Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 288
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF, introducing the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 288
Question 1
What is the highest recorded blood alcohol level of a drunk driver?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
1.6g/100ml
Eastern Cape police arrested a motorist who could be South Africa’s drunkest driver ever according to Sowetanlive.co.za.
The man was allegedly 32 times over the legal alcohol limit. His blood had an alcohol content of 1.6g/100ml. The legal limit is 005g/100ml. Five boys as well as a woman who were also in the vehicle with 15 sheep, allegedly stolen from nearby farms, were also arrested.
Other famous cases from wikipedia include
- A 24-year-old woman in 1982 was admitted to the UCLA emergency room with a serum alcohol content of 1.51%, corresponding to a BAC of 1.33%. She was alert and oriented to person and place.
- In 1984, a 30-year-old man survived a blood alcohol concentration of 1.5% after vigorous medical intervention.
- In 1995, a man from Rzeszów, Poland, caused a car accident near his hometown. He had a blood alcohol content of 1.48% ; he was tested five times but all results were the same. He died a few days later of injuries from the accident.
- In 2004, an unidentified Taiwanese woman died of alcohol intoxication after immersion for twelve hours in a bathtub filled with 40% ethanol. Her blood alcohol content was 1.35%. It was believed that she had immersed herself as a response to the SARS epidemic.
- On 26 July 2013 a 40-year-old man from Alfredówka, Poland, was found by Municipal Police Patrol from Nowa Dęba lying in the ditch along the road in Tarnowska Wola. At the hospital, it was recorded that the man had a blood alcohol content of 1.374%. The man survived.
Question 2
What did the wife of French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot say to him just before he died?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
“Don’t eat that!”
After an exhausting return trip from St Petersburg, at the invitation of his patron Catherine the Great of Russia, Diderot became ill, took to his bed, and decided to stop speaking. He enjoyed a brief respite from his illness and was able to sit at table with his wife. He ate soup, boiled mutton and chicory and then took an apricot (some sources claim it was a strawberry).
His daughter, Angélique, takes up the story, “My mother wanted to stop him from eating that fruit.”
But what the devil kind of harm do you expect it to do to me?
“He ate it, leaned his elbow on the table to eat a compote of cherries, coughed gently. My mother asked him a question; since he remained silent, she raised her head, looked at him, he was no more.”
- Simon Critchley’s top 10 philosophers’ deaths
- Chris Nickson: A philosophical death – LITFL
Question 3
What is blindspot bias?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
The general belief people have that they are less susceptible to bias than others, due mostly to the faith they place in their own introspections.
The term was created by Emily Pronin, a social psychologist from Princeton University’s Department of Psychology, with colleagues Daniel Lin and Lee Ross. Most people and cultures appear to exhibit the bias blind spot. In a sample of more than 600 residents of the United States, more than 85% believed they were less biased than the average American. Only one participant believed that he or she was more biased than the average American.
- Scopelliti I et al. Bias Blind Spot: Structure, Measurement, and Consequence. Management Science 2015;6(10):2281-2547
Question 4
Who was the most divine baroque artist, capturing the intricacies of traumatic decapitations?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Caravaggio
His works are littered with decapitations and historians can only speculate the reasoning for his decapitation obsession although he led a very turmoiled life. He could be a violent man, with drastic mood swings and a love for drinking and gambling.
His litany of assaults included throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter in 1604, and attacking Roman guards with stones in 1605. Wrote one observer: “After a fortnight’s work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ballcourt to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument.”
His violence finally erupted with force in 1606, when he killed a well-known Roman pimp named Ranuccio Tomassoni. Historians have long speculated about what was at the root of the crime. Some have suggested that it was over an unpaid debt, a game of tennis or the age ol’ classic lust for a woman (Tomassoni’s wife, Lavinia).
- Biography.com: Caravaggio
- Caravaggio decapitations: Rosen.org
Question 5
Where would you find the ‘sinus of Keith’; the ‘triangle of Koch’; and the ‘tendon of Todare’?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
The right atrium.
- Ho SY et al. Atrial structure and fibres: morphologic bases of atrial conduction. Cardiovascular Research 2002;54:325-336
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Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five
Dr Neil Long BMBS FACEM FRCEM FRCPC. Emergency Physician at Kelowna hospital, British Columbia. Loves the misery of alpine climbing and working in austere environments (namely tertiary trauma centres). Supporter of FOAMed, lifelong education and trying to find that elusive peak performance.