Senior Housing and Assisted Living

Florida snakes, together with the many turtles, lizards, alligators and other reptiles are part of a complex wildlife structure that plays an incredible role in Florida’s ecosystem maintenance. Florida snakes species are numerous: there are actually forty-four species living in incredibly varied habitats, from salt marshes to fresh water marshes and dry uplands or coastal mangrove swamps to residential areas.

Only six Florida snakes are poisonous, and they happily coexist with their non-poisonous cousins, even venturing into towns and cities too. The best way to stay out of trouble with snakes is to care enough to learn about their morphology and therefore become able to identify the Florida snakes. A relaxed attitude of avoidance is the wisest thing a person could show in relation to snakes.

The Coral snakes and pit vipers are by far the most dangerous of the Florida snakes. They are identifiable by quite a range of mutual characteristics. Pit vipers which include the Rattlesnake, the Cottonmouth and the Copperhead all have in common: vertical eye pupils, a v-shaped head and facial pit sensors: one between the eyes and nostrils and the others along each side of the head.

The venom of this type of Florida snakes is haemotoxic, which means that their poison works on the red blood cells, destroying the walls of the blood vessels and causing uncontrolled bleeding. Coral snakes however, use a neurotoxic venom, the toxins of which act on the body’s nerves causing paralysis.

Most of the snake bites reported every year in the United States are caused by Florida snakes or by rattlesnakes to be more precise. Because their venom spreads very rapidly throughout the body, the victim will die within less than thirty minutes without immediate anti-venom.

A big exception in this group of Florida snakes is the copperheads, the venom of which rarely requires an antidote. Their toxins are the least potent and so they are considered t be the least dangerous of the poisonous Florida snakes.

Because of the threat they pose. poisonous snakes are the first kind to attract attention, however the most widespread of Florida snakes is the black racer, a non-toxic species that relies on very sharp fangs to capture its prey.

Although home owners usually try to remove snakes from their gardens, specialists point out that, without them, rodents would soon multiply out of control giving us an even more cause for concern.

Therefore, unless there are any exceptional reasons for worrying, like snakes nesting in large numbers in your garden or shed, there is no reason to upset the lives of these usually shy, useful animals.

Interested in the Florida snakes? To learn more about snakes visit Caring for Snakes our new web site.

Mark A Cella What is Depleted Uranium Really? What is Depleted Uranium and What Are the Dangers? As the Imperialist War Ravages Countries, it Leaves Behind Radioactive Death Which Poisons Generations of Innocents.

What is depleted uranium? Depleted uranium is a waste byproduct from producing fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. The material used in civil and nuclear military industry is uranium U-235.

Since this isotope is found in very low proportions in nature, the uranium ore has to be enriched, i.e., its proportion of the U-235 isotope has to be industrially increased.

This process produces a large amount of radioactive depleted uranium waste, thus named because it is mainly formed by the other non-fissionable uranium isotope, U-238 and a minimum proportion of U-235.

Depleted Uranium Weaponry

American military industry has been using depleted uranium to coat conventional weaponry (artillery, tanks and aircraft) since 1977, to protect its own tanks, as a counterweight in aircraft and Tomahawk missiles and as a component for navigation instruments.

This is because of depleted uranium having characteristics making it highly attractive for military technology: firstly, it is extremely dense and heavy (1 cm3 weighs almost 19 grams), such that projectiles with a depleted uranium head can penetrate the armored steel of military vehicles and buildings.

The weapon has another characteristic as well; it is a spontaneous pyrophoric material, i.e., it inflames when reaching its target generating such heat that it explodes. After more than 50 years producing atomic weapons and nuclear energy, the USA has 500,000 tons of depleted uranium stored, according to official data.

Depleted uranium is radioactive and has an average lifetime of 4.5 billion years. This is why such waste has to be stored safely for an indefinite period of time, an extremely costly procedure.

Depleted Uranium Burns and Oxidizes

In order to save money and empty their tanks, the Department of Defense and Energy assigns depleted uranium free of charge to national and foreign armament companies. When a projectile hits a target, 70% of its depleted uranium burns and oxidizes, bursting into highly toxic, radioactive micro particles.

A 1995 technical report issued by the Army indicates that “if depleted uranium enters the body, it has the potentiality of causing serious medical consequences. The associated risk is both chemical and radiological.”

Deposited in the lungs or kidneys, uranium 238 and products from its decay (thorium 234, protactinium and other uranium isotopes) give off alpha and beta radiations which cause cell death and genetic mutations causing cancer in exposed individuals and genetic abnormalities in their descendants over the years.

You see the term “depleted” refers to the removal of uranium-235, but the process for its removal is called “enrichment.” It is enrichment because what remains is uranium-238, a highly potent radioactive carcinogen that emits alpha particles.

Depleted or Enriched Uranium?

Uranium-236 and Uranium-238 (otherwise known as plutonium) is laced into the so-called “depleted” uranium weaponry. So let us be real. Stop saying “depleted” uranium, and call it what it is, “enriched” uranium.

This Orwellian double-speak has a purpose – to make it hard for the public to discern that this is a nuclear war, not a “depleted uranium” war. Enriched uranium weaponry is illegal under the terms and conditions of the Geneva Convention. Under the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to leave harmful materials on a battlefield after the conflict has ceased.

This nuclear war is in violation of the Geneva Convention. It causes congenital malformations, babies born with one eye, no arms, or no brain. And it not only affects Iraqi civilians, it affects American veterans who excrete it in their urine and semen a decade later.

Visit Mark A Cella‘s site, www.Mark-Cella.com for more Mark A Cella fun and serious matters.

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