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onlydarkshadows-deactivated2022

CR rainy-autumn-day

themedicalstate

Suturing Techniques

by The Apprentice Doctor

portraitoftheoddity

Ok folks, it’s that time of year, so your Northerner friend has some unsolicited wisdom to impart!

If you are a new driver, or have just moved to a snowy area and this is your first winter driving in snow:

Equip your car with:

A snow brush/ice scraper combo - good for clearing off your windshield, windows, and headlights when it snows.

A collapsible snow shovel - good for digging out your car when the snow plow dumps a snowbank on your bumper

Extra snow gloves. Nothing sucks like frostbite on your fingers from trying to dig your car out with bare hands when you get out of work and it’s been snowing.

An old towel. If you end up cold and wet, you can at least be less wet. I’ve also used it for traction under a tire when stuck.

A blanket. If you break down and have to wait for help, you’ll want to stay warm. (I kept a sleeping bag in my car for years when I regularly drove through the mountains)

A flashlight. It gets dark early in winter - if you have to get out of the car, you’ll be able to see, and others will be able to see you.

Half decent tires. Winter tires are a luxury, don’t worry about that, but make sure your tires aren’t completely bald.

When driving in the snow:

Always brake way before you think you need to. Your car will take longer to stop and the slower you brake, the less likely you are to skid. ESPECIALLY if you’re going downhill.

Drive slowly. If you lose traction, you will have less inertia and won’t slide as far.

Keep your headlights on and your high beams off.

If you have to change lanes, so do slowly. All movements should be slow and gentle.

Keep more distance than usual between yourself and the vehicle in front of you. If you lose traction when braking, you’re less likely to rear end them.

Before hitting the road – warm your engine up, make sure your exhaust pipe is clear of snow, and scrape the snow off the roof of your car. Heavy roof snow can go flying off when you speed up and blind the person behind you. Don’t be an asshole; scrape it off before you hit the road.

AND REMEMBER:

The most dangerous thing on the road is other drivers. Even if you know what you’re doing, they might not. Give them plenty of space, signal clearly, and ALWAYS check both ways before driving through an intersection in case someone else has lost traction – even if you have right of way.

the-awkward-turt

I hope you don’t mind if I add a few additional tips

1. Lack of visibility can be just as dangerous as slick driving conditions.

-Make sure to leave your house with enough time to thoroughly scrape the frost from your windows and mirrors.

-Your windows may fog up due to the difference in temperature between the inside and outside of the car. You can fix this by turning your defroster on (this blows warm air against the glass) or cracking your windows to lessen the temperature difference between the inside and outside.

-If you get caught in a whiteout (i.e. can’t see due to blowing snow) DO NOT STOP. Definitely do not stop suddenly. Put your hazards and normal lights on (not high beams). Gradually slow down and increase your following distance. DO NOT PULL OVER unless you can get well away from the road (especially if you are on the highway). If you stop or pull over on the shoulder there is a good chance the cars behind you will not see you in time or will have lost sight of exactly where the road is and hit you (this can cause massive deadly chain-reaction pile ups). Drive slowly until you are able to get off the road into a parking lot, etc.

-Heavy, wet snow can build up on your windshield to the point where it gums up your wipers and gradually decreases your visibility to dangerous levels. If it starts to get bad, slow down, pull over (ideally in a parking lot), and take some time to thoroughly wipe all the snow and grime from your windshield, clean your wipers, etc to give you a clean slate as you get back on the road. Repeat as necessary.

-This may seem obvious, but don’t throw hot/boiling water on your windshield in an attempt to quickly defrost it (rather than scraping, waiting for the defroster to work, etc). At best it will freeze on your windshield.

2. Part of being a responsible winter driver is knowing when to not go out or when to get off the road and shelter in place.

-No matter how experienced you are at driving in the snow, no matter how good your snow tires are, no matter how powerful your AWD/4WD is, sometimes conditions are bad enough that the correct option is to just stay where you are until the weather clears up.

-If you know that your vehicle is not prepared to deal with the current weather conditions (ex. your tires are bald, your car doesn’t have AWD/4WD and you’ll have to go up steep hills and/or through deep snow, your windshield wipers or defroster isn’t working) it is your responsibility to stay home. You will only seriously endanger yourself, your car, and everyone else on the road with you if you go out in a vehicle that is not meant to drive in heavy snow.

-Story time: I knew someone from the south who moved to a snowy area, went out in a blizzard in a little, RWD car without good tires and ended up sliding through several intersections before being blown/sliding off the road on the highway, got stuck, had to get rescued, and then their car ended up being buried and then hit by a plow before they could get back to retrieve it. If you’re new to a snowy area and aren’t sure whether it’s safe to go out with your current vehicle, ask your neighbors, coworkers, etc.

-Being late or not getting to your destination sucks. Getting stuck and forcing someone else to risk themselves to come rescue you (and gumming up the roads for emergency vehicles) or being killed or seriously injured in a multi-car pile up sucks worse. If conditions are bad enough, the correct option is to get off the road and shelter in place until they get better.

3. AWD and 4WD control whether/how fast you are able to go in slick conditions. Tires and speed control whether you are able to stop.

-AWD and 4WD do not mean that you don’t need good tires nor do they mean that you won’t slide in slick conditions or that you don’t need to go slow.

-Good all weather tires (or snow tires if you can afford them) can go a long way towards making a RWD or FWD car safer in the snow.

-If you are in a situation where you are picking a car to drive in the snow, my preference would be AWD or 4WD, then FWD, then RWD. If you have to drive a RWD car in the snow, it helps to put some weight over the back tires to increase their traction. (If you want this explained further, ask a car person)

4. “The most dangerous thing on the road is other drivers” is 1000% true.

-Remember how I said not to go out if your car isn’t equipped for the conditions? There will be people on the road during a blizzard driving RWD cars with bald tires and sliding through intersections and getting stuck going up hills.

-Remember how I said that AWD/4WD has nothing to do with how fast you are able to stop? There will be people in land-yacht SUVs and trucks blazing through the snow because they think they are immune to winter.

-Remember how I said not to slam on your breaks in a white out? Somebody in front of you may very well panic and do that.

Be prepared, go slow, stay calm and focused, and trust no one.

atatfortatzelwurm

- ALWAYS, ALWAYS CLEAR SNOW AND ICE OFF ALL PARTS OF YOUR CAR BEFORE YOU TAKE TO THE ROAD.

This includes front and back windshields, all lights, bumpers, all passenger windows, AND THE ROOF! If you do not, you run the risk of snow and/or ice flying off your car and potentially blinding or damaging any car(s) behind you, and/or injuring someone in a resulting accident.

Just last week, my sister was on a highway when a chunk of ice came off the roof of the car in front of her and cracked her windshield. We’re lucky that she’s a steady driver and that it didn’t compromise her visibility, or we might’ve ended up dealing with a much bigger problem than insurance not covering the damage to the car.

- If you live in or enter an area with snowmobiles, pay close attention to where the trails cross the roads. Ultimately, cars have the right-of-way at these crossings, but if you see a snowmobile on the side of the road, slow down (like slow down a LOT) anyway; if they don’t see you and begin to cross, snowmobiles can NOT reliably brake, turn, or accelerate on roads, no matter the road condition. I have watched as snowmobilers play chicken with cars whether they mean to or not. Sometimes, they can get stuck right in the middle of the road from wonky acceleration/breaking, or hit the other side of the trail at a poor angle. (I’ve done both, the latter more than once.) If a snowmobile ends up stuck, be patient and let them move the snowmobile safely out of the road before you continue.

(If you come across a group that’s in the middle of crossing with some people on one side and some on the other, just let the rest of the group cross before you. It’s polite.)

theglasschild

“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”

— Attachments, Rainbow Rowell

advocateforearth-deactivated202

Feeling catastrophic about the future?

You can start by helping your local community.

Working on a small scale when we face massive global problems can feel like a waste of time, but it is in fact one of the most effective and positive forms of activism that you can do.

Growing the bonds within our communities helps to make them stronger, more self-sustainable and more stable.

We will be best prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead of us if we are part of cohesive, proactive community groups.

Within these groups, we can help to solve and prevent some of the common problems that face us today, such as a lack of food security, fuel poverty, loneliness and deprivation. Knowing that we can rely on our community to support us through difficult times, and in turn support the community, is vital for us to tackle the looming crises we face.

What counts as a community?

Community (noun): a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

One of the first stumbling blocks when beginning with community activism is working out which communities you belong to. We each, in our lifetime, will belong to several communities at once, and these can include groups such as the people who live in your city, in your suburb, on your street, your school, your workplace, your extended family and friends.

A community can also count as a group of people which you share characteristics with, such as the LGBT community. This post focuses mainly on location specific communities but this could also be applied to characteristic based communities.

What can we get involved with?

Practicalities are a great place to start. Does everyone in your community have access to food, safe housing, clean water, enough clothes for their children, for instance?

There are a lot of well-established groups already working tirelessly within your community, you may never have noticed them before, but once you seek them out, you’ll be amazed at the work they do. It’s nearly always best to start by helping with an already existing group who can support you and give you resources, rather than try to start your own without any support. So, have a look at what is already in place in your local area. Here’s some ideas based on what is available in my area:

Food banks

Baby banks

Coffee mornings and lunch meetings for the elderly

Community gardens and allotments

The Gurdwara, which holds Langar (similarly, other places of worship which offer meals or places to sleep)

Soup kitchens

Hospice volunteers

Library volunteers

Refugee solidarity groups

Local political and activism groups

Environmental groups

Sure Start children’s centres

Local parks

Youth groups

LGBT+ spaces

Here are a few ideas

Donate items and money to your local food or clothing bank - find the one which is closest to your area and make sure that people know how to access it.

Volunteer at a soup kitchen, or set one up with help from Food not Bombs

Volunteer at (or start) a community allotment or garden so that people can learn to grow things and have access to fresh food

Donate to a baby bank (a baby bank is a place which collect clothes, nappies, and Moses baskets for new parents)

Join a tenant’s union

If you grow food in your garden, leave out surplus veg with a sign so that people can freely take some

Set up a Little Pantry in your community

Help to pick up litter and keep your area clean and safe

Rewild a patch of unused land

Set up a coffee morning so that elderly and lonely people can have some company

Organise for surplus food from supermarkets and restaurants to be redistributed around the community

Volunteer at your local library

Campaign to keep key services open (such as Sure Start children’s centres, local hospitals, libraries, and parks)

Help to spread the word about services and events online and with posters/leaflets (for instance, if a food bank is looking for more toiletries to be donated, then share!)

Get on friendly terms with your close neighbours (offer to share things with them)

Organise a cooperative shop or café, repair workshop or makers space

Join a local activism group (for instance, a local political party, an environmentalism group, a refugee solidarity group)

Find a way to make your hobby into a way to help others. Crochet blankets to give to the baby bank or refugee solidarity group, cook food to take to the soup kitchen, plant flowers in communal spaces, help people to organise and reach a bigger audience with a website or social media page, look into volunteering with a sports programme or reading programme.

Teach your skill. Perhaps you have a specific skill that you can help to teach to other groups. Offer your skills at a free repair workshop or maker’s space.

Obviously, there is too much here for just one person to get involved with, and burnout is a real issue with social activism. So, pick one or two things that suit your skills or passions. It is also really helpful to know what there is to offer to your community, so that you can recommend places/things to do to others - or for in case you need them yourself in the future.

Helpful organisations and links

Food not Bombs - a grassroots collective which cooks and shares free vegetarian food, and also protests poverty and war Food not Lawns - a great resource on Permaculture, urban farming and community self-sustainability, with local chapters Little Free Pantry Project - a project to inspire people to provide a little pantry, where members of the community can take or leave food supplies as needed Symbiosis - A North American based project to grow local cooperative economies within communities Tenants Union - a UK based national union for tenants and renters Transition Network - a movement to help communities become more resilient through skills workshops, crowdfunding, and reconnecting local groups Rewilding Britain - an organisation leading pilot projects for rewilding Britain, and sharing practical knowledge

scottishwobbly

for more active, effective, and grassroots democratic tenants unions: ACORN (England and Wales) Living Rent (Scotland)

bumblebeeappletree

So. You want to garden.

For whatever reason. Right now as of uhhhh Friday March 27, of 2020, within the quarantine of COVID-19 you are most likely want to garden in order to feed your family as you want to save money from the grocery store. And to ya know. feed your family.

SO. Here’s some YouTube videos. Mainly from this one YouTuber since she runs her own farm. She talks about what to grow and how to grow as well as saving seeds. (Trust me, saving seeds is better in the long run.) You can also regrow kitchen scraps too if you feel like you’re unable to get any proper seeds. And for fun have a post apocalyptic type garden.

What to plant in a small garden:

Fast-food growing options:

The importance of Seed saving:

How to build an arched trellis for $30:

A complete guide to virtual gardening:

How to PLANT & GROW with cattle panel arched trellises:

14 store bought vegetables & herbs you can regrow:

Save your kitchen scraps, these 7 plants can be grown out of them:

9 survival gardening crops to grow in a post apocalyptic world:

advocateforearth-deactivated202

I can also recommend Charles Dowding and Huw Richards for UK based gardening advice

thegravedomain

Do not purchase medical supplies you don’t know how to use.

I have seen so, so many suggested lists of first aid equipment circulating over the past few days, and it’s no wonder why. Everyone is anxious about the coming weeks, and trying to prepare in the best ways they can figure out how. That’s not a crime, nor is it a sin.

But as a street medic, please listen to me: Do not purchase medical supplies you don’t know how to use.

A tourniquet is extremely useful in a blood loss scenario, but do you know how to use it safely? Do you know how to tie it properly? Do you know how long it can safely stay on before risking limb loss? Are you familiar with what varieties of tourniquet are safe, and which kinds pose a risk?

A stethoscope is an inexpensive and useful tool for checking certain vitals, but do you know how to use it? Have you ever taken a pulse before? Do you know what the average heart rate is, what the safe range is, and what ranges are cause for concern? Do you know what sorts of breathing indicate a serious emergency?

Do you know what to do with all the compressed gauze and wrap bandages that you’ve been stockpiling, or did you just buy them because you panicked and wanted to feel prepared?

I 100% do not want to shame people for not knowing first aid, because it can be very inaccessible to learn. You’re not a bad person for not being a medic–not everyone can or should be a medic! But PLEASE stop buying up medical supplies–and making it harder for medics to resupply–if you don’t actually know how to use them.

And if you want to learn emergency first aid, please check out the 100% free Riot Medicine and Riot Medicine Field Guide eBooks!

queer-feminist-action

Make Do and Mend: Darning

OMG DIAGONAL!!!

To keep it S–T–R–E–T–C–H–Y–!

Why hasn’t anyone told me this?

afewdroppedstitches

I’m all for darning and mending clothes. 🖤🖤

hookedatweiss

I interrupt my (mostly) crochet blog for this darn reblog. 🤣 ❤🧵

sun-kissed-fitness

my parents have their Hurricane kits, I have mine.

theconcealedweapon

If you really care about preventing government tyranny, your #1 priority must be making sure criminals have rights.

And that's not a joke or an exaggeration.

If criminals don't have rights, then all the government has to do is find some excuse to label people as criminals, and those people will no longer have rights. It's what literally every tyrannical government in all of history has done.

If you believe that people who break the law should forfeit their rights, you're literally as pro-tyranny as a person can get.

podencos

I thought this was a joke but it’s not and I wish it were

la-laborista-republiko

Hell world

desperate-acts-of-capitalism

Whoops I appear to have left my extremely powerful rare earth magnet on top of Amazon alexa

afro-evolutionary-astrology

Fear is knowing a new Alexa product is being developed.

Terror is knowing that it’s for landlords to control their units remotely, while being to see and hear everything in the rented space.

Horror is understanding that if a family is a few days late for rent/electricity/gas, this product will most likely cut off the services they may need to survive like WiFi access, stove/oven/microwave/fridge appliances having power, lights, medical devices that require electricity to function, etc.

800-dick-pics

deep horror is knowing that these devices will probably be set to unlock doors remotely allowing cops and abusers into the homes of marginalized people, these devices will probably have sensors to check how many people live in the home vs on the lease, probably will have some way or reporting that the residents are “breaking the lease” ie: loud music, having overnight guests, parties, or just people doing normal human shit and having it seen as a “violation”

desperate-acts-of-capitalism

Hope is knowing these things have the network security equivalent of a sign that says "please do not hack me" over an open door.

aceofaces20

If your landlord ever tries to force you to use Alexa, and you have little to no technical or programming expertise, it’s time to make your very own Faraday cage.

“What is a Faraday cage?” you might ask. “How will it help me defeat Big Sister Alexa?”

Easy answer: a Faraday cage blocks EM waves. WiFi, the thing Alexa needs to do anything of use at all? That’s a type of EM wave.

I know, I know, “Faraday cage” sounds like it’ll take 47727372 hours with a welder, right? Wrong!

A simple Faraday cage that anyone can make is as easy as a cardboard box with as many layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil as you can stand to coat the box with. I usually do about 5 layers because that number is easy to remember, but if you’re paranoid or simply need more layers you are more than welcome to add as many layers as necessary to keep Alexa at bay. I think the average is about 4-6 layers.

Hilariously, I actually learned this technique from those crazy prepper types. Which, ironically, is why I know it works. (Not to mention I tested it myself by wrapping my phone in foil and seeing if my roommate could call or message me.)

If your landlord notices, they will not receive any warning or notification that you tampered with Alexa- because you didn’t. All they will notice is that they can’t communicate with that particular Alexa device (because it will be “offline”, aka not sending or receiving signals).

A box is also easily hideable in case of surprise visits from the landlord or anyone else who might report you to your landlord, accidentally or on purpose. Just pop the bitch out, restart it (or don’t, this just clears any other hitches from the system) and it should behave normally.

Additionally, most landlords have the general tech expertise of an orangutan with a headset, so technical hitches are relatively easy to handwave with a good ol’ “Fire is scary and Edison and Tesla were witches”. Basically, if they question you about why Alexa suddenly is or isn’t working, shrug and say that it must have suddenly either just gone out or come back (depending on the situation), but that you didn’t do anything to it because you don’t know anything about that sort of tech and that you didn’t want to mess with it out of fear you would break it.

Note: Remember, Big Sister is always listening! If you wish to put the bitch in a Faraday cage, remember not to discuss it where Big Sister can hear you!

whitepeopletwitter

wildernesssurvivor

Easy to follow suture guide

thegravedomain

Protest Safety Tip

Please do not distract your street medics. Don’t hand them signs to wave, or try to get them to chant slogans with you. Street medics must stay focused on being watchful and prepared for action. They are there to support protestors, not be protestors themselves.

Don’t get angry at a street medic for not joining the chants, sign waving, and marching. Things can get scary and dangerous without a lot of notice, and you do not want your medics distracted if that happens.

I have actually been trained to treat protestors as potential hazards, because in the heat of the moment, protestors can and do get in the way. Adrenaline kicks in, they see someone go down, and suddenly they get total tunnel vision and start harassing the medics. Don’t be that person.

Street medics are there to support you and take care of you. Be respectful and alert, and don’t be a part of what makes their job more difficult!

stonecrop

I’m both pro herbal medicine and pro vaccination because you can treat burns with aloe vera juice and sore throats with lavender infused honey but you can’t rid a country of polio with plants.