1521 – After a 3-month siege, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan fell to Spanish forces.
1818 – Women’s rights activist Lucy Stone (founder of American Suffrage Association) was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts.
1889 – William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, patented the coin-operated telephone.
1899 – Film director – producer Alfred Hitchcock was born in London.
1961 – The German city of Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence.
Filed under History
Michelle Malkin’s Twitter-based site, Twitchy, lit up Sunday with comments from right-wing extremists complaining about anti-Paul Ryan leftists. It’s pathetic reading this crap on a site founded by a banana chick; i.e. a Filipino-American girl who’s yellow-skinned with a white interior. If you’ll notice, aside from calling President Obama a “nigger,” one actually recommends violence.
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“Mitt Romney choosing Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee is an inspired, outstanding selection. He is a person of devout Christian faith who has a 100 percent pro-life and pro-family voting record in his 14 years in Congress. He will excite and energize social conservatives, who will play a critical role in the outcome of the elections.”
– Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, on Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate.
Oh, Lord, please deliver us from your most devout followers! They keep screwing up! Just look at Ralph Reed’s parents.
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Angelonias are not well-known outside of gardening enthusiasts. But that could change, as the summer heat continues to grip most of the U.S. Angelonias (Angelonia angustifolia) – also called summer snapdragons – are a hardy flowering plant that can survive the hottest temperatures. In fact, they seem to crave the sun. The stalks of these annuals boast a spiky, upright posture and can reach heights of 2 feet; they produce purple, pink or white blooms and have a smell akin to apples. They’re native to México and the West Indies and can be planted in almost any type of soil, including clay. Photos courtesy of Ball Horticultural Company.
Earlier this year I mentioned hydrogen peroxide and iodine, but I wanted to expand upon antiseptics altogether. Among your medical supplies you must have sufficient quantities of an antiseptic. An antiseptic is a substance that inhibits the growth and development of microorganisms. They’re topical agents, meaning you apply them to skin or mucous membranes, such as the nasal interior.
There are several different types of antiseptics.
Benzalkonium chloride and hexachlorophine are used primarily as hand scrubs or face washes. Benzalkonium also can act as a disinfecting agent for instruments, such as knives.
Chlorhexidine has a high margin of safety when applied to mucous membranes and has been used in oral rinses and preoperative body washes.
Hydrogen peroxide utilizes oxygen gas. Although its antibacterial activity is relatively weak, the liberation of oxygen bubbles produces an effervescent action, which is useful for wound cleansing through the removal of tissue debris. The activity of hydrogen peroxide may be reduced by the presence of blood and pus. The standard concentration of hydrogen peroxide for antiseptic use is 3%, although higher concentrations are available.
Iodine includes tincture of iodine and povidone iodine compounds. Iodine has the broadest spectrum of topical antiseptics; they’re effective against bacteria, fungi, viruses, spores, protozoa and yeasts. Iodine tincture is highly effective, but its alcoholic component is drying and extremely irritating when applied to skin that’s been scraped or rubbed. Povidone iodine is less irritating and less toxic, but not as effective. Povidone iodine also has been used for hand scrubs and disinfection of surgical sites.
Thimerosol (or Mersol) is a mercury-based compound that’s effective against bacteria and yeasts. Prolonged use may result in mercury toxicity.
With chaos surrounding you and the possibility of dead bodies piling up in your neighborhood, deadly microbes will have free reign. And, I’m not talking about those that cause body odor or gingivitis; although those are bad enough. Antiseptics will help you deal with the annoyance of cuts and scrapes your hands and arms could get from carving up fish, gathering firewood, or digging holes to bury the bodies of neighbors who whine too loud about not having prepared for the apocalypse.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Screenwriter William Goldman (Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Chaplin) is 81.
Actor George Hamilton (Love at First Bite, Act One, The Survivors, Zorro, the Gay Blade, Where the Boys Are, Evel Knievel, The Dead Don’t Die, Doc Hollywood) is 73.
Actress Jennifer Warren (Amazons, Slap Shot, The Intruder Within, Confessions of a Married Man, Fatal Beauty, Partners in Crime) is 71.
Singer – songwriter – guitarist Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 63.
Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny (Bright Size Life, Watercolors, New Chautauqua, American Garage, As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, Offramp, Travels, Rejoicing, First Circle, Song X, Still Life [Talking]) is 58.
Tennis champion Pete Sampras (Australian Open [1994], Wimbledon [1993, 1994, 1995], U.S. Open [1990, 1993, 1995]) is 41.
Filed under Birthdays
1849 – Artist Abbott Thayer (created camouflage pattern for military) was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
1851 – Isaac Singer of New York City patented the double-treadle sewing machine.
1865 – Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery.
1881 – Film director – producer Cecil B. DeMille (The Crusades, The Sign of the Cross, King of Kings, Cleopatra, The Plainsman, Reap the Wild Wind, The Buccaneer, The Greatest Show on Earth) was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts.
1981 – IBM (International Business Machines) introduced the Model 5150 personal computer. It ran on the Intel 8088 microprocessor at 4.77 mHz with one or two 160K floppy disk drives and boasted 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k, five 8-bit ISA slots, and a 65-watt power supply. It had no built-in clock, serial or parallel ports, or video capability; color monitor was optional.
1992 – The United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to form a free-trade zone that would remove most barriers to trade and investment and create the world’s largest trading bloc: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1998 – Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits filed by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks had kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims and their relatives before and during World War II.
Filed under History
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More proof why Ann Coulter should be the perennial ‘Asshole of the Month.’
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