Cleaning Fleeces

One of the things I'm interested in is traditional crafts so learning about how fleeces can be cleaned is something that peaked my interest. A method for cleaning several fleeces is called the Fermented suint method. It involved soaking a fleece for a week in rain water. The sheep's sweat (suint) and lanolin form a sort of soap which cleans the fleece as it soaks. The resulting liquid is then used to clean further fleeces which don't need as long as the liquid becomes more effective the more fleeces are cleaned in it.

Mary, Queen of Scots

I've always been terribly confused about Mary Tudor and Mary, Queen of Scots. Finally I have it straight and understand how the family tree fits together.

Henry VII had eight children of whom only three survived to adulthood.

1. Margaret (1489-1541) married James IV, King of Scotland becoming Queen of Scotland, then Archibald Douglas and finally Henry Stewart,
2. Henry (1491-1547) became King Henry VIII,
3. Mary (1496-1533), became Queen of France.

Margaret had four children by James VI of Scotland, one of whom was James V of Scotland. She also had a daughter, Margaret Douglas by Archibald Douglas, and finally a daughter by Henry Stewart.

King James V of Scotland had a daughter, Mary who became Queen of Scots. This means the lineage was: Henry VII -> Margaret -> James V of Scotland -> Mary, Queen of Scots, making her the great granddaughter of Henry VII.

Mary Tudor was the daughter of Henry VIII, and thus the granddaughter of Henry VII. This means that Mary, Queen of Scots was the first cousin once removed of Mary Tudor.

Caterpillars eating plastic, cats and dogs

Caterpillars Eating Plastic

There is a type of caterpillar which eats plastic. Although much more research is needed this might mean that some currently non-biodegradable plastics are actually biodegradable. It is currently unknown if the faeces of the caterpillar are toxic.

Socialising Cats and Dogs

I've just started a MOOC about cats and dogs. One thing that surprised me is that there is a window of socialisation for cats and dogs. For dogs, this is 6-14 weeks. Everything during that time span will be treated as normal by the puppy so it's important to introduce them to different experiences at this age.

Sling shots, New Hall Mill

Slingshots

I've had an article about Ancient Slingshots chilling in my browser for a few days now. It's fascinating. The Romans used lead bullets and could hit a target smaller than a human at about 120m. The force of a 10g bullet was almost that of a .44 magnum cartridge fired from a handgun! When the Romans attacked a fort in Scotland in around C.E. 140, they used bullets with small holes in which made a wailing sound. Can you imagine the fear that eerie sound instilled in the hearts of the Scottish tribes?

New Hall Mill

Today is one of the seven times New Hall Mill opens to the public. There's probably been a mill on the site since the 1500s with records from 1706. There were probably originally 4 mill stones but just one remains today. Because the ground floor of the mill was damp, the flour had to be stored higher up the mill. The green door visible in the photograph was used to load the flour onto carts.

Plate Tectonics, Ammonites, Caterpillars

Plate Tectonics

The rocks at the bottom of the ocean tend to be younger than the rocks on the land masses. This is because the plates which form the earth's crush are pulling apart, and new rock forms between. At the boundaries of these plates, three different things can happen. These are constructive, destructive, and conservative.

Constructive

This is when the plates pull apart and new rock is formed between them. Here, in some rocks, the changing magnetic field of the earth can be seen as in some places in ocean rocks where the field points north and in others it points south in a symmetrical pattern around the fault line.

Destructive

In other places, rocks are destroyed as plates push against each other, and one is buried under the other.

Conservative

This is when plates slide along each other. An example of where this happens is on the west coast of the USA where the Pacific plate slides alongside the North American plate at the San Andreas Fault.

Ammonites

Today I bought a cross section of an ammonite. It's at least 75 million years old. Let that sink in. 75 million years. This beautiful spiral shell once housed a squid-like creature which lived only in the outer chamber. Maybe this is the shell it died in, or perhaps it shed it and became one of the metre wide ones before finally expiring.

Caterpillars and Trees

In our walk today at Kingsbury Waterpark, we saw some strange lines hanging down across the road. They were white with wider black sections. When we got closer we saw that this black sections were hordes of caterpillars hanging in groups from threads from the trees above. The trees were covered in white webs, with very few leaves left. A quick google informs me that these are the caterpillars of ermine moths. I think they are spindle ermine moths which grow on the spindle tree. Spindle trees are so named because their wood used to be used to make spindles for spinning.

Carpel Tunnel, HIV

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

The median nerve in the arm is the only nerve which goes through the carpal tunnel, so carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve.

HIV

Not so long ago, if you got cancer, there wasn't much hope of surviving. Now that's all changed with new treatments being developed all the time. Many people go on to live a normal full lifespan after cancer treatment with no sign of the disease.

In the 1980s, I remember the adverts about AIDS and how scary it was. I spent some time in New Year City. The neighbour of a friend there had died from AIDS and while I was there, I saw the pain and exhaustion on the face of a friend of someone dying from AIDS. It suddenly became something very real.

As with many cancers, things are now very different, and an HIV diagnosis isn't the death sentence is once was. There are now drugs which not only treat the patient with HIV but reduce the risk of them passing it on to someone else to almost zero! (Source: The Truth About... HIV, BBC TV) Not only that, but there is a drug called PrEP which prevents the person taking it from contracting HIV in the first place. It's currently available on the NHS in Scotland, and is being tested in England and Wales.

In South Africa, to defeat HIV, their is a goal that ninety percent of people with HIV will be diagnosed, ninety percent of those with HIV will be on antivirals, and ninety percent of those on antivirals will have the disease suppressed which means there is no detectable viral load in their body. There are enough drugs, medical staff are going door-to-door to diagnose people, but sadly social stigma is standing in the way of people getting treatment.

Struck by Lightning

It's been way too hot for me today. It's been around 27C and it's only May. I don't do well in this sort of temperature and consequently my concentration is poor and it's hard for me to focus on learning.

I read an article today about people being hit by lightning. Surprisingly, to me anyway, 9 out of 10 people survive a lightning strike! Very few are direct hits (3-5%). It's more likely to jump to someone when something else like a tree is hit (20-30%), but by first the most common is the lightning coursing through the ground.

Apparently only some of the charge goes through the body and the rest forms a kind of halo around the body. The resulting injuries to the skin depend on the clothes worn. The charge heats the sweat, so if the sweat can't escape, the skin gets burnt. Some material melt, some hold the heat in.

What should you do when lightning strikes? Get inside a building or car, but if you can't then there is no foolproof survival method. You should avoiding trees, tall objects, and water. Try to find a low area, spread out (at least 6 metres to the next person). Don't lie down since that increases your contact with the ground, but try crouching on the balls of your feet, feet close together and making yourself as low as possible. Don't be too eager to get up as lightning can strike after the threat appears to have passed. Wait half an hour after the storm has moved on.

Falling Bridges, Dress Codes and Bats

Bridge Collapse

Today I read an article about how the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in 1940. This was not due to resonance. Resonance is what causes a glass to shatter at the right pitch, and what enables you to be able to swing high on a swing by pumping at the right rate. The reason the bridge collapsed was to do with vortices that formed as the wind passed over the bridge. Over time, these vortices caused the bridge to oscillate, like a leaf fluttering in the wind. A cable snapped, enabling the flutter effect to increase, and become more and more violent until the whole thing collapsed.

The article: The Strangest, Most Spectacular Bridge Collapse (And How We Got It Wrong) is a longer read on the topic.

Meeting the Pope Dress Code

I saw a picture of the Trumps meeting the pope in the Vatican. They look like they're at a funeral and so I wondered why. I looked for pictures of the Obamas meeting the pope, and Mrs Obama was again wearing black with her hair covered. I then looked for Queen Elizabeth II and she was wearing a black long dress and veil too. So what are the rules?

Checking on the etiquette at the Vatican website, it seems that women must wear at least short sleeves and the knees should be covered, and men must wear trousers and at least short sleeves. So why are so many wearing black?

For papal hearings, the dress code is stricter. Women are required to cover their heads and wear mourning clothes, and men weara tailcoat, although the dress code has been relaxed somewhat since the 1980s, as we can see since the men are not wearing tailcoats. Further, Prince Philip seems to always wear his military uniform. In 2014, Queen Elizabeth did not wear black for her meeting with Pope Francis, and nor did the Duchess of Cornwall when she met him this year, although she did when she met Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Hijabs and the Police

I saw an article about an American policewoman wearing a hijab, and a discussion about whether the hijab should be allowed. My immediate thought was that it should, because to disallow it would create an extra barrier for muslim women to join the police, and I'm sure muslim women are underrepresented in the police force. My only concern is safety and whether it could be used to strangle the officer in the same way that a non-clip-on tie could be used.

In 2016, the Scottish police introduced an optional hijab as part of the official uniform. It's black with a black and white chequered band on the edges. The Metropolitan Police have allowed hijabs since about 2001.

Bats

There are 18 species of bat in the UK. The tiny common pipistrelle bat, weighing around 5g, with a body little more than the size of a fifty pence piece, can eat up to 3000 small insects in one night!

Saving Babies, Children, and Sheep

It's been a while but now it's time to get back to trying to learn three (or more) new things per day.

Babies and Children

Today I went through a course on FutureLearn called First Aid for Babies and Children. It's an introduction to first aid for the younger members of society and covers CPR, bleeding, and burns. I have done several first aid courses before but it's always good to get a refresher and make sure I'm up-to-date on the protocols. There were a few things I didn't know from the course.

CPR for Babies and Children

In CPR for babies and children, start with 5 rescue breaths, which I didn't know. This is followed by repeating 30 chest compressions and 2 rescue breaths.

Recovery Position for Babies

There is a recovery position for babies which is different from the recovery position for children and adults. You hold the baby in your arms on its side, with the head supported and lower than the stomach, and continue to monitor its breathing. You don't put the baby on its tummy as the body weight is then pressing on the lungs making it harder to breathe.

Stopping a Nose Bleed

It's a common error to hold the head back during a nose bleed. This can lead to the swallowing of blood. The correct procedure is to lean forwards, pinching the soft part of the nose for 10 minutes. If bleeding does not stop after 30 minutes, seek medical advice.

Sheep

While we're on the topic of saving lives, I came across a post about saving a sheep's life today. If you see a sheep on its back, it's going to die soon but you can easily save it! All you need to do to save it is to roll it over, back onto its feet!