The Fatal Current

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Electrical Safety: The Fatal Current

"Strange as it may seem, most fatal electric shocks happen to people who should know better. Here are some electro-medical facts that should make you think twice before taking that last chance."

"Offhand it would seem that a shock of 10,000 volts would be more deadly than 100 volts. But this is not so! Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of 110 volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current. The real measure of shock's intensity lies in the amount of current (amperes) forced though the body, and not the voltage. Any electrical device used on a house wiring circuit can, under certain conditions, transmit a fatal current. While any amount of current over 10 milliamps (0.01 amp) is capable of producing painful to severe shock, currents between 100 and 200 mA (0.1 to 0.2 amp) are lethal. Currents above 200 milliamps (0.2 amp), while producing severe burns and unconsciousness, do not usually cause death if the victim is given immediate attention. Resuscitation, consisting of artificial respiration, will usually revive the victim. From a practical viewpoint, after a person is knocked out by an electrical shock it is impossible to tell how much current has passed through the vital organs of his body. Artificial respiration must be applied immediately if breathing has stopped."

October 26, 2017 8 AM Update

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Good morning! Happy Thursday. Four weeks to Thanksgiving. Turkey Day! It was rather interesting to drive past those turkey barns in West Virginia and see all those turkeys looking at you. A very earthy smell of turkey agriculture.  Cloudy and 52 degrees in Delmar. There is a north-northwest breeze at 7 mph. The dew point is 43 degrees. Another fairly dark morning although it is rapidly getting brighter out now that the sun is breaking out a bit and the day is getting more mature. The time change will be nice, especially with the mornings. 

It was dark enough that once again I struggled to get up early enough to catch the express bus downtown, but I did catch one of the earlier locals downtown so I will be into work by nine. I guess that all that matters but I do prefer to take the express, especially with the nice walk down to it. Hopefully tomorrow which is Friday. 

Today will have a chance of rain, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high of 56 degrees at 1pm. Typical for today. It’s the end of October, you can’t expect too much. Northwest wind 7 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1963. There was a dusting of snow in 1997.

The sun will set at 5:55 pm with dusk around 6:24 pm, which is one minute and 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. Even if I leave work at 5 PM it will be almost dark by the time I get home. I’m glad I got that darkness activated light switch. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy conditions and 56 degrees. Breezy, 17 mph breeze from the northwest. Today will have 10 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 40 degrees at 6am. Four degrees above normal. Northwest wind 8 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 21 occurred back in 1950.

Back in 1970, Muhammad Ali faces off against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta, Georgia for the first time after Ali’s three-year hiatus from evading to be drafted in the Vietnam War. Unlike the TRUMP he didn’t pay off a wealthy doctor to claim he had bone spurs and was ineligible for the draft. 

Some traffic delays heading downtown, although the bus was on time or maybe a few minutes early. I wish they had a map you could pull up to see the extract location of the bus in the morning. The real time bus info is still quite helpful but not always accurate. 

There is a lot of paving being done on Delaware Avenue. I don’t know if this means they are finishing up for good or if the black top is just a surface for the winter snow plows, and will be torn up again come summer 2018. All types of construction seems to take forever. But I guess that’s what happens when you spend millions. The road will hopefully be much smooth come the completion of the project. 

I am struggling to accept that next week is November. I struggle to accept that it is going to cold, snowy and icy. I don’t want to deal with winter already. But the holidays are just around the corner followed by the bleak on cold weather of January and February. Winters aren’t as harsh as they once were but we’ve still had some pretty bad periods at time. Spring will come once again. 

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Thanksgiving when the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm (Standard Time). Turkey Day will be here before you know it. Yum. On that day in 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 37 and 27 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 45 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 1931.

Fees To Enter Popular National Parks Would Skyrocket Under Interior Department Plan

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Fees To Enter Popular National Parks Would Skyrocket Under Interior Department Plan

I don't think there should be any fees for parks. After all, we don't charge fees to use the public libraries. Certainly doubling fees at national parks is the wrong way to go. Why not tap the billions the Department of Interior is bringing in on off-shore leases and Bureau of Land Management Lands from fossil fuels and timber to pay for the needed upgrades of parks? The reason we allow logging, coal mining, oil and gas extraction on public lands after all is to provide a public benefit, namely revenue for the lands upkeep.