Last-night I was watching BBC news at 10pm and they had a short review on the use of the “new” and controversial introduction of the Stun Gun Taser for the Met police force, the biggest police force in the UK. Produced and sold by Taser International, unlike the current Taser X26, which fires darts attached to short wires, the XREP is wire-free. Its projectile, the size of a shotgun cartridge, is designed to pierce the target’s skin and contains battery-powered circuits that deliver a debilitating shock. It has a range of 20 metres or more, compared with 5 metres for previous Tasers.
Many dangers are associated with Taser guns but more worrying is the fact that when combined with pepper spray or any liquid spray it can lead to burning or fire. When the concept was first introduced, the first reaction was it will be too expensive to use on an everyday basis. Now they stand at a cool $150 each, cheap as chips. I find it interesting that this has come about post the recent London riots.
Anyway, being the unashamed Geek that I am, I needed to know more and did some more research into the scientific research world behind such developments. Some of what I came across BLEW MY MIND.
Jason Bourne will be in much trouble when the CIA agents get their hands on these LASER SEEKING SELF-STEERING BULLETS. A laser sensor in the bullet’s nose instructs the bullet to finely twist tiny rudder-like fins on its rear end to keep it on target. Currently deemed too expensive for everyday use, but I am sure they are working on the expenses as we speak.
FINS!! I mean why didn’t I think of that?? lol, just kidding, not my playing field at all. Click here to find out more. And if you don’t want to read more here is short video of the bullet in-action.
You know how we all complain about our jobs sometimes? Well, Doctors want to complain too. This rant is a little different to the last-one but I thought it was interesting as it gives a small peak into what happens behind the scenes. Especially important as the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is in the line of fire with regards to governmental reforms and the US is in process of assessing the national health interests of it’s citizens.
1-Incompetent over-powered HR departments. Somewhere along the line, they were given the responsibility of managing doctor’s schedules without having any understanding of what we actually do on a day-to-day basis. I think they suffer with severe amnesia & the department itself acts as black hole for paperwork. No matter how early they are told about leave, they FAIL, every time.
2-Departments are usually chronically understaffed. Doctors are expected to cover for colleagues in an already busy job & often work overtime with no compensation for this. Usually a locum doctor is floating around who is paid 3X more than the rest of us for performing a half-hearted job (pretending that they are new to the hospital). Here is a idea, just employ more permanent doctors!! DUH
3-Obstructive time consuming paperwork distracts doctors from actually treating their patients. In fact, a first year doctor’s role would be more accurately described as a mobile medical secretary than a clinician. We all understand that paperwork is necessary to provide legal backing in case of lawsuit, but wouldn’t it be better if everyone just stopped suing doctors so much. This would probably result in fewer mistakes as we can spend more time treating patients v taking notes.
4-Clipboard holding NHS managers are paid huge amounts of money to have pointless meetings & ensure targets are met, which they usually do by juggling beds and numbers rather than actually improving patient care. Working in A&E or medical assessment unit, there are few things more frustrating than patients vanishing before your eyes & ending up in a different department when you have not finished treating them! WTF?. And how do they just pop up at the most annoying of times asking silly and unhelpful Qs? HOW? STOP IT!!
5-Pointless meetings where the only outcome is the decision to have another meeting. Doctors are often forced into attending meetings involving managers, where they listen to our grievances keenly as if it were the first time & nothing changes. Doctors have complained about the same issues for many years, so why waste our time with meetings that we already know won’t help. That’s called BS!
So If anyone reading this works for HR and or the NHS, please take note. David Cameron you should take note too and while we are at it, President Obama (swoon) maybe you would like to take note also, call me lol
Again, all Doctors rants are anonymous. Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something new. 😉
I logged onto my usual and one of the first things I saw was this picture. I am not sure why it resonated with me so much, but I wanted to share it with you. Sometimes pictures speak louder than words, although I have much to say and share about this topic, it will come in due time 🙂
Ok, so everyone that knows me personally, KNOWS I AM A BIG TRIBE CALLED QUEST FAN and Q-TIP FAN. So this is a geek out “on next levels” lol…I mean, who from my London family remembers being at Subterania,1994? Still one of the best shows EVER!! *Sigh* what I would do to go back in-time and experience that again.
If you missed it and you are a fan, you simply must click on this link and listen to the soundcloud of that show. The improvisation, live beat-making and freestyles are just amazing. Thank you to Flip the Script for sharing this musical jewel.
Last-night, when I got home, I noticed that okayafrica posted a video showing Q-Tip being swabbed and tracing his maternal DNA ancestry to the west African Djola tribe!!! Lets just say, I thoroughly GEEKED OUT 🙂
Click play to find out which West African country his DNA took him…
Hope you enjoyed my new Geek Out and Good day to you all.
I came across this article in the Guardian which gave a very interesting account of how cultured meat, developed in the laboratory, could have a dramatic effect on global hunger and climate change.
Now, hold your horses ;-), I know that most of you reading this are thinking “It’s official, the scientists are crazy, trying make us eat laboratory meat etc etc”. I would have said the same thing at first instance, however, now I’m not so sure.The article does a very good job of really breaking down the advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, all you environmentalists and health gurus will find it interesting to know how much more advantageous this theory is to our environment and ultimate world health.
The science is not difficult to understand and is explained really well in the article it-self so i wont go into it now. Cultured or In Vitro meat may sound scary, but honestly how many of us can say any of our meat is not affected by either steroids or farm “fed” animals (what EXACTLY are they being fed)? In-fact, I would go so far as to say that in the west, much of our food in-take is “unnatural” and taking all these pharmaceutically produced additives, vitamins,minerals, and health potions is just a case of the apple not falling too far from the tree! Even our vegetables are “mass produced” and sprayed with chemicals. I have seen what a “organic” tomato grown organically looks like at my Grandfarthers farm in Sudan, and they never came out perfectly round nor do they taste the same!
More importantly, we have to eat to live, what would you do if all you needed to do was feed your loved ones? how much responsibility do you feel as an individual in the west contributing to a potential global food crisis and knowing this is already a reality for some? This is what came to my mind when I read the article
Click here for the full article and let me know what you think, it is really interesting stuff. If you like it, share it.
I want to introduce you all to a foundation that is dear to my heart. Some people talk-the-talk but don’t walk-the-walk, these sisters talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk, in short they make things happen. They created and own an amazing foundation by the name of The Pancake Gallery. That is where REAL SCIENCE happens. Through Discipline.
Art Rules Aruba is one of the projects The Pancake Gallery run and I was fortunate enough to be a part of the team last year as one of the photography teachers. I am a fan to say the least. Everyone should be a fan. Support a positive movement geeks.
I came across this image on a few blogs a few weeks back but didn’t copy the link and then I couldn’t find it again :-(. However, I jumped on my friends blog the other day and surprisingly he had posted it, I knew he was a geek!! out the closets they come. He is what I call the Cool Geek. Check out The Eminence Grise by clicking here for his blog.
I think I might be a hybrid of Geek and Nerd according to this (a Gerd… no, doesnt work? lol) but since I have to choose one or the other, I am absolutely a GEEK 🙂
I saw the trailer for the Dark Girls movie a while back and then again yesterday. Hence this post. I almost do not know where to begin with this topic! Sigh. I’m gonna try and not get too deep on you. Ok forget that! FAIL. I am just gonna give it to you like it is ( FYI I just deleted a paragraph of well written, poetic and politically correct prose! lol)
My mum is light-skinned Sudanese and my dad is dark skinned Sudanese. They are both beautiful. I came out on the darker side. I cannot tell you how many times I heard comments like the below, from a very early age:
“oh she came out on her fathers side, who told her mum to marry a dark skinned man”
“Maybe she will grow out of it and get lighter like her mum as she gets older, I’ve seen it happen, so and so daughter got lighter”
“one out of three is not bad (my youngest sister looks the most like my mum)”
I was lucky, I got the chance to leave Sudan. I had the opportunity to read and learn my history from all perspectives. I am blessed to have met people from all over the world who counteracted the above and spoke of how beautiful my skin tone is. I had the space to see for myself how beautiful we are in all shades, shapes and sizes. Eventually, I got over the early negative feelings associated with me, my skin, my person. I LOVE MY SKIN COLOUR, in-fact I love it when I have caught the sun and I am a few shades darker. Now when someone says to me “you came out on your fathers side” I say “Yes I did, and I love mine and my fathers complexion, thank you”
Here comes the science. Hope you are ready 🙂
Skin lightening is a huge problem in Africa, Asia, India and the Caribbean. Skin lightening (bleaching) cosmetics and toiletries are widely used in most of these countries. Currently, in the UK the rate of skin lightening is increasing despite many products being illegal. They are being bought under the counter and medical skin conditions are not being diagnosed. The active ingredients in these cosmetic products are hydroquinone, mercury (yes, mercury!!) and corticosteroids. Several additives (conconctions) are used to enhance the bleaching effect. Since these products are used for a long duration, on a large body surface area, and under hot humid conditions, percutaneous absorption is enhanced.
The complications of these products are very serious and are sometimes fatal, they are listed below. I want you to know them, so if you are ever in a situation that allows you to informsomeone who does not know, you can. Scare the living daylights out of them if you have too, I do it all the time when I go home to Sudan, some of my cousins wont touch the stuff. Sadly, some ignore me and carry on using them. The pressure is immense. I continue to tell them they are dark and beautiful.
Dangers of skin lightening include:
Exogenous ochronosis (i.e bluish black discoloration of tissue and skin),
Skin burns
Mercury poisoning
Impaired wound healing and wound dehiscence
The fish odor syndrome ( basically, your body stops breaking down some of the oils in your skin and you smell like a fish! literally, I met someone with this condition and it is no joke!)
Nephropathy (leads to diabetes)
Steroid addiction syndrome
Predisposition to infections
Endocrinologic complications of corticosteroids, including suppression of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis aka HPA (basically it messes up everything, as your HPA regulates stress, digestion, the immune system, moods and emotions, sexuality, and energy storage and expenditure!) Now why do you wanna go mess with that eh? O!
Here is the official preview for Dark Girls
Now listen to this to make you feel better, it worked for me 🙂
I have shared a bit about myself on this post, I hope you will share with me your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the trailer for Dark Girls. Gentlemen, I am especially interested to know your thoughts.
It is only 2 degrees Celsius in London but the sun is shinning 🙂
This one is short and sweet. I had to post this for two reasons, in no particular order;
Reason one, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) fully funded my PhD studies, thank you again.
Reason two, not only is it a funny advert but it is also teaching you something that can save someones life. Literally.
Most of us live in an environment which means heart disease is one of the biggest killers. That means more likely than not, YOU could find yourself in a situation where CPR is required, whether it is a friend, family member or stranger.
Click play and take this OPPORTUNITY to LEARN a SKILL that can change someones life.
oh and this already has a theme song, the Bee Gees Stayin’ Alive, not a bad choice BHF even if i do say so myself lol
Share the post geeks, sharing is caring and all that good stuff, you could be saving someones life.
Last-night, I got on-line and my facebook inbox, twitter DM and e-mail contained messages suggesting I should write a post about this 2 and a half year old baby boy genius by the name of Romanieo and his father.
Some of you may have already seen the video once but I think it is safe to say it deserves to be watched more than once, I mean come on, the boy knows what Protons, Neutrons and Electrons are! He is not even 3 yet! Furthermore, I think he knows more of the periodic table than I do (don’t judge me, I am a geneticist not a chemist or physicist aight! let me see him or his dad tell me anything about DNA sequencing mechanisms lol ).
However, the most amazing thing for me really wasn’t the “genius” of it all but the absolutely beautiful and inspiring dedication to knowledge and love this father had with his child. My favorite part was not when Romanieo answered the correct element to the Nuclear Fission set up but when his father said to him:
“where is your mind? and where is your intuition? Now where is my intuition? That’s right. Now put your intuition with my intuition”And then Romanieo and his father rub heads and noses together. A beautiful moment. I LOVE this video. you MUST click play.
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I was trying to think of the most deserving song dedication to this, it took me a min but I think I got it
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Share the post with all the great parents you know and INSPIRE them further. Share in each others greatness, it can only lead to even greater things.
Peace, Love and Health
Ex
PART TWO We=MC^2
Hello All,
Most of you may have read this post before, but I wanted to keep you up-dated on this projects progress for two reasons.
Reason one, I am still in love with this little boy and his family
Reason two, I sent them an e-mail a while back, not expecting a response. I wanted to know if and how they are going to develop the “big idea” they talked about in the posted videos. I did get a response, a heart-warming and very honest response, saying they are working on it and would let me know as soon as they knew themselves.
Many of us have “big ideas” all the time, most of the time they are brilliant. Most of the time, many of us do not follow them up, not purposefully, but life and it’s many responsibilities can make it hard sometimes. I think this story is inspiring.
They have been asked by several parents and grandparents how can they start immediately working with their toddlers using the method they call TEAMMS. This acronym stands for: Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Music and Science. It incorporates the best of STEM and expands upon it by adding the critical components of the Arts and Music. They decided to write and publish a book by August. This time frame will give parents some companion teaching tools as they prepare their children for preschool/school. However, they need help in achieving this goal and like many, they have decided to use a Kickstarter campaign.
The kickstarter project is called A little like Einstein: help us give rise to a new generation of Big Thinkers – Polymaths. If you do, you will own a piece of history and be able to say to the world with pride that you helped make it happen. If you think you can help by making a donation click on this link. Click on the link anyway, even if just to see the new video and complete the story. You can also help by re-blogging, tweeting and posting to your social networking media sites.
Thank you for reading and I hope this story is as inspirational to you as it is to me.
Faith In Geeks 