Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasa

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender in WWII in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of "a new and most cruel bomb."

At the time of its bombing, Hiroshima was a city of both industrial and military significance. A number of military units were located nearby, the most important of which was the headquarters of Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's Second General Army, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan, and was located in Hiroshima Castle. Hata's command consisted of some 400,000 men, most of whom were on Kyushu where an Allied invasion was correctly anticipated. Also present in Hiroshima were the headquarters of the 59th Army, the 5th Division and the 224th Division, a recently formed mobile unit. The city was defended by five batteries of 7-cm and 8-cm (2.8 and 3.1 inch) anti-aircraft guns of the 3rd Anti-Aircraft Division, including units from the 121st and 122nd Anti-Aircraft Regiments and the 22nd and 45th Separate Anti-Aircraft Battalions. In total, an estimated 40,000 Japanese military personnel were stationed in the city.

Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military, but it also had large stockpiles of military supplies. The city was also a communications center, a key port for shipping and an assembly area for troops. It was a beehive of war industry, manufacturing parts for planes and boats, for bombs, rifles, and handguns; children were shown how to construct and hurl gasoline bombs and the wheelchair-bound and bedridden were assembling booby traps to be planted in the beaches of Kyushu. A new slogan appeared on the walls of Hiroshima: "FORGET SELF! ALL OUT FOR YOUR COUNTRY!" It was also the second largest city in Japan after Kyoto that was still undamaged by air raids, due to the fact that it lacked the aircraft manufacturing industry that was the XXI Bomber Command's priority target. On July 3, the Joint Chiefs of Staff placed it off limits to bombers, along with Kokura, Niigata and Kyoto.

The center of the city contained several reinforced concrete buildings and lighter structures. Outside the center, the area was congested by a dense collection of small timber-made workshops set among Japanese houses. A few larger industrial plants lay near the outskirts of the city. The houses were constructed of timber with tile roofs, and many of the industrial buildings were also built around timber frames. The city as a whole was highly susceptible to fire damage.

The population of Hiroshima had reached a peak of over 381,000 earlier in the war but prior to the atomic bombing, the population had steadily decreased because of a systematic evacuation ordered by the Japanese government. At the time of the attack, the population was approximately 340,000–350,000. Residents wondered why Hiroshima had been spared destruction by firebombing. Some speculated that the city was to be saved for U.S. occupation headquarters, others thought perhaps their relatives in Hawaii and California had petitioned the U.S. government to avoid bombing Hiroshima. More realistic city officials had ordered buildings torn down to create long, straight firebreaks, beginning in 1944. Firebreaks continued to be expanded and extended up to the morning of August 6, 1945.

Carbon Compounds

Carbon compounds are compounds than consist of carbon atoms. Carbon compounds are divided into two groups, organic compounds and inorganic compounds. Organic compounds come from living things such as animals and plants. A few examples are petrol, natural gas, alcohol, sugar, fats and oils, protein and so on. Inorganic compounds come from the earth or minerals such as carbon dioxide, cyanide compounds, carbonate compounds and so on. There are three types or carbon bonds. The first one is alkane. It is a made up of a single covalent bond between two carbon atoms or a carbon atom with another atom. The next one is alkenes. Alkenes are made up of a double covalent bond between two carbon atoms. The last one is alkynes. It is made up of a triple covalent bond between two carbon atoms.

Hydrocarbons compounds are compounds that consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms only. The major sources of hydrocarbons are petroleum and natural gas. Let us talk about Alkanes. Alkanes are known as saturated hydrocarbons because they contain only single bonds and have no room to accommodate additional atoms. The general formula of alkanes is CnH2n+2 where n=1,2,3... The functional group of alkanes is the single covalent bonds between carbon atoms. They are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents. Alkanes have low melting and boiling points because the attraction forces between the molecules are weak can der Waals' forces. However, the larger the molecular size, the stronger the van der Waals' forces of attraction between the molecules. Thus, more energy is needed to overcome the forces of attractions. Therefore the melting and boiling points increase gradually as it decends in the series.

The Benefits of Owning A Pet

Did you know that more of us are adopting pets these days than ever before? In fact, pet ownership is rising fastest among single people, those who have never been married, ow who are separated, widowed or divorced. On top of that, with people living further away from family and interacting mostly electronically with friends, our pets may end up being the closest relationships we have and that may not be a bad thing, according to vetenarian Dr. Patty Cooley - who says pets make great partners. 

First, she says our pets love us the way we are. Even if we're overweight, wear sweats all day, and never do the dishes. Also, our dogs and cats do not care if we have been laid off or just got dumped. In fact if you wallow ont he couch in misery for days, they will be thrilled to get more one on one time with you. 

Another reason pets are great partners is they are the best listeners in the world. Whether you are dealing with a bad day at work, a jealous friend, or a fender bender, just talking to them will help lower our heart rate and stress hormones. Pets do not even mind if you talk with your mouth full. In fact they are especially good listeners if we happen to be eating something. 

Pets are also great for us because if you need exercise, dogs are eager to come along, and they will never critique your form or tell you to run faster. The final reason pets are terrific partners is they will never leave an empty milk carton in the fridge, lock us out of the bathroom, borrow the car without asking or commandeer the TV remote. 

Is Hand Sanitizer Actually Bad For You?

Hand sanitizers are very useful when running water and soap are out of reach but are they worth using more often or should you try to avoid them altogether. Hand santizers contain ingredients such as alcohol of 70% that are used to kill microbes. When left on the skin for more than 30 seconds, it can kill up to 99.99% of bacteria present and even certain types of viruses like Influenza A. The hand sanitizer opens up the cell membranes of the bacteria but they can't kill very tiny cells such as Botulism and Norovirus. 

There are also non-alcohol based hand sanitizers which contain the ingredients such as Triclosan, Benzalkonium, and Chlorhexidine may be just bacteriostatic which means they only prevent formation of bacteria. 

There was a study shown in 2009 with different groups of people that contaminated their hands with the virus Influenza A and the group that was found with the least bacteria was from the group that used soap and water to clean their hands for 40 seconds following with a paper towel for drying afterwards. Therefore it comes out as a method of superior infection control. It is known that hot water can kill bacteria but actually it only happens when the water is at the temperature of 99.98 degrees celcius which would actually burn your skin. In that case, you should just use cold water instead. 

There are also some antibacterial soap that contain Triclosan. There are many studies that have shown that they turn out to be no better than regular soaps. Furthermore, the triclosan is washed down and flows into the rivers or lakes which is one of the top 10 contaminents that is found in the rivers of America. 

At the end of the day, your best bet is using regular soap and washing with cold water saving hand sanitizer for sink situations and avoiding actibacterial soaps for the sake of your health, environment and future generations.

NEWS: Burns victim injured in horrific explosion has FISH SKIN wrapped over her wounds in pioneering new treatment

Today I read an article about Brazilian doctors that are using the skin of a tropical fish to treat burn victims in a pioneering new therapy that is significantly reducing the trauma suffered by survivors.

It’s the first time in medical history that researchers have used the skin of an aquatic animal as a band aid to treat lesions.

When a gas cooker canister exploded in an accident at Maria Ines Candido da Silva’s workplace causing second degree burns to her arms, neck and some of her face, doctors offered an alternative therapy to the conventional ointment-based one – to dress her wounds with the skin of a Tilapia fish.

Maria Ines, 36, who worked as a waitress in the Casa Velha restaurant in Russas, north east Brazil, said:

“The explosion left me with horrific injuries. I was in absolute agony and desperate for anything to ease my suffering. When doctors suggested putting fish skin on my wounds I found the idea really strange. But I jumped at the chance because they said it would be far less painful than the normal treatment and easier to manage.”

She said living day-to-day with fish skin on her body was “a really bizarre experience”.

The innovative biological dressing has been developed by a team of researchers led by Dr Odrico Moraes, Prof Elisabete Moraes and Dr Ana Paula Negreiros over more than two years at the Nucleus of Research and Development of Medicines (NPDM) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC).

Plastic surgeons Dr Edmar Maciel at the Dr. José Frota Institute Burns Unit (IJF) in Fortaleza and Dr Marcelo Borges, at the São Marcos Hospital SOS Burns and Wounds Unit in Recife, north east Brazil are coordinators of the project.

The radical procedure completed the first pilot project trials on some 50 patients this month.

The Tilapia skin was left on Maria Ines’s left arm, neck and face for 11 days before being removed.

Doctors kept the fish skin on her left hand for longer as these wounds were deeper.

Over the course of 20 days the fish strips on her hand were replaced several times to allow more time to restore the damaged tissue.

The former-waitress visited outpatients every two days during this time to check her bandages were intact.

Doctor’s removed the fish skin using petroleum jelly to lift, slide and ease the dressing away from the healed area.

The fish strips form a mould over the wound and almost appear as if they are part of the body.

The Holocaust

Recently I read this book called "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". It was very interesting and it was about the holocaust. I was very interested in it therefore I dug into the history of it.  Basically, the holocaust was a genocide in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million Jews. The victims included 1.5 million children and represented about two-thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe. Some definitions of the Holocaust include the additional five million non-Jewish victims of Nazi mass murders, bringing the total to about 11 million. Killings took place throughout Nazi Germany, German-occupied territories and territories held by allies of Nazi Germany.

From 1941 to 1945, Jews were systematically murdered in the deadliest genocide in history, which was part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and killings of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the Nazi regime. Under the coordination of the SS, following directions from the highest leadership of the Nazi Party, every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics and the carrying out of the genocide. Other victims of Nazi crimes included ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens and Soviet POWs, Romanis, communists, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses and the mentally and physically disabled. A network of about 42,500 facilities in Germany and German-occupied territories was used to concentrate victims for slave labor, mass murder, and other human rights abuses. Over 200,000 people are estimated to have been Holocaust perpetrators.

The persecution and genocide were carried out in stages, culminating in what Nazis termed the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" (die Endlösung der Judenfrage), an agenda to exterminate Jews in Europe. Initially the German government passed laws to exclude Jews from civil society, most prominently the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Nazis established a network of concentration camps starting in 1933 and ghettos following the outbreak of World War II in 1939. In 1941, as Germany conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized paramilitary units called Einsatzgruppen murdered around two million Jews, partisans, and others often in mass shootings. By the end of 1942, victims were being regularly transported by freight trains to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were systematically killed in gas chambers. This continued until the end of World War II in Europe in April–May 1945.

Jewish armed resistance was limited. The most notable exception was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, when thousands of poorly-armed Jewish fighters held the Waffen-SS at bay for four weeks. An estimated 20,000–30,000 Jewish partisans actively fought against the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe. French Jews took part in the French Resistance, which conducted a guerilla campaign against the Nazis and Vichy French authorities. Over a hundred armed Jewish uprisings took place.

New Puppy

On the Friday about two weeks ago, my uncle brought me a puppy that his dog, Happy gave birth to from Cameron down to my house in DJ. This puppy was the smallest puppy that Happy gave birth to. He looked like a biscuit so I automatically named him Biscuit. He has a beige coloured fur and is very pretty. I have never rared a puppy before in my life so it was a challenge for me as I did not know what to expect. Turns out, taking care of a puppy was not as hard as I thought it would be. 

Biscuit is almost 6 months old and he is growing a set of teeth. Because of that, he always love to chew on things. He chewed on so many things while living here such as the carpert, the wood plank, slippers that were lying on the ground and the automatic gate's wire! He especially loves chewing on rubber. Due to all his chewing, we had to make a few changes to our house. My dad had to fix the wires himself and it was a lot of work. Although he does a few things that does not make us happy, he is a good dog. He listens well and he learns fast. 

Since two weeks ago, he has learned a few things, such as sitting, lying down and going to a specific spot to potty. I am very proud of him as I did not know he could pick up these things these fast. Biscuit also has a very big appetite. He would eat whatever he thinks is edible off the ground. Even bones that do not smell good. As long as he could chew it and swallow it, he would do it. It was very odd to me that he did so but I guess it is because he is either hungry or he is teething and wants to chew on something hard.

I am very glad I got Biscuit as a pet and I hope to make a lot of memories with him in the future.