Staying Safe When There's Lightning Around by Graham McClung

Staying Safe When There's Lightning Around by Graham McClung

Lightning is great to watch, and makes a superb subject
for videos or photographs - from a distance. But it's
pretty scary when it strikes nearby, and every year there
are news reports of lightning fatalities.

So what are your chances of being struck by lightning?

Fortunately they are pretty slim. But that's probably what
the hundred or so people killed by lightning in an average
year probably thought.

So while you or I are most unlikely to be struck, the
consequences are so severe that it's worthwhile taking
every precaution to make sure that we don't end up a
lightning statistic.

A Few Lightning Facts

Although lightning is known from volcanic eruptions
and in smoke from very large fires, it is always present in
thunderstorms, and thunderstorms can occur anywhere and
at any time of year. In the US they are most common in
Florida and nearby states, and overall are most frequent
from April to July. Lightning fatalities are most common
in July, probably because more people are out of doors
at that time of year.

Lightning is a very high voltage electrical discharge,
with its source in a thunder cloud. Most lightning moves
between clouds, or from cloud to air. The cloud to ground
strikes are rarer, but are the ones to worry about.

Apart from floods, lightning causes more deaths than
any other severe weather event, including tornadoes and
hurricanes. Figures are not precise, but around 100
deaths occur in an average year, while injuries are at
least ten times that number.

Lightning injuries are most common before and after
the storm has passed over - before and after the rain,
winds and hail have caused people to take shelter.
Another reason is that lightning bolts can travel
distances of over 10 miles (16km) from the cloud
before hitting the ground.These "bolts from the blue"
may arrive before any thunder from the storm can be
heard, and even before the storm clouds have been noticed.

Deaths and injuries occur most commonly to outdoor
workers, hikers, campers, and people involved in
outdoor sport or picnics, including sporting teams. Quite
often, the victims have delayed finding shelter until the
last minute.

More information on lightning can be found at my website,
http://www.home-weather-stations-guide.com/lightning.html

Deaths and Injuries

A lightning strike is a very short lived, high voltage
electrical current, but has different effects to a
home or industrial electric shock. Most lightning
fatalities are instantaneous through failure
of the heart or breathing, or severe nervous damage.

Lightning deaths and injuries can occur in two ways - by a
direct strike, or indirectly from being within about 50
yards of the strike. A short-lived electric current can
travel through damp soil, wet grass, water, and along
fence wires, plumbing or underground cables. This
explains deaths or injuries to people who are indoors
but in contact with telephones, electrical appliances or
plumbing fixtures.

Unfortunately the effects of a non fatal lightning injury
are often severe and long lasting - often life changing.
They can include impaired mental ability and chronic pain.

But survival is better than the alternative, and immediate
first aid after a lightning strike is critical.

The first thing to remember is that the injured person is
not "live" - you won't get a shock when you touch them.

Secondly, CPR - cardio pulmonary resuscitation - should
always be attempted if the victim has no pulse or is not
breathing. A lightning strike can stop either or both of
the heart or breathing.

Thirdly, medical attention is necessary, even if the
person seems to have recovered.

Reducing The Risk of a Lightning Strike

Many, if not most, lightning casualties are avoidable.
The small but real risks can be minimised by making a
few small sacrifices to your present enjoyment. The
peace of mind you gain will make it worthwhile.

Firstly, move to the safest possible shelter as soon as
you are aware of an approaching storm. Careful observation
of the weather is a good guide, and lightning detectors
are definitely worth considering, particularly if you are
responsible for others such as a children's sports team
or an outdoor work crew.

In most cases, once you can hear thunder you are within the
danger zone, and it's time to move quickly.

Now I know that almost every time an early move to shelter
will turn out to be unnecessary, and you may not always
get a warm reception for your course of action. But imagine
the alternative if half a dozen kids are injured or worse
after a lightning strike during a soccer or baseball game.

The best shelter is a fully enclosed building, bearing in
mind the easily avoidable risks associated with telephones,
electric appliances and plumbing.

Next best is an all metal car with the windows closed -
preferably not parked at the top of a hill or under a tall
tree.

Probably the third choice would be in a group of small trees
- assuming there are taller ones around. Tall trees are
high risk, as are isolated structures such as water tanks.
Partly open sheds are of dubious value and offer their
occupants little protection if struck.

Open spaces are dangerous places to be, and you should
have plenty of time to move elsewhere. Being the highest
point in a large area is not a good survival strategy.

If however you have no alternative, look for a lower area
that is not water logged, squat down on the balls of your
feet, with your head down. Don't lie on the ground, and
stay away from wire fences.

And once you are safe, just sit back and enjoy the show.
About the Author
Copyright 2005, Graham McClung. A retired geologist, Graham
McClung has had a lifelong interest in the outdoors. And
where there's outdoors there's weather. He is the editor of
Home-Weather-Stations-Guide.com, where you can find reviews
and advice to help you choose and use your own home weather
station. You can contact him by email at
information@home-weather-stations-guide.com

Human Evolution Timeline: Revelations in Bible Quotes by Ruy Miranda

Human Evolution Timeline: Revelations in Bible Quotes by Ruy Miranda

The human evolution timeline is found recorded in Bible quotes (Book of Genesis). Adam's rib symbolizes the chromosome and is the key to the man ape evolution. In discussing evolution vs creation, many convergences like this one are found.

Someone who holds to the theory of evolution and denies creationism might ask why such an important matter as the creation of human beings would be in a symbolic message rather than in explicit language. And, after all, the Holy Scriptures don`t talk about chromosomes. That is a valid question, which shall be pursued below. First off, the main interest is to see the points of confluence between evolution and creation regarding the appearance of the human being.

Parallelism Between Adam's Rib and Science

There is an amazing coincidence between the numbers in the Book of Genesis involving creationism and numbers in science regarding man's evolution from the ape. The parallelism begins on the Bible quotes according to which God took out one of Adam's ribs and made the woman, Eve, with it.
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man."

The number of ribs - Men have 24 ribs - 12 on each thoracic side. The same number is found in women. The text says that God removed one rib and not one pair of ribs. Had He indeed removed only one rib, man would have different numbers of this bone on each side of his chest. Not only that, but there would also remain a doubt about the number of ribs in a female.

These contradictions disappear if the text is examined from the standpoint of information conveyed by Jesus Christ to His disciples: "To God nothing is impossible". God may have removed one of Adam's ribs but He did it in such a way that the woman and all her descendants would have the same number of ribs. However, it is assumed that the rib's removal is symbolic language and explained it cannot be regarded as direct language.

A look at it now from the standpoint of science. The chimpanzee, from which science now admits that man has evolved, has 24 chromosomes in its sexual cells, i. e., 24 chromosomes in each spermatozoon and 24 chromosomes in each ovulum. This is referred to gametes, those sex cells capable of reproducing the species. Therefore, the number of ribs in a man and of chromosomes in a chimpanzee are identical. The other cells in a chimp, as in a human, are diployd, that is, they have the chromosomes in pairs - therefore, they have 48 chromosomes.

Confluence of Book of Genesis and Human Evolution Timeline

Were we to admit that the rib symbolizes the chromosome, the implicit and explicit Bible numbers say that God removed a chromosome from a chimpanzee and made a woman out of it. In other words, the "man", a chimp, lost a chromosome and thus a woman was formed.
Indeed, the woman, just like the man, has one chromosome less than a chimp in the sex cells. The human spermatozoon has 23 chromosomes and the human ovulum also has 23 chromosomes. It makes sense. The other cells in the human being are diployd, i. e., they have 46 chromosomes. But it is needed to see what science says regarding the man ape evolution, that is, man's evolution from the chimpanzee.
Man's evolution from the ape - It is admitted that, in the evolution of the species, through some unknown phenomenon, two chimp chromosomes were fused and thus, primitive man, a hominid, came about. Some theories claim that the female came first, which, if true, would give further consistency to the symbolic version of Adam and Eve's story.

In a nutshell, this is what the matter has:
Number of ribs in the human being: 24
Number of chromosomes in the chimp's gametes: 24
Creation: removal of one rib.
Evolution: fusion of two chromosomes.
Rib symbolizes chromosome.
Removal of one rib = fusion of two chromosomes.
Number of chromosomes resulting in the gametes: 23 - New species: man, hominid.

Without wandering too far from these basic issues, it should be asked why there are so many differences between human and chimp, given the "simple" fusion of two chromosomes. Furthermore, those in favor of creationism would argue that, since the similarity between a chimp's DNA and that of a human being is above 98%, humans and chimpanzees ought to be more alike. These are pertinent questions which must be carefully examined.

Starting with the numbers: the difference between human and chimp DNA is less than 2%. For three reasons, this percentage can be very meaningful:

the science is just barely beginning to understand the human genome, that is, the DNA map, that of genes and each one's role. On the other hand, the researcher know also little about the chimp genome. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable that this percentage, though small, means much in terms of anatomical and physiological differences between the species;

the differences may be situated in fundamental parts of the DNA, enough to cause the differences between the species;

the amount of DNA in the cells is not always proportional to their complexity. Therefore, the arrangement of DNA components in humans may be more important than the quantity.

Thus, the slightly less than 2% difference between chimps and humans may become more meaningful.
The "simple" fusion of one species' two chromosomes may cause many differences in the resulting species.

Why is the Bible not explicit? - In other words, why, since the issue was raised in the beginning of this article, does the Biblical message not speak directly about chromosomes? At least two answers are possible.

The first has to do with Christian and Jewish dogma: this is a sacred text, dictated or inspired by God, and there is no questioning how God speaks.
The second has to do with the Biblical writers: they would be human beings possessing a deep knowledge of evolution timeline and humans nature. They knew that it would not be possible to write what men would not understand at that time (existence of chromosomes, genes, DNA). They further knew that, in a patriarchal society such as the one they lived in, women should remain in a secondary role, in the written version, to make the acceptance of God's word easier.

The faithful cling to the first answer, the dogma.

But those who are not faithful may properly ask how those writers, barely out of a semi-nomadic life, could possess such knowledge about the evolution of the species.
Examined as a book and without any preconceived position, the Bible is a singular book and its writers differed from common mortals. However, as intelligent as they might have been, there was no way they could have held such knowledge. Thus the answer is: this is a mystery yet.

Book of Genesis & Science: More convergence

In the pleasant study of Biblical numbers involving creation vs. evolution, there are other convergent points. Example: part of the sacred text reproduced at the beginning of this article and science's version of the differences in man/ape. The Genesis expression "closed up the flesh in its place" conveys a special meaning and suggests more parallelisms between religion and science. It could be read as "closed up the frontal lobe in its place".

In the monkeys the frontal lobe is 9% of the brain. In the man it is 30%. The frontal lobe is a tissue ("flesh"), a nervous tissue. The frontal lobe integrates most of the brain functions. Its prefrontal portion is related to the initiation of planned actions, i.e., thinking, idealizing, acting in orderly fashion, and letting out emotional expressions. In the difference is the "closed up the flesh in its place."

Subsequent Procreation

The appearance of the human being raises the issue of procreation. In the history of creation, this problem does not exist: once created, Adam and Eve started to reproduce. However, in evolution, ONE individual, from the fusion of the two chromosomes, would not give origin to the human species.
To illustrate,suppose that the fusion of the two chromosomes took place in a female, resulting in 23 chromosomes in the gametes, living with males bearing 24 chromosomes in the gametes. Procreation would be impossible. Even if they copulated, no ovulum would be formed due to the lack of symmetry in the DNA. How, then, would the human being have procreated in evolution?

More likely the phenomenon - physical, chemical or physical-chemical - had by then reached several individual chimps, causing chromosome fusion in many of them, both males and females. In the history of evolution, there is still another peculiarity: the bonobos have more elements than the chimpanzees to be man's ancestors.

Chimpanzees vs Bonobos

Preference for the chimpanzees over the bonobos - In the evolutionary scale, science shows preference for the chimpanzees over the bonobos, even though the latter are more similar to human beings. See some ones:

the similarity percentage between bonobos' DNA and humans' is greater than that of chimpanzees;

their genitals are more protuding and face forward, as with humans;

except for humans, they are the only primates who copulate from the front;

they engage in homosexual and heterosexual relations;

upon reaching adolescence, the females abandon their group and join another one. In their new group they submit themselves to the female - including sexually - and then copulate with the males;

the females keep together in groups and the male respects them because, together, they will fight him for food;

they stand on two legs more frequently than chimps do and their laughter is more expressive. They are also more cordial in the group.

Despite all this, it is believed that man has evolved from chimps, due to the fact that they are found in many African regions, in wide-open areas, which would have favored their territorial dispersion. Bonobos, on the other hand, live in closed-in woods, in some regions in Africa. However, from the genetic, anatomic, emotional and behavioral standpoints, more likely the human species has come from the bonobos. Perhaps, after their community was hard-hit by a cataclysm, they took refuge in closed-in woods.

Man's Ancestor: Neither Chimpanzee nor Bonobos and Adam`s Rib

Another theory admits that chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutangs, gibbons, all belong to the primate family known as Pongid, just like the Hominid family, whose sole representative is man, all belonging to the Hominoids super family, and would have come from individuals known as Old World Monkeys.

It is possible that some violent environmental change hit Africa and Asia, altering the genetic structure of many Old World Monkeys (Cercopitecoids) sometime between six million and twenty-five million years ago. Different Pongids came into being.

Why would not different hominids have appeared? Present day human must have featured differences among individuals from the very beginning. For instance, there must have appeared at the same time individuals with white skin and with black skin in Africa and in Asia. Weather conditions and the fight for survival would have made easier for white-skinned individuals to disappear from Africa and for black-skinned individuals to disappear from ice-cold regions.

The theory of a common trunk for all Hominoids does not change the parallel with Adam's rib. The whole Hominoid super family would have come from individuals with 24 chromosomes in the gametes. One family (Pongid) continued with 24 chromosomes in the gametes while another (Hominid) appeared with 23 chromosomes.

About the Author
Ruy Miranda is a Brazilian Physician and a former University
Professor. In http://www.bible-quotes-science-info.com he offers articles on Bible and science and excerpts of his novel "Bible Quotes in Crystal Land". He is not a religious person.

You may reproduce this article as long as it is in its complete
form and that the resource box is included. Copyright
2004-2005, Ruy Miranda, all rights reserved.

Science changes, shouldn't our theology? by Terry Dashner

Science changes, shouldn't our theology? by Terry Dashner

Science changes, shouldnt our faith?

Terry Dashner.Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Since basic science is ever-changing, shouldnt our theology change with it? No. Our theology should remain constant, even when science seems to contradict it. Usually science changes to support, to some degree, what theologians and simple people of faith have been saying all alongIn the beginning, God Allow me to illustrate this, please.

Catherine H. Crouch in her essay entitled, The Strangely Relational World of Quantum Mechanics makes a very interesting observation about science in the 20th century. Says Crouch, Einstein is rightly celebrated for his association with relativity, one of the two major innovations in twentieth-century physics, its less well known that he vehemently opposed the other theory that rocked the twentieth-century scientific worldquantum mechanics. Crouch continues, And, surprisingly, in recent years the theory that reportedly caused Einstein to protest, God does not play dice [with the universe], not only has turned out to be right, but may be remarkably congruent with Christian convictions. Call it the quantum leap of faith.

QM speaks of probabilities. For example, take the particles which make up your body. QM is stubbornly unwilling to tell you where each electron in your bodys roughly billion billion billion atoms is right now. Chances are, theyre all pretty much where you think they are, but there is a real (though extraordinarily small) chance that right now, at least one of your electrons is outside of your personal space. In fact, QM refuses to commit to where the electron is, preferring instead to say merely that at any given time, that electron has a certain probability of being in a certain place. This ideathat chance, rather than definite predictability, describes the behavior of the universeprompted Einsteins uneasy comment about God playing dice.

What am I getting at? Simply this. QM, a theory not very well understood in its infancy and seemingly at odds with the immutable properties of physics, has now taken a dramatic turn toward supporting a Creator who rules over the universe. Crouch explains, Mermins [N. David Mermin of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York] central idea is simple: the basic elements of physical reality are not individual objects but relationships between what we perceive to be individual objects. Individual objects as such most certainly exist. However, if we insist on knowing the properties of individual objects rather than the properties of relationships between objects, our efforts are doomed to appear paradoxical and incoherent.

Thats interesting. And again science takes a positive turn toward the Creator. Christian readers of Mermin suddenly find themselves in familiar territory, for any deeply Christian account of the creation seems bound to have a relational quality. From the enigmatic us in Genesis 1:26 to the fully formed descriptions of the Trinity in the creeds, Christian thought posits a relationality in God himself. And the universe exists, Jewish and Christian theologians have long asserted, in continuous, ongoing, dynamic, loving relation to GodUnder Mermins interpretation, at least, QM turns out to be as much an ally as a foe to the Christian understanding of the world, and some of its most irrational elements actually compel a more relational rationality writes Mrs. Crouch.

Does this twist in science prove anything? No. Why? Because it, too, will evolve over time and change. Nothing is constant but change, said the philosophers of old; however, one thing is certain. Science and Theology are not the sworn enemies that the 19th century philosophers made them out to be. I believe that one may complement the other. But one of the two must never changebelief in God and His relationship to me through Jesus Christ.

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is Lord over all creation and soon coming King of Kings.

Pastor T.dashpeace

About the Author
Pastors a church.