Chemical and Physical Injury

The lecture was titled "Chemical and Physical Injury", and here's a few quotations from my pre-reading for the class:

"Specific Objectives. Be able to discuss the following:
. . . 11. Mechanism of death by electrocution and lightning.
12. How to distinguish gunshot injuries at various distances.
13. Definitions, types, and features of the various asphyxiations.
(Morbid, huh. It does boggle my mind a little that I may actually have to someday apply these learning Objectives.)

I. Chemical Injury
A. Ethyl Alcohol (ethanol)
. . . 5. Neurological complications: . . . The combination of cerebral atrophy and intoxication predisposes and alcoholic to intracranial subdural hemorrhage from ground level falls.
(This is the fanciest way possible to say, "drinking kills your brain cells, and when drunk on top of having a small brain, alcoholics easily fall over and seriously hurt themselves.")

G. Cocaine
. . . Rectal insertion of crack (butt crack) is also an effective means of cocaine administration. While there are no good studies on bioavailability regarding this method, anatomic consideration support this as an effective route. . .
(Huh.)

II. Physical Injury. . .
B. Sharp Force Injury
. . . 3. Chops: A chop (axe) wound may also be categorized as a type of sharp force injury. These injuries often combine elements of blunt and sharp force trauma. An example of this is an incision and fracture produced by an axe blow to the head. . .

G. Environmental Hypothermia
. . . 3. A unique feature of deaths due to hypothermia is paradoxical undressing. Near death, an individual may experience burning paresthesia and subsequently take off clothing. This is often very confusing to uninitiated death investigators. . .

H. Asphyxiation (Adult content here)
. . . 5. Autoerotic asphyxiation: A unique form of asphyxia occurs in the setting of self-induced hypoxia during autoerotic activity. Orgasm is reportedly heightened by non-lethal hypoxia. In fact, many volunteers in the blood-pressure-cuff-around-the-neck study indicated a degree of pleasure from the experience. . . Because of the short duration needed to lose consciousness, individuals engaging in this activity are at risk for death. Do not try this at home."
(Say what?!? First-- who would volunteer for a study where you get a blood pressure cuff put around your neck. And second-- I think I will make a point of never trying this at home.)

Uranus is Next

"After a week of contentious public and private debate, a small cluster of astronomers has voted to demote Pluto from its planetary status. Rejecting an expansive definition proposed by a special committee, the astronomers of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined a planet as: a celestial body that orbits around the sun; has sufficient mass to become round; and has "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." On the strength of puny Pluto's inability to dominate nearby Neptune, whose orbit it crosses, as well as to clear out the Kuiper belt of many Pluto-size objects, it fails to qualify as a planet under the new definition. "
"Astronomers Relegate Pluto to Dwarf Status." ScientificAmerican.com

This just rocks me to my elementary school core! Imagine how many mobiles, styrofoam dioramas, and tri-fold poster board science fair projects are now obsolete!

My friend Nick wants to make Save Pluto T-shirts in honor of the ice ball getting demoted to JV status in team solar system. We debated about the saying on the back--"Uranus is next" beat out "There's a hole in my soul-ar system."

I'm currently at Atlanta Bread Company procrastinating while I should be reading about colorectal cancer. I had to stop looking at pathology slides because the internet site went from ok to slow to really slow to "This page cannot be displayed." So I'm wasting time nerdily reading the Scientific American website until 3pm when I need to call Badger Cab to see if they found my wallet. (I had to borrow $10 from my roommate to get lunch today. Not having money, driver's license, credit cards, or your student ID makes daily life a challenge.)

Opening Remarks

I dedicate this blog to Julia who needs more to do at work, and apparently enjoys reading about me!