Aug 31 2022 - Walking on Mercury

 

I remember mercury balls rolling around in one of the science classes.  It isn't clear then that we realized how toxic it is.  Or maybe our science teacher was using a pure Hg.  I got to thinking about how heavy it is. The element's atomic mass is 200.59 grams per mole and its specific gravity is 13.5 times that of water. It is the only metal to remain liquid at room temperature. What colour is it when it is put in water?  It is red.  If Mercury were not toxic and we could go swimming - we would float on it.  It is incredibly dense.  A 2 litre jug of mercury weighs more than 50 pounds.  Professional experimenter CodyDon has done quite a few activities with mercury.  One of his videos is his attempt to stand on liquid mercury.  It is HERE.  Another of his experiments is floating a 50 kg anvil on mercury.  Liquid mercury is denser than an anvil so the anvil floats.  Tungsten is denser than the steel anvil and would sink in liquid mercury.   And what about toxic vapours?  Cody's lab has the question posted 3 years ago.   Question: Does cody have poisoning from all the mercury he handles?   Answer: Last blood test says my levels are below average. And another answer has this information:  The mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland is actually a victim of mercury poisoning, because they used to brush mercury into the felt of top hats to make them shiny. They also probably followed none of the sensible precautions Cody does to avoid being poisoned. And another answer: Cody deals with elemental (pure Hg) mercury, a relatively unharmful substance. The mercury you may be thinking of is called organic mercury (ex. dimethyl mercury), and this is the possibly lethal and therefor very toxic mercury. Simply put, this stuff=bad news if handled in the way cody handles his elemental mercury.

This looks like a science experiment of some sort with all these splash splashes.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Aug 21 2022 - Don't point those six fingers at me

 

What does it mean to have six fingers?  I think the answer is that a person has an extra finger.  Other people think it is considered very lucky.  I would assume this is historical versus current thinking.   I see the astrology and palmistry words in the retrievals and that's the clue this is historical thinking. Compare that to the medical site which says those extra digits get removed.  The real information from the medical site is very interesting. Polydactyl:  An extra digit can appear on one hand or foot or both hands or feet. It rarely happens on both hands and both feet.  The extra digit isn’t usually a fully functional finger or toe. It tends to be smaller than the other digits. It's usually a partially developed digit that doesn't bend or grip the way the rest of the digits do.  Some extra digits are only skin and soft tissue that protrude from the hand or foot. They can vary in size. Some are just a bump on the hand or foot, while others are longer.  Other extra digits have skin, soft tissue, and bone underneath. In some cases, there’s a joint as well as a bone. These are more like regular digits. There are different variations polydactyly based on where the extra toe or finger is located on the hand or foot. Polydactyly can run in families, but not always. In many cases, polydactyly happens spontaneously without a genetic cause. The child won't have any other developmental differences besides the extra digit. There are some underlying conditions for which polydactyly is a symptom. These conditions include McKusick-Kaufman syndrome, Pallister-Hall syndrome, and Bardet-Biedl syndrome. There are famous people with polydactyly and they are listed in the Wikipedia entry HERE.  Who in the bible had 6 fingers and 6 toes? Goliath's third son. It was said that 'he had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes' (Samuel 21:20-21).  With a sentence formation like that it makes me wonder how many hands and feet were on the poor fellow. But wait, there's way more than 6 digits possible.  Here's the picture of Hong Hong with 31 fingers and toes in 2016 at four months old. There appears to be an update on Hang Hang ini Fox News 2016 and he had surgery.  Here is the picture at 4 months.  The operation was at 6 months.  No updates since then.  I guess that might indicate a 'happily ever after' ending.

These are abstract collages, with the individual images manipulations in Flexifly of abstracts I took with my iPhone.  It would be great to get a better quality iPhone for the camera, as these are a bit pixelated with the manipulations.  And an iPhone is so easy to use anywhere.  This was at Brock University in the theatre before it was decommissioned  That's how you get such dramatic purple lighting.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca