The Hippocratic Oath for Hypocrites

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The Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically.  The Greek physician, Hippocrates, from the 5th Century B.C., is the author.  Adopted about 26 centuries ago it withstood the test of time for nearly 2,500 years before changes in 1948 and 1964, the last 67 years, effectively destroyed the original intent.

From the website Greek Medicine.net we learn the following.

HIPPOCRATES

Father of Medicine

Medical historians generally look to Hippocrates as the founder of medicine as a rational science.  It was Hippocrates who finally freed medicine from the shackles of magic, superstition, and the supernatural.  Hippocrates collected data and conducted experiments to show that disease was a natural process and that the signs and symptoms of a disease resulted from the natural reactions of the body to the disease process.  He also believed that the chief role of the physician was to aid the natural resistance of the body to overcome the metabolic imbalance and restore health and harmony to the organism.

Hippocrates was born on the island of Cos, off the southwest coast of Asia Minor, or present-day Turkey, around 460 B.C.  His father was a physician-priest in the Asclepion at Cos, and his family could trace its lineage back to the legendary Asclepius.  Hippocrates lived a very long life and died at a ripe old age in the town of Larissa in Thessaly.

The Hippocratic Revolution

When Hippocrates began to practice medicine, the established school of medicine was the Cnidian School, but this school's approach to medicine had several serious flaws, which were already becoming apparent and starting to cause a general dissatisfaction with the art of medicine.

The Cnidian School considered the body to be merely a collection of isolated parts, and saw diseases manifesting in a particular organ or body part as affecting that part only, which alone was treated.  Their system of diagnosis was also faulty, relying exclusively on the subjective symptoms related by the patient, while totally ignoring the objective signs of the disease.

Hippocrates radically disagreed with the Cnidian School, countering that the human body functioned as one unified organism, or physis, and must be treated, in health and disease, as one coherent, integrated whole.  In diagnosis, not only the patient's subjective symptoms, but the objective signs of the disease must also be considered to arrive at an accurate assessment of what was going on.

As his unifying theory for the holistic understanding of the human organism, and how it functions in health and disease, Hippocrates used the concept of the Four Humors.  Building on the groundwork of humoral physiology and pathology laid by his predecessors, Hippocrates finally brought the theory of the Four Humors into its classical form.

Health is a harmonious balance of the Four Humors.  Disease results from their disharmony and imbalance.  The physician's job is to restore health by correcting the imbalance and restoring harmony to the humors.

To quote Hippocrates:

"The body of man has in itself blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile; these make up the nature of the body, and through these he feels pain or enjoys health.  Now, he enjoys the most perfect health when these elements are duly proportioned to one another in respect to compounding, power and bulk, and when they are perfectly mingled.  Pain is felt when one of these elements is in defect or excess, or is isolated in the body without being compounded with all the others."

The Nature of Man

Hippocrates took his band of renegade physicians with him to the island of Cos.  There, they set about to revolutionize the art of medicine and put its theory and practice on a truer, sounder footing.

Hippocratic Medicine

Physiology and pathology in Hippocratic medicine was based on the Four Humors.  A united confluence and sympathy between all four humors working together was necessary for good health.  Pneuma - the Breath or Vital Force, and the Innate Heat, which were suffused into the blood from the lungs via the heart, gave the blood the power to sustain life.

Hippocrates saw pepsis, or an orderly, balanced, harmonious digestion and metabolism of the Four Humors as being essential to all good health.  In disorders of pepsis Hippocrates saw the origin of most disease.

Hippocrates' anatomical knowledge was rather scant, but this is compensated for by his profound insights into human physiology and the soundness of his reasoning.  But even so, his surgical techniques for dislocations of the hip and jaw were unsurpassed until the nineteenth century.

In therapeutics, Hippocrates saw the physician as the servant and facilitator of Nature.  All medical treatment was aimed at enabling the natural resistance of the organism to prevail and overcome the disease, to bring about recovery.

In the treatments he prescribed, Hippocrates was very sensible, pragmatic and flexible in his approach, favoring conservatism and moderation over radical or extreme measures.  Bloodletting, which was much abused at other times in medicine's history, was used only rarely by Hippocrates, and even then, only applied conservatively.

Hippocrates placed great emphasis on strengthening and building up the body's inherent resistance to disease.  For this, he prescribed diet, gymnastics, exercise, massage, hydrotherapy and sea bathing.

Hippocrates was a great believer in dietary measures in the treatment of disease.  He prescribed a very slender, light diet during the crisis stage of an acute illness, and a liquid diet during the treatment of fevers and wounds.  

Hippocratic medicine was constitutionally based, so its approach to diagnosis and treatment was quite flexible.  As a holistic healing system, Hippocratic medicine treated the patient, and not just the disease.

Hippocrates was the first physician to systematically classify diseases based on points of similarity and contrast between them.  He virtually originated the disciplines of etiology and pathology.  By systematically classifying diseases, Hippocrates placed their diagnosis and treatment on a sounder footing.

The Hippocratic Corpus

The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of over 60 works.  Although all of them are attributed to Hippocrates, the Corpus is of a heterogenous character, and many, if not most, of its works may actually have been written by his students.

Still, we can be fairly certain that Hippocrates actually did author many books in the Corpus, including many original, groundbreaking works.

These include:
Airs, Waters and Places - the first major work on medical meteorology, climatology, geography and anthropology.
Aphorisms - a collection of wise, pithy sayings giving advice on practical matters of diet, prognosis and therapeutics.
Ancient Medicine - a defense of the empirical study of medicine against one biased by preliminary axioms and assumptions.  Also deals with the Four Humors.

The Legacy of Hippocrates

Hippocrates was the personification of the ideal physician - wise, caring, compassionate, and honest.  His Hippocratic Oath, which set high ethical standards for the practice of medicine, is his most remembered achievement.  His exemplary life has been a constant and enduring source of inspiration for doctors and healers down through the ages.

The Hippocratic Oath

Contrary to popular myth, the phrase "First do no harm" (Latin: Primum non nocere)) is not part of the Hippocratic oath. Strictly speaking, the phrase does not appear in the oath, though an equivalent phrase is in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: "Practise two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient".  The exact phrase may have originated with the 19th-century surgeon Thomas Inman.

There were several modifications to the oath, with a significant revision in 1948 by the World Medical Association (WMA) called the Declaration of Geneva.  During post World War II and immediately after its foundation, the WMA showed concern over the state of medical ethics in general and over the world. The WMA took up the responsibility for setting ethical guidelines for the world physicians. It noted that in those years the custom of medical schools to administer an oath to its doctors upon graduation or receiving a license to practice medicine had fallen into disuse or become a mere formality". In Germany during the Third Reich, medical students did not take the Hippocratic Oath, although they knew the ethic of "nil nocere" - do no harm.

In the 1960s, the Hippocratic Oath was changed to require "utmost respect for human life from its beginning", making it a more secular obligation, not to be taken in the presence of God or any gods, but before only other people. When Louis Lasanga, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, rewrote the Oath in 1964, omitted the prayer, and that version has been widely accepted and is still in use today by many medical schools.

Following are the Classic (original) version of the Oath, and the modern version resulting from the Lasanga revisions in 1964.  Note in the original version content in red represents sections altered in the modern version.

The Hippocratic Oath (Classic Version)

I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods, and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken the oath according to medical law, but to no one else.

I will apply dietic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art–if they desire to learn it–without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

The Hippocratic Oath (Modern Version)

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

The Modern Version, written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, is used in many medical schools today.

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The Rights and Responsibilities of the News Media

The press, or news media, are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is the Code of Ethics used to guide the news media in the exercise of their work.  Do you think they are following their own Code of Ethics?

Society of Professional JournalistsImproving and protecting journalism since 1909

SPJ Code of Ethics

Preamble

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

Seek Truth and Report It

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should

be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting

information.

Journalists should:

Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before

releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.

Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.

Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in

promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.

Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.

Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible

to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.

Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for

sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information

that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.

Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism

or allegations of wrongdoing.

Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information

unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.

Give voice to the voiceless.

Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and

government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the

open, and that public records are open to all.

Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.

Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience.

Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.

Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and

experiences may shape their reporting.

Label advocacy and commentary.

Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.

Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.

Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

Minimize Harm

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of

the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Journalists should:

Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.

Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.

Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use

heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes,

and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent.

Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.

Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification

to publish or broadcast.

Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about

themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or

attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal

information.

Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.

Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider

the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.

Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of

publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

Act Independently

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve

the public.

Journalists should:

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political

and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality,

or may damage credibility.

Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for

access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid

or not.

Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests,

and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines

between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

Be Accountable and Transparent

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's work and

explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Journalists should:

Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil

dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news

content.

Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.

Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain

corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.

Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.

Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

The SPJ Code of Ethics is a statement of abiding principles supported by additional explanations and position papers (at spj.org) that address changing journalistic practices.

It is not a set of rules, rather a guide that encourages all who engage in journalism to take responsibility for the information they provide, regardless of medium. The code should be read as a whole; individual principles should not be taken out of context. It is not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.

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The world's largest telescope will unlock the universe's oldest secrets

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 Andrew Tarantola,Engadget Fri, Nov 3 9:00 AM EDT

In the predawn hours of September 20th, 2017, the cavernous hangar doors of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona slowly swung open and the first of seven gargantuan mirrors passed through on its way to the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile where they will be assembled into one of the largest star-gazing instruments ever constructed: the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

Born of a collaboration between Brazil, Korea and the US, and outfitted with massive mirrors and adaptive optics, this billion-dollar telescope will deliver images 10 times clearer than the Hubble when it sees first light in 2023, enabling researchers to peer further back in time than ever before.

"We build big telescopes to discover new things," Dr. Patrick McCarthy, vice president of operations and external relations at the GMT Organization, told Engadget. "Astronomy is different from other sciences." Physicists, he points out, generally know what subatomic particle they're looking for when they construct their accelerators. However, that is not always the case when searching the skies. "It's about looking up to the heavens and letting the heavens reveal their mysteries to us."

Once the GMT comes online, researchers will be able to search for stuff that's "just beyond the grasp of what we can do now," McCarthy continued, such as the nature of planets that orbit other stars, whether they're earthlike in their composition with water and continents, weather and biochemistry. These observations could answer questions like "Are we alone in the universe?" shifting the age-old quandary from the philosophy to science.

The GMT will be able to deliver such high-quality data because of its enormous stature. When it opens six years from now, it will be the largest such observatory on the face of the planet. Its segmented collection area will consist of six 27-foot-wide monolith mirrors anchored around a central on-axis segment. The entire assembly will measure 80 feet across and cover 368 square meters. But for as humongous as each segment is, it is crafted with nanoscale precision and polished to within a wavelength of light.

Each mirror requires nearly seven years of work to complete, Dr. Robert Shelton, president of the GMTO, told Engadget. It takes a year just to make the borosilicate glass because it's sourced from a single supplier, Japan's Ohara Corporation, which uses a method involving clay pots and proprietary chemistry. "It takes them one year to make a mirror's worth of glass," Shelton explained. Once the GMT has collected enough material for a mirror, it is spin-casted on a rotating oven platform to give it its parabolic shape. After a six-month cooling period comes the meticulous multi-year process of grinding and polishing the glass into its final shape.

"When we started with the first mirror," McCarthy said, "there was a lot of learning going on, and it was a time when the industry was moving away from optical polishing as an art and more of a predictive science using computer-controlled polishing." That's right, robots took our glass polishing jobs. And the world is a better place for it.

"Computer-controlled polishing is now at the state of the art for small optics but less so for these very large mirrors," McCarthy continued. "Because there isn't as much of a large industrial throughput."

Through trial and error, the GMT team developed a sophisticated model for the material removal rate as a function of time (that is, how much you can grind away in x seconds), and the testing equipment needed to ensure it was accurate. Of course the team still independently measures the mirror's shape. Once the polishing run has been programmed, McCarthy said, the team typically scales it back by 30 percent "Because as the director of the mirror lab likes to remind us, 'It's easy to take the glass off, it's harder to put it back on.'"

The polishing tools themselves are computer controlled as well, changing shape several times per second. This is so "it always has the shape that we want while we're rubbing the glass," McCarthy explained. "These off-axis mirrors they have a different shape on every part of the glass, there is no symmetry." Hence the need for automation.

"We plan for this telescope to be revealing new discoveries of the universe for the next 50 years," Shelton exclaimed. "But with advances in computing and advances in electronics, there will be regular upgrades with new instrumentation. We've got a couple of generations of workhorse expectations out of the GMT."

The GMT is designed to observe light in the optical and near-infrared range. For older telescopes operating on that part of the spectrum, atmospheric distortion -- aka the phenomenon that makes stars twinkle -- would be a problem. But thanks to the GMT's built-in adaptive optics, that won't be an issue.

"The resolving power of your telescope, once you get above about a half meter in size, [due to atmospheric distortion effects] they're kind of all the same," McCarthy explained. "You're not realizing the full potential of the telescope." Adaptive optics, however, use lasers to sense the distortion and counter it in much the same way as noise-cancelling headphones block external sounds.

But the GMT won't be staring into the sky on its own; the observatory will collaborate with other telescopes both on the ground and in space. Take the Hubble's existing work with ground-based observatories, for example. "The Hubble can look at parts of the [light] spectrum that are difficult to observe from the ground, like the ultraviolet," Shelton explained. "The Hubble has unparalleled imaging quality but can't take spectra that are particularly interesting." However, by augmenting its abilities with facilities on the ground, astronomers have managed to make huge advancements in the cosmological field.

Once it gets up and running, the GMT may also turn its eye toward closer targets, potentially supplementing the observations of spacecraft orbiting the planets and moons of our solar system. "The interesting thing for solar system targets is how you connect the in situ measurements from spacecraft," McCarthy said. "With ground-based measurements with big apertures where we can take spectra and look for polarization."

The GMT team is also looking forward to working with the The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is currently being constructed a few hundred miles away on the El Peñón peak of Cerro Pachón. The LSST will survey the entire sky every few days looking for things that move or change brightness, then the GMT will go back and study those objects in greater detail. "We think there's a great synergy between us and the SST," Shelton said.

"After that, the question is whether you can make something bigger," McCarthy interjected. "And never say never, only 15, maybe 20 years ago the Europeans were going to make a 100-meter telescope. They eventually scaled it back but that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen."

He expects that humans will eventually build 100-meter-plus telescopes, "Whenever people build the biggest telescope of their generation, they say 'this will never be outdone, this is as big as it can get.'"

Indeed, just two years after it begins operations, the GMT will lose its title of world's largest observatory to the European Space Agency's Extremely Large Telescope, when it and its 978-square-meter collection area, come online in 2024.

But even though it won't be the biggest for very long, the GMT will continue to upgrade its systems throughout its operational lifespan. McCarthy foresees further growth in aperture size as well as advances in adaptive optics. "We've got one adaptive mirror on the telescope, but you could put in multiple adaptive mirrors to push the adaptive optics to shorter wavelengths."

"There's also the emerging field of photonics, which are miniaturized self-contained optical systems that effective use every photon," Shelton said. "They work at the quantum level and have people thinking about photonic spectrographs, telescopes that work in the aperture plane rather than the focal plane. There's a whole interesting frontier of photonic applications, we just don't know which of those will bear fruit and which of those will be great ideas that are just not practical."

Images: GMTO

·         This article originally appeared on Engadget.

What You Need to Know About North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb and EMP Capabilities

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Posted by Daisy Luther

Date: September 11, 2017

Last weekend, North Korea conducted their most powerful nuclear test ever, with what was believed to be a hydrogen bomb in the northern part of their country. The explosion was so massive that it triggered a man-made earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. If North Korean sources are to be believed, the bomb tested was a powerful 100 kiloton weapon.

But that’s not all. To take the massive threat to an entirely different level, the North Korean state news also warned that a powerful hydrogen bomb could be detonated at a high altitude to create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) capable of taking out parts of the American power grid. (PS: They have two satellites orbiting over the United States that could potentially carry out such an attack.)

Knowledge is power, so let’s break down this information with some explanations.

What is a hydrogen bomb?

A hydrogen bomb has some similarities to an atom bomb, but works using an opposite chemical reaction and is far more powerful. Both hydrogen bombs and atomic bombs are nuclear in nature, so after the initial blast, there would be deadly radioactive fallout and environmental issues.

An atom bomb is what was used by the United States against the Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during World War 2.

Nuclear fission produces the atomic bomb, a weapon of mass destruction that uses power released by the splitting of atomic nuclei.

When a single free neutron strikes the nucleus of an atom of radioactive material like uranium or plutonium, it knocks two or three more neutrons free. Energy is released when those neutrons split off from the nucleus, and the newly released neutrons strike other uranium or plutonium nuclei, splitting them in the same way, releasing more energy and more neutrons. This chain reaction spreads almost instantaneously. (source)

To give you an idea of the power of an atomic bomb, Hiroshima was hit with the power of 15,000 tons of TNT, while Nagasaki was blasted with the destructive power of 21,000 tons of TNT.

A hydrogen bomb works differently.

Nuclear fusion is a reaction that releases atomic energy by the union of light nuclei at high temperatures to form heavier atoms. Hydrogen bombs, which use nuclear fusion, have higher destructive power and greater efficiencies than atomic bombs.

Due to the high temperatures required to initiate a nuclear fusion reaction, the process is often referred to as a thermonuclear explosion. This is typically done with the isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) which fuse together to form Helium atoms. This led to the term “hydrogen bomb” to describe the deuterium-tritium fusion bomb. (source)

Hydrogen bombs (H-bombs) have been used before.

The first hydrogen bomb was exploded on November 1, 1952 at the small island Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. Its destructive power was several megatons of TNT. The blast, timed at 19:15 GMT, produced a light brighter than 1,000 suns and a heat wave felt 50 kilometres away. The Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb in the megaton range in August of 1953. The US exploded a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954. It had a fireball of 4.8 km in diameter and created a huge mushroom-shaped cloud. (source)

An h-bomb is expected to be 700 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, during which more than 150,000 people died. But they didn’t die all at once. Many of them suffered terrible, lingering deaths of agony. Here is the breakdown of this from a UCLA report.

• Very large numbers of person were crushed in their homes and in the buildings in which they were working. Their skeletons could be seen in the debris and ashes for almost 1,500 meters from the center of the blast, particularly in the downwind directions.

• Large numbers of the population walked for considerable distances after the detonation before they collapsed and died.Large numbers developed vomiting and bloody and watery diarrhea (vomitus and bloody feces were found on the floor in many of the aid stations), associated with extreme weakness. They died in the first and second weeks after the bombs were dropped.

• During this same period, deaths from internal injuries and from burns were common. Either the heat from the fires or infrared radiation from the detonations caused many burns, particularly on bare skin or under dark clothing.

• After a lull without peak mortality from any special causes, deaths began to occur from purpura, which was often associated with epilation, anemia, and a yellowish coloration of the skin. The so-called bone marrow syndrome, manifested by a low white blood cell count and almost complete absence of the platelets necessary to prevent bleeding, was probably at its maximum between the fourth and sixth weeks after the bombs were dropped. (source)

Now, multiply the above by 700 times and you’ll have a good idea of the horrifying affects of a hydrogen bomb. If it were to strike a major population area in the United States, the death toll would be astounding.

This video shows a comparison of actual atomic and hydrogen bombs.

How large of an area would be affected by a hydrogen bomb?

According to the website National Terror Alert, created by the DHS, these are the distances at which the destruction would occur, using the Hiroshima bomb as a point of reference.

1 Megaton Surface Blast: Pressure Damage

The fission bomb detonated over Hiroshima had an explosive blast equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. A 1 megaton hydrogen bomb, hypothetically detonated on the earth’s surface, has about 80 times the blast power of that 1945 explosion.

Radius of destructive circle: 1.7 miles
12 pounds per square inch

At the center lies a crater 200 feet deep and 1000 feet in diameter. The rim of this crater is 1,000 feet wide and is composed of highly radioactive soil and debris. Nothing recognizable remains within about 3,200 feet (0.6 miles) from the center, except, perhaps, the remains of some buildings’ foundations. At 1.7 miles, only some of the strongest buildings — those made of reinforced, poured concrete — are still standing. Ninety-eight percent of the population in this area are dead.

Radius: 2.7 miles
5 psi

Virtually everything is destroyed between the 12 and 5 psi rings. The walls of typical multi-story buildings, including apartment buildings, have been completely blown out. The bare, structural skeletons of more and more buildings rise above the debris as you approach the 5 psi ring. Single-family residences within this this area have been completely blown away — only their foundations remain. Fifty percent of the population between the 12 and 5 psi rings are dead. Forty percent are injured.

Radius: 4.7 miles
2 psi

Any single-family residences that have not been completely destroyed are heavily damaged. The windows of office buildings have been blown away, as have some of their walls. The contents of these buildings’ upper floors, including the people who were working there, are scattered on the street. A substantial amount of debris clutters the entire area. Five percent of the population between the 5 and 2 psi rings are dead. Forty-five percent are injured.

Radius: 7.4 miles
1 psi

Residences are moderately damaged. Commercial buildings have sustained minimal damage. Twenty-five percent of the population between the 2 and 1 psi rings have been injured, mainly by flying glass and debris. Many others have been injured from thermal radiation — the heat generated by the blast. The remaining seventy-five percent are unhurt. (source)

But it isn’t just the initial blast you’d have to be concerned about. The radioactive fallout would affect many more people further away from the blast during the first week.

1 Megaton Surface Blast: Fallout

One of the effects of nuclear weapons detonated on or near the earth’s surface is the resulting radioactive fallout. Immediately after the detonation, a great deal of earth and debris, made radioactive by the blast, is carried high into the atmosphere, forming a mushroom cloud. The material drifts downwind and gradually falls back to earth, contaminating thousands of square miles. This page describes the fallout pattern over a seven-day period.

Assumptions
Wind speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: due east
Time frame: 7 days

3,000 Rem*
Distance: 30 miles
Much more than a lethal dose of radiation. Death can occur within hours of exposure. About 10 years will need to pass before levels of radioactivity in this area drop low enough to be considered safe, by U.S. peacetime standards.

900 Rem
Distance: 90 miles
A lethal dose of radiation. Death occurs from two to fourteen days.

300 Rem
Distance: 160 miles
Causes extensive internal damage, including harm to nerve cells and the cells that line the digestive tract, and results in a loss of white blood cells. Temporary hair loss is another result.

90 Rem
Distance: 250 miles
Causes a temporary decrease in white blood cells, although there are no immediate harmful effects. Two to three years will need to pass before radioactivity levels in this area drop low enough to be considered safe, by U.S. peacetime standards.

*Rem: Stands for “roentgen equivalent man.” This is a measurement used to quantify the amount of radiation that will produce certain biological effects. (source)

So, as you can see, a hydrogen bomb puts the destruction at a whole different level from the nuclear warheads that people expected where Kim Jong Un’s most devastating weapons. And sadly, this isn’t the only risk.

Could an H-bomb detonated at high altitude take down the American power grid?

Something that could potentially be even more deadly during the long-term is a hydrogen bomb that is detonated at high altitude, which would cause an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could devastate the electrical grid across a wide geographical swath.

And this weekend, Kim Jong Un directly threatened the United States with such an attack.

The news Sunday morning that North Korea had launched what appeared to be its sixth nuclear test and most powerful one to date is troubling enough.

But a statement from the rogue regime took things to a whole new level. The North said it had tested an H-bomb that was “a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack according to strategic goals.” (source)

In such an event, part of the United States could lose power indefinitely. Our infrastructure and devices would not be repairable. Everything would require replacement, which could take several years.

NOTE: For an excellent, non-sensational resource, I recommend anything written by Dr. Arthur T. Bradley, a NASA scientist and recurring speaker over at Preppers University. He has written numerous books and articles about the threat of an EMP. His book, Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms, is a must read for anyone concerned about the possibility of this type of attack. In it, he dispels many rumor and myths about such an event and replaces them with facts based on his research with NASA.

It’s important to note that North Korea does have satellites that would be capable of an atmospheric detonation that would cause an electromagnetic pulse. In fact, two of the were over our country as recently as last month. At the time, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security and chief of staff of the Congressional EMP Commission, warned:

“The EMP Commission has officially been warning about those satellites especially now that the (intelligence) community admits that North Korea can miniaturize warheads,” Pry stated. “Our argument all along has been that they could make weapons small enough to put on those satellites that pass over the United States on the optimum trajectory for an EMP attack on North America.”

“And they would obviously be a basis for a surprise EMP attack if North Korea wants to commit aggression against South Korea. Or to blackmail us if we were going to intervene to deliver on our security guarantees for Japan, South Korea or the Pacific.”

Pry said the satellites are orbiting at the “optimum height for putting an EMP field over all 48 contiguous United States.”

Pry warned that deploying satellites for the purpose of an EMP option against the U.S. “is exactly the kind of thing that he (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) would do.  It would make strategic sense to do it. We do know that Kim Jong Un is a risk-taker.”

Pry surmised that the North Koreans may be utilizing the satellites for an attack plan pioneered by the Soviets during the Cold War to attack the U.S. with an EMP as part of a larger surprise assault aimed at crippling the U.S. military.

Unlike the Soviet plan, Pry opined, the North Koreans may be seeking to use an EMP attack to target “our electrical grid and our civilian critical infrastructure. And they only need one weapon to do that.” (source)

Zero Hedge reported on this worst-case scenario event:

However, it would probably lead to an unknown number of indirect deaths as hospitals and essential infrastructure lose power.

“The idea of an EMP attack is to detonate a nuclear weapon tens or hundreds of miles above the earth with the aim of knocking out power in much of the U.S. Unlike the U.S. atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, such a weapon wouldn’t directly destroy buildings or kill people. Instead, electromagnetic waves from the nuclear explosion would generate pulses to overwhelm the electric grid and electronic devices in the same way a lightning surge can destroy equipment.”

In the worst possible scenario, regional power grids could be offline for months, potentially costing many deaths as people would eventually start running out of necessities like food and medicine. Lawmakers and the US military have been aware of the EMP threat for many years, according to WSJ. IN a 2008 report commissioned by Congress, the authors warned that an EMP attack would lead to “widespread and long-lasting disruption and damage to the critical infrastructures that underpin the fabric of US society.”

In a report published last month, the Hill noted that the North could choose to carry out an EMP attack on Japan or South Korea as a more politically acceptable act of aggression. Such an attack could help the North accomplish its three most-important political goals, the Hill said.

“North Korea has nuclear-armed missiles and satellites potentially capable of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. EMP is considered by many the most politically acceptable use of a nuclear weapon, because the high-altitude detonation (above 30 kilometers) produces no blast, thermal, or radioactive fallout effects harmful to people.

EMP itself is harmless to people, destroying only electronics. But by destroying electric grids and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures, the indirect effects of EMP can kill far more people in the long-run than nuclear blasting a city. In this scenario, North Korea makes an EMP attack on Japan and South Korea to achieve its three most important foreign policy goals: reunification with South Korea, revenge upon Japan for World War II, and recognition of North Korea as a world power.” (source)

However, Anthony Furey, the author of Pulse Attack: The Real Story Behind The Secret Weapon That Can Destroy North America, believes that North Korea would not start out an attack like this on Guam, South Korea, or Japan, due to the ferocious response from the US military, but would strike the United States directly.

Conventional wisdom tells us that North Korea would be incredibly reticent to live up to its threats of launching a missile strike, nuclear or otherwise, on South Korea, Guam, Japan or elsewhere because the retaliation from the United States would be immediate and ferocious, effectively destroying the country and killing all of its leadership.

However, if Kim Jong Un’s first strike is a successful EMP attack against North America, this would largely shut down the ability of the U.S. to respond. While some elements of U.S. military infrastructure have been hardened for resilience against an EMP strike, there is no standardization across the board. Plus, civilian infrastructure is hardly protected, if at all. The United States and Canada would be in the dark and sitting ducks.

A handful of national security experts and legislators in the U.S. have attempted to sound the alarm about this troubling vulnerability but have largely been unsuccessful in getting regulations in place. The utilities industry claims it’s not its problem, but that of the military’s, something experts firmly dispute. (source)

Of course, a miscalculation by North Korea could lead to a ground strike instead of an atmospheric one, leading back to the first scenario we discussed. Really, with things so volatile, you should be preparing for all possible scenarios:

• Nuclear Preparedness Intensive interviews
• How to Prepare for a Nuclear Strike
• Getting Prepared for a Disaster (This includes an hour-long interview with Dr. Bradley, the EMP expert mentioned above)
• How to Use Potassium Iodide in a Nuclear Emergency (Free PDF)
• Getting Prepared for a Long-Term Scenario

Is the United States discussing a military response?

General James Mattis, the Secretary of Defense, has suggested that a military response could be imminent.

“Our commitment among the allies are ironclad,” Mattis said. “Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming.”

Mattis called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to “take heed” of the UN Security Council’s unanimous position against North Korea’s nuclear program and again stressed the US military’s position.

“We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so,” Mattis said. (source)

The problem with military action, though, is that both Russia and China have said that if the United States strikes first, they will retaliate. This, of course, would result in a potential global conflict with the world’s superpowers coming head to head.

Don’t be distracted while the United States digs itself out from under the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and holds its breath watching the uncertain path of Hurricane Irma. As devastating as those storms are and could be, we may have even more dire things to worry about.

Do you have knowledge about nuclear weapons?

My research comes from a variety of experts cited on the internet, but it’s purely theoretical for me. Do you have more information?

Please weigh in below in the comments section. Your information is very welcome. Please let us know where your knowledge comes from. (Do you/did you work in this field? Do you have a military background? A scientific background?)  We’d love to hear from you.

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Melchizedek Prophecy - Iceland Volcano threatens world tourism and environment if it erupts

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In yet another example of the warning of a year of devastating storms and weather anomalies in order for Mother Earth to correct the damage we have done to it with over 2,000 nuclear bomb explosions since 1950, one of the world record disaster potentials is volcanic eruptions.  This is another element of the one year of record shattering weather anomalies followed by seven years of more random destruction as prophesied by Melchizedek.

Iceland's Enormous Bardarbunga Volcano 'Ready to Erupt' as Four Earthquakes Strike in Just Two Hours

 

Melissa Matthews,Newsweek 8 hours ago 

Iceland’s largest volcano, Bardarbunga, could erupt at any moment, bringing a cloud of ash that could hinder worldwide tourism, and cause air quality issues, reports Yahoo UK. Some worry it would be reminiscent of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull, which disturbed travel at the time.

The country’s largest volcano, which stands at 6,591 feet above sea level, has been hit with earthquakes this week. These vibrations could have huge implications, according to volcanic expert, Páll Einarsson at the University of Iceland. He spoke to the Daily Star in the UK and explained that an eruption is brewing. 

A photo during the last eruption of Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano. Experts believe the volcano could have another eruption within the next few years. BERNARD MERIC/AFP/Getty Images

“The volcano is clearly preparing for its next eruption, that may happen in the next few years,” he told the outlet. The earthquake won't cause an eruption; rather, they hint that one could be coming. “The earthquakes last week are just the symptoms of this process, they do not cause the volcano to erupt,” he told the Daily Star.

Bardarbunga last erupted in 2014, and NASA documents show that seismic activity increased for seven years before the event. It dipped briefly in 2011 after another volcano located nearby, Grímsvötn, erupted, but once again became more active in August 2014. Later that month, the volcano finally erupted, spewing lava for days.

What concerns most experts is that the next eruption could be a repeat of the chaos in 2010 following the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. According to The Telegraph, 100,000 flights were cancelled from the incident, leaving 10 million people stranded. Airlines lost $1.7 billion dollars in revenue. LiveScience reports that the eruption, which stopped flights for almost a month, was so drastic because the ash spread further than normal and was present in the atmosphere for a greater length of time.  

Scientists later discovered that the prolonged drama was in part due to an adverse reaction between the magma and the surrounding glacial water. The ash was more porous and not as aerodynamic, which made them stay afloat longer.

There’s no evidence that if the eruption of Bardarbunga would cause the same kind of havoc. Einarsson told the Daily Star that it’s simply not possible to determine what the next eruption will be like, but thinks it will be harmless according to the statistics.

Lava flowing from the last eruption of the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland. A new eruption could cause havoc for air travel.BERNARD MERIC/AFP/Getty Images

Still, Einarsson said the country needs to prepare for the worst.

Though he emphasizes they are not common, he also says “we have to be prepared for larger and more disastrous eruptions.”