I Dare You to do This in Abu Dhabi...

"I have sex!"   Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall)

Overall, I was disappointed with the movie Sex and the City 2. But I do love the series, as I own every single episode that ever came on HBO. I am just tired of watching Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) cheat on her man (whoever he happens to be at the time) and then grovel at his feet like an insipid teenager.

  There were some very entertaining scenes in this movie, however, including the wedding scene where Liza Minnelli performed Beyonce's "Put a Ring on it." I was truly amazed. Liza can still sing and swing with the best of them.

   I also laughed quite heartily at the scene featured above, where Samantha (who I never get tired of) is shopping around a marketplace in Abu Dhabi, and someone snatches her purse. Its contents spill to the ground, including a stash of gold-foiled condoms. The local men in the market stand around her, watching this very American woman pick up her belongings. (At this point in the movie, the uber-modern New Yorker with her blatant sexuality has already been arrested once for inappropriate behavior in public.) Apparently fed up with the disapproving stares and attitudes of the local men, Samantha begins yelling, "Condoms! Condoms! YES! I have sex!!" while doing pelvic thrusts at the men.

I replayed the scene at least three times, it was so funny. 

   Samantha's friends grab her quickly and they hurry off into a building with the help of some local women who save the day.

   Repressed sexuality in the Middle East is certainly one of the major cultural issues that makes for interesting discussions, (and funny movies), although I am of the opinion that Muslims are not so different from many of the religious zealots in America. My experiences working in the aerospace industry in Northern Alabama a few years ago really opened my eyes to some of the attitudes and perceptions of Americans in the South. More on this later...

   

Harry Potter 7 - Thrills and Chills!

Wayne and Dalton of Magazine, AR

Thank you, Wayne and Dalton, for standing in line at the Russellville Picwood from 2:00 pm to 6:30 pm yesterday to buy tickets for the midnight showing of the seventh Harry Potter movie. I bribed these young men to get tickets for me and a friend, and it was a fantastic event! (I realize that most modern theaters allow you to buy tickets online. The theater in Russellville, however, has not yet embraced this technology.)

There aren't many (actually, there aren't ANY) other movies I can think of that could start at midnight, and I never once wondered or cared what time it was. I am well-programed to shut down after 11:00 pm, and yet, I was riveted by this explosive movie. 
  The graphics were phenomenal. The pace was quick, and the emotions shifted from funny to creepy, to downright startling on more than one occasion.When the movie ended, I was completely oblivious that two hours had passed. Really? It was already over? 
A definite must-see for teens and adults, but this is not a movie for young children. 

A book more important than the Bible?

I am only part-way through this book, and I am writing notes in my journal from nearly every page of it. I think this may be one of the most important books I will ever read.
Sam Harris, who wrote "The End of Faith," is an eloquent, sobering author who is well educated (he has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA,) and he has the uncommon ability to communicate effectively with a large audience. The man's arguments are impressive and well-founded. 
I am considering buying everyone I know a copy of this book for Christmas. Ironic, perhaps, since Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of Christ, and this book argues that ethics does not belong in the realm of Christianity (or any other religion), but as an undeveloped branch of science. 

Yes, science.

  "Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra," writes Harris, "we will see that there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality."
Harris argues that "both sides" (conservative people of faith and non-religious people who are liberal) "believe that reason is powerless to answer the most important questions in human life."  

"It should concern us that these two orientations are not equally empowering. Increasingly, secular democracies are left supine before the unreasoning zeal of old-time religion."

And I love this, too:  "...not knowing what is right - or that anything can ever be truly right - often leads secular liberals to surrender their intellectual standards and political freedoms with both hands."   

 Perhaps it does take a neuroscientist to explain this concept:
"While the argument I make in this book is bound to be controversial, it rests on a very simple premise: human well-being entirely depends on events in the world and on states of the human brain. Consequently, there must be scientific truths to be known about it." 

(Bold words and underlining were done by me. - JL)

How to Save a Life

By: Kylie Stewart Green*

If you walk into a patient's room, or if you see this on the monitor of a patient in an ambulance, this is called ventricular tachycardia, and it is life-threatening. Check to see if the person is awake and if they have a pulse. If they are unconscious and do not have a pulse, an immediate intervention must take place!!

Initiate CPR immediately. New CPR guidelines are currently in the making. As far as I know, it is still 30 chest compressions for every two breaths. If you are in a hospital or in an ambulance, you should give O2 with an Ambu bag. CPR should only last until a defibrillator is available. A shock should be delivered at 360 joules (depending on the machine; the newer ones shock at 200 j, I think.)


Resume CPR for 2 minutes (don't stop to look at the monitor.)
Start an IV.
Give epinephrine 1 mg of 1 in 10,000 solution (this increases contractility, makes CPR more effective.)
Deliver another shock at 360 joules.
Continue CPR for 2 minutes.
Administer 40 units IV Vasopressin.

Shock again.
Resume CPR.
Deliver Amiodarone 300 mg (If patient is a chronic alcoholic, consider Magnesium sulfate instead.)
After 2 minutes of CPR, check monitor. If patient is still in ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation - 


Shock again.
 Resume CPR.
Administer Amiodarone 150 mg.
Check monitor, if no change, shock again.
Continue CPR. 
Give Epinephrine 1 mg and Lidocaine 3 mg/kg (around 100 mg if patient weighs 200 lbs.)
Check monitor, if no change-


Shock again.
Resume CPR.
Repeat Lidocaine dose 100 mg.
Check monitor, (hopefully) patient goes into Normal Sinus Rhythm.

Check pulse, if a pulse is present.
Start Lidocaine drip, 2 g in 500 cc at 1-4 mg/min.
If there is no breathing, an advanced airway should be put in place.
Check blood pressure. If BP is low, start a dopamine drip.


Transfer patient to ICU.


*This is for your reading pleasure only. This is not to be taken as medical advice. I am not responsible for anything.

World's Best Teaching Assistant

This is Kylie, a nursing student at Arkansas Tech. She will be my first guest blogger!