Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: CPR should start as soon as possible

Here's How:

1.    Stay Safe! The worst thing a rescuer can do is become another victim. Follow universal precautions and wear personal protective equipment if you have it. Use common sense and stay away from potential hazards. 

2.    Attempt to wake victim. Briskly rub your knuckles against the victim's sternum. If the victim does not wake, call 911 and proceed to step 3. If the victim wakes, moans, or moves, then CPR is not necessary at this time. Call 911 if the victim is confused or not able to speak.

3.    Begin rescue breathing. Open the victim's airway using the head-tilt, chin-lift method. Put your ear to the victim's open mouth:

·         look for chest movement

·         listen for air flowing through the mouth or nose

·         feel for air on your cheek  

If there is no breathing, pinch the victim's nose; make a seal over the victim's mouth with yours. Use a CPR mask if available. Give the victim a breath big enough to make the chest rise. Let the chest fall, then repeat the rescue breath once more. If the chest doesn't rise on the first breath, reposition the head and try again. Whether it works on the second try or not, go to step 4.

4.    Begin chest compressions. Place the heel of your hand in the middle of the victim's chest. Put your other hand on top of the first with your fingers interlaced. Compress the chest about 1-1/2 to 2 inches (4-5 cm). Allow the chest to completely recoil before the next compression. Compress the chest at a rate equal to 100/minute. Perform 30 compressions at this rate.

 5.    Repeat rescue breaths. Open the airway with head-tilt, chin-lift again. This time, go directly to rescue breaths without checking for breathing again. Give one breath, making sure the chest rises and falls, then give another. Remember, if the chest doesn't rise on the first breath, reposition the head before you give the second breath.

 6.    Perform 30 more chest compressions. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for about two minutes.

7.    After 2 minutes of chest compressions and rescue breaths, stop compressions and recheck victim for breathing. If the victim is not breathing, continue chest compressions and rescue breaths.

 8.    Keep going until help arrives.

Tips:

 1.    If you have acces to an automated external defibrillator, attach it to the victim after approximately one minute of CPR (chest compressions and rescue breaths).

2.    Chest compressions are extremely important. If you are not comfortable giving rescue breaths, still perform chest compressions!

3.    It's normal to feel pops and snaps when you first begin chest compressions - DON'T STOP! You aren't going to make the victim any worse. Cardiac arrest is as bad as it gets.

4.    When performing chest compressions, do not let your hands bounce. Let the chest fully recoil, but keep the heel of your hand in contact with the sternum at all times.

5.    For more information on these steps go to the Emergency Cardiac Care (ECC) Guidelines from the American Heart Association.

As a longtime fan of the The Doors and the attention being given to the new Doors documentary (in theatre’s now – Check it out!) I pulled out my copy of the Oliver Stone Doors movie. There is scene in the movie where Jim Morrison meets another equally talented artist, Andy Warhol. There is so much going on in this scene with all its historical nuances that I’m compelled to post it. I Hope you enjoy it. If you don’t then at least respect that it is one person’s interpretation of the meeting of two great artists who have left lasting legacies. It takes place at The Factory. Many of the Factory regulars are present within the scene.  The music being played in the background is Venus in Furs and Heroin both by The Velvet underground and it leads into Strange Days by The Doors.  The Velvet Underground was the house band at The Factory and Andy Warhol actually managed them for a period of time. Jim Morrison also meets Nico at this party. A couple of other things you might be able to catch in the background noise are one of Andy’s sycophants butchering his “15 minutes of fame quote” and the reference by Andy Warhol being given the “God Phone” which he presents to Jim Morrison, by Edie Sedgwick, one of his “Superstars” . This was the Golden Era of Counter Culture.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don't forget what your supposed to do!
 

Albeit I love "problems" but can do without the drama! 

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means "Year-pass Eve".

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nien. Nien would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nien ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nien was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nien was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nien. From then on, Nien never came to the village again.

Regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese New  Year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

February 14, 2010 begins the Year of the Tiger. I’d like to wish everybody Kung Hei Fat Choi and Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Oestradiol is a sex hormone. Oestradiol is the predominant sex hormone present in females; however, it is present in males, albeit at lower levels, as well. It represents the major estrogen in humans. Oestradiol has not only a critical impact on reproductive and sexual functioning, but also affects other organs including the bones…….blah blah blah blah……blah. If you want to know about Oestradiol there are countless web sites to supply you with all the information your little heart would require.

Here is something you might want to know…..especially the guys!   

Scientists have identified the Marilyn Monroe hormone that is linked to an hour-glass body shape in women, and also an increased desire to trade-up to new men. Women who have high levels of Oestradiol also show elevated confidence and a greater inclination to have sex outside of their current relationship, according to the US-based research. The ovarian steroid hormone is also associated with having a symmetrical face, large breasts, and a low waist-to-hip ratio. "Marilyn Monroe is actually a really good example of a woman who was almost certainly high in oestradiol," Australian sexologist Dr Frances Quirk said in response to the research. "She was a classic hour-glass figure and because of her relationship pattern - she was a serial monogamist.”Her relationships last three or four years or slightly longer, and, if you look at the men she had relationships with, they increased in status."

The University of Texas study took in 52 young women, aged 17 to 30, and checked their oestradiol levels using a saliva swab. They were asked to rate themselves on perceived desirability, were quizzed on their sexual motivations, and also their inclinations relating to their current relationship. An independent group also assessed photographs of the women to provide an external assessment of their attractiveness. "High-oestradiol women were considered significantly more physically attractive by themselves and others," the study, published in the journal Biology Letters, concluded. "These women reported somewhat lower levels of satisfaction with and commitment to their primary partners, and a significantly greater likelihood ... of becoming acquainted with new potential mates." The study found that, while women with high levels of oestradiol reported being "significantly more likely" to have a serious affair, they did not indicate a greater likelihood of having "brief sexual encounters." They favour long-term relationships but are "not easily satisfied by their long-term partners and are especially motivated to become acquainted with other, presumably more desirable, men." Dr. Quirk, Associate Professor at James Cook University, said that, because of these traits, high-oestradiol women "may also be the sort of women that other women don't like too much"

I guess it's true, if you want to be happy for the rest of your life..........

During the last quarter century, there has been an overall decline in the teenage pregnancy rate in Canada, perhaps reflecting the availability of contraceptives, and the increased awareness of the risks of unprotected sex brought about by the AIDS epidemic. Nevertheless, many women aged 15 to 19 gave birth, and a slightly larger number in that age range have an abortion. For actual numbers, please Google your own country’s Teenage Pregnancy Statistics.

The social stigma that once attended out-of-wedlock pregnancy in most cultures may have diminished; however, the risks of serious health consequences remain for babies born to mothers still in their teens. Children of teenagers are more likely to have low birth weights, and to suffer the associated health problems.

Pregnant teens themselves are also at greater risk of health problems, including, for example, anemia, hypertension and depressive disorders. As well, teenagers who engage in unprotected sex are putting their own health at risk of sexually transmitted infections.

Teenage pregnancy also has economic consequences. Childbearing may curtail education and thereby reduce a young woman’s employment prospects in a job market that requires ever higher levels of training. In addition, to maintain an adequate standard of living, dual earning has become the norm in many households. But teenagers, who give birth, particularly at ages 15 to 17, are likely to be single. Consequently, most teenage mothers lack a partner to contribute to the household income.

Educating teenagers on the on the risks and repercussions of having unprotected sex has always been the key. Abstinence is safe but unrealistic. Contraception if permitted by your religion helps but if you’re going to do it you should at least understand the process of how pregnancy happens.....

“There lived a certain man in Russia long ago
He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
He could preach the bible like a preacher full of ecstasy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher women would desire”

His name was Grigori Efimovich Rasputin and he is one of the most enigmatic men in modern history. Was he a misunderstood holy man with strange powers to heal - or was he a scheming sinner who manipulated the suffering of others?

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic who is perceived as having influenced the later days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin had often been called the "Mad Monk", while others considered him a religious pilgrim and even believing him to be a psychic and faith healer.

 It has been argued that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty, in 1917. Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet and, on the other side of the coin, as a debauched religious charlatan. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, for accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend.

Rasputin was born a peasant in the Tyumen district of Siberia, far away from the glittering salons in the Imperial Capital of St. Petersburg. Not much is known about his younger years but the myths surrounding Rasputin portray him as showing indications of supernatural powers throughout his childhood. When he was around the age of eighteen, he spent three months in the Verkhoturye Monastery, his experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Mother of God on his return, and turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. Shortly after leaving the monastery, Rasputin visited a holy man named Makariy, who had an enormous influence on Rasputin and whom he would model himself after. Rasputin married in 1889, had three children, by his wife and also had another child with another woman. In 1901, he left his home and in 1903, Rasputin arrived in Saint Petersburg, where he gradually gained a reputation as a starets (or holy man) with healing and prophetic powers.

Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexei's illness. It was not publicly known in 1904 that Alexei had hemophilia, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother. When doctors could not help Alexei, the Tsaritsa looked everywhere for help, ultimately turning to her best friend, Anna Vyrubova, to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer Rasputin in 1905.

“He ruled the Russian land and never mind the czar
But the kasachok he danced really wunderbar
In all affairs of state he was the man to please
But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze
For the queen he was no wheeler dealer
Though she'd heard the things he'd done
She believed he was a holy healer
Who would heal her son”

Rasputin was close to the Tsaritsa's closest friend, Anya Vyrubova. Her devotion to him was absolute, which was reinforced after a terrible derailment of the train from Tsarskoe Selo to Petersburg in which Anna was almost killed. Although she survived the accident Anna's condition was so bad her doctors despaired of saving her life; her body was crushed and mangled. Rasputin came to her bedside, stood over Anna as she lay near death. He reached out and held her hand. Dripping with sweat, intensely focused, Rasputin repeated the words, "Annushka, Annushka, rise!” The drama of the moment was incredible. Anna suddenly awoke from her coma, opened her eyes and tried to rise from her bed. It was a miracle. As Rasputin staggered into the next room, he spoke, prophetically saying that although she would live, for the rest of her life Anna would be a cripple. So it came to be.

He was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die. Every time the boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, the Tsaritsa called on Rasputin, and the Tsarevich subsequently got better. This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him. This mysterious ability to heal her son was enough to convince Alexandra that Rasputin, whatever people said of him, must have been sent by God. In her mind he was he the answer to her fervent prayers for God to save her son. It was impossible for her to believe that he could have been a wolf in sheep's clothing. Skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis, however, during a particularly grave crisis at Spala in Poland in 1912, Rasputin sent a telegram from his home in Siberia, which is believed to have eased the suffering. His pragmatic advice include suggestions such as "Don't let the doctors bother him too much; let him rest". This was thought to have helped Alexei to relax and allow the child's own natural healing process some headroom.

The Tsar referred to Rasputin as "our friend" and a "holy man", a sign of the trust that the family had placed in him. Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra, and the Tsar and Tsaritsa considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin.

While fascinated by him, the Saint Petersburg elite did not widely accept Rasputin: he did not fit in with the royal family, and he and the Russian Orthodox Church had a very tense relationship. Rasputin tried to ingratiate himself with other members of the Romanov family, but most of them would have nothing to do with him. Olga, Nicholas sister, resented Rasputin's prying into her private life and rebuffed his offers of spiritual help in her marital problems. The Holy Synod frequently attacked Rasputin, accusing him of a variety of immoral or evil practices. According to Rasputin's daughter, Maria, Rasputin did "look into" the Khlysty sect but rejected it. One Khlyst practice was known as "rejoicing", a ritual which sought to overcome human sexual urges by engaging in group sexual activities so that, in consciously sinning together, the sin's power over the human was nullified.

Like many spiritually-minded Russians, Rasputin spoke of salvation as depending less on the clergy and the church than on seeking the spirit of God within. He also maintained that sin and repentance were interdependent and necessary to salvation. Thus, he claimed that yielding to temptation (and, for him personally, this meant sex and alcohol), even for the purposes of humiliation (so as to dispel the sin of vanity), was needed to proceed to repentance and salvation. Rasputin was deeply opposed to war, both from a moral point of view and as something which was likely to lead to political catastrophe. During the years of World War I, Rasputin's increasing drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and willingness to accept bribes, as well as his efforts to have his critics dismissed from their posts, made him appear increasingly cynical. Attaining divine grace through sin seems to have been one of the central secret doctrines which Rasputin preached to (and practiced with) his inner circle of society ladies.

“But when his drinking and lusting and his hunger
for power became known to more and more people,
the demands to do something about this outrageous
man became louder and louder”

Since 1910 an organized campaign was started against Rasputin in press. He was accused of horse-stealing, belonging to the Khlysty sect, unrestricted sexual life and alcoholism. Rasputin soon became a controversial figure, becoming involved in a paradigm of sharp political struggle involving monarchist, anti-monarchist, revolutionary and other political forces and interests. He was accused by many eminent persons of various misdeeds, ranging from an unrestricted sexual life (including raping a nun) to undue political domination over the royal family. In government affairs Rasputin's power was an illusion, although the Petersburg press crowed about his influence over important government appointments. His influence over politics has been greatly exaggerated. Rasputin was a convenient scapegoat for those who wanted to attack the Tsar's appointments and decisions, but who wouldn't confront Nicholas directly. Gossip claimed he had seduced the Empress, her daughters, and Anna Vyrubova as well. These rumors, which reached the highest circles of society where they were deliciously repeated by Alexandra's foes, drove Nicholas to distraction. People believed he had an uncanny control over the Tsar and his wife. Rasputin enjoyed the celebrity status this reputation gave him.

Rasputin then claimed that he had a revelation that the Russian armies would not be successful until the Tsar personally took command. With this, the ill-prepared Tsar Nicholas proceeded to take personal command of the Russian army, with dire consequences for himself as well as for Russia. While Tsar Nicholas II was away at the front, Rasputin's influence over Tsaritsa Alexandra increased immensely. He soon became her confidant and personal adviser, and also convinced her to fill some governmental offices with his own handpicked candidates. To further the advance of his power, Rasputin cohabited with upper-class women in exchange for granting political favours.

Vladimir Purishkevich was an outspoken member of the Duma. On November 19, 1916, Purishkevich made a rousing speech in the Duma, in which he stated, "The tsar's ministers who have been turned into marionettes, marionettes whose threads have been taken firmly in hand by Rasputin and the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna — the evil genius of Russia and the tsaritsa ... who has remained a German on the Russian throne and alien to the country and its people." Felix Yusupov attended the speech and afterwards contacted Purishkevich, who quickly agreed to participate in the murder of Rasputin.

"This man's just got to go!" declared his enemies
But the ladies begged "Don't you try to do it, please"
No doubt this Rasputin had lots of hidden charms
Though he was a brute they just fell into his arms
Then one night some men of higher standing set a trap, they're not to blame
"Come to visit us" they kept demanding and he really came”

Rasputin's influence over the royal family was used against him and the Romanovs by politicians and journalists who wanted to weaken the integrity of the dynasty force the Tsar to give up his absolute political power and separate the Russian Orthodox Church from the state. Rasputin unintentionally contributed to their propaganda by having public disputes with clergy members, bragging about his ability to influence both the Tsar and Tsaritsa, and also by his dissolute and very public lifestyle. Nobles in influential positions around the Tsar, as well as some parties of the Duma, clamored for Rasputin's removal from the court. Perhaps inadvertently, Rasputin had added to the Tsar's subjects' diminishing respect for him.

The legends surrounding the death of Rasputin are perhaps even more mysterious and bizarre than his life. According to Greg King's 1996 book The Man Who Killed Rasputin, a previous attempt on Rasputin's life had failed: Rasputin was visiting his wife and children in Pokrovskoye, his hometown along the Tura River in Siberia. On June 29, 1914, after either just receiving a telegram or exiting church, he was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva, a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor. Iliodor, who once was a friend of Rasputin but had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!"

After intensive surgery, however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body." His daughter, Maria, pointed out in her memoirs that he was never the same man after that: he seemed to tire more easily and frequently took opium for pain relief.

RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen they put some poison into his wine
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia's greatest love machine, he drank it all and he said "I feel fine"
RA RA RASPUTIN
Lover of the Russian queen, they didn't quit, they wanted his head
RA RA RASPUTIN
Russia's greatest love machine, and so they shot him till he was dead

The murder of Rasputin has become a legend, some of it invented by the very men who killed him, which is why it has become difficult to discern the actual course of events. On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich, apparently lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace, by intimating that Felix's wife, Princess Irina would be present and receiving friends (In point of fact, she was away at the Crimea). The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men. Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine, because after the attack by Guseva he suffered from hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar. In fact, she expresses doubt that he was poisoned at all. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that Rasputin had developed an immunity to poison due to Mithridatism.

 Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and attempted to strangle him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and castrated him. After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, but drowned in the river.

Three days later, the body of Rasputin, poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and drowned, was recovered from the Neva River. An autopsy established that the cause of death was drowning. His arms were found in an upright position, as if he had tried to claw his way out from under the ice. It was found that he had indeed been poisoned, and that the poison alone should have been enough to kill him. There is a report that after his body was recovered; water was found in the lungs, supporting the idea that he was still alive before submersion into the partially frozen river.

Subsequently, the Tsaritsa Alexandra buried Rasputin's body in the grounds of Tsarskoye Selo, but, after the February Revolution, a group of workers from Saint Petersburg uncovered the remains, carried them into the nearby woods and burnt them. As the body of Rasputin was being burned, he appeared to sit up in the fire. His apparent attempts to move and get up thoroughly horrified bystanders. The effect can probably be attributed to improper cremation; since his body was in inexperienced hands; his tendons were probably not cut before burning. Consequently, when his body was heated, the tendons shrunk, forcing his legs to bend, and his body to bend at the waist, resulting in it appearing to sit up. This final happenstance only poured fuel on the fire of legends and mysteries surrounding Rasputin, which continue to live on long after his death.

“Oh, those Russians...”

Even today he is a shadowy and mysterious character; a person of contradictory personality traits. Was he a miracle worker or just a crafty manipulator of the Imperial Family?

Here's to the hope and promise that the new decade brings and to ignoring the impossibilies of the Blue Moon.

Happy New Year and Happy Blue Moon!