I bet you didnt know that

mzungu

Back in 2010, researchers identified a previously undocumented species of all-female lizard in the Mekong River delta......being served up as food at diners in numerous small villages! The Leiolepis ngovantrii is a small lizard found only in southern Vietnam.

Scientists also noted that the lizards were also clones of their mothers. This is rare, but at the same time not totally unheard of. For example, a few other species of lizards (and fish, too) can adapt to parthenogenesis (self-fertilization), especially when they are faced with adverse environments, pollution or over-hunting etc.

Realt Dearg Sec

Uh, life, uh, uh, finds a way...

pleas advice

NoviGlitzko wrote: »

The chances of finding the 8 tile in a standard expert game of minesweeper is roughly 1 in 10,000.

is that the chances of there being one in a specific game, or the chances of finding it without blowing yourself up?

mikhail

New Home wrote: »

Maybe that's when people started doubting the expression "Trust me, I'm a doctor!"...

Germ theory didn't really win out until the 1880s. Before that, doctors were so unreliable that they took on the title "doctor" - an academic title meaning teacher - to pretend to respectibility. This is why PhDs are also called doctor, and resent the theft by the quacks and leech-sellers of the title.

New Home

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

As an English PhD I have an alternative theory on that.

mikhail wrote: »

Germ theory didn't really win out until the 1880s. Before that, doctors were so unreliable that they took on the title "doctor" - an academic title meaning teacher - to pretend to respectibility. This is why PhDs are also called doctor, and resent the theft by the quacks and leech-sellers of the title.

Sheldon, is that you?!?





Following from that, Doc (the eldest of the 7 dwarfs) wasn't called that because he was a doctor of medicine, but because he was the wisest, and possibly the most knowledgeable.

From Etymonline:

doctor (n.) c. 1300, doctour, "Church father," from Old French doctour and directly from Medieval Latin doctor "religious teacher, adviser, scholar," in classical Latin "teacher," agent noun from docere "to show, teach, cause to know," originally "make to appear right," causative of decere "be seemly, fitting," from PIE root *dek- "to take, accept."
Meaning "holder of the highest degree in a university, one who has passed all the degrees of a faculty and is thereby empowered to teach the subjects included in it" is from late 14c. Hence "teacher, instructor, learned man; one skilled in a learned profession" (late 14c.).
The sense of "medical professional, person duly licensed to practice medicine" (replacing native leech (n.2)) grew gradually out of this from c., 1400, though this use of the word was not common until late 16c. The transitional stage is exemplified in Chaucer's Doctor of phesike (Latin physica came to be used extensively in Medieval Latin for medicina).

and also:

doctrine (n.) late 14c., "the body of principles, dogmas, etc., in a religion or field of knowledge," from Old French doctrine (12c.) "teaching, doctrine" and directly from Latin doctrina "a teaching, body of teachings, learning," from doctor "teacher" (see doctor (n.)) + -ina, fem. of -inus, suffix forming fem. abstract nouns (see -ine (1)).

Caledonia

OldRio wrote: »

That is some accusation you are putting out.

Sorry just getting to reply now (re paramedics in DFB)
Not something that has been ‘put out’ for the first time. Dont take it from me. An intensive care doctor, who was a paramedic himself, describe on the record the poor clinical skills of Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics below.
It makes sense.
To me it’s a scandal under the radar in the health service waiting to be found out.


From Irish Medical Times:

I am writing to you regarding the recent reporting of threatened strike action by members of the Dublin Fire Brigade due to proposed changed to how its Emergency Ambulance resources are controlled and dispatched. As an emeritus advanced paramedic of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) and a medical practitioner working as a specialist anaesthesia trainee with a sub-specialist interest in prehospital medicine, I believe that the Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) system of its firefighters also operating as paramedics and staffing emergency ambulances to be clinically sub-optimum.
Over the past 15 years the educational standards for statutory emergency ambulance personnel has increased dramatically and since 2005 the role has required statutory registration at a minimum of the paramedic level.
Paramedic training has moved from a vocational to an educational model at third-level university, and it is envisaged that entry to the profession will be by undertaking a four-year Paramedic Science BSc programme in a similar fashion to other allied health professions, with our advanced paramedics being MSc degree holders.
The range of diagnostic tools and therapies that can be performed in the prehospital environment is ever expanding, and our patients are in general older and clinically more complex than they were 20 or 30 years ago. It is for this reason that in the 21st Century we need our ambulance paramedics to be competent and regularly exposed to the correct procedural skill set and have a highly developed clinical acumen and the ability to think critically.
The public expectation of the service provided by emergency ambulance personnel has also increased. No longer is it acceptable that we employ individuals to purely convey the sick and injured to emergency departments or cardiac catheterisation labs as rapidly as possible, receiving only basic first aid care en route.
As medical practitioners we should expect that our patients are resuscitated appropriately by skilled, educated paramedics and receive ongoing monitoring and analgesia prior to them reaching our hospital doors.
The only model capable of achieving this standard of care in Dublin is for the DFB to have a core group of emergency medical service staff who work solely as paramedics or for the provision of paramedic services in the capital to be provide by the National Ambulance Service as it is for the rest of the country.
Members of the DFB staff unions will go on record as stating that fire service-based emergency medical service models are the norm in some parts of the US and provide the best standard of care for patients. One such example is King County in Washington State, which has achieved relatively high levels of survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and been considered the benchmark by many services for decades. In this system, the paramedics are dedicated to their prehospital clinical role and do not also work as firefighters, yet the system does utilise firefighters whom respond to life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest and serious trauma to assist paramedic’s on the scene or to commence essential basic care such as CPR prior to their arrival.
Similar systems exist within the Fire Department of New York Emergency Medical Service, and I have personally witnessed how City of Houston Paramedics are supported by fire-fighter responders.
The Cork City Fire Brigade also operates a similar system in that they are dispatched to assist at serious medical calls, supporting the clinical work of NAS paramedics. This is what we should be striving for in Dublin and indeed across Ireland for the clinical reasons I have outlined above, and also to reduce the financial outlay on the taxpayer with regard to training approximately 800 DFB staff to act as occasional paramedics, when a far more cost-effective programme could be utilised.
I would ask all my medical colleagues to consider the above facts prior to supporting the current DFB members ‘Save Dublin’s Ambulance Service’ campaign, which many local politicians have already done.
Dr Alan Horan,
SHO/ Specialist Anaesthesia Trainee,
Cork.

ohnonotgmail

Caledonia wrote: »

Sorry just getting to reply now (re paramedics in DFB)
Not something that has been ‘put out’ for the first time. Dont take it from me. An intensive care doctor, who was a paramedic himself, describe on the record the poor clinical skills of Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics below.
It makes sense.
To me it’s a scandal under the radar in the health service waiting to be found out.


From Irish Medical Times:

I am writing to you regarding the recent reporting of threatened strike action by members of the Dublin Fire Brigade due to proposed changed to how its Emergency Ambulance resources are controlled and dispatched. As an emeritus advanced paramedic of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) and a medical practitioner working as a specialist anaesthesia trainee with a sub-specialist interest in prehospital medicine, I believe that the Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) system of its firefighters also operating as paramedics and staffing emergency ambulances to be clinically sub-optimum.
Over the past 15 years the educational standards for statutory emergency ambulance personnel has increased dramatically and since 2005 the role has required statutory registration at a minimum of the paramedic level.
Paramedic training has moved from a vocational to an educational model at third-level university, and it is envisaged that entry to the profession will be by undertaking a four-year Paramedic Science BSc programme in a similar fashion to other allied health professions, with our advanced paramedics being MSc degree holders.
The range of diagnostic tools and therapies that can be performed in the prehospital environment is ever expanding, and our patients are in general older and clinically more complex than they were 20 or 30 years ago. It is for this reason that in the 21st Century we need our ambulance paramedics to be competent and regularly exposed to the correct procedural skill set and have a highly developed clinical acumen and the ability to think critically.
The public expectation of the service provided by emergency ambulance personnel has also increased. No longer is it acceptable that we employ individuals to purely convey the sick and injured to emergency departments or cardiac catheterisation labs as rapidly as possible, receiving only basic first aid care en route.
As medical practitioners we should expect that our patients are resuscitated appropriately by skilled, educated paramedics and receive ongoing monitoring and analgesia prior to them reaching our hospital doors.
The only model capable of achieving this standard of care in Dublin is for the DFB to have a core group of emergency medical service staff who work solely as paramedics or for the provision of paramedic services in the capital to be provide by the National Ambulance Service as it is for the rest of the country.
Members of the DFB staff unions will go on record as stating that fire service-based emergency medical service models are the norm in some parts of the US and provide the best standard of care for patients. One such example is King County in Washington State, which has achieved relatively high levels of survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and been considered the benchmark by many services for decades. In this system, the paramedics are dedicated to their prehospital clinical role and do not also work as firefighters, yet the system does utilise firefighters whom respond to life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest and serious trauma to assist paramedic’s on the scene or to commence essential basic care such as CPR prior to their arrival.
Similar systems exist within the Fire Department of New York Emergency Medical Service, and I have personally witnessed how City of Houston Paramedics are supported by fire-fighter responders.
The Cork City Fire Brigade also operates a similar system in that they are dispatched to assist at serious medical calls, supporting the clinical work of NAS paramedics. This is what we should be striving for in Dublin and indeed across Ireland for the clinical reasons I have outlined above, and also to reduce the financial outlay on the taxpayer with regard to training approximately 800 DFB staff to act as occasional paramedics, when a far more cost-effective programme could be utilised.
I would ask all my medical colleagues to consider the above facts prior to supporting the current DFB members ‘Save Dublin’s Ambulance Service’ campaign, which many local politicians have already done.
Dr Alan Horan,
SHO/ Specialist Anaesthesia Trainee,
Cork.

bit of a leap from that to "appalling" and "putting patients at risk"

reganreggie

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

bit of a leap from that to "appalling" and "putting patients at risk"

Also one man's opinion

mzungu

A few spooky buried alive tales for halloween!!

In 1915, a 30-year-old Essie Dunbar from South Carolina suffered a "fatal" attack of epilepsy. After declaring her dead, doctors placed her body in a coffin and scheduled her funeral for the following day to accommodate her sister, who lived out of town, so she would still be able to pay her respects. But Dunbar's sister didn't travel fast enough; she arrived only to see the last clods of dirt thrown atop the grave. This didn’t sit well with Dunbar’s sister, who wanted to see Essie one last time. She ordered that the body be removed. When the coffin lid was opened, Essie sat up and smiled at all around her. Mourners fled the scene in terror and three ministers standing next to the grave fell in with the shock of it all. One of them broke three ribs.....from being stamped on by the other two trying desperately to get out!! Essie Dunbar lived for another 40 years up until her second and final death in 1955.

A separate story now about Frenchman, Angel Hays.

In 1937, Hays wrecked his motorcycle, with the impact throwing the young man from his machine headfirst into a brick wall. Hays' face was so disfigured that his parents weren’t allowed to view the body. After locating no pulse, the doctors declared Hays dead, and three days later, he was buried. But because of an investigation helmed by a local insurance company, his body was exhumed two days after the funeral. Much to those at the forensic institute’s surprise, Hays was still warm. He had been in a deep coma and his body’s diminished need for oxygen had kept him alive. After numerous surgeries and some rehabilitation, Hays recovered completely. In fact, he became a French celebrity: People traveled from afar to speak with him, and in the 1970s he went on tour with a (very souped-up) security coffin he invented featuring thick upholstery, a food locker, toilet, and even a library.

VW 1

Not exactly a fact, but on the same theme, my great grandfather was a mason by trade in a drogheda, working mainly with the cemetary making headstones. He had numerous tales from his time regarding people being buried alive, opening a grave to put in a second coffin and the lid was off, scratch marks inside etc.

I asked my grandmother a few years ago to make sure he wasn't winding me up as a child, but she insists he maintained the same stories with her and his wife.

SuperS54

mzungu wrote: »

A few spooky buried alive tales for halloween!!

In 1915, a 30-year-old Essie Dunbar from South Carolina suffered a "fatal" attack of epilepsy. After declaring her dead, doctors placed her body in a coffin and scheduled her funeral for the following day to accommodate her sister, who lived out of town, so she would still be able to pay her respects. But Dunbar's sister didn't travel fast enough; she arrived only to see the last clods of dirt thrown atop the grave. This didn’t sit well with Dunbar’s sister, who wanted to see Essie one last time. She ordered that the body be removed. When the coffin lid was opened, Essie sat up and smiled at all around her. Mourners fled the scene in terror and three ministers standing next to the grave fell in with the shock of it all. One of them broke three ribs.....from being stamped on by the other two trying desperately to get out!! Essie Dunbar lived for another 40 years up until her second and final death in 1955.

A separate story now about Frenchman, Angel Hays.

In 1937, Hays wrecked his motorcycle, with the impact throwing the young man from his machine headfirst into a brick wall. Hays' face was so disfigured that his parents weren’t allowed to view the body. After locating no pulse, the doctors declared Hays dead, and three days later, he was buried. But because of an investigation helmed by a local insurance company, his body was exhumed two days after the funeral. Much to those at the forensic institute’s surprise, Hays was still warm. He had been in a deep coma and his body’s diminished need for oxygen had kept him alive. After numerous surgeries and some rehabilitation, Hays recovered completely. In fact, he became a French celebrity: People traveled from afar to speak with him, and in the 1970s he went on tour with a (very souped-up) security coffin he invented featuring thick upholstery, a food locker, toilet, and even a library.

The scariest part of all is that if those 2 were discovered, there were many more who were not and the problem still exists in present day! https://www.livescience.com/62997-woman-declared-dead-found-alive-in-morgue-fridge.html

RiderOnTheStorm

Doctor v Vet

It takes longer to train a vet. But the first year of training is the same for both.

In an emergency, a vet can treat a human. But a doctor can't treat an animal.

My friend maintains that a vet is a great asset at a car crash. They can diagnose the patient without asking any questions!

Macker

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Doctor v Vet

It takes longer to train a vet. But the first year of training is the same for both.

In an emergency, a vet can treat a human. But a doctor can't treat an animal.

My friend maintains that a vet is a great asset at a car crash. They can diagnose the patient without asking any questions!

And they can put them down

donegal.

the first space burial was Gene Roddenberry in '92.



(and I think we all know the real odds of getting an 8 in minesweeper are 50:50, Well it's either an 8 or it's not)

RiderOnTheStorm

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Doctor v Vet

It takes longer to train a vet. But the first year of training is the same for both.

In an emergency, a vet can treat a human. But a doctor can't treat an animal.

My friend maintains that a vet is a great asset at a car crash. They can diagnose the patient without asking any questions!

But if I was in a crash, I know which I'd prefer.

pavb2

The famous cruise liner the Queen Mary was originally going to be named the Queen Victoria. Legend has it that the board of directors at Cunard had decided to name the ship the Queen Victoria, which would have been in keeping with the tradition of Cunard ships having the "ia" suffix (Mauretania, Aquitania and Berengeria).

As per protocol, legend states that the Cunard directors went to ask King George his blessing of the ship's proposed name saying, "We have decided to name our new ship after England's greatest Queen," meaning Queen Victoria, the King's Grandmother. Upon which the King is reported to have stated, "My wife (Queen Mary) will be delighted that you are naming the ship after her." The board of directors felt that they had no option but to change the ship's name to the Queen Mary.

Unfortunately a paddle steamer that cruised the Clyde as a pleasure boat had claimed the name of the Queen Mary so the Cunard directors went cap in hand to its owners. All ended amicably the paddle steamer changed its name to the Queen Mary II and took possession of a large portrait of the queen which took pride of place in her forward lounge.

Capt'n Midnight

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Doctor v Vet

It takes longer to train a vet. But the first year of training is the same for both.

In an emergency, a vet can treat a human. But a doctor can't treat an animal.

My friend maintains that a vet is a great asset at a car crash. They can diagnose the patient without asking any questions!

I think that sick people in Ankh-Morpork generally go to a vet. It's generally a better bet. There's more pressure on a vet to get it right. People say "it was god's will" when granny dies, but they get angry when they lose a cow.
- Terry Pratchett

wexandproud

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Doctor v Vet

It takes longer to train a vet. But the first year of training is the same for both.

In an emergency, a vet can treat a human. But a doctor can't treat an animal.

My friend maintains that a vet is a great asset at a car crash. They can diagnose the patient without asking any questions!

vets were called in to help on 9/11 .
mrs wex life was saved by a vet , due to a wrong diagnosis and wrong medication been given by doctor , signed mrs wex out of hospital after a row with doctor who was really pissed that a vet would question him, and went for second opinion . Turns out the second opinion confirmed the vet was correct

MikeyTaylor

Michael Jackson's Thriller was originally written as "Starlight".

mzungu

Probably well known, but here goes.

Charles Manson hung out with some pretty big names back in 1960s California.

When out driving, Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) picked up a bunch of hitchhikers that turned out to be part of Charles Manson's "family". Wilson was known to hang out on the fringes of the Los Angeles counterculture, looking for a good time. After driving the girls back to his beach house, they called Manson, who showed up ready to party. It seemed that everybody in California popped around to Wilson's house and quite a few celebs at that. Most notably Neil Young, who thought that Manson's music was quite good. Although, by all accounts, he was the only one who thought that, everyone else thought it was crap.

Wilson was fascinated by Manson, as much for his Svengali skills as for the music he composed. He allowed the "family" to live at the house for a while, even though things got a little too intense even for Wilson and he soon left to stay at another house he owned. But on one visit he brought over his friend, music producer Terry Melcher.

Melcher was big business and quite a well known producer of massive hits of the time like the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn,” was genuine Hollywood royalty, the live-in boyfriend of actress Candice Bergen and the only son of silver screen legend Doris Day. Melcher was unimpressed by Manson's music, although he was mildly intrigued by the idea of making a documentary about Charlie, his tribe, and their whole weird scene. After stringing Manson along for a bit, Melcher backed off completely when he started to suspect that he was a little unhinged.

Not long afterward, he and Bergen moved out of their house on 10050 Cielo Drive, and it was leased to Hollywood director Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate. But it was Melcher they were after that fateful August night of the murders.

Another possibly little known fact about Manson is that he was tiny, only five foot two inches tall.

Yet manipulative and persuasive enough to entangle so many people in his web, and to assume a role of such powerful influence over a band of misfits and dropouts that they would commit murder at his bidding.

New Home

On a happier and totally unrelated note, I just discovered that Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone were classmates in primary school! Who knew?!?

IvyTheTerrific

New Home wrote: »

On a happier and totally unrelated note, I just discovered that Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone were classmates! Who knew?!?

Pfft, the old boys network at work again...
:pac:
What a happy coincidence indeed.

steddyeddy

mikhail wrote: »

Germ theory didn't really win out until the 1880s. Before that, doctors were so unreliable that they took on the title "doctor" - an academic title meaning teacher - to pretend to respectibility. This is why PhDs are also called doctor, and resent the theft by the quacks and leech-sellers of the title.

In biochemistry doctors of medicine are still referred to as clinicians. I always thought that clinicians in scientific research often recieved a fair bit of derision from scientists.

Conchir

Conchir wrote: »

'The Motherland Calls' is a statue in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) commemorating the WWII Battle of Stalingrad. When it was built it stood as the tallest statue in the world, 85m from the top of the plinth to the top of the sword. For reference, the Statue of Liberty measured in the same way is just 46m, though overall it would stand 7m taller if pedestals were included.

https://i.redd.it/7ubiubledv6z.jpg
Comparison without the pedestals.

https://z59.d.sdska.ru/2-z59-ef8719a1-04b5-411d-acbe-450d50eb587b.jpg?_906

https://s3.pixers.pics/pixers/700/FO/15/34/76/78/700_FO15347678_659cb538183ae29b2c8fd7f1f3f66aa5.jpg

Just saw that a statue was officially opened in India yesterday that is now the tallest in the world, at 182m, or 240m with the base. The Statue of Unity depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was heavily involved in India's struggle for independence and was later a politician. It strikes me as one of those things that is very difficult to depict its true scale with just a photo, but if you search for it on google there are plenty.

Capt'n Midnight

That statue cost $430 m.

The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission cost $74 m.


India is also the first to get to Mars on the first attempt.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

That statue cost $430 m.

The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission cost $74 m.


India is also the first to get to Mars on the first attempt.

And the farce is they receive over $3billion in foreign aid every year.

Capt'n Midnight

Nebuchadnezzar II 634 BC - 562 BC had boanthropy - the psychological disorder where you believe you are a cow or ox.

mzungu

The worlds first successful blood transfusion was carried out in 1667.

On June 15, 1667, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys (King Louis XIV's personal physician) performed the first human blood transfusion on a 15 year old boy who had been treated by using leeches to suck out “the bad blood.”

Denys used about 12 oz. of Sheep’s blood and the boy lived, and it is thought that is was the first ever transfusion that did not kill the patient. When Denys tried this technique on other patients, using small quantities of sheep or cow blood so as not to overload the allergic response was not so successful and some of his patients died.

In one notable case, Denys was accused by a patient’s wife of murder, but he was acquitted and the man was found to have died by arsenic poisoning, quite possibly from his wife. After his failures and his murder trial, Denys had had enough and decided to quit the practice of medicine.

pleas advice

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Nebuchadnezzar II 634 BC - 562 BC

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (somewhere near modern day Baghdad) laid two sieges on Jerusalem in 597 and 587 BCE, which are recorded in the bible.

Nebuchadnezzar is the name of a Champagne bottle 20 times the size of a normal bottle, or 15 litres. It was also the name of Morpheus's ship in The Matrix,