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I thought self mutilation disqualified somebody for military service?

  • Posted on October 12, 2010 at 4:17 pm

My bf is ex-army and I have a baby together and he wants to get married( I don’t if I want that). He doesn’t want his ex but he kisses her ass and acts like she is normal and wants to go into the army for normal reasons. Honestly, she isn’t intelligent, pretty or kind and I have helped him take care of his children with her a lot(and I have an older child) and they have some serious emotional problems. She has expressed regret for leaving him but when he and I were completely uninvolved and they were living in Ft. Stewart she harassed me and smashed his cell phone to pieces, she destroyed other property with a hammer. He married her because she was pregnant, but then she hid an entire second preg from him and everybody including her twin and binge-drank alcohol (while they lived on base) and just popped out a secret vodka baby one day. She had sought no prenatal health care even though her first baby had been born via c-section. She also cheated on him with another soldier(even took out a secret loan for the guy and asked her husband to pay it). Yeah it is all bs. She has time and again expressed regrets from the past and the very little time she has the kids, she returns them filthy-recently not even brushing her daughter’s hair even though she had lice. They actually like me but act traumatized over gettings baths for one thing. The 3 yr old slaps and bites herself over the smallest things. The 6 year old works herself into hysteria over small things.The only time she didn’t physically abuse him(she has punched him in the face and called the Mps, wrapped a cord around his neck and called the Mps was the brief period she took prozac(not within the past year). I don’t think I’ll stick around much more. He acts like she wants to join the Army for some other reason than to be close to him. She completely uses the children to manipulate him and at the same, time acts very resentful about spending time with the children. She had a suicide attempt two years ago and had to be taken to the hospital to get her stomach pumped. Does the military often let suicidal candidates in? Should they really be training someone like that on a weapon? She leaves for boot camp in Missouri next month. She’ll be working with Forklifts. I just feel bad for the kids-mine included.
Sorry if you didn’t like the story but it is what it is, just wondering. I don’t think she is a responsible person but then again, I think she may be a danger and it would still be sad to me if something like boot camp further broke the psyche of someone so delicate, it could be further damaging to the children.
Unfortunately, her husband never pressed charges even though the mps asked him.
The recruiter pushed her through, she leaves for Basic April 26.
The recruiter pushed her through, she leaves for Basic April 26.
The recruiter pushed her through, she leaves for basic April 26, she did all her tests.

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A Short Story-social Service is a Profession

  • Posted on January 23, 2010 at 4:08 am

Social service is a profession.

Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

When I was crossing twenty five, my parents were having worries about my marriage and as per their wisdom and as per their position in the society, they found a match for me. The man was about ten years more than of my age and I had been told that his earlier wife had committed suicide. The facts were not fully known to my parents, but since the man was having a house and was also having a small shop, they convinced me that he shall be providing boarding and lodging to me and this is the ultimate goal prescribed here in India and both parents and the bride are happy that they could find out a match who can bring some income in the house.

I could not consult my friends, because most of my friends had been married and they were not telling me good stories about their married life. The main problems were that the income of the husband was on lower side, he was a drug addict, he was indulging in gambling, he was a drunkard, he was having relations with other women and the like. All these facts were disturbing and therefore, I had calculated that this is the ultimate fate of each of us and therefore, when others are bearing all these difficulties and are still living with their husbands, I too can venture and I actually went to the new house without having any pleasure, any happiness and without having any hopes in my mind.

The first night was nothing more than the sex and I also participated in that course because here in our area this had been the ultimate goal of marriage. I had noted that the man had not prepared himself for the occasion and it had been a simple ceremony. He had been with his friends and when he entered my room, he was fully drunk and took me in his arms and started kissing me here and there and embracing me tightly. Since this was the first time I could have kisses from a man, I enjoyed and placed myself before this man who could utilize me as per his own discretions.

In the morning he again took one or two pegs and was having hungry eyes on my face and on all my rounds and horizons. His sister had been here and when this ceremony ended, she left for her own house and thus we two were left all alone. And this man started living with me and I noticed that the only aim in his life was sex and therefore, as and when he could get time, he took me in his arms, started kissing me and then having his final satisfaction without caring for my participation. I took this all as my fate and started living with the man.

In due course he had started calling his friends to the house to have a face seeing ceremony. All were having praise for my beauty and were telling to my husband that he had been a lucky person who could get such a beautiful girl and they were also telling him that the girl is too young and he was at least ten twelve years older than me. He was having all love with me in their presence and listening praise, he came in motion and took me to the inner room and came out after having sex with me. The friends sitting there had been watching all that and thus one of two started visiting my house when my husband had been out. They talked about my husband and sometime they brought some eatables for me. And I noticed they started touching my body and they started kissing me. I could not raise alarm because I was afraid of my husband. When they left me, they gave me some money and when I handed over this money to my husband, he did not raise objections. I due course I realized that all these visits were preplanned and I had been informed that my husband had been collecting money from them before he allowed them to visit the house.

I had been enjoying my life for some days, but when I talked all this to my mother, she was disturbed and told me that I should not become a prostitute. An Indian woman should not have sex beyond the husband because it is a sin, it is a crime and it is a misconduct. I promised that I would not allow others to have approach to my body and when some one approached me, I came out of the house and started calling other women from the neighbourhood to help me. I noted that one lady had started taking much interest in me. I came to know that she was a social worker. She had started coming to me house and she had been sitting with me for hours together. She took me to the women cell established in the city by the state to help those ladies who are in trouble. I was not ready to lodge a complaint against my husband, because I was having a fear in my mind that my husband shall shunt out me and I had left the house of my parents and that house was not open for me now. I was trying to adjust myself under these changed circumstances. But this lady was not happy with me. She wanted that I should lodge a complaint against my husband and I should name the people who had been utilizing me with the consent of my husband or without his consent. She also desired that I should tell the police that my husband had started earning from his friends and other customers who had been sent to me and who had sex with me.

When I refused to lodge a complaint against my husband, this lady was not happy and then she herself started bringing at least one man with her and she allowed him to have all with me and that too in her absence. She started threatening me that if I raise an alarm, she would tell the people that she herself had called this man and had put her as guard till the course ended.

I went to my parents time and again, but I was not telling what had been happening with me. I told them that all is well at her house. I had been raising objections before my husband, but he usually said, “ I am not earning much. If you have started earning and helping me, it is good and this body is vanish-able and if some people enjoy this body and make payment, it is not good. You are giving them something in charity and this charity concept is very old in India and when we give our body in charity, this is the supreme charity.” This was the life philosophy of my man who had been appointed as my husband by my parents. My parents knew all this but they were not interfering and thus the process continued till that date the people could enjoy my body. And ultimately they left and I noticed that I had to face hard days. I was talking to my mother, “ Mother those were good days when I had been earning and had been running the family administration. Now I have stopped earning and therefore, I am starving and my husband who is al old man is also starving.” My mother was too old and therefore, she could not listen what I had said to her and she put her right hand on my head and said, “ My daughter you are great. I have full hope in you and I shall see that you shall start earning once again”. The social worker had been coming to me and was desiring that I should accommodate some old men and they shall give more money than the young people and they would not be utilizing my body as the young people had been utilizing. I shall remain fresh.” I was surprised to note that this old social service lady was still in the line in this old age. One day I asked, “ Dear aunt, you should leave this line now. Much had been done by you. Now you should have some devotion towards God.” And a very simple reply was from her side, “I have got no source of income and if I stop this work, I shall die of hunger. This work is going on because the old people are also interested in having change and I find out subjects which could give them a change.”

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Chemistry in the Service of Mankind

  • Posted on January 3, 2010 at 5:20 pm

Chemistry is defined as the science of atoms and molecules as it deals with the composition, structure and properties of matter which can be best described and understood in terms of these basic constituents of matter. Chemistry is the science not of the only about one hundred elements but of the infinite variety of molecules and related species that may be built from them.

Our body is made up of tissues, which are all composed of chemicals. We need an adequate supply of chemicals in the form of food, vitamins, hormones, and enzymes, which are all chemicals. For taking care of our health we need medicines. We find that chemicals and chemistry penetrate into every aspect of our lives as essential items of our daily needs such as: Paper, sugar, starch, vegetable oils, ghee, essential oils, tannery, distillery, soap, cosmetics, rubber, dyes, plastics, petroleum etc are all the valuable gifts of chemistry. The materials with which one comes into contact in everyday life are polymers, rubber, plastics, textiles and many of the constituents of living things, such as cellulose and proteins. Infact there is almost nothing that we use in our daily life and it is not a chemical. Hence study of chemistry is important atleast for the simple reason that besides being ourselves an assemblage of chemicals, we use many chemicals in almost all aspects of our daily lives.

The service of chemistry of medicine represents as one of the most fascinating facts of the story of the application of scientific knowledge to the welfare of mankind. These are substances which provide the necessary elements like Nitrogen, Phosphorus Potassium, and Calcium etc. to humans and plants. It is no longer a mystery for the informed farmers that the chief nitrogenous fertilizers are ammonium sulphate and Calcium ammonium Phosphate and. Super phosphates multiply the yield of crops many times.

While we are well posted with the hard fact that Arsenic and many of its compounds are deadly toxic, it is worth mentioning that Arsenic has also been used as a life saver. In the nineteenth century, physicians had no means of combating infection and patients usually had no fate but to die. The whole nature of medicine, however, changed in 1863, when French scientists, Bechamps, noticed that an arsenic compound was toxic to some micro-organisms whose report encouraged Paul Erhlich, a German scientist, to synthesize new arsenic compounds, testing each one for its organism killing ability and finally with his 606th compound of arsenic, Erhlich found a substance in 1909, that selectively killed the syphilis microorganism. At the time, syphilis was a feared and wide spread disease for which there was no cure; only suffering, dementia, and ultimately death were the obvious consequences. Erhlich’s arsenic compound, what he dubbed as a “Magic Bullet” provided miraculous cures, and a search for other chemical compounds that could be used in the treatment of diseases was launched.

In 1935, Gerhard Domagk, administered a dose of a dye called prontosil (that inhibits the growth of streptococci bacteria) to cure his daughter’s fever. This not only laid the foundation for modern chemotherapy but also grabbed a Nobel Prize for medicine for Domagk in 1939. This field, now known as Chemotherapy has produced one of the most effective tools of controlling bacterial infections and those of many other micro-organisms. Chemotherapy also provides one of the lines of attack against cancerous tissues. And it all started with an arsenic compound. In chemotherapy which is as indispensable and desirable now for cancer patients, many of whom have no hopes and options but to count the remaining days of their lives, as Radiation therapy, chemicals or drugs are used to selectively destroy infectious micro-organisms without destroying the live tissues or the host, though both chemotherapy as well as radiation therapy carry harsh side effects too. Ernest Fourneau, a French scientist in 1936 proved that in the human body, prontosil breaks down to give sulphanilamide. Sulphanilamide is the actual active agent that inhibits streptococci. This study led to the discovery of sulpha drugs and from there on growth of chemotherapy has reached amazing heights.

Analgesics such as morphine, codeine and heroin are mainly opium and its products that are effective analgesics but cause addictions too. Moreover their over- dosage can cause sleep and unconsciousness. Tranquillizers which reduce anxiety and tension being either sedatives or antidepressants (mood elevators) are also chemicals. Similarly sterilization, the process of complete elimination of micro-organisms includes chemicals that are known as antiseptics and disinfectants. It is a matter of immense pleasure and great satisfaction that now it has become not only widely known but has also been generally accepted atleast by a sizeable majority of sensible masses that with global population growing less by the days and more by the nights, birth control has become essential. Fortunately, there are drugs that control ovulation and if regularly consumed, function as effective contraceptives.

It has been established that Tension and Mental stress escalate the level of acid in bile juice causing hyperacidity that can be combated using antacids mostly bases like calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide or aluminium hydroxide in the form of tablets or aqueous suspensions. These react with hydrochloric acid in the stomach and neutralize it partially and bring relief to the sufferers from consequences of hyperacidity.

Histamine is naturally present in almost all body tissues and is released when the human body meets substances that cause allergies. For example, when a person is suffering from hay fever, histamine is released. Antihistamines that are used as drugs to control the allergy caused by histamines are nothing more than the chemicals, known as amines. It is worth noting that Alexander Fleming in 1920 found that bacteria do not flourish in nutrient agar surrounded by the fungus Penicillium notatum westling. He found that this fungus produces antibiotic called penicillin. Antibiotics are produced by micro-organisms that are toxic to other micro organisms.

We know that colored substances used for dyeing fabrics are called dyes. A true dye must have a suitable color; be able to attach itself to the material from solution or be capable of being fixed on it, and be fast to light and washing when fixed. For this it must be resistant to water, acid and alkali. Chromophores are unsaturated groups or groups with multiple bonds that impart color to the organic compounds. Examples are the nitro, the nitroso and the azo groups. Auxochromes (salt forming groups like hydroxyl, and amino) do not impart color to the chromogens in the absence of chromophores. However, when the chromogen has a chormophore, the auxochrome deepens the color of the chromogen.

Substantive dyes can be directly applied by immersing the cloth in a hot solution of the dye in water. They can be again classified into acidic and basic dyes. Acid dyes are sodium salts of sulphonic acid and nitro phenols. They are used for dyeing animal fibers (wool and silk) but not vegetable fibers (cotton). The dye solution is acidified with sulphuric or acetic acid. Basic dyes are generally salts of hydrochloric acid and colored bases. They can directly dye animal fibers but need a fixing agent called mordant (tannin) to dye vegetable fibers. These are used for dyeing silk and cotton. Methyl orange, an azodyes, is prepared by coupling diazotized sulphanilic acid with dimethylaniline. Aniline Yellow is another azodye but has little value as a dye because of its sensitivity to acids. This is the simplest basic azo dye and can be obtained by coupling benzene diazomium chloride with aniline. Malachite belongs to the triphenyl methane dyes, prepared by condensing 1 molecule of benzaldehyde with 2 molecules of dimethylaniline in presence of concentrated Sulphuric acid, H2SO4. Dyes can also be classified as natural and synthetic dyes. Compounds extracted from plants are called natural dyes. These were used in olden days to color fabrics. Alizarin (red) and indigo (blue) are two examples. Synthetic dyes came into being to provide more varieties of colors.

It needs no mention that there are many chemicals which find great use in cosmetics too. Creams like cleansing creams, cold creams, bleaching and vanishing creams are prepared synthetically from chemicals. Perfumes, talcum powders and deodorants are also some other cosmetic substances that are obtained from chemicals. Lipsticks, nail polish and hair dyes also are chemical substances. Perfumes have pleasant smell due to the esters used in their synthesis.

We also know that carbon fibers are made of long chains of carbon atoms. They are got from synthetic or regenerated fibers by heating them in the absence of oxygen. These fibers on heating decompose to produce carbon fibers. Besides being useful, chemicals find use in artifacts as well. Ceramics, paints, varnishes, glass, cement and likes are various other useful substances that contain various chemicals as their main components. Construction industry is the major beneficiary of such substances.

A passing reference may be given about the fact that micro alloyed steels that are tougher than higher alloys are intermediate carbon steel alloys with 0.3 to 0.6% carbon content. They also include vanadium, niobium (columbium), and titanium and so on. Their enhanced strength is due to the precipitation-hardening reaction where nitrides or carbonitrides are formed in steel. Therefore, nitrogen level control is a key factor for their strength.

It may not be exaggeration to say that whereas we are used to talk of chemicals in food, in actuality, natural food substances are various forms of chemicals. For example, rice is a carbohydrate. Fruits contain carbohydrates and organic acids like citric, benzoic, malic, and ascorbic acids. Vegetables contain proteins (amino acid blocks) and vitamins. Besides these, chemicals are used as preservatives too for canned or bottled food items. Preservatives are chemicals that are added to food materials to prevent the growth of micro organisms or prevent spoilage and increase their shelf life. Chemicals also find use as edible colors and artificial sweetening agents. Since sugar cannot be used as a sweetening agent for diabetic patients, artificial sweetening agents that are non-nutritive in nature are used as substituents for sugar (especially in soft drinks). Examples are saccharin which is 500 times sweeter than sucrose, and cyclamates. Food colors are used in ice creams, dairy products, sweet meat, soft drinks, confectionery, etc. These colors are also used in oral medicines like capsules, tablets, syrups and liquids to improve their appearance. Some of the primary colors are water soluble.

A common problems of the daily routine in homes and laboratory is that of removal of unwanted materials like oils, grease dirt, etc. from the surface of clothes, utensils, apparatus, machines and our skin. Soaps and detergents are best chemical used for this purpose. It may not be known to many of us that soaps are sodium or potassium salts of higher fatty acids like stearic, palmitic and oleic acids. Fatty acids are organic acids that have more than sixteen carbon atoms in their molecular structure. The sodium soaps are called hard soaps and the potassium soaps are known as soft soaps. Soaps are obtained from oils and fats. For example, tristearin is got from beef and mutton tallow, tripalmitin from palm oil and triolein from lard (pig fat), olive oil and cotton seed oil. In India, soap is commonly got from Coconut, groundnut, Til and Mahua oils. They possess the desirable properties of ordinary soaps and can be used with hard water and in acidic solutions as well. Synthetic detergents are sodium salts of long chain benzene sulphonic acids or sodium salt of long chain alkyl hydrogen sulphates. Their calcium or magnesium salts are soluble in water.

Finally it may not be out of context to add that propellants, insect-repellants and pheromones, are also chemicals. Propellants are the fuels such as alcohol, liquid hydrogen, liquid ammonia, kerosene, hydrazine and paraffin etc that are used in rockets for propulsion. Chemicals like dimethyl phthalate, N, N-diethyl- meta- toulamide, N – N – diethyl benzamide are used as effective repellents against mosquitoes, flies and other insects. These are widely used in insect repellant body creams. Another way to get rid of insects is to use pheromones or insect sex attractants. Chemicals used as Pheromones help induce the mating urge and attract insects of opposite sex. When coated on poisonous baits, they prove fatal for insects.

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