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Germantown

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hello i have learnt more spider facts

spiders will pull their own legs clean off if they get damaged because most of them can regrow legs during molting, which explains why you often see spiders missing a leg but never any missing half a leg?

some remarkably distressing scientists proved this by getting a spider to pull off all of its legs and then feeding its limbless torso for months until it sprouted a full complement of legs again and then hopefully used them to get the fuck out of dodge

baby spiders don’t get lenses until their first molt and before that they just have baby eyes and while this ought not to be any weirder than the concept of baby teeth, welp,

there are so many spiders floating around thousands of metres up in the air that they’re described as “aerial plankton”

The Sky Is Full Of Spiders

there are spider-parasitising spiders but instead of laying eggs in organs or stealing blood or anything like that they just ride on top of bigger spiders and steal snacks when their mighty steed is eating

there are ant-mimicking spiders that use their disguises to raid ant nests and w/e but there are also ant mimics that just. hang out. they make fake ant colonies full of fake ants. sometimes the actual ants that they’re mimicking find their house and live with them. stealth 100

some mother spiders live in communal family nests, where multiple mothers can work together to bring down bigger prey while all their collected babies are cared for by the babysitters

some mother spiders feed their babies mouth to mouth like birds

some mother spiders carry their babies around and i was aware of this but not the fact that if you steal their eggsac they’ll freak out and search for it for hours and sometimes end up adopting anything that’s vaguely the right size, they will carry around empty snail shells for weeks and lovingly dote on them…

guys i am literally about to cry over spider moms

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liberal gun control supporters: "the only way to disarm and stop fascists is to give more power to the police"

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Rooftop Koreans (or why the 2nd Amendment is more important than fear of firearms)

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Korean store owners during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

For the Korean community, the riots were known as Sa-I-Gu, four-two-nine in Korean or April 29, 1992, the day the riots started.

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hajime sorayama

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Pretty hype to have a new big box in my possession! Rip and tear!

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Repent, for the Antibiotic Apocalypse is Near!!!

“History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.”

—Blue Oyster Cult

In 892 AD the Viking warrior Sigurd the Mighty defeated the Scottish nobleman Mael Brigte in battle. In celebration of his victory Sigurd strapped Mael’s severed head onto his saddle, and rode around his army in triumph. Unfortunately Mael’s large buck teeth scratched the side of Sigurd’s leg, which became infected, leading to his death a few weeks later. Legend has it that famous whiskey  distiller Jack Daniel died after kicking his floor safe, resulting in a cut on his toe which became infected, leading to his death in 1911. In 1912 inventor and aviator Wilbur Wright developed food poisoning after eating bad shellfish during a business trip. He died at the age of 45. Lord Carnarvon, chief financial backer of the Howard Carter expedition which discovered King Tut’s tomb died in 1923 when a mosquito bite became infected resulting in sepsis. Modern myth has it that he was a victim of King Tut’s curse. More likely he was a victim of living before the advent of modern medicine.

Such was the life of mankind before the invention of modern antibiotics. Every cut or wound could pose a serious risk. Diseases like pneumonia or strep throat could very well lead to death rather than just a few days of bed rest. In fact, much of modern medicine is built upon a foundation of antibiotics. This began in 1928 when the scientist Sir Alexander Fleming (pictured above) identified the first antibiotic, penicillin, after extracting the drug from a mold which had accidentally grown in the culture plates of an unrelated experiment. Since then a wide variety of antibiotics have been developed, allowing mankind to fight a winning war against the bacteria.  However, in recent times, the bacteria have been making a comeback.

While antibiotics are effective, it is only a matter of time before bacteria evolve and adapt to them, developing resistance. When an antibiotic is prescribed but discontinued too early, bacteria that have survived the antibiotic can become immune to it’s effects. Those bacteria of course divide and reproduce, leading to a new strain of bacteria that is resistant to that antibiotic, making the antibiotic useless. A bacterium can even swap DNA with other bacteria, spreading the resistance further. Misuse of an antibiotics can also lead to resistance. For instance when an antibiotic is prescribed for the common cold, which is a virus and cannot be killed by an antibiotic. While eventually the immune system fights off the virus, the antibiotic effects the normal bacteria that makes up our bodily ecosystem, such as our gut bacteria or skin flora. An example of this the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. For the most part S. aureus lives in the our noses and skin without causing any problems. It’s pretty normal, around 1/3 of all Americans harbor S. aureus in their nostrils. Sometimes, S. aureus can cause minor skin or throat infections, and on rare occasions major infections such as pneumonia and meningitis. Due to the widespread availability of antibiotics, in the past few decades new strains of S. aureus have recently developed, called methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or as it’s better known, MRSA.

Antibiotic resistance is not a new phenomenon, only a few years after the discovery of penicillin, antiobiotic resistant strains began to be identified. Alexander Fleming himself remarked,

“The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily under-dose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.”

Therein lies the problem, rather than being treated like a precious and limited resources, antibiotics have been overused and misused as a miracle cure-all. As someone in healthcare I’ve seen many times where physicians will be deluded into thinking that because a drug or treatment works exceptionally well for one thing, it must likewise work well for other things. This results in the physician prescribing the drug like its some kind magical elixir, when in fact it’s  completely unnecessary and am ineffective misapplication of the drug.  Antibiotics are no different. Antibiotics are prescribed for viral infections such influenza, most forms of bronchitis, or the common cold even though they only kill bacteria and parasites, not viruses.  Sometimes, a really sick patient in the hospital will be prescribed an antibiotic in case the illness is a bacterial infection, but when the lab results come back revealing it’s not, the patient will continue to be prescribed the antibiotic “just in case”.  When I was a teenager I was even prescribed amoxicillin for acne. Yes, for acne! Much of it is the fault of the patient. Decades of antibiotic proliferation have created a culture where people believe that antibiotics are a cure for anything. Back in the day, when you were sick, you went to a doctor for an antibiotic. Now patient’s demand antibiotics for any and all illnesses believing they are a miracle cure for everything. Finally there is the 800 lb gorilla in the room; the heavy use of antibiotics for livestock, which accounts for as much use as with humans. More and more, antibiotics have become less and less effective in agriculture creating both antibiotic resistance animal and human strains of bacteria.

In the past three decades, the problem has become a critical issue, with antibiotic strains of diseases plaguing our healthcare system. Research in new antibiotics has failed to keep up, as our current pharmacopoeia becomes less and less effective. If nothing changes, the only prospect for our near future is the “Antibitioic Apocalypse”, the time when most or all of our antibiotics will be useless.  In essence, modern medicine will be knocked back to the days of Sigurd the Mighty. Millions will die from common diseases such as pneumonia. Immunocompromised patients such as cancer patients and AIDS patients will be at risk of infection. Tuberculosis, once considered a 19th century disease, will become common again. Routine surgery could become seriously dangerous with the added risk of untreatable infections. Even simple acts like shaving or parading the decapitated heads of your slain enemies could result in death. 

Fortunately there are things that you, the average person, can do to stave off the Antibiotic Apocalypse. Don’t ask or demand antibiotics for the sniffles or the coughies. You won’t believe the hordes of people that come into the ER with stuff like the common cold when in reality professional treatment was never really needed. Drink plenty of fluids, get some rest, eat your fruits and veggies and you’ll probably be OK.  Stop your doctor from needlessly prescribing antibiotics.  If your doc is prescribing you antibiotics for something other than a bacterial infection or parasite, most likely it is a misapplication of the drug. If you do have an antibiotic, take it until the prescription is done to ensure the infection is completely eradicated. Either that, or ask your doctor if discontinuation is possible.

Do this, or the bacteria will win…

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Frankenstein (1931)

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Went for a 4 mile run along the Schuylkill River yesterday, it was nice.

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The abandoned streets of North Philly. Paved streets, utility lines and poles, and fire hydrants poke out from overgrowth here. Not sure why these few blocks were left to ruin, but they definitely add their own charm to the other urban and industrial decay found throughout Philly’s northern neighborhoods.

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A lot of Half-Life tribute videos today, but Marphy Black’s stirred up all the memories for me.  Name all the mods!

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Just thought I’d throw some love out there to my fellow Brothers and Sisters in EMS. A lot of people don’t realize all of the technical and chaotic work we have have to do just keep a patient stable (or be brought back to life) just so the ER/OR can do their magic when we get to the hospital. While every call might not lead to a P1 Trauma Patient, there is a lot that goes unseen. So to my Brothers and Sisters, keep on doing what your doing. We got this.

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