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The World of Iniquus - Action Adventure Romance

Showing posts with label Fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fire. Show all posts

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Unusual Uses for Dental Floss - How to Save Your Character's Life


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Dental floss
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At the request of one of my readers, I am working on various blogs that will help you, the writer, develop a great EDC (every day carry) for your character. Since most people don't walk around prepared for the end of the world, it helps if your character has some basics on hand and a little out-of-the-box know how.

In our last EDC tutorial, we learned how to save your character's life with condoms LINK.

This week we're adding in dental floss.

Dental floss is handy dandy and can be used in a pinch in all kinds of situations:


It's fortunate that your character just happens to carry a travel toothbrush and floss in her purse. Even better, since she was a Girl Scout she has some preparedness training, and she sticks a darning needle into the box, just in case. Either way, having a spool of dental floss can save your character's life.


English: Dental floss Deutsch: Zahnseide
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Heart symbol, with border.
. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EVERY DAY PROBLEMS:

* Hair tie-back
* Entertain your kids with a
  Cat's Cradle String
* Food in the teeth
* Cleaning between small
   cracks like on the keyboard
* If your heroine is out on a romantic picnic and
   forgot her knife, dental floss will cut her bread, cheeses, cake etc.
* Your heroine has an important meeting tomorrow, but the drip drip dripping in the hotels sink is making her
   buggy! She can run some dental floss around the faucet and let the string hang down into the drain. The
   water will conduct along the string, and it will be quiet.
* If she needs to remove the stuck picture or page from a surface, she can
   work carefully with the dental floss to separate one from the other.
* She can also use the floss to remove cookies stuck to her cookie sheet.
* She can support her office plant by tying it up with the floss
   Video Quick Study (1:48)

Ah, but let's get real here. These uses are pretty benign, and we all know you're just not that nice to your heroine. You throw her from one life-or-death emergency to another. Let's see how dental floss can help her escape with life and limb.

FIRST AID

* Use as a tourniquet if a toe or finger is severed. (put the severed digit in a non-lubricated condom tie it off
   and put it on ice. Send her to the hospital immediately.
* Tie off an umbilical chord when she had to rescue-deliver that baby on the stuck elevator.
* If the hand is injured and swelling, threatening to cut off circulation in the finger because of a now-too-tight
   ring, starting at the far end of the finger by the nail wrap the floss around and around tightly to force fluids
   back up the finger into the hand and slide the ring over this. Release the floss immediately. 

Apartment Key
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ESCAPE AND SURVIVAL

* What if your heroine's keys fell down a grate?
    Dental floss, a paper clip, and lots of patience.
    (Could also try freshly chewed gum tied to the floss.
     or duct tape made into an inverted loop)
    Video Quick Study (2:00) Fishing for keys
*  Replace shoe laces as she's running from Big
    Foot.
*  Sewing - repairing her clothes or gear or even
    suturing a wound (last ditch effort in the wilds).
*  Repairing a wet suit
    Video Quick Study (1:35)
*  Make a clothes line - if your character fell through the
    ice and is sopping wet, she has to get dry fast!
    Water wicks heat away from the body; she's better
    naked and dry than clothed and wet.
*  A hiding place for small objects. They might search
    your heroine/spy from head to toe and empty her
    purse out but much like the tampon box in her
    bathroom, a dental floss case will get very little attention,
    especially if she has it in a small bag with travel tooth brush, comb, and mirror. It looks so normal. She can
    store memory chips, hand cuff keys, or other get-out-of-jail-free items inside.

Video Quick Study (3:29) Brief demonstrations of some of the uses



English: zombie
English: zombie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



In a Zombie Apocalyptic Disaster, remember that there are four main components to survival: FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, FIRE.


Fire in Dumpster
(Photo credit: benwatts)

FIRE - 

* Use for fire starter material (waxed works
   particularly well)
* Making a bow drill
   Video Quick Study (5:26)


FOOD

*  Hanging things. If your character has food with her, she should not keep it on her or near her while she
    sleeps. She should walk a short distance and hang the food from a tree limb so as not to attract wild
    animals and keep everything safe. Remember that while dental floss is strong your character might want to
    braid the floss to increase the tensile strength if her food ways more than a couple of pounds.
 * Fishing line coupled with a safety pin or paper clip and a stick she finds in the woods (and a condom or
    tampon wrapper as a bobber).
 * Hunting
   - Bow string
      Video Quick Study (5:02) If this ten-year-old can do it, your heroine can. She remembers a
                                   neighbor kid doing this when she was little.
   - Traps
      Video Quick Study (1:55) catching a bird

English: Image 3 of 5 in Debris Hut Constructi...
English: Image 3 of 5 in Debris Hut Construction.. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SHELTER



*  Tying sticks for a debris hut.
*  Makeshift shelter such as a poncho tent



CampMor Silnylon Poncho Tent
Poncho Tent (Photo credit: kc7fys)







WATER

* Tying the top of your condom water carrier.





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Thursday, November 14, 2013

A Heroine Should Always Carry a Condom - How to Save Your Character's Life


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English: Unwrapped condom
English: Unwrapped condom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the things that I enjoy about developing a character is figuring out what she might carry in her EDC (Every Day Carry). What tools could she pull out of her purse to save her life?

One of the smallest and most practical pieces of EDC your character could carry is a non-lubricated condom. Many survivalists pack the condoms into their pocket-sized EDC tins that they have on them at all times. (More about this in an upcoming blog). But why? Do these burly SEALS think they're going to find a heroine in the middle of the jungle who needs stress relief? Not so much. Here are some of the ways your girl can make her day a little smoother with a condom in hand.



English: An example of an EDC or 'Everyday Carry'
 An example of an EDC or 'Everyday Carry' (Photo credit: Wikiped

English: Used condom
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Perhaps she is a drug mule  Sad but true, she could
    pour her powdered drug into the condom, knot it off,
    and swallow it. This would also work for a
    micro-chip, camera memory card or other tiny object
    with which she needed to escape. Dire straights call
    for dire choices.

2. Retaining DNA samples.

3. FOR FIRST AID
   * Cut the end off and slip over a cast or bandaged
      area so that one could bathe or shower.
      Video Quick Study - wound protection
   *Make shift/last resort rubber glove when
     staunching blood.
   * Make shift tourniquet - while this may sound like a
      stretch (no pun intended), imagine how helpful this
      tool would have been at the Boston Marathon
      bombing.
   * When no tape is available, cut off the end and use it
Front of package for LifeStyles condom
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
      to slide over a leg or arm to hold a cloth in place.
      Even  without a cloth it will help keep debris and
      bugs out of the wound and apply pressure to the
      area. Helpful for burns, as well.
      (See above video quick study.)
    * If someone had a tooth knocked out, put the tooth
       with some milk (or water if no milk is available) into
       the condom and tie it closed. Go immediately to an
       emergency dentist.
   * If a character has a sucking chest wound from an
      accident or gun shot etc., your heroine would see air
      bubbles and blood. Place the condom (in its
      package) over the wound and tape three sides of it
      in place. It is important to leave the bottom untaped.

4. Speaking of gunshots, a condom will protect a gun from water, sand, and other debris.


Sex is Dangerous 2
(Photo credit: timtak)

5. Dry Is Good!
   * If your heroine is an actress/singer/PI/Operative, she might know the little trick of putting her microphone
      in a condom and taping it to her skin. This prevents sweat/rain/moisture from messing up the feed.
   * If she breaks down on the side of the road and decides to hike to an area where she has cell reception in
      a rain storm, she might just stick her phone, GPS, matches, and other supplies into the condom she
      keeps in her wallet for just such emergencies. It is surprising how much volume a condom can hold!
      (Think one gallon of water)
   *  If your heroine is a bad-ass, she might use the condoms to keep her detonation fuses dry.

6. Survival  -Okay - now you've put your heroine into a zombie apocalypse survival situation. She may
     be the hottest babe left alive, but she's smart enough to put her condoms to use in keeping her that way.
     There are four basics to survival: shelter, food, water, fire. A condom can help with all of these.
     * Shelter - A condom can be used as cordage to tie limbs together for a debris hut.
English: Used condom Slovenčina: Použitý kondom
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
     * Water -  You can carry about 2 liters of water
       safely. While condoms are very stretchy they
       are also easy to break. To prevent a loss, make
       sure that you insert the condom into a sock before
       the condom is filled. The sock will help provide the
       needed structure as well as help prevent something
       from piercing the condom. If your heroine is trained,
       she might just have a water purification tablet or two
       with her EDC.
       VIDEO QUICK STUDY (1:07)
     * Fire
       1. Make a fire using a water filled condom like a
           magnifying glass.
           VIDEO QUICK STUDY (0:48)
       2. Store dry kindling - it may be dry now, but your intrepid heroine knows nothing goes well for her.
           Was that a roll of thunder she hears? Or, if she is without dry kindling, the condom itself will serve the
           purpose.
Camp Fire at Yelagiri
 (Photo credit: Sylvianism1)
           VIDEO QUICK STUDY (0:34)
       3. "But wait!" you say. "It's overcast. My heroine doesn't
             smoke and doesn't have her EDC. Her boyfriend is
             passed  out. The only thing in his pockets is a bunch of
             condoms. How could she start a fire?"
             Your heroine can still cook her caught bird and make a
             roaring signal fire if she uses the condoms to make the fire
             drill that she saw someone use on one of those survivor
             shows. Sure it's hard to do - but what else does she have
             to do with her time?
             VIDEO QUICK STUDY (3:08)
      *Food
       1. Condom Slingshot - Yup. She played with slingshots as a kid, and was pretty good! Why not have
           squirrel  for dinner?
            VIDEO QUICK STUDY (1:11)
       2. Blow up the condom a little and tie a knot. Now you have a fishing bob.

* Other ways to save herself and the guy she loves?
   1 Well, "fishermen in certain parts of the Amazon have found a way to protect their privates from one of
      the scariest fishes of all - the candiru. Nope, candirus don’t bite and eat you up like piranhas, but they
      can be scary in the sense that they can enter through your genitals and make their homes in your body.
      Candirus entering the penis can be very painful, as you feel them wriggling inside of you. By putting on a
      condom every time you go fishing or wading in the waters, you are saving yourself and your penis from a 
      lot of hurt and pain."  LINK
   2. If she falls in the water she can blow up a dozen condoms and use them as a flotation device. (Yeah - I
       know. Why would she have a dozen condoms on her? Maybe she stole them from the Amazon
       fishermen?
   3. If push comes to shove, a condom can be used as a garrote to choke the assailant.
   4. And of course - to protect your heroine from STDs and unwanted pregnancies


Photograph of unrolled Durex condom
Photograph of unrolled Durex condom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fun Facts:
* The Danish word for condom is Svangerskabsforebyggendemiddel.
* In 1844 Charles Goodyear got a patent on crepe rubber condoms. Yes a VERY good year! LINK



Prezerwatywa, z angielskiej wiki
Prezerwatywa, z angielskiej wiki (Photo credit: Wikipedia)




Thank you so much for stopping by. And thank you for your support. When you buy my books, you make it possible for me to continue to bring you helpful articles and keep ThrillWriting free and accessible to all.


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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Arson Information for Thriller Writers

English: House fire using gasoline as accelerant
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jerry Coble, the Assistant Fire Marshal for Guilford County, stood in front of our class with a burned out pot in his hand. The burn went clear through the bottom. “What do you think caused this?” he asked. My mind searched for the right answer, too much beer? the distraction of a pretty girl? insufficient kitchen instruction from your mom when you were growing up? He never answered. I’m guessing “pretty girl” was correct. Heroes and damsels go together after all.

Fires can be caused by three things:
Accidental - “Whoops, baby, you’re so smokin’ hot, I thought it

                     was you that was settin’ off my fire alarm.”
Incendiary - “Aw, honey, I was just trying to get a spark goin’ I
                     didn’t think your whole trailer would go up!”
Providential - “I think the Lord above knew I’d get to meet you
                      when he sent that bolt of lightening right into your
                      place, and you had tah run out ah the shower and
                      into my arms that ah way!”

Believe it or not, and I know this will stretch your imagination, but most arsonists are men. Men with a motive.

The most common motivators are:
* Fraud
* Crime concealment
* Vanity (they want to be a hero)
* Civil disorders
* Rash action of a juvenile - Under six, it’s an accident. If it’s

                  a child over six they are probably acting out of
                  spite or revenge.
* Spite/Revenge - now if this is a woman and she’s extracting her
                  revenge at night, she will stick close to her house or an
                  area with which she is familiar. If this were a man, he
                  will go anywhere. 
* Pyromania - and who doesn’t feel a touch of pyromania from
                  time to time? Especially when the moon is full and the
                  night air is crisp. But here is an interesting fact
                  SERIAL KILLERS often start out as fire setters.
                  Creepy huh?

Now go back to crime concealment. Are you trying to conceal a murder? A fire will get rid of a whole lot of evidence. If the victim was strangled or poisoned, even shot or stabbed in a way that a bone was not nicked, the method of death would not be determinable. No blood spray patterns. No bodily secretions. No finger or foot prints. But don’t think that the body will disappear. The trunk bones of the body will remain and the body can be identified by the teeth. Though some bodies are so far gone that it takes an expert eye to see the remains amongst the debris. HINT many bodies are found not from seeing them but smelling them. A charred body smells like BBQ and the bodies will attract flies just like unburned bodies do.

So you’ve caught your house on fire to hide your murder scene. Did you do your do diligence? HINT A house built 100 years ago will burn slower than a new house. The plastics used in today’s houses make them burn hotter and faster. If you need your scene to survive the blaze, you can write the scene into a turn of the century (1900s) house and that will give the fire fighters a better chance of getting there and putting out the blaze in time to save your crime scene or your good guys in desperate straits.

Another HINT if you are doing a crime cover up - it is almost impossible to get a fingerprint off a gas can. The plastic and oily residue means that there is a 99.9% chance that there is no fingerprint.

Also, if your villain is throwing a
Molotov cocktail make sure it is in an easily broken GLASS container - not plastic, or it will only bounce. But bombs are easy to build. You just need a fuel and an oxidizer. We asked Jerry for a few simple recipes, like so many fifties’ housewives looking for directions on how to bake a prize winning chocolate cake. His hands went to his hips, and he shook his head in disbelief. Did we really think he was allowed to stand up there and teach us bomb-making techniques? Guess not. Sigh. Well there’s always the internet.

There are several stages to a fire:
* Incipient - first of beginning fire.
* Free Burning- rapid heat, spreading flame, lots of oxygen is being

                    consumed.
* Steady State - the fire burns throughout the house or structure, 

                    very high temperatures.
* Smoldering Stage - Burning is reduced to glowing embers.

If someone were to run up and kick down the door during the SMOLDERING STAGE there would be rapid oxidation and the flames will leap up with rapid flame and heat. This is how BACK DRAFT takes place. This is bad news for our heroes!

FLASH OVER - you must have an
open flame. Everything reaches a critical point all at the same time and BOOM! It’s Armageddon. When this happens, vapors come off the heat and it LOOKS like an accelerant was used. However, a flash over is usually at table height. If an accelerant is used the markings are usually on the floor. HINT if your villain has done his homework then he knows about flash points and accelerant trails. This villain would make sure to disperse the accelerant at tabletop level to mimic a flash over.

Ah but not so fast. There are still some tell tale signs that would be much harder to hide. This is Pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of a solid through the action of heat. When something burns, there is a demarcation of where it burned (char layer) and the normal wood, untouched by the fire. If this is cupped then they can tell that a liquid of some kind has gone into the cracks and carried the fire deeper at the cracks making the pyrolysis curved.

They would also be looking for fire marks. Fires burn up and out like a fan. If the fire burned down then it was probably following an accelerant trail.

They are looking for crazing on glass - that is where the glass heated and then cooled rapidly. This can show the use of an accelerant in the area - but also the use of water and even possibly a flashpoint. So, careful with the crazing detail.

Also, if you are describing a fire scene the MOST smoke will be further away from where it started and LESS smoke will be close.

In an
ELECTRICAL FIRE it would have started from inside the wiring (where there is copper) if it was accidental and from an external source if it was set. Careful here - make sure there was nothing that could do the deed accidentally like a wire near a heat source.

A great way to start an on-purpose fire - take a lit cigarette and place it in a book of matches. Set this down on a bed near the pack of cigarettes. Better still, spill a glass of booze on the bed in the same area. Make sure it’s tucked in near a pillow and the mattress. It will take about three hours. The foam material will melt and drip down. Foam padding is HIGHLY TOXIC when it burns.



Not a smoker? The best place to start a fire is in the kitchen. It is very, very hard to detect if a fire were set on purpose in a kitchen.


What if someone was burning their own house? (BAHAHAHAHAHA! my computer alerted me that this was a non-standard question. Well, I hope so!) HUGE CLUE they will have taken the photos out. It’s the only thing that can’t be replaced.


I hope some of these notes prove helpful.
If you have any questions please let me know and I will try to answer them.
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