlorarsine, cause pain, sneezing, depression, and sometimes vomiting.

How do people come in contact with poisonous gases?

• Carbon monoxide is the most poisonous gas likely to be present in domestic surroundings. For example, when an automobile engine has been left running in an enclosed space, such as a garage, carbon monoxide can accumulate to toxic levels.
• Carbon tetrachloride is used in dry cleaning.
• Hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous gas produced in some chemical processes.
• Tear gases are used by police and military personnel.
• Carbon disulfide is used in the rubber industry and in making rayon.

The Sphinx was an ancient Egyptian divinity, who personified wisdom, and the fertility of nature. She is represented as a lion-couchant, with the head and bust of a woman, and wears a peculiar sort of hood, which completely envelops her head, and falls down on either side of the face.
Transplanted into Greece, this sublime and mysterious Egyptian deity degenerates into an insignificant, and yet malignant power, and though she also deals in mysteries, they are, as we shall see, of a totally different character, and altogether inimical to human life.

The Sphinx is represented, according to Greek genealogy, as the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Hera, being upon one occasion displeased with the Thebans, sent them this awful monster, as a punishment for their offences. Taking her seat on a rocky eminence near the city of Thebes, commanding a pass which the Thebans were compelled to traverse in their usual way of business, she propounded to all comers a riddle, and if they failed to solve it, she tore them in pieces.

The Sphinx

During the reign of King Creon, so many people had fallen a sacrifice to this monster, that he determined to use every effort to rid the country of so terrible a scourge. On consulting the oracle of Delphi, he was informed that the only way to destroy the Sphinx was to solve one of her riddles, when she would immediately precipitate herself from the rock on which she was seated.

Creon, accordingly, made a public declaration to the effect, that whoever could give the true interpretation of a riddle propounded by the monster, should obtain the crown, and the hand of his sister Jocaste. Œdipus offered himself as a candidate, and proceeding to the spot where she kept guard, received from her the following riddle for solution: "What creature goes in the morning on four legs, at noon on two, and in the evening on three?" Œdipus replied, that it must be man, who during his infancy creeps on all fours, in his prime walks erect on two legs, and when old age has enfeebled his powers, calls a staff to his assistance, and thus has, as it were, three legs.

The Sphinx no sooner heard this reply, which was the correct solution of her riddle, than she flung herself over the precipice, and perished in the abyss below.

The Greek Sphinx may be recognized by having wings and by being of smaller dimensions than the Egyptian Sphinx.

Text:
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome
Author: E.M. Berens
Published: 1880

The Project Gutenberg EBook
Produced by Alicia Williams, Keith Edkins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Attention deficit disorder is a condition that usually affects school-aged children and is characterized by inattention, impulsivity, or hyperactivity.
These disorders are occasionally a result of environmental stress.
Most cases, however, are felt to have a biological basis.
Attention deficit disorders should be differentiated from mental retardation, schizophrenia, or a manic-depressive state.
The onset is before the age of 7 years, and an estimated 5 percent of school-aged children exhibit characteristics of some form of learning disorder.
 I.Q. tests taken by these children are normal, and there are no neurologic abnormalities.
Attention deficit disorders may result in poor school performance.
In some cases, there are specific learning disabilities, such as visual-motor or speech defects.

Attention Deficit Disorder Treatment

Treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder is complex and should be coordinated with specific educators. There is no proof that dietary changes are beneficial.

• Sunlight is so strong that it can damage your eyesight and even blind you.
• Never look directly at the sun through a telescope, binoculars, or sunglasses.

Did you know that the sun is really a star?

It looks much larger than the stars we see in the sky at night. Although many of those stars are even larger than the sun, they look smaller because they are even farther away from the earth.
All stars produce huge amounts of energy. Each star is like a powerhouse of energy. In one second, the sun, for example, produces 4 million short tons (3.6 million metric tons) of energy. Without the sun’s energy there would be no life on earth. The earth would be completely dark and freezing cold.

Heat energy travels from the core of the sun to its surface. Energy is released from the sun’s surface as electromagnetic radiation.

WHAT IS THE SUN MADE OF?

The sun is a huge ball of hot substances. The hottest part is in the center, or core. Here, the fierce heat causes atoms of hydrogen to join together in the process called nuclear fusion. During nuclear fusion, huge amounts of energy are released. This energy flows outwards from the core to the surface of the sun.
The surface of the sun is like a sea of continually exploding gases and boiling liquids. Much of the sun’s energy is heat and light, and this travels out, or radiates, in all directions. The sun is the source of almost all the energy we use.

A fountain of gas flares up from the surface of the sun, reaching as far as 992,000 miles (1,600,000 kilometers) into space.

Will the sun burn itself out?

If the sun is producing so much heat and light, why doesn’t it burn itself out like a coal fire or a match? The answer is that it will burn itself out, one day. It will swell up into a giant red star and use up the rest of its fuel. But don’t worry—that day is about 5 billion years away!

Choriocarcinoma symptoms

Bones are hard tissues that are living parts of your body, just as your brain and heart are living parts. Bones contain cells that divide and multiply, causing you to grow.
These cells are also always rebuilding the bony tissue to keep it strong.
Rebuilding happens less as people grow older. So a broken bone will often heal much more quickly in a child than in an adult.
Bones store substances called minerals, which your body uses. Calcium is a mineral. It helps to make the bones hard.
Bones have a strong covering, called periosteum.
Inside, there is a hard layer of compact bone.
A long bone, such as the thigh bone, has spongy tissue at its ends, called cancellous bone, and soft marrow in its hollow center.

Some parts of your skeleton, such as your arms and legs, have only a few long bones. Other parts, such as your hands and feet, have many small bones.

How are bones held together?

Your bones are held together by strong, flexible straps called ligaments.
The ends of the bones are covered with a smooth, rubbery substance called cartilage. This is the same kind of substance that forms the tip of your nose.
Cartilage works like a cushion so that the bones don’t grind against each other. Cartilage is covered in a liquid called synovial fluid.
This keeps the bones moving smoothly, like oil in the parts of a machine.

I stumbled upon the Flickr group: Cephalopods , and decided that it was about time to put up some more eye candy on the site.  Ive gotten in touch with some of the photographers whose cephalopod photos are in the group, and Ill be doing a series of posts with each post featuring the work of a single photographer. 

First on the list is Lawrence Tulissi. All of the photos in this post are click-through-able if you want a larger image - which I highly recommend - and are his property (so dont steal them.)

First is an octopus (looks like it could be O. cyanea to me, but Im not the best at species identification) in a neat posture, with a very striking pattern of coloration.  This was taken at Truk Lagoon, which sounds like an incredible place to dive.



This next one shows the suckers of a giant Pacific octopus.  I like that you can see suckers in various states of contraction, showing the great flexibility that having multiple sets of muscles in each sucker affords the octopus.



This next one is of O. briareus, the Caribbean reef octopus, showing off its long arms and exhibiting some great body patterning.  This posture is probably defensive, judging by how conspicuous its coloration is and the fact that the interbrachial web is spread.



This picture shows the eye of a giant Pacific octopus.  The description of the photo says that the octopus was in its den, and the closed pupil slit indicates that it was likely resting.  In a neat case of functional homology, octopuses, like many vertebrates, tend to close their eyes when they rest - its just that, since they have no eyelids, they do this by closing their pupils.  If you dont believe me check out Brain and behavioural evidence for rest-activity cycles in Octopus vulgaris by Brown et al. (2006).



Moving on from octopuses (as much as it pains me), well finish up with two wonderful shots of Carribean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea:





Thanks for the photos, Lawrence!

Everybody else, thanks for reading.  Ill be writing on some brand-spanking-new research on the role of serotonin in the octopus learning system next week, so Ill see you then!

"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it."
~ Samuel Johnson

May is National Bike Month, and a great way to celebrate--besides going for a ride--is to read books that feature these two-wheel wonders. Im particularly pro-bike because my Main Squeeze is a biking fanatic, who has owned two bike shops. His last one had as its logo an illustration of a frog riding a bike, drawn by the talented childrens book illustrator Brian Schatell.

Why a frog? Main Squeeze is seriously into Kermit.

During the time he owned the shop, I started collecting picture books that featured animals riding bikes. Here are a few of my favorites.

What a great cover! A classic, Lobels Frog and Toad Together showcases five stories about these two amphibian friends: "A List," "The Garden," "Cookies,"  "Dragons and Giants," and "The Dream." My favorite is the first, in which Toad writes a list of the many things he needs to do. Number one is "Wake up," which he then proceeds to cross off. Incredibly, I know an avid list-maker who has been known to do exactly that. (Hi, Mom!)

Marta is a cow captivated by bicycles. One day when a bike race passes by the farm, she is inspired to build her own. When shes finished, she faces a problem. She doesnt know how to ride. Like many a beginning rider, she takes her fair share of spills before mastering her new set of wheels. Next year Marta is ready. When the race again comes to town, Marta joins the fun--and ends up taking first place. Written by Germano Zulla and illustrated by Albertine, both from Geneva, Marta and the Bicycle is a delightfully silly story children will be sure to want to read again and again.

I love anything by David McPhail, the illustrator of The Bears Bicycle. His appealing drawings of animals capture their essence. The Bears Bicycle, written by Emilie Warren McLeod, is a step-by-step progression of a little boys ride through town. The boy narrator is a model rider, signaling turns, looking both ways before walking his bike across the street, and steering around cans and broken glass. All this is clearly shown. His stuffed teddy bear, however, is another matter. McPhail portrays the bear as a real one, who gleefully disobeys the rules of the road. He coasts down hills, shoves people who are in his way, and ignores STOP signs. His actions do have consequences. He fails to brake at the end, causing him to tumble. Children will get a kick out of seeing the bears naughty ways, while at the same time learning the importance of bicycle safety.

Duck on a Bike showcases an entire barnyard of animals on bikes. The fun starts with Duck, who highjacks a bike and begins  riding it around the farm. He passes Cow, Sheep, Dog, Cat, Horse, Chicken, Goat, a pair of Pigs, and Mouse. Each animal has its private opinion about Ducks shenanigans. When a bunch of kids ride up to the farm and leave their bikes outside, the fun begins. The animals jump on (the pigs riding a tandem) and off they go. When they disembark, no one is the wiser--except readers who have had the fun of seeing David Shannons winning illustrations.

Cinderella Smith didnt get her nickname because she has a wicked stepmother (hers  is "just a regular kind of mom who is usually nice but kind of strict.") or because she has mean stepsisters (Tess, her younger sister, is a sweetheart) or because she sleeps next to an ashy fireplace or because she has tons of chores to do. No, Cinderella earned her name because shes always losing shoes. In the course of the story, she misplaces half-a-dozen. Most find their way back to her, except for the one she needs most of all--her brand-new ruby red tap shoe. Without it, she wont be able to dance the coveted lead part of Pumpkin Blossom Fairy in the Autumn Recital.

Luckily, this Cinderella, unlike her fairy-tale namesake, has plenty of pluck, and doesnt require a fairy godmother to solve her problems. Instead she teams up with the new girl in school, Erin, who has her own worries. Her mother is remarrying and shes getting two stepsisters. Will they be mean or nice? Cinderella is all set to help her new friend find out.

First-time author Stephanie Barden successfully juggles both plot lines, putting her young heroine into one scrape after another. Diane Goodes wriggly line drawings capture Cinderellas bouncy, exuberant personality to a tee. A second book, Cinderella Smith and the More the Merrier, will come out next year. Yippee!

Cinderella Smith
by Stephanie Barden
illustrations by Diane Goode
HarperCollins, 160 pages
Published: 2011

So many spring releases to choose from, so little time. Here are ten childrens books Im dying to get my hands on. Check out other peoples lists on The Broke and the Bookish blog.

Doll Bones by Holly Black
This middle grade novel sounds creepy and fun--right up my alley. Pub date: May 2013

Bink & Gollie: Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
BFF Bink and Gollie are always up to something in this amusing beginning reader series. Pub date: April 2013

Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan
Loved Dodsworth and his ducks tours of Rome and London so Im betting Tokyo will be a blast. Pub date: April 2013

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
This dystopic novel from the U.K. has garnered a lot of buzz. I snagged a copy from my library and Im all set to read. Pub date: February 2013

Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes
The latest from a great beginning reader series by a master craftsman. Pub date: March 2013

Definitely No Ducks by Meg McKinlay
I was charmed by McKinlays first chapter book about a girl and her pet duck. Im glad to see theyre back and quacking. Pub date: March 2013

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis
Timmy is an eleven-year-old detective and his partner is a polar bear in this comic middle-grade novel. What more do you need? Pub date: February 2013

Clementine and the Spring Trip by Sara Pennypacker
Ah, Clementine. I missed you. Pub date: March 2013

Pug and Other Animal Poems by Valerie Worth
Poetry and pugs! Woo-hoo! Pub date: March 2013

That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
An interactive picture book by the one and only Mo Willems. Cant wait. Pub date: April 2013

Addendum

I dont just read childrens books, of course. Two adult books for Im super psyched to read are: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.

Now whats on your Spring TBR list?

HUMAN BODY SYSTEM DIAGRAM :

Anatomy and physiology study is normally broken down into 12 sections, with each section representing one system of the body, for example, the endocrine system. When you begin revising, it is recommended that you take 1 system of the body and learn it on its own. Various body systems are similar in nature so learning them together might cause confusion. Take each area of your anatomy and physiology study and write out concise notes on that area. To give you an example and for the purpose of this article I will give you a brief overview of the heart and its role in blood circulation.

The heart is a hollow muscular organ, approximately the size of its owners fist. It is positioned in the center of the chest area, between the lungs and is divided into 4 chambers. The upper chambers are called the atria and the lower chambers are called the ventricles. The right and left sides of the heart are divided by a muscular wall called the septum, this prevents deoxygenated and oxygenated blood from mixing together.

If you can imagine the pipe system in your house providing water and heat to you on a daily basis, metaphorically speaking, the house is your heart and the pipes are the blood vessels that are found throughout our bodies. Blood is pumped from the heart around all parts of the body through a complex transport system consisting of arteries, veins and capillaries (blood vessels). The heart beats approximately 100,000 times every day in order to supply our cells with oxygen rich blood and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood through its chambers on a daily basis.

Blood circulation follows a specific route and can be summed up as follows;

1. The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood from the superior and inferior vena cava.

2. The blood is then pushed through the tricuspid valve down into the right ventricle. The tricuspid valve is a small flap that prevents the back flow of blood between the chambers on the right side.

3. Once the right ventricle fills up, the blood is then propelled into the pulmonary artery which then travels to the lungs where gaseous exchange occurs.

4. When the lungs remove the carbon dioxide, the deoxygenated blood becomes oxygenated and returns back to the heart via four pulmonary veins.

5. The blood enters the left atria via these pulmonary veins and is then pushed down into the left ventricle through the bicuspid valve. The bicuspid valve prevents the back flow of blood on the left side.

6. Once the left ventricle fills up it contracts, forcing the blood into the aorta which then branches to become the ascending aorta which supplies the upper body with oxygen rich blood and the descending aorta which supplies the lower body with oxygen rich blood.

7. Blood becomes deoxygenated once again and returns to the superior and inferior vena cava where the process begins again.

As I mentioned above, this just gives you a brief overview of the heart, its function and how it transports blood around the body. When you are carrying out any anatomy and physiology study, always make sure to summarize all areas as above. Using visual tools such as diagrams is a great way to spice up your notes. Even if you cant draw like picasso, it doesnt matter. To illustrate the heart you can draw a square shape or a circle and divide it equally into 4 chambers. It just gives you an idea of the layout of the heart and it has been proven that learning visually can be much more effective than just reading something over and over again.

“ Heres Your Chance To Skip The Struggle and Master Human Anatomy & Physiology In 3 Days Or Less... 100% Guaranteed ”


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"No one, I dare say, no one was as original."
--Maurice Sendak

"He never lost the feeling of how a child sees the world. And a childs view is not really sentimental."
--Burton Pike, professor of comparative literature at CUNY

"The most famous childrens book author you have never heard of."
--Phaidon Press

Who do the above quotes refer to? None other than Tomi Ungerer, one of my all-time favorite authors. I was an Ungerer fan as a child, poring over my tattered copies of The Three Robbers and Emile again and again. As an adult I came across The Beast of Monsieur Racine and fell in love with this exuberant story about a retired tax collector whose life is changed forever when he finds two young friends where he least expected. Read the book. Its one of my top 10 favorite picture books.

Many of Ungerers books are now out of print. (One reason he fell out of favor here was his not-so-secret hobby of erotica.) Luckily, Phaidon Press is in the process of reprinting 26 of his titles. The latest is Otto: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear. Originally published in German in 1999, the picture book tackles a disturbing subject, World War II. Like all of Ungerers work, the book doesnt shy away from the gory realities of war and what happens to soldiers and to civilians, children included.

Otto, the teddy bear of the title, tells the story of his life, beginning with his creation in a toy workshop in Germany in the 1930s. Not one to shun unpleasant truths, Otto admits that being stitched together "was quite painful." Given as a birthday present to David, a young Jewish boy, Otto spends blissful day playing with the boy and his best friend, Oskar, who is not Jewish. Then things begin to change. David must wear a yellow star on his jacket. Next he and his family are taken away. In a moving illustration, David hands over Otto to Oskar for safekeeping. Interestingly, Oskar is the one who looks upset and is crying, not David.

During wartime, Oskars building is bombed and Otto is sent flying. Again, the illustration of the carnage, with the bodies of dead soldiers, is unsparing. Hes picked up by an American soldier, thereby saving the soldiers life when a bullet hits them both. (Quibble: Could a stuffed teddy bear be enough of a buffer?) The soldier takes Otto home and gives him to his daughter. Loved again, Otto enjoys being pampered until hes snatched from the girls arms by "three nasty boys" and finally ends up in a trash can. An old woman rescues him and bring him to an antique shop, where he stays in the window for many years. One rainy night, an old man spots him. Yes, dear reader, its David, the original owner, who survived the war (although his parents didnt). David takes him home, and the story is written up in the newspaper, which leads to Oskar (another survivor) contacting David, and the three friends are reunited.

Despite the involved plot, the text for Otto is relatively straightforward, although there are a few vocabulary words to chew on, such as "indelible," "charred rubble," and "mascot." Would a Level 3 reader be able to get through the book by herself. Yes. Should she? No. A trusted adults presence is strongly recommended, as a child is bound to have many questions. The illustrations, as with all of Ungerers work, are amazing. Done in soft watercolors, they can be playful (as when David and Oskar dress Otto as a ghost and dangle him in front of a neighbors window), touching (Oskar saying goodbye to his father as he heads off to war), and graphic (the wounded American soldier clutching Otto to his chest to staunch the flow of blood). Even Ottos expression subtly change each time he undergoes another reversal of fortune. I highly recommend this book, and Im looking forward to seeing more of Tomi Ungerers work reissued by Phaidon.
 

Otto: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear
by Tomi Ungerer
Phaidon Press, 36 pages
Published: September, 2010