K-PAX
Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,
cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail,
Sara and Des Penny, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff,
Maxine Shirts, and Sherri Nelson.
Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea,
belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit
to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended
family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail
box at any time.
"After last week's epistle, I won't write much this week. It was a good
week, even if disappointing. Disappointing in that neither the Rudman
nor the Woodside contracts are finalized. Oh well! Monday I had lunch
with Sam LeRoy and one of his contacts about using the Infinite Grid(SM)
to mine oil company legacy data sets. Tuesday there was a very
interesting three hour meeting and lunch with George Brinkworth of
Pure Resources, which is 65% owned by Unocal. I anticipate several
projects to come out of this meeting. Too bad it takes so long to
close a contract. Wednesday evening I went to the temple with the
Teachers and Mia Maids and did confirmations. It was nice, except
that Matt choose to not go with us. Thursday evening was missionary
splits. Friday after Matt's soccer practice Andrea and I went to
see the movie K-PAX. Saturday was choir practice, cleaning up all
of the maps I have had stuck in a box, and helping one of Andrea's
walking ladies' husband cut down the hackberry tree (trash tree)
that grew over next to our neighbor's driveway in front of where
the greenhouse is. Amazing how much wood there is in one of these
trees. We have a four foot wall almost all the way across the
front yard. Saturday evening I made and printed the Ward Calendar
and made poster's for Latter-Day Night Live (Diane I haven't forgot
to send you files, they just aren't all together for this November
10th event. This morning I went to church early to put up the
posters and place the calendars so they could be picked up. Last
week I loaned my missionary journal to the English couple who
moved down the street (his father is visiting), and at High Priest
Quorum meeting he went on and on about people I knew and wrote
about in my journal and how much these people are the same today.
It really is a small world.
In terms of a thoughtlet, which will hopefully be of some use to
you one or two of you kids, I take my text from the movie K-PAX.
First a little bit about the movie, without giving away the plot,
more than is given away in the previews. Kevin Spacey plays an
alien who is placed in a New York mental institution. The Doctor
attempting to understand him is played by Jeff Bridges. I
remember as a youth being fascinated by his father Lloyd Bridges
role as Commander Nelson in a weekly show about submarines and
cities under the ocean.
It appears to me as if this movie was written by someone who has
been in serious therapy. In the hospital there are icons of
most of the different types of paranoia you can imagine. As I
watched the movie, I couldn't help but remember the words of
one of the counselors I went to when I was striving so hard to
keep Marti from leaving me: `If you get so personally involved
in these fictional movies, you ought to not go see them.' There
were different parts of the movie which reminded me of things I
learned, or at least was exposed to, in PAIRS. The hypnosis
stuff scares me as I can't see every putting yourself in a
position to let someone else control your actions.
I left the movie wondering how many of us run a way to an
artificial world when things are too hard for us to face? I
recall writing about how I personally did not believe I use
distraction as an escape from facing everyday life (../9740.html).
If you reread the first paragraph after the end of this week's
Thoughtlet (and every other Thoughtlet I have sent out), you
will see that each week I mention my concern about `how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all
of distractions of daily life.' When our challenges are beyond
our ability to cope, it is easy to let our mind fly off to K-PAX,
Kolob, or some other celestial orb, where we don't have to face
arguments with those we love, an overbearing boss, financial
problems, terrorists, history, or the future.
I rate the movie K-PAX as a `C' movie, and yet I would like
to see Matt, Rob, and Roice see it and then talk to me about
what they thought about the movie. One of the things I found
interesting is that the Alien's friend was a knocker at a small
meat packing plant (a knocker is the guy who hits the cattle in
the head with a hammer so they are out long enough to have
their throat cut and to be bled. This was my job at Nelson
Meat Packing Plant during the summers, although we used a
long-range 22-caliber shell rather than a sledge hammer to
knock the cattle down (../9847.html and ../9903.html). There
was a brief map of all meat packing plants in the United States,
when they were trying to track down the Alien's friend. It
looked to me like there was a flag in Cedar City, Utah, which
I thought was interesting since Nelson Packing Plant was shut
down in 1969 and Wayne Smith's operation did not last until
the mid 1990's when this movie was referring to the events
happening. I told Andrea we will rent it and freeze frame
that scene to check it out.
With the fear of coming across like someone from K-PAX, I will
close this week by quoting an e-mail received from David Devor
in Israel this week. I figure those in Utah are pretty safe,
and probably those in Austin. However, I believe there is some
exposure to terrorists for Ben, Sarah, and Ethan, as well as
for Rachel, Matt, Andrea, and myself. So maybe these words are
just for us. In any case, I think it is good to have read them:
<![CDATA[ `B'S"D
Dear Mochin Subscribers, PM Associates and Friends,
We live in many different countries but this problem is quite
universal. Here, below, is some information that may prove
useful although I hope it is never needed.
Blessings,
David
devor@projectmind.org
=============================================================
The "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chemical Attacks
- Ret Thomas
Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions
of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I
decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper
perspective. I am a retired military weapons, munitions,
and training expert.
Lesson number one: In the mid 1990's there were a series of
nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given
perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people
there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours)
and only one percent of the injured died. 60 Minutes once had
a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a
thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead
people per drop was theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate
how terrible this stuff was to keep the recruits awake in
class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too).
Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or
read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read
this sentence again out loud!)!
These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you will
probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and
their "Experts," make it sound.
Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister,
and Incapacitating agents Contrary to the hype of reporters
and politicians they are not weapons of mass destruction
they are "Area denial," and terror weapons that don't destroy
anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the
risk. That's the difference; you can leave the area and the
risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it and
that's why they need all that spiffy gear.
These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or air borne
particles.The agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity
to kill/injure, and that defines when/how it's used. Every
day we have a morning and evening inversion where "stuff,"
suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why
allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times
of the day.
So, a chemical attack will have it's best effect an hour or
so either side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and
airborne particles they are heavier than air so they will
seek low places like ditches, basements and underground
garages. This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it
doesn't last when it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin
too fast. They've got to get this stuff on you, or, get you
to inhale it for it to work. They also have to get the
concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or wound you.
Too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted.
What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical
weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard
to do with military grade agents and equipment so you can
imagine how hard it will be for terrorists. The more you know
about this stuff the more you realize how hard it is to use.
We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in
your house, plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent.
All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase
inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses
to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on
your skin but it works best if they can get you to inhale it.
If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the
area you're probably going to live. The military's antidote
for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride.
Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent,
they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five
minutes, after that the agent is used up. Your best
protection is fresh air and staying calm. Listed below are
the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning.
Sudden headache, Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at
will have pinpointed pupils), Runny nose, Excessive saliva or
drooling, difficulty breathing, Tightness in chest, Nausea,
Stomach cramps, Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just
got on you. If you are in public and you start experiencing
these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the
ordinary just happened, a loud pop, did someone spray
something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick too?
Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something
fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be? If the answer is
yes, then calmly (if you panic you breathe faster and inhale
more air/poison) leave the area and head up wind, or,
outside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote". If you
have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Kayro
syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself
with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body
weight, what a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you
unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then
lick the residue off the ground for while. Remember they
have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration
up and keep it up for several minutes while all you have to
do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting
space between you and the attack.
Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect your blood's
ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for
attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or
someone splashing/spraying something and folks around there
getting woozy/falling down. The tell tale smells are bitter
almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are
blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing.
The military's antidote is amyl nitride and just like nerve
agent antidote it just keeps your body working for five
minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your
best individual chance. Blister agents (distilled mustard)
are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle it let alone
use it. It's almost impossible to handle safely and may have
delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also
limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you
do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't
pop them, if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister
get on any other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading.
It's just as likely to harm the user as the target. Soap,
water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.
Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use
industrial chemical spills); they are intended to make you
panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves.
If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the
sides of the wind stream. They have to get the stuff to you,
and on you. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver
on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your
odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time,
and fresh air really deal this stuff a knock-out-punch.
Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life.The odds
are really on your side.
Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction
on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP,
and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the
sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground! The heat will
be over a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out
going, and one on it's way back. Don't stand up to see what
happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen
will have happened in two full minutes.
These will be low yield devices and will not level whole
cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and initial
burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very very
long time. Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women,
or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of tanks. These at
the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons
of TNT.
Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a
lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the
blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a half mile
circle of death and destruction, but, when it's done it's
done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry
every electronic device for a good distance, it's impossible
to say what and how far but probably not over a couple of
miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones,
computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.
There are lots of kinds of radiation, you only need to worry
about three, the others you have lived with for years. You
need to worry about "Ionizing radiation," these are little
subatomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of
light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the
nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get radiation
poisoning, you have so many dead cells in your body that
the decaying cells poison you. It's the same as people
getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area
gets radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit
there and take it, and there's lots you can do rather than
panic.
First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a
newspaper or your clothing will stop beta particles, you
just got to try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated
with atoms that are emitting these things and you'll be
generally safe from them.
Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum
physics makes my brain hurt) and they create the same
damage as alpha and beta particles only they keep going
and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your
body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense
material, on the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill
you. Your defense is as always to not panic. Basic hygiene
and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or
frozen food is safe to eat.
The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits
and vegetables are OK if there's no dust on them (rinse them
off if there is). If you don't have running water and you
need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just
let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water gently
from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle
and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will
still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.
Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to
cover here. Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take
you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often,
don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses,etc., ... with
strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it,
don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or
kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding
room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs,
rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare
is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein
spent twenty years, millions, and millions of dollars trying
to get it right? If you're clean of person and home you eat
well and are active you're going to live.
Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as
you'd take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine,
go get one. I know this stuff and I'm not getting one and
I told my Mom not to bother with one either (how's that for
confidence). We have a week's worth of cash, several days
worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We
don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don't
have them.
These people can't conceive a nation this big with this much
resources. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror,
and to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep they
won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun. The
government is going nuts over this stuff because they have
to protect every inch of America. You've only got to
protect yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.
Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote
here and you can think up specific scenarios where my advice
isn't the best. This letter is supposed to help the greatest
number of people under the greatest number of situations.
If you don't like my work, don't nit pick, just sit down and
explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a
document around three pages long yourself. This is how we
the people of the United States can rob these people of their
most desired goal, your terror.
SFC Red Thomas (Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ
Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just
give me credit for my work, and, keep in context.
********************************************
> Note: From Dennis Clark ~
> Chairman, Executive Advisory Board,
> Citizens Commission On Human Rights International
> **************
There are only a few things I would add to the write-up
below and which I recommend that you have on hand as part
of your preparedness kit:
The first is about a six month supply of toilet paper. If
anything "BIG" happens (not likely but possible), toilet
paper will be worth more than money and can be bartered for
food and water at a very profitable exchange.
Second, Ivory soap is cheaper and works as well as the most
expensive germicidal soaps when it comes to washing one's
hands or dishes. In addition, it will not create antibiotic
resistance as it washes the bugs away. Don't neglect to have
on hand a supply of laundry detergent and bleach. If you
forget, toilet paper will get you all you need.
Third, a good couple months supply of garbage bags will come
in much more handily than the best gas mask on the market.
Sanitation, as you will see in the above write-up is your
best defense. If you forget this item, you will be able to
buy all you want with toilet paper.
So, a hundred dollars, spent on general personal hygiene
items, is perhaps the best investment you could make at
this time if you are worried about the "big one."
> Sincerely,
> Dennis H. Clarke
> President Emeritus,
> Chairman, Executive Advisory Board,
> Citizens Commission On Human Rights International
> Phone: 727-442-8820
> Fax: 727-446-9697
> E-mail: nopsyx@gte.net
> Host of the Human Rights Hour, on WTAN, 1340 AM']]>
Have a good week, and only go to a movie theater to visit K-PAX."
I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements
of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how
important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of
distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets
go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at
rnelson@walden3d.com.
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)