Crapaganda.com

Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a stroke on April 12, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II.  A new book, “FDR’s Deadly Secret,” makes a persuasive case that Roosevelt’s stroke was caused by a brain tumor that had metastasized from melanoma over his left eyebrow, which he and his doctors worked hard to cover up.

The authors suggest that Roosevelt was having seizures (which were reported by his Secret Service agents) and difficulty seeing the left margin of his written speeches — indicating an advanced brain tumor — by the time he attended the Yalta Conference with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in February, 1945.

There’s no way of knowing if Roosevelt could have prevented the Cold War if he had been at his fullest faculties.

Roosevelt May Have Had Brain Tumor When He Met Stalin (Bloomberg)

FDR’s Deadly Secret at Amazon.com

Latvia sold a deserted town built around a Soviet-era radar station to a Russian investor who bid $3.1 million at an unusual auction yesterday, officials said.

The town formerly known as Skrunda-1 housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War. It was abandoned over a decade ago after the Russian military withdrew from Latvia following the Soviet collapse.

Built in the 1980s, Skrunda-1 was a secret settlement not marked on Soviet maps because of the two enormous radar installations that listened to objects in space and monitored the skies for a US nuclear missile attack.

Read more at: Soviet-era secret town in Latvia, now abandoned, sells for $3.1m at auction (Boston Globe)

The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included (Wired)

DARPA Wants to Override Evolution to Make Immortal Synthetic Organisms (Popular Science)

In January 1951, Mrs. Lacks was found to have cervical cancer. She agreed to treatment with radium at Johns Hopkins.  There was no stopping her cancer.  Her doctor had never seen anything like it. Within months, her  body was full of tumors. She died in excruciating pain that October.  She was 31 and the devoted mother to her five children, the youngest just a year old. Without their mother the children suffered terribly.

Neither Mrs. Lacks nor any of her relatives knew that doctors had given a sample of her tumor to Dr. George Gey, a Hopkins researcher who was trying to find cells that would live indefinitely in culture so researchers could experiment on them.  Before she came along, his efforts had failed.  Her cells changed everything: they multiplied like crazy and never died.

A cell line called HeLa (for Henrietta Lacks) was born.  Those immortal cells soon became the workhorse of laboratories everywhere.  HeLa cells were used to develop the first polio vaccine, they were launched into space for experiments in zero gravity and they helped produce drugs for numerous diseases, including Parkinson’s, leukemia and the flu. By now, literally tons of them have been produced.

Dr. Gey did not make money from the cells, but they were commercialized. Now they are bought and sold every day the world over, and they have generated millions in profits.

A Lasting Gift to Medicine That Wasn’t Really a Gift (NY Times)

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” at Amazon.com

The British Homeopathic Association has been accused of misrepresenting scientific evidence on alternative medicine in documents it gave to a parliamentary inquiry.

The organisation claimed several scientific reviews offered support for homeopathy in material submitted to the cross-party science and technology select committee, which is holding an investigation into the products. Robert Mathie, a researcher at the BHA, said the reviews found evidence for a difference between homeopathic remedies and sugar pills, which contain no active ingredients.

But the claim has dismayed some of the scientists who wrote the reviews and angered MPs on the committee who are in the final stages of writing their report.

One review cited was written by Edzard Ernst, a scientist who investigates complementary medicine at the Penisula Medical School in Exeter. He said the BHA’s interpretation of his study was “grossly misleading” because they failed to mention important caveats published in the study. Another review, by Jean-Pierre Boissel at the Hospitals of Lyon and University Claude Bernard in France, was quoted as evidence that homeopathic treatments differ to placebos. Boissel said his conclusion was that homeopathy tended to fare worse in the best-designed studies.

Read more at: Homeopathic society ‘misled’ MPs in inquiry (Guardian UK)

James Randi Makes Homeopathy Harder to Swallow

A secret Bush/Blair memo seems to have surfaced.  The memo purports to show that a deal was made in which Great Britain would support the United States in an all-out war on Iraq.  The real kicker is that the memo is dated a year before the start of the war in Iraq in 2003.

Ex-Prime Minister Blair has insisted, throughout the Iraq Inquiry, that there were no covert agreements made regarding the invasion of Iraq.

Memo ’shows Blair Iraq war deal with Bush’ (BBC)

Marci  and Jeff Beagley are charged with criminally negligent homicide in the June 2008 death of their son, Neil, from complications resulting from a urinary tract blockage that could have been treated.

The Beagleys are members of the Followers of Christ, an unorthodox offshoot of the Pentacostal Church, who believe in a literal interpretation of  The Bible including in the power of Faith Healing.

In the context of Pentecostal Christianity, Faith Healing is the use of prayer and laying on of hands to cure illness. Unlike many other churches which include faith healing as part of their doctrine, the Followers refuse all forms of medicine and professional medical care. The church practices shunning of those who violate or challenge church doctrine, including those who seek medical treatment.

In 1999 the Oregon Legislature pass a law to limit faith healing as a legal defense following a public outcry over the deaths of children of church members.

Oregon: Faith Healers Found Guilty (NY Times)

Ore. parents found guilty of neglecting ill son (Washington Times)

In South Carolina, if you are interested in overthrowing the US Government you need to register first.  The SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES REGISTRATION ACT is now a law in the State of South Carolina. The law says:

Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means, who resides, transacts any business or attempts to influence political action in this State, shall register with the Secretary of State on the forms and at the times prescribed by him.

and

Any organization or person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or by both fine and imprisonment.

Soon you might see the sign at the border reading, “All prospective terrorists must possess a permit”

Apply for your permit here (pdf)

Please submit in duplicate with $5 processing fee.

No joke: South Carolina now requires ’subversives’ to register (Rawstory.com)

Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent.

In many states, such as Florida, babies’ DNA is stored indefinitely.

Most parents don’t realize their baby’s DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents’ concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it’s appropriate for a baby’s genetic blueprint to be in the government’s possession.

The government has your baby’s DNA (CNN)

Diana Waletzko at the Citizens’ Council on Health Care Press Conference on Protecting Baby DNA.

The US Government is finally investing in the science of torture.  It seems that since the Revolutionary War we have always just adopted new torture technique without any knowledge of its actual effectiveness.  Soon we will have absolute scientific proof as to which torture methods provide the most information for the effort exerted.

They say that the research will be guided by the US Army Field Manual. This means that all torture techniques researched  must not be specifically listed in the manual. I think this comes down to: Create new techniques and you are free to use them until the public finds out.

Interrogators will do ‘research’, not torture (Sidney Morning Herald)

US doing ’scientific research’ to boost interrogations (AFP)