Comments by "Stella Maris" (@SuperGreatSphinx) on "ABC News"
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Coma is a state of unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened; fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound; lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle; and does not initiate voluntary actions.
A person in a state of coma is described as being comatose.
A comatose state may derive from natural causes, or may be medically induced.
A comatose person exhibits a complete absence of wakefulness and is unable to consciously feel, speak, hear, or move.
Clinically, a coma can be defined as the inability to consistently follow a one-step command.
It can also be defined as a score of ≤ 8 on the Glasgow Coma Scale lasting ≥ 6 hours.
For a patient to maintain consciousness, two important neurological components must function.
The first is the cerebral cortex—the gray matter that forms the outer layer of the brain.
The other is a structure located in the brainstem, called reticular activating system (RAS).
Injury to either or both of these components is sufficient to cause a patient to experience a coma.
The cerebral cortex is a group of tight, dense, "gray matter" composed of the nuclei of the neurons whose axons then form the "white matter," and is responsible for perception, relay of the sensory input via the thalamic pathway, and many other neurological functions, including complex thinking.
RAS, on the other hand, is a more primitive structure in the brainstem which includes the reticular formation (RF).
The RAS area of the brain has two tracts, the ascending and descending tract.
Made up of a system of acetylcholine-producing neurons, the ascending track, or ascending reticular activating system (ARAS), works to arouse and wake up the brain, from the RF, through the thalamus, and then finally to the cerebral cortex.
A failure in ARAS functioning may thus lead to a coma.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), formerly the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, and its principal federal law enforcement agency.
Operating under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
A leading U.S. counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.
Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB.
Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection abroad, the FBI is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States, and more than 400 resident agencies in lesser cities and areas across the nation.
At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence.
Despite its domestic focus, the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint, operating 60 Legal Attache (LEGAT) offices and 15 sub-offices in US embassies and consulates across the globe.
These foreign offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries.
The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the CIA has a limited domestic function; these activities generally require coordination across government agencies.
The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation, the BOI or BI for short.
Its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935.
The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, D.C.
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North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (abbreviated as DPRK or DPR Korea), is a sovereign state in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.
Officially, its territory consists of the whole Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands.
Pyongyang is the nation's capital and largest city.
To the north and northwest, the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok (known as the Yalu in China) and Tumen rivers; it is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two.
Nevertheless, North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula.
In 1910, Korea was annexed by Japan.
After the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was divided into two zones, with the north occupied by the Soviets and the south occupied by the Americans.
Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948, separate governments were formed: the socialist Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north, and the capitalist Republic of Korea in the south.
An invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War (1950–1953).
The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, but no peace treaty was signed.
North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant, socialist state and formally holds elections.
Various media outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung and his family.
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), led by a member of the ruling family, holds power in the state and leads the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland of which all political officers are required to be members.
Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution in 1972.
The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises and collectivized farms.
Most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded.
From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 240,000 and 420,000 people, and the country continues to struggle with food production.
A sizeable amount of the population is thought to suffer from malnutrition, parasite infestations and food and waterborne diseases.
North Korea follows Songun, or "military-first" policy.
It is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve and paramilitary personnel.
Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, the United States and India.
It possesses nuclear weapons.
North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion, and public religion is discouraged or persecuted.
Both North Korea and South Korea became members of the United Nations in 1991.
International organizations have assessed that human rights violations in North Korea have no parallel in the contemporary world.
North Korea operates re-education and prison camps, akin to the gulag prisons of the Soviet Union.
The concentration camps are used to segregate those seen as enemies of the state and punish them for alleged political misdemeanours, or alleged misdemeanours of relatives as part of the "3 generations of punishment" policy instigated by state founder Kim Il-sung.
Prisoners are frequently subject to slave labour, malnutrition, torture, human experimentation, rape, and arbitrary executions.
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The heart is a muscular organ in most animals, which pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system.
Blood provides the body with oxygen and nutrients, as well as assisting in the removal of metabolic wastes.
In humans, the heart is located between the lungs, in the middle compartment of the chest.
In humans, other mammals, and birds, the heart is divided into four chambers: upper left and right atria; and lower left and right ventricles.
Commonly, the right atrium and ventricle are referred to together as the right heart, and their left counterparts as the left heart.
Fish, in contrast, have two chambers, an atrium and a ventricle, while reptiles have three chambers.
In a healthy heart, blood flows one way through the heart (due to heart valves, which prevent backflow).
The heart is enclosed in a protective sac, the pericardium, which also contains a small amount of fluid.
The wall of the heart is made up of three layers: epicardium, myocardium, and endocardium.
The heart pumps blood with a rhythm determined by a group of pacemaking cells in the sinoatrial node.
These generate a current that causes contraction of the heart, traveling through the atrioventricular node and along the conduction system of the heart.
The heart receives blood low in oxygen from the systemic circulation, which enters the right atrium from the superior and inferior venae cavae, and passes to the right ventricle.
From here, it is pumped into the pulmonary circulation, through the lungs (where it receives oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide).
Oxygenated blood then returns to the left atrium, passes through the left ventricle, and is pumped out through the aorta to the systemic circulation − where the oxygen is used and metabolized to carbon dioxide.
The heart beats at a resting rate close to 72 beats per minute.
Exercise temporarily increases the rate, but lowers resting heart rate in the long term, and is good for heart health.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most common cause of death globally (as of 2008), accounting for 30% of all deaths.
Of these, more than three quarters are a result of coronary artery disease and stroke.
Risk factors include: smoking, being overweight, little exercise, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and poorly controlled diabetes, among others.
Cardiovascular diseases frequently do not have symptoms, or may cause chest pain or shortness of breath.
Diagnosis of heart disease is often done by the taking of a medical history, listening to the heart-sounds with a stethoscope, ECG, and ultrasound.
Specialists who focus on diseases of the heart are called cardiologists, although many specialties of medicine may be involved in treatment.
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Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not utilize a standardized playing area, and coping with the varied terrains encountered on different courses is a key part of the game.
The game at the highest level is played on a course with an arranged progression of 18 holes, though recreational courses can be smaller, usually 9 holes.
Each hole on the course must contain a tee box to start from, and a putting green containing the actual hole or cup (4.25 inches in diameter).
There are other standard forms of terrain in between, such as the fairway, rough (long grass), sand traps (or "bunkers"), and various hazards (water, rocks, fescue) but each hole on a course is unique in its specific layout and arrangement.
Golf is played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes in a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play.
Stroke play is the most commonly seen format at all levels, but most especially at the elite level.
The modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland.
The 18-hole round was created at the Old Course at St Andrews in 1764.
Golf's first major, and the world's oldest tournament in existence, is The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, which was first played in 1860 in Ayrshire, Scotland.
This is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, the other three being played in the United States: The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship.
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Any man who calls a poison "a woman's weapon" is a traitor to his fellow men.
A dagger, arrow, ax – these are the arms of passion.
But poison is cold, calculating.
Poison is the thought that wakes you in the morning and lulls you to sleep at night.
You watch your victim die a thousand times before you ever offer him that fateful taste.
Is a man's hate so inferior to a woman's that we are to be denied such a weapon?
When I was a boy of sixteen, a great lord caught me with his mistress.
He should have been honored.
Instead, the fat old fool challenged me to a duel.
Thanks to my age and status, only to first blood.
But his mistress, and his wife, warned me which of my parts he intended to draw first blood from.
He was strong and fierce, but slow.
I cut him quickly, and the duel ended with honor satisfied.
Then, his wounds festered, and he died.
Ever since, men have called me "the Red Viper," a name that never fails to draw a laugh from me.
As if a single serpent was all I knew of venom.
Essence of nightshade is the gentlest of poisons. A drop dissolved into wine will slow a pounding heart and stop a hand from shaking. Three drops will grant a night of deep and dreamless sleep. Ten drops, and you will have a sleep that does not end.
Basilisk blood. It will give cooked meat a savory smell, but if eaten, it produces violent madness, in beasts as well as men. A mouse will attack a lion after a taste of basilisk's blood. But to a man who loves his art, is not passion a form of madness?
Widow's blood forces a man's bladder and bowels to fail. He drowns in his own poisons – a slow and painful death. It has earned its name many times, I am sure.
The Tears of Lys, a rare and costly poison. Clear, tasteless, and odorless. Dissolved in wine or water, it eats at a man's bowels. He dies in agony, which will not appear unusual if the victim is old or sickly — the favorite tool of impatient heirs.
Across the world, on certain islands of the Jade Sea, grows a certain plant. The leaves must be aged and soaked in a wash of limes, sugar water, and certain rare spices from the Summer Isles.
Afterward, the potion must be thickened with ash and allowed to crystallize. The process is slow and difficult, the necessaries costly and hard to acquire.
The Alchemists of Lys know the way of it, and the Faceless Men of Braavos and the maesters. Dissolved in wine, it makes the muscles of a man's throat clench tighter than any fist. The victim's face turns as purple as the little crystal seed from which his death was grown, and so we call it "the strangler."
Which of these vials would I take from its shelf, you may ask? None.
To kill a man at his table or in his bed bores me. To toil for hours over a boiling pot, measuring and stirring, bores me. How life begins is always entertaining, and my kind must make sure its end is worth our wait.
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