New deaths by county: 85 M Ballard, 75 F Boone, 52 M Boone, 67 M Boone, 70 M Boone, 72 M Boone, 74 M Boone, 86 F Bourbon, 79 F Bullitt, 88 F Daviess, 92 M Daviess, 58 F Fayette, 70 F Fayette, 80 F Fayette, 76 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 84 F Franklin, 94 F Franklin, 74 F Gallatin, 77 F Graves, 85 M Graves, 69 M Harlan, 75 M Hart, 38 M Jefferson, 59 M Jefferson, 76 M Jefferson, 97 F Kenton, 68 M Kenton, 69 M Kenton, 85 M Kenton, 97 M Kenton, 78 M Lawrence, 82 F Letcher, 85 F Letcher, 87 F Letcher, 96 F Letcher, 63 M Letcher, 66 M Letcher, 67 M Letcher, 89 F Metcalfe, 70 M Montgomery, 78 F Oldham, 39 M Oldham, 71 F Perry, 85 F Perry, 78 F Pike, 79 F Pike, 73 M Pike, 89 M Pike, 69 F Pulaski, 76 M Pulaski, 66 F Rockcastle, 70 M Russell, 80 M Shelby, 77 F Simpson, 67 M Taylor, 65 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne
Vaccine: I wanted to make sure we walked you through, again, the fact that certainly for the past four weeks, we are vaccinating more people than we get first doses for. In other words, we are already at the point where we have more capacity than we have supply. <...>Now, I want to give you one other piece of good news, you look down there and you see 401,264 Kentuckians that have had their first shot through one of either the state program, or the long term care program that the federal government contracted with Walgreens and CVS; but those aren't the only Kentuckians that are receiving doses from other places. The federal government is also providing doses to the Bureau of Prisons, to VAs, to Department of Defense workers. And today we got numbers that in addition to the 401,264 that have been vaccinated through the programs we've talked about, another 18,244 Kentuckians have been vaccinated according to the federal government. The vast majority of that of the 18,244 are from the VAs that have vaccinated almost 16,000 Kentuckians, so we appreciate that.
The first is in the Kentucky Convention Center. That is at 1 West River Center Boulevard in Covington. That's an exciting area, which as you can see here will begin Thursday, and run through Saturday, 10am, to 4pm.
Both sites open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, of this coming week, 10am to 4pm. The portals will go live around 5pm with rolling seven day appointments. You go to https://kroger.com/COVIDvaccine, or you call 866-211-5320. Appointments can also be reached by going through https://kycovid19.ky.gov and clicking on the vaccine bar.
The fourth and final new regional site this week is a partnership with TJ Regional Health. That's at the TJ Health Pavilion, 301 North L. Rogers Boulevard, Glasgow, Kentucky. Day and hours are still being determined, but Kentuckians should check on their website soon for more information their phone number is 270-659-1090.
Just one quick note first for claimants: if you were claiming benefits today and saw a strange thing in your claim that the week said “1996” and not “2021”, we know about the problem, we fixed that, we believe by mid-morning, we have no idea what caused it.
We got a question at last week's press conference about what to do, what is the IRS going to do if you don't have a corrected 1099? Again, we still encourage you to look at that as soon as you get it, so we can correct that for you. But the IRS has now announced if you do not have your corrected 1099-G by the time you need to file your taxes. Actually, don't file what's on the 1099G, file what you think is correct. We have that IRS bulletin on our website, on the KCC website under identity theft tips, so feel free to look at that and get some more information about what to do if you are in that situation. [...] So, please check those FAQs that we have out there for you. Of course we are happy to help you out on the email line, but most of the time is a simple misunderstanding.
We've sent an email out to over 68,000 claimants on Tuesday letting them know their claims are being denied, because we can't validate their IDs. <...>Now if you got that email and you are a real life claimant,<...> when you get your notice of determination please pay very careful attention to the appeal deadlines, in that document. You can appeal that determination of denial and give your ID validation at that time.
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and so you can email there and get those questions answered if you think you have that mass claim issue.
So please, we understand there is a lot of fraud out there, if you get one of those fraudulent filings, just like I did this past weekend, you can email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and we will make sure to mark that in the system as a fraudulent claim.
This is something you’re touched on quite a bit, really for a while now. So just wanted to get your thoughts on it again, we're seeing some efforts to limit executive powers for governors, just throughout the region, not only here in Kentucky but in Indiana and Ohio as well I believe. So, I just wanted to ask you again and hear your thoughts on what you see as the potential pitfalls of moving to a system that would require the legislative body to enact certain emergency restrictions. -- We are in an emergency, and in an emergency, you've got to move fast, you’ve got to be fluid, and you’ve got to adjust to battlefield conditions. And when you look at the losses we've sustained, we're fighting a war. We've almost lost 4,000 Kentuckians. And you never fight a war by committee, and we can't fight this one either.
Regarding the regional sites, and even non-regional sites, can you provide any information about any possible state efforts to help people who don't have access, maybe to transportation, and can't get to a location despite being eligible for a dose? Thanks so much. -- We'll have more information on that in the coming weeks, that involve mobile units that we're working on right now and that we hope will be launched in at least one location as early as next week. We’ve got local health departments that are already doing some of that.
Good evening everybody, or afternoon, Virginia. It is four o'clock on Thursday, it'll be the last time we get together this week and remember that we are going to get through this, and we are going to get through it together. I want to start the way we start, most of our days, by focusing on some good news. Remember it's easy to get down during these times the isolation or the change in our lives that has gone on longer than I think we thought that it would. It can hurt and damage our mental health; but one way that we ensure that we fight back against that is to make sure that we know about all the good things that are going on in our state, and in our world around us. So even in tough times, I want to put a spotlight on good news and today.
Let's start with an announcement we made earlier this week. It's a new partnership with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that's going to help us build a better Kentucky, one with a stronger post-COVID economy and good paying career opportunities for our state's residents. The new partnership is called the Discover Kentucky Initiative, and it will grow European company investment and jobs in our Commonwealth. This is how it works: many internationally based companies are interested in the US market, but they aren't ready to commit to building a factory, establishing an office, or setting up a sales operation. Team Kentucky, through its office in Hamburg, Germany, is often in touch with companies just like this. The Discover Kentucky Initiative will vet these inquiring companies and work with them in three ways to seed the ground for long term economic success. First, the Initiative will introduce Kentucky chamber-member businesses to these inquiring European companies. Second, it'll foster relationships with these European businesses through regular check in and assessments. It'll build a relationship, and will maintain Kentucky as a top-of-mind location for the time when each company is ready to invest in a US operation. And third, it'll ensure continuity of these relationships. Sometimes it may take more than just the tenure of one governor and we want to make sure that our efforts to bring in good jobs from Europe, in this instance, I want to make sure it lasts long after I'm gone. Through this partnership with the chamber, we are taking advantage of how the pandemic is changing business. Companies that may not have considered developing their products in the US, manufacturing or selling here, are now seeing the new value for global diversification. We know this works too. Economic development often hinges on relationships. That's why in any given year about three quarters of all the projects we announce are expansions of companies already in the Commonwealth. European companies today operate more than 220 facilities in Kentucky, employing more than 37,000 people full time. Those facilities often form the economic backbones of communities across Kentucky, and each of those successes starts with a relationship. We're hungry in Kentucky. We feel the urgency of improving our economy, our way of life, and what's out there for our children. I am a 43-year-old governor. I'm going to live in and work in the economy that I helped to create and/or improve as governor, and my kids are too. So that means doing everything we can, every day, through Team Kentucky, partnering with everybody who's out there that wants to generate these great opportunities. I want to get to the time when our kids look around at different places and they would say “Why would I leave, when the best opportunities in the United States are right here in Kentucky?”. I think that's possible and I'm committed to making it happen. I'd like to thank the chamber for its leadership board and member companies for working with Team Kentucky on the initiative. Together we're planting the seeds that are going to grow our post-COVID economy into something that we've always dreamed up.
We also have some good news today for Eastern Kentucky. I'm excited to announce an Appalachian Regional Commission Grant totaling more than $500,000 for Hazard Community and Technical College to expand their commercial driver's licensing (CDL) program. These funds will allow for six classes of CDL students at HCTC’s main campus, and six classes at the Leslie County Campus training 150 students a year. This expansion comes at a great time when the transportation and logistics industry is growing. We have seen its importance during COVID, and the demand for licensed commercial drivers is increasing in Eastern Kentucky. HCTC will use the funds to purchase two new trucks and trailers, program supplies, and provide salaries for one full time instructor, and for four adjunct instructors. Students at HCTC utility lineman program also benefit from the expansion because they must obtain a CDL license to graduate from their program. Thanks to this project, we're going to train more Kentuckians for jobs that are out there right now, that are in demand, that can pay good wages, and we can get more of our people to work right now. Congratulations to Hazard Community and Technical College on this exciting grant. And thank you to everybody who made it possible. Because of your work, eastern Kentuckians will have greater access to education and good jobs in their communities, both of which are top priorities for this administration.
Alright, let's move into our COVID report. Our COVID report continues to have good news in everything but our number of deaths, which continues to be high, difficult, and tragic.
Positive cases today: 2,500 - Let's start with positive trends. Today, we're announcing 2,500 new cases of COVID-19. And just to give you an idea of cases, when we look back about four weeks, so, today I said we have 2500 new cases, on January 11th, it was 4084. So again, a good trend.
That is a high number, but it is the lowest Thursday we've had in over four weeks. And if we stay on this track, we're gonna have fewer cases this week than we did last week, which will give us four straight weeks for the first time in this pandemic of declining cases. So cases are too high, but the trend is some of the best we have seen during the pandemic.
Probable cases: 798
Total confirmed cases: 372,012
Children Under 18: 432
We only have 104 red counties today who would have thought “with 120 counties would be excited about 104?” but that number is dropping, day after day after day.
Total tests conducted: 4,138,554 (PCR: 3,653,551, Serology: 108,691)
Positivity Rate: 8.37% - The lowest since December, 28, meaning the lowest in over a month.
Total hospitalized: 17,170
Generally, hospitalization numbers are all within the realm where we have sufficient capacity, and that's good news, it means that we can take care of those that need our help.
Currently hospitalized: 1,340
Total in ICU: 3,639
Currently in ICU: 368
On a ventilator: 171
Total recovered: 44,394
New deaths today: 58 - But then there's our, our tough news, in that today we're announcing 58 new deaths where COVID-19 was a contributing factor. This is one of the higher numbers that we have had. If there is any positive in these death numbers, it's that a smaller and smaller percentage of them are residents in long term care. Of today's 58 only 18 were in long term care which when you think about we used to be at 66% of all fatalities being in long term care, shows you that our prioritization of individuals in long term care for vaccination is working, and it's saving lives; but we are still losing far too many. And I hope this reminds everybody of how dangerous this virus is. Mask up, protect one another, protect yourself and your family. Follow the rules and the regulations. We don't want to lose 58 people on any given day and now we're 3,921 deaths since the start of this pandemic. We just memorialized our 3,000th death, not long ago, by planting flags out here at the Capitol. And we add to that every day. Going from 3000 to 4000 so quickly is a trend that we have to stop. We certainly need to slow it down, and each and every one of you can help by doing your part.
Total Deaths: 3,921
New deaths by county: 85 M Ballard, 75 F Boone, 52 M Boone, 67 M Boone, 70 M Boone, 72 M Boone, 74 M Boone, 86 F Bourbon, 79 F Bullitt, 88 F Daviess, 92 M Daviess, 58 F Fayette, 70 F Fayette, 80 F Fayette, 76 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 84 F Franklin, 94 F Franklin, 74 F Gallatin, 77 F Graves, 85 M Graves, 69 M Harlan, 75 M Hart, 38 M Jefferson, 59 M Jefferson, 76 M Jefferson, 97 F Kenton, 68 M Kenton, 69 M Kenton, 85 M Kenton, 97 M Kenton, 78 M Lawrence, 82 F Letcher, 85 F Letcher, 87 F Letcher, 96 F Letcher, 63 M Letcher, 66 M Letcher, 67 M Letcher, 89 F Metcalfe, 70 M Montgomery, 78 F Oldham, 39 M Oldham, 71 F Perry, 85 F Perry, 78 F Pike, 79 F Pike, 73 M Pike, 89 M Pike, 69 F Pulaski, 76 M Pulaski, 66 F Rockcastle, 70 M Russell, 80 M Shelby, 77 F Simpson, 67 M Taylor, 65 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne
So let's remember each one of those entries I read is a person. Loved by their family, missed by their community, maybe their congregation. Somebody who was so important, that was loved, and that we will miss.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 85% White, 8.5% Black, 5% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 94.3% Non-Hispanic, 5.7% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 88% White, 8.6% Black, 2.7% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98.1% Non-Hispanic, 1.9% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 24 new residents and 20 new staff positive from yesterday, and 2 more deaths. These numbers are- and their daily amounts are changing really significantly, which I think is a ray of hope in what are otherwise, really tragic difficult numbers of deaths that were seeing each day.
Today, we're specifically honoring the life of Tommie Speagle of Waco, Kentucky, who was 96. She passed away on Saturday after battling COVID-19. We received a touching tribute from her daughter, her caregiver in her later years, sharing how she was the most wonderful mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. She lived a full life of adventure living across the country from family members, until she met her first husband Newell Edward Bridewell, who passed away from cancer in 1981. Following that loss, she fell in love again with John Spiegel. She overcame challenges in life, such as a speech impediment that halted her education, yet went on to have a great career, and was an avid reader and poem writer. She was also very active in her church, Rice Station Christian in Irvine. Today, our prayers are with her daughter Beverley Morefield, her two sons, Paul Bridewell and William Bridewell, her stepdaughter Sandy Curl, her stepson JC Spiegel, 6 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. A Wonderful Life and while I’m sure it was a full life, It's not okay that it was cut short by COVID-19. This was someone with a big, large, wonderful family, and it’s really hurting today, and it's been hurting since her passing. So let's think about them, let's think about her. And let's make sure we mask up for one another.
Alright, let's get on to what I believe is other good news, and that's our vaccination efforts. I wanted to make sure we walked you through, again, the fact that certainly for the past four weeks, we are vaccinating more people than we get first doses for. In other words, we are already at the point where we have more capacity than we have supply. And the reason that so many out there can't get appointments is just a matter of supply. This shows that we're filling every appointment that we can possibly put a vaccine in someone's arm for. And I want to show you, if you get on these every day, there's always going to be one day, where you see the most doses available and one day where you see the least, and here's the reason: We get our shipments on Monday and they become available for vaccination on Tuesday, and they come in a lump sum. So all the new supply for a week goes in on Tuesday and obviously can't vaccinate everybody immediately for that supply. And as you go through the week, you know, we end up burning through that full supply. And I want to show you this today because, with the new amount that we got this week 68,475, we've already gone through 42% of it in two and a half days, because this report cuts off at about noon. So this is just Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday. So again, we have the capability, we’re getting it out within a week; in fact we're doing more, we're making up for some extra that we had from earlier weeks as we ramped up, the issue here is supply. Now, I want to give you one other piece of good news, you look down there and you see 401,264 Kentuckians that have had their first shot through one of either the state program, or the long term care program that the federal government contracted with Walgreens and CVS; but those aren't the only Kentuckians that are receiving doses from other places. The federal government is also providing doses to the Bureau of Prisons, to VAs, to Department of Defense workers. And today we got numbers that in addition to the 401,264 that have been vaccinated through the programs we've talked about, another 18,244 Kentuckians have been vaccinated according to the federal government. The vast majority of that of the 18,244 are from the VAs that have vaccinated almost 16,000 Kentuckians, so we appreciate that. So when you, when you add it in word about 419,500, just a little over that, Kentuckians that have had at least their first dose. We are really close to 10% of our total population that has been vaccinated and certainly when you remove 18 and under or 16 and under that can't be vaccinated, you know that's about a million people, so the numbers are better there. But again, everything we're getting, we're getting in people's arms. We're also working to be intentional, knowing that we need an equitable rollout of this vaccine but that also there is real hesitancy out there. We're not being impacted right now by that hesitancy in scheduling appointments. But if we want to get to immunity, and if we want to make sure underserved populations and other groups are getting vaccinated at the rate that they should, that that other populations are, we know we have to be addressing this on the front end. And that's why we do some programs where people who are trusted by their communities are asked to take the vaccine so that they can be a real life example, and to share with their community, that this is safe. So, during this last week we've had two separate times where we've had faith leaders that have come to Frankfort, that have been vaccinated, and that are sharing their stories with their flocks, talking about the safety of it. It's been a special experience, they helped us plant the flags today to honor the newly lost, but to see people who have also dedicated their lives to service stepping up and wanting to show people that it's safe. James put together a short video, let's give it a look, I hope you enjoy it.
Video: Hi, I'm Barbara Hager, the pastor of Broadway Temple and Design Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I’m Bishop John Stowe and the Catholic Diocese of Lexington. Hello, I'm Bernetta Cosby from St. Stephen Baptist Church. Rabbi-Shlomo Litvin, Chabad of the Bluegrass. Hi my name is Philip Lotspeich I'm with the Presbyterian Church USA, I just got my first vaccine shot. Hey ya’ll, I did it, I just got my shot. I think you should too. I just received my vaccination for COVID-19 and hope all of our faithful will do the same. I just got my vaccination and I'm encouraging everyone to get theirs, whenever possible. I just received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine, and I'm encouraging each of you to do the same, so that we can protect one another, and our communities. Trust is an integral part of the medical process, and today, we're working with the governor to inspire that trust in the community. So I got my vaccine, I hope you get yours, and trust the process, believe in your community together and we can get through this. This promotes the common good and helps us to promote a healthier Kentucky. And I encourage everybody to go out and get it as soon as it's offered to you, because that's our way to get back at serving God, in the way that we want to. Governor Beshear has done a wonderful job in leading our community to think about each other. He has personalized losses that our state has experienced through COVID, and is trying to keep us on one team and one place as one community to make our state, our Commonwealth, more healthy, and to overcome this terrible challenge. You guys, we're almost through this pandemic, but we have to stay vigilant, the pandemic is still on the rise. Please wear your mask, social distance, stay safe out there. Be sure to mask up Kentucky.
It was exciting, and moving and having over the course of those two events, 50 different faith leaders that together reach hundreds of 1000s of people, was truly special. This is also something that came out of community conversations that we had, about how to build trust and how we can build trust, especially in communities that we need to reach, and that in the past haven't been treated right in vaccination efforts. And if I can, when a video is playing, is the one time I actually get to watch Virginia. You do an amazing job in conveying the emotion, and I know that's why Kentucky loves you so much.
Alright, in other good news, we continue to fill out our map on regional and local vaccination sites. I want to show you the map as we announced it last Thursday, which shows you some of the larger sites.
But after I'm done announcing the new regional centers, Dr Stack is going to talk to you about the local health department program. And when you overlay that here's what it looks like. As you can see, the map is filling up. And each one of those red pins is a local health department that has brick and mortar places in every county in their region. This is going to provide vaccine all over Kentucky. There will be limited numbers depending on the size of the entity that's getting it. But I hope that you see, we're building this airplane as we're flying it, the airplane is starting to look really good, and our efficiency of the airplane is already over 100%. But this, when you look at it, this is the structure we've got to have for the amount of supply that we want. If we were just happy having a structure that they could administer the amount of supply we had right now, shame on us for not working to be ready for that moment when we can get hundreds of 1000s of vaccines to get out to Kentuckians. Our goal is to be able to far exceed what we think we can do today, which is about 250,000 vaccines a week-- to get that number significantly up to where if they gave us enough vaccine for our entire population, our hope is that we could do it in a matter of weeks. That would be the greatest problem that we could ever ask for.
I've only been playing D&D since the beginning of September, and I ran my first session as a DM on Dec. 15th. My second session on the 22nd was a total disaster because of one player who is also an old and close friend of mine.
Names changed to preserve confidentiality. I've been aware of D&D for years, through satire and parodies and just pop culture in general. But when you live in Bumfuck, USA you're never really sure if you can find people to play or not. On a whim, I suggested to my circle of friends that we should try playing D&D back in early August, and to my surprise, they were all down. My friend Gage had even already been playing the game for two years, and so offered to DM for us. He turned out to be a good DM, whipping up a politically-charged homebrew setting, the first session of which took place on September 2nd, 2020. During which I decided to play a Tabaxi Wild Magic Sorc who was a former slave. We were all brand new players though, so at the time it was a bit of a clusterfuck as we weren't really sure how to play our characters in combat. One player stopped enjoying it and left. But my friend Jackson (another total newbie at the time) came in to replace him, and it was relatively smooth sailing from there as we learned and grew. Gage and I also joined another campaign, the DM of whom was a friend of someone I knew on the Destroy All Humans! official discord server. At first, this campaign was really enjoyable, but after I think only 3 sessions it went downhill. The DM would hold Session Zero last minute, he was always too focused on playing by the rules and following advice from very specific YouTube experts, and his pacing was... strangely bad, almost as if he was abandoning ideas as we were playing them. For example, the party ended up playing a magical instrument that teleported to a strange, otherworldly desert of black sand with shrieking volcanoes and oily black worms with porcelain doll heads. The dead were this world's living, and we were perceived as undead. So we picked a direction to avoid coming across any cities trying to find a necromancer, found a city anyway, and ended up getting sent back to our home realm all in the time it took Gage to get a snack. This DM's PC was also starting to suffer frequent bluescreens, so our sessions ended up going on hiatus quite frequently. Then one day he just decided to abandon this campaign we invested in, and held a sudden Session Zero for some sort of Mad Max meets Water World meets Final Fantasy campaign he'd sprung on us. A few players were... understandably upset. I myself even commissioned art of my Leonin Barbarian because I loved the character that much. For those weeks this guy's campaign was floundering like a dying fish, my creative juices would be flowing. I'd even lay awake at night, mind like a buzzing hive of angry hornets as idea-after-idea came to me. So I began to write them down. Thus, in late October, I began to work on my own homebrew campaign setting in earnest. I didn't tell any of my friends at first, simply because it was an intimidating endeavor and I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit yet. Right about the time AC Valhalla came out, I spent time in between playing that watching very helpful videos from one Mark "Sherlock" Hulmes, the DM for Yogscast's D&D Twitch stream High Rollers DnD, whom I'd found and begun watching through their fantastic Aerois campaign shortly after Gage's campaign with us started. Taking his advice to heart, as well as looking at what did and did not work from previous campaigns I'd played, I'd finally crafted something I was confident people would enjoy playing in. I took my role as DM quite seriously as well, investing in resources like Inkarnate to make maps, as well as multiple sets of dice, and setting up a virtual tabletop in the form of a discord server, given there was a plague choking the world and Gage lived in a completely different state. I even homebrewed two specific races unique to the setting, the Hynde (anthro deer people) and the Luciprine (anthro wolf people). So I finally announced that I was going to run my own RP-based D&D campaign, set in my homebrewed world of Vysterion. Gage, Jackson, and my other friend Tasha were immediately keen. James, the best friend of the DM whose campaign didn't work out, also wanted in, especially as he was also miffed about the one campaign put on indefinite hiatus after only 3 sessions. Finally, we got our last player in the form of a nice chap from the UK, England specifically, who had never played himself before but happened to be a High Rollers fan like myself.
Jackson decided to go with a stealthy Lupricine Armorer Artificer named Stjernesjel. (Literally 'Star soul' in Norwegian.)
James went a step beyond and asked me if he could play a cervetaur (literally a deer centaur). There are no words to describe how 'yes' I was for this idea, and he named her Kaseda.
Gage decided to play as a Githyanki Pirate, Swashbuckler Rogue named Ri'a'san.
Tasha went with a High Elf of the Moon Elf variety named Nyana.
My nice UK player chappy, Luke, decided to play as a tiefling rogue of the Inquisitive variety, named Shadow.
Session 1 began with the party aboard a ship of pirates, The Moonscythe, chartering cheap passage to the city-state of Setruna, built entirely across an entire archipelago of large islands connected by bridges. The ship they were aboard captained by a Githyanki named Vessik De'Shan. (Imagine Jack Sparrow as a Githyanki. Also, yes, this NPC was very popular, lol. I even watched the entire movie saga just to get his mannerisms and voice right!) Half of Vessik's crew stole a smaller ship and rammed it into The Moonscythe, damaging the hull and ensuring the ship couldn't move, before engaging in a mutiny that my players staved off quite well. They had a lot of fun with this, particularly because of Githyanki Jack Sparrow. Afterward, they landed in Setruna and set out toward small goals. The only problem player at this point was Jackson, who didn't even have his character sheet up on D&D Beyond when I needed him to make checks. The frustrating thing with him is (brutal honesty here) he's a pothead who is obsessed with wolves and Dragon Ball, and even though he had weeks in advance to do so it was clear he didn't read any of the house rules, setting lore, or racial background info for his character. Where everyone else was familiar with the setting, their characters, abilities, and such, he was struggling, constantly having to stop and look stuff up. He later straight up told me that reading a lot 'gave him a headache.' (Disclaimer: I don't mind him smoking recreationally at all, but it does very noticeably change his behavior and mannerisms. For the worst, most of the time.) It was clear he was still in a video game mindset because he also wanted to go up to a guard and try to bribe him 1k gp and then promise him another 15k gp. The rest of us were flabbergasted. I asked him if he even had 1k gp on him, which was when we found out he didn't even have his character sheet up. Once he got it open? He only had 20 gp from his Urban Bounty Hunter background and choice of Wealthy Lifestyle. Plus he hit me up a couple of days later, having learned about the Wish spell (which artificers will never even get unless they find a scroll and are of the appropriate level to use it) and started making up hypotheticals trying to metagame and find cheap ways to cheese any and every situation, so I made sure to make him aware of the balancing for Wish and that there was a chance that he'd never be able to cast it again even if he could cast it. When I asked him if he understood he said 'Yeah... The DM controls everything and it's impossible to win against the DM...' And I was just like "No, no no no no no no NO. Dude, the game isn't about 'beating the DM.' You're not playing a COD match against me specifically. It's a ROLE-PLAYING game. ROLE PLAY! The point is not to just win my encounters by any means necessary, as DM I create a world and I bind it by rules. Those rules apply to ALL of us, the DM included. NPCs, monsters, and even the BBEG are bound by the exact same rules you are. I make the same rolls for them you make for your character. It is balanced that way to be fun for everyone." I also made certain to explain to him to try not to metagame but to treat it like he's actually his character in this world as if he were acting. "You're not Johnny Depp, you're Jack Sparrow. Jack Sparrow doesn't know what hit points and d20s and spell slots are, neither would your character, right?" Aside from Jackson being a half-baked doofus though, everyone genuinely had fun and I didn't have any complaints! Gage even complimented me on my pacing, worldbuilding, and NPCs, which honestly floored me as I wasn't expecting it to go so well. I became more confident in my ability to DM, but I also kept myself grounded in reality for the inevitability of screwing up at least once. I was not ready for how bad Session 2 went. Jackson got high just before the session, breaking one of my Session Zero rules to be clear-headed for the game. (That's six hours max a day, one day a week. It really isn't a big ask, I want my players present at the table and capable of saying their own name.) He frequently interrupted other players' roleplay, basically tried to force scenarios on me in character that made zero sense, waffled on and ruined the pacing, he would over-explain what he wanted to do and be completely redundant ("I want to walk up and talk to him. That's all I wanna do, just walk up and talk to him. Okay? I juuust wanna talk to him. That's it. I just want to talk to him."). He would refer to characters like Ardyn from FFXV just to explain how his character bows and tips his hat, he drew comparative analysis to everything I described (he even tried comparing a warforged to a plant-type Pokemon!), and he was frequently glory-hounding, trying to interject his character in every other character's moments, even if he was miles away from them. James had to leave early during Session 1, so I intended to start Session 2 off by catching up his character. Kaseda, his cervetaur girl, went to the Grand Temple to seek counsel on the issue of a blight ravaging her hermitage. The high priestess had her imbibe a strong incense which gave her a vision of my world's goddess of the earth. In describing the setting of the vision, literally an idyllic meadow glade with a pond, he derailed the scene to compare it to 'Hircine's Hunting Grounds from Skyrim.' To which I replied 'not even close,' and then immediately got the reply "Oh yeah, no, so it's like Fenrir's hunting grounds in Norse mythology?" ... I was just like "...Yeah, sure." If only to placate him and keep the scene moving. What should have only taken 20 minutes took up an hour, because of constant interruptions. Not to mention the abject confusion he caused. While investigating the site of a large explosion, he asked the lead investigator what the guards whose remains were at the blast site were doing there, as if she was omniscient and would know. So I invented a magitek crystal that acts like a two-way radio on the spot and had her contact the Captain of the Guard, who revealed the guard patrol reported in about a 'strange metal man' (a Warforged). So, in character (or I think he was at least), he mentions that he thinks this explosion may have had something to do with his character's brother (whom it had been established in Session 1 was captured and currently in the custody of a guild of self-righteous anti-thief zealots). The NPC became confused and asked him if his brother was made of metal, after which he clarified that he thought whoever caused the explosion might be trying to get away with his brother right then and there... James' character Kaseda finally got the pacing back on track by passing an investigation check and finding a trail to follow. Only then to have Jackson want to go back to the crater and look for more clues, despite the fact they all literally had a trail to follow now. Upon following the trail, they found a portal, which Jackson's character wanted to travel all the way back across town just to report it to the lead investigator. I intended for the session to last six hours maximum, as Luke is from the UK and is 5 hours ahead of the rest of us. His constant nonsense dragged the session out to eight and a half hours, and all but one other player got frustrated and left before I could give out XP at the end. I also caught him cheating. He frequently told me he had a +6 in multiple skills. The highest number he had across all skills was at most a 4, and that was with proficiency. He told me he had a +6 in persuasion, when I checked his character sheet on D&D Beyond persuasion was only a +2. He never rolled any lower than a 15 either, and probably got at least 6 nat 20s... By the time the session ended, the player who was left besides him (Gage) pulled me aside to basically just vent, and I had to send apologies to the rest. Needless to say, he got a big talking to afterward, and I filled up an entirely new server channel full of rules addressing ALL of that. Funnily enough, the thing that really broke me and made me straight up confront him? A day after the session, he called me on messenger and told me that he wanted me to just make up an NPC who was irrationally afraid of his character just so he could make an easy intimidation check so his character could find his missing wife. (Which is literally his character's entire goal for the campaign.) I decided to enforce my no-mind-altering-substances rule, and he insisted that he be able to smoke weed, that it didn't make him high, and that CBD made him puke. When I wouldn't relent, he ragequit the game after trying to guilt trip and manipulate me into letting him get high. On the bright side, we immediately filled his player slot within an hour, and he did call me after the session and apologize to me. And I'm pleased to report the third time is in fact the charm! With my problem player... err, problem, sorted out, the other players had a lot of fun, and I as a DM had fun as well! Session 3 went damn-near flawlessly, as a matter of fact! So my confidence is certainly back. I decided to keep Jackson's Lupricine character Stjernesjel around as an NPC, played off the events of Session 2 as him getting drunk of his ass on wine, and took a much more serious tone with the character to set up for some potentially cool stuff in the future. Gage's Githyanki pirate started getting ready to get his own ship to ferry the rest of the players around on. We introduced our new player's (we'll call him John) character, a changeling wizard who's a bit of a quirky chef. (He would literally just offer everyone he met an omelet and a cabbage.) Tasha's Moon Elf Paladin and James' cervetaur druid Kaseda teamed up to help rescue the high priestess from the same guild that had Stjernesjel's brother. The entire party worked to save the brother, before then working with said brother to plan a heist on the city-state's treasury to recover artifacts and gold stolen from the priestess. During the rescue mission, the party found an evil-looking book wrapped in chains in the problem guild's HQ. Gage's Gith pirate tried to lockpick the lock securing the chain, only for the heat the book was radiating to turn the pick molten in his hand. He then found a scroll of Protection from Evil and Good before then reattempting to unlock the book, and succeeding. That released some form of evil power into the world, so that was fun. Cackles in DM They found the anthro wolf brother in the torture chamber, having his memories drained out of his mind through his eyes (blinding him in the process) by a scary magitek machine and stored in a huge crystal ball. After rescuing the brother and priestess, Gage's pirate decided to deny this guild the memories of the poor wolfman, and so opted to shatter it... Which destabilized and cause it to build up to an explosion. It was pretty clutch as the base exploded as they crossed the rope bridge connecting the karst the base was built into to one of the archipelago's main islands. They got lucky, caught the bridge ropes and swung on them Indiana-Jones style to safety before climbing up the island's cliff face and then GTFOing to a place that didn't just 'splode bigly, with even the old priestess NPC making a good roll or two and getting in on the adventurous shenanigans. And there you have it; the story of how my best friend's emotional addiction to pot caused him to ruin my second ever session of D&D as a DM. Fortunately, this one at least had a happy enough ending, and there are no lingering grudges or ill will. Definitely not a bad way to transition into 2021, I'm taking that as a good sign. Happy New Year RPGers! <3
[OC] The NFL was formally created on this day 100 years ago. Held in a car showroom, the meeting saw a team get "kicked out", the Cardinals get mistaken as being from Wisconsin, a $100 membership fee that nobody actually paid, and the introduction of a trophy that has since gone missing.
As discussed in the last post, Ralph Hay of the Ohio League's Canton Bulldogs knew things had to change to save pro football. For much of its early history, pro football was seen as nothing more an an inferior counterpart to the college game, one that was plagued by bidding wars that drove teams out of business, the use of college players under fake names to avoid the wrath of schools, and players being paid to jump ship to other clubs for one game.[1] The lack of a true national league also meant virtually anyone could claim the "national championship" as long as they won their regional league. With associations in the Midwest and New York breathing down their neck, the Ohio League was in a very precarious position. As such, many teams in Ohio (and elsewhere) felt a unified organization would put an end to the turmoil, though Hay would be the one to actually go forward with the plan.[2] On August 20, Hay and his franchise face Jim Thorpe met with Frank Nied and Art Ranney (Akron Indians/Pros), Jimmy O'Donnell and Stanley Cofall (Cleveland Tigers), and Carl Storck (Dayton Triangles) in one of his car dealerships to form the American Professional Football Conference. Although some football historians describe this as a "preliminary meeting" that would lead to the NFL, the Professional Football Researchers Association argues this conference can be considered a league itself.[3] At the meeting, the four parties agreed to create uniform schedules, stop the spending wars for players and "borrowing" other teams' players for one game, and especially put an end to the use of ringers. This was fine and dandy, but there was a bit of a problem: the rules agreed upon were only between the four teams and did not include the rest of the Ohio League, meaning the others were not bound by the rules and could still do what they wanted. Furthermore, a number of the Ohio League teams weren't exactly fit for the mold that the APFC had in mind.[1] Hay, who was elected temporary secretary, was tasked with setting out for potential suitors to join the new league.[1]
Getting Guys
Before the August 20 meeting, Hay had received letters from three clubs who wanted to play the Bulldogs. Although the identities of the teams are unknown, one could make reasonable inferences based on where the mail came from. One letter came from Rochester, New York. Although the city had its share of football teams, only Leo Lyons' Rochester Jeffersons were competitive enough to even consider taking on the Bulldogs.[3] Another was from Buffalo, New York. While a reading of the 1920 APFA team list suggests it might be the Buffalo All-Americans, they were newly created for the 1920 season and it's hard to tell if they would truly challenge a powerhouse in their first season. On the other hand, the Bulldogs and All-Americans were set to play each other later that year.[3] The third came from a "Hammond team", likely referring to the Hammond Pros in Indiana. Although there were also the Hammond Bobcats, they were actually located in Chicago and played at Cubs Park (now Wrigley Field); the Chicago Tigers are considered the successor to the Bobcats. With this in mind, the PFRA speculated the Tigers might be the sender from Hammond, but then again, "Hammond is not the same city as Chicago."[3] As the seasons changed from summer to fall, Hay and Thorpe turned their attention to Massillon, where the Tigers were a powerhouse but struggled financially. Cofall previously ran the team before bailing in favor of Cleveland; Hay asked steelworker F.J. Griffiths to save the dying club but he turned it down.[3] With options running out, Hay decided to go on the offensive and reached out to George Halas, a 25-year-old working at the A.E. Staley starch company in Decatur. The company's football team had gone 9–1 in 1919 on the independent circuit before Halas' arrival (more on that team was covered by me during their 100th anniversary last year at /CHIBears). Incidentally, Halas had signed Guy Chamberlin, a former Bulldog, to play for Decatur.[3]
The Meeting
On September 17, 1920, the stage was set at Hay's Hupmobile dealership in downtown Canton; although he was uncertain as to the number of people showing up, his office was too small to accommodate everyone.[1] As with the August meeting, Hay and Thorpe, Nied and Ranney, O'Donnell and Cofall, and Storck were present; Bulldogs secretary/treasurer Lester Higgins, who was Hay's brother-in-law, was also in attendance. The others arrived by train: Lyons of the Jeffersons, Dr. Alva Young of the Pros, Halas and Morgan O'Brien of the Staleys, Walter Flanigan of the Rock Island Independents, Earl Ball of the Muncie Flyers, and Chris O'Brien of the Racine Cardinals. Together, the group led ten teams.[3] The September 16 issue of The Rock Island Argus had the following to say: "Manager Walter Flanigan left last night for Canton, Ohio, to attend the annual conference of major professional football teams, whose representatives assemble every year to plan the campaign for the world's championship."[4] "The showroom, big enough for four cars-Hupmobiles and Jordans-occupied the ground floor of the three-story Odd Fellows building," Halas wrote in his autobiography. "Chairs were few. I sat on a running board."[1] Due to the heat, Hay placed buckets of beer next to the cars, free of charge for all to consume.[3] "Had the police shown up and arrested everyone for violation of the Prohibition Law, the whole future of professional football might have been changed," remarked the PFRA.[3]
Let's Get Down to Business
After some casual chatter, the meeting formally began at 8:15 PM. Ranney took to the typewriter to write the minutes (text version available below).[1] However, there is a glaring mistake in the write-up: Ranney assumed the Cardinals—more popularly known as the Chicago Cardinals—were from Racine, Wisconsin and wrote them as such. As a result, the wording in the minutes seems to suggest there was also an unknown Wisconsin team present at the meeting.[3] The first order of business surrounded the Massillon Tigers. Vernon "Mac" Maginnis, the former manager of the Akron Indians, wanted to start a traveling team under the Tiger name and sent a representative to the meeting. Ranney and Nied, who were not on the friendliest terms with Maginnis, quickly shot down the plan and barred the rep from attending, though the Tigers were still officially listed as present in the minutes. Hay took over as the Tigers' "rep" and "withdrew" them from the league.[3] With that out of the way, next topic was the league name, which was changed to the American Professional Football Association. A particular reason for the change was never specified, but NFL Films Research Library head Chris Willis speculated the word "association" suggests a looser coalition of teams than "league", meaning less of a commitment to the organization.[1] Considering the rocky waters that the APFA/NFL had to navigate in its early history with many teams joining and exiting and forming and folding, it wasn't an unreasonable name change. The now-APFA's third subject was about the presidency. Many of those at the meeting urged Hay to take over, but he hesitated as he felt the best way for the league to catch attention would be to install someone with name recognition. Of course, who better than Jim Thorpe? While Thorpe was never much of a businessman, everyone expected Hay to be the one ultimately making the decisions anyway.[1] Cofall was named vice president, Ranney became secretary/treasurer, and Young was appointed chairman. Flanigan, Storck, and Cofall were tasked with drafting a constitution for the APFA, including preparing a full list of players who would play the upcoming season. For rules, the APFA decided to just stick with the college rulebook.[3] Next on the list was charging a $100 membership fee. Well, nobody actually handed any cash over. As Halas recalled, "I can testify no money changed hands. I doubt if there was a hundred bucks in the whole room. We just wanted to give our new organization a façade of financial stability."[1] As the meeting came to an end, a man named Mr. Marshall from the Brunswick-Balke Collender Company's tire division provided a "silver loving cup" that would serve as the league's first trophy.[3] Known as the Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup, it was intended to be a traveling trophy that changed hands with each new champion. The minutes noted the title-winning team would be "awarded the championship by the Association" (which took a page from the Ohio League as league champions were determined by vote between the owners rather than standings), while any team that won it three times would be allowed to permanently keep it.[3] Nobody would actually be able to claim ownership of the Cup as it went missing after just one season and has yet to be found in the century since. The trophy was last documented at the league owners' meeting in Akron on April 30, 1921, where Nied and Ranney were presented with it for winning the 1920 championship. Since the minutes noted they adjourned by heading out for dinner, it is possible that Nied and Ranney simply forgot to bring the trophy with them and never bothered to come back for it.[5] "At this point, the chances are not very good that anyone will ever find it," said former Pro Football Hall of Fame executive director Joe Horrigan.[5] And just like that, there was now a national football league... ish. Curiously, the meeting's minutes do not address the reasons why the league was formed in the first place: the bidding wars, college ringers, and team jumping. However, local newspapers suggested the teams agreed to halt the practices under an honor code.[3]
Minutes
Below is a transcription of the meeting's minutes:[10]
Meeting called to order at 8:15 P.M., by chairman, Mr. Hay. Teams represented were Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, Dayton Triangles, Akron Professionals, Massillon Tigers, Rochester, N.Y., Rock Island, Ill., Muncie, Ind., Staley A.C., Decatur, Ill., Racine Cardinals, Wisconsin, and Hammond, Ind. Minutes of previous meeting were given in a resume by the Chairman.
OLD BUSINESS
Massillon withdrew from professional football for the season of 1920.
NEW BUSINESS
It was moved and seconded that a permanent organization be formed to be known as American Professional Football Association. Motion carried. Moved and seconded that officers be now elected, consisting of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Carried. Mr. Jim Thorpe was unanimously elected President, Mr. Stan Cofall, Vice President, and Mr. A.F. Ranney, Secretary and Treasurer. Moved and Seconded that a fee of $100.00 be charged for membership in the Association. Carried. Moved and seconded that the President appoint a committee to work in conjunction with a lawyer to draft a constitution, by laws and rules for the Association. Carried. Mr. Thorpe appointed A.A. Young of Hammond, Chairman, and Messrs. Cofall, Flannigan, and Storck associates. Moved and seconded that all clubs mail to the Secretary by January 1, 1921, a list of all players used by them this season, the Secretary to furnish all clubs with duplicate copy of same, so that each club would have first choice in services for 1921 of his team of this season. Carried. Moved and seconded that all members have printed upon their stationery, "Member of American Professional Football Association." Carried. Mr. Marshall of the Brunswick-Dalke Collender Company, Tire Division, presented a silver loving cup to be given the team awarded the championship by the Association. Any team winning the cup three times should be adjudged the owner. It was moved and seconded that a vote of thanks be extended by the secretary to Mr. Marshall. The meeting was adjourned. Next meeting to be called by the President sometime in January.
Media Coverage
Speaking of newspapers, media coverage of the meeting was fairly tame, with the story never being headline news. The Ohio State Journal wrote:[1]
Jim Thorpe, leader of the Canton Bulldogs, was chosen to head the American Professional Football Association, the only professional football organization in existence. Representatives of 11 cities [including Massillon] assembled and unanimously voted Thorpe to the presidency, with Stanley Cofall of Cleveland as vice-president, and Art Ranney of Akron, for secretary and treasurer. A decision was reached to refrain from luring players out of college for the professional game.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner also focused on Thorpe:[6]
Jim Thorpe, famous Indian football player and coach of the Canton Bull Dogs, a local professional team, has been unanimously chosen head of the American Professional Football Association, the only professional football association in the country, according to an announcement here today.
The Times in Munster, Indiana:[7]
Dr. A. A. Young, part owner and manager of the Hammond professional football team, which was beaten last year after a desperate fight by only 3 points by Jim Thorpe's Canton Tigers returned today from Canton, O., where professional football was put on a solid basis and an eleven team circuit organized which will foster professional football as a sport. Jim Thorpe, of Canton,w as elected president of the league, which is to be known as the American Professional Football Association.
The Decatur Herald described the APFA as a "strong organization",[8] while the Muncie Evening Press wrote the the "American Association of Professional Football" will "attempt to do for professional football what the national commission has done for organized baseball."[9]
Aftermath
The Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Detroit Heralds, and Columbus Panhandles would join the APFA prior to the season's start. Although the first game involving an APFA team took place on September 26 (the Independents shut out the St. Paul Ideals 48–0), the first between APFA teams was on October 3 as the Triangles beat the Panhandles 14–0 and the Independents blew out the Flyers 45–0.[1] Akron would win the inaugural APFA championship, and the league renamed itself the National Football League in 1922. Thorpe only lasted one year as president before Joe F. Carr took over.[2] Hay's Bulldogs would win the 1922 title before he had to sell the team as it was bleeding money (much of which was from from his car businesses); Canton would win it all again the following year to become the first back-to-back champion before folding after 1926.[3] When he passed away in 1983, Halas was the last living member of the meeting.[11] Hay died in 1944, though his status as one of the NFL's pioneers has mostly been forgotten.[2] Although the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton, he has not been enshrined in the Hall itself. "One of the issues is he owned the Canton Bulldogs for a short period of time, only four seasons," Horrigan explained.[11] "He also didn't sign Jim Thorpe. When he bought the team, Thorpe was already there. So his real contribution to the game was trying to organize a league, which was really serving the interest of the teams of the day, but he had a very, very profound contribution in calling that meeting." Still, Hay's impact remains to this day. He has been recognized by the city of Canton in various ways that include a plaque and statue at the Frank T. Bow Federal Building (where the Hupmobile dealership was located). A portion of Second Street, which the dealership was on, was renamed Ralph Hay Way.[11] "He wanted football to be bigger than baseball," said Hay's grandson James Francis King in 2015.[11] "He knew the NFL would be big, but he never could have dreamed the multibillion-dollar industry that meeting he organized inside of his showroom would create." It is perhaps fitting that tonight's game is a battle of the league's two Ohio teams. In Canton itself, where the football-styled Centennial Plaza is nearing completion, artist Dirk Rozich painted a series of murals that pay tribute to Hay and that meeting 100 years ago.[12]
PSYCHOPATHS, PSYCHIATRISTS & PSYCHONAUTS by Hans Schmid (Aug 8, 2009) < There is no excuse for such inhuman experiments. But one can try to understand how they came about. >
Psychopaths, Psychiatrists and Psychonauts by Hans Schmid Translated to English (with reference links added) - archived https://archive.is/jzLOn ( www.heise.de/tp/features/Psychopathen-Psychiater-und-Psychonauten-3382056.html ): Part 1: "Special interrogation methods" in the Cold War Barack Obama's plan to focus on tomorrow rather than yesterday does not seem to be working. The US Attorney General is considering the appointment of a special investigator to investigate allegations of torture against CIA people. Senators are calling for a commission of inquiry into Bush and Cheney's secret programs in the fight against terrorism. If it is really resolved, it could turn out that yesterday was already tomorrow. *Whores to the front * No, says the witness John Gittinger, he never saw the red curtains. He couldn't remember exactly either. It was all a long time ago, and he hardly had time to prepare. Yes, yes, LSD was used in the tests, cannabis was also discussed. But he had next to no direct information. He was just a little psychologist. And anyway: "This is the part I find it difficult to talk about now, and I am sorry that I am forced to. In connection with the work we were doing, we needed information about sexual habits. Morgan Hall found informants to talk to about the sexual habits I was interested in. For a period of time, as far as I was concerned, the conspiratorial house was only used for this particular type of interview." The year is 1977. John Gitinger's appearance before the US Senate subcommittee responsible for legislative oversight of the secret services creates amusement. Senator Ted Kennedy pulled the following facts out of the nose of a witness struggling with memory gaps: From 1955 to 1965 the CIA ran a brothel in San Francisco, headed by an agent with the code name "Morgan Hall", in which subjects were administered LSD and other mind-altering substances without their knowledge. This was done as part of a field test to research and test "special interrogation methods." There was also a lot of laughter when Gitinger's colleague David Rhodes reported about a second conspiratorial house that was outside of San Francisco and used for experiments that required more peace and seclusion. The CIA had given a Stanford University chemist a generous research assignment. In return, this gentleman regularly supplied substances with which the enemies of the free world were to be harassed and worn down: stink bombs, itching and sneezing powder, drops that lead to diarrhea. All of this was tried out on the lured subjects. In the courtyard, experiments were carried out with a throwing machine that could throw a smelly object 30 meters away. They were particularly proud of an LSD spray can. Rhodes and another CIA psychologist roamed the bars of San Francisco for a week to invite men to a party. But the weather was against them. It was so warm on the day of the party that the secret agents couldn't keep the doors and windows closed long enough. This is why there was not enough LSD in the air. In order to make the experiment a success, Rhodes told the committee, Gittinger locked himself in the toilet for a self-experiment. But he didn't get high either. At least Rhodes' statement got a nice headline in The Washington Post: "The Gang That Couldn't Spray Straight." The public got the impression that a bunch of bunglers had come together here to play around with jokes at the taxpayer's expense. There was actually nothing to laugh about. These experiments were part of MKULTRA, the most secret of all American covert projects during the Cold War. An unknown number of test persons suffered permanent damage, and some were presumably even killed. And this story, like so many, begins with the Third Reich. According to their own rules In 1946, with official support, Henry Hathaway directed a quasi-documentary feature film about the work of an institution founded four years earlier (dissolved again in 1945), of which most viewers had not even been aware: the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), predecessor organization of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The title, 13 Rue Madeleine (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038279/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 ) is also the address of the Gestapo headquarters in occupied Le Havre, and suggests that the OSS was brought into being only because the others had started. We learn this through the voice of a narrator: After the attack on Pearl Harbor and in view of the many German and Japanese agents in the USA, the president realized the country also needed a secret service. This reason was later heard again and again: We have to do unpleasant, sometimes unconstitutional things because the enemy does it too (or would do it if he could). The film's first quarter hour is dedicated to the selection and training of the OSS recruits. A German agent sneaks in as well. Superficially, the rest of the film is about German missiles and the Normandy invasion. But basically only the war among the agents is dealt with. One quickly gets the feeling that the OSS and Gestapo are enough in and of themselves, that they actually don't need the rest of the world (an impression that is also given by many activities of the actually existing secret services). In the end, the Germans subject US secret agent Bob Sharkey (James Cagney) to, as one would say today, "enhanced interrogation" (torture only the others do, and later Jack Bauer). Sharkey is beaten and whipped. These medieval-looking methods are in sharp contrast to the beginning, where one learns that Sharkey is a "scholar" and lists the elite universities at which the OSS recruits studied. Sharkey's Gestapo opponent is also an educated person. One suspects that such people are not limited to methods of the Inquisition. "The Army and the Navy," wrote Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain in Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of the OSS (1946, www.amazon.com/Cloak-Dagger-Secret-Story-OSS/dp/B000VOA2SU ) "fought like gentlemen and soldiers; members of the OSS fought the enemy at their own arms and after his own rules. " But what does that mean now? Herb garden in the concentration camp In 1936, Reichsärzteführer Wagner announced the "New German Medicine". Conventional medicine, according to Wagner, would be pushed back and would rather rely on the healing power of herbs. According to Rudolf Höss, it was the party's will "to dissuade the German people from unhealthy foreign spices and artificial medicines and to convert them to the use of natural medicinal herbs". As a former block leader in Dachau and camp manager of Auschwitz, he knew his way around. Each concentration camp had its own herb garden. In the Dachauer Moos, 20 hectares of moorland were made usable through slave labor. The spices grown there covered almost the entire needs of the Wehrmacht and the SS. Inmates were used not only for free labor, but also as human guinea pigs. It was a profitable business. For around 700 Reichsmarks, German pharmaceutical companies could buy someone to try out their medication on. The health of the test subjects played no role. The SS and Gestapo also issued research contracts to the concentration camp doctors. They were interested in finding a truth serum that could be used during interrogation, and a stimulant for soldiers and armaments workers. In terrible human experiments, which were only possible in a concentration camp, experiments were conducted with mescaline, barbiturates and morphine derivatives. In Auschwitz, Dr. Bruno Weber carried out brainwashing attempts on resistance fighters. In Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, studies were carried out in which test subjects had to swallow up to 100 tablets of the "end victory drug" pervitin (an amphetamine) every day. According to Werner Pieper in Nazis on Speed (www.amazon.com/Nazis-on-Speed/dp/3930442396 ) Dr. Kurt Plötner conducted research in a leading role at Dachau for the people and fatherland (cf. “When the Nazis Injected Mescaline into Political Prisoners” posted Nov 6, 2020 by u/sillysmartygiggles to whom I am indebted for learning of this article www.reddit.com/Psychedelics_Society/comments/jpg0f8/when_the_nazis_injected_mescaline_into_political/ ). In 1944 Plötner rose from SS internist to department head at the "Institute for Defense Scientific Research". In 1945 he went into hiding to spend a few years as the inconspicuous "Mr. Schmidt". In 1954, as Dr. Plötner again, he was appointed associate professor by the medical faculty of the University of Freiburg even though they had to know his background. So we Germans have no reason to mock the Americans, who knew little about fear of contact when it came to retraining of Nazi scientists into Cold Warriors. The secret service invents the joint The OSS began the search for the truth drug in 1942. It is unclear whether the Americans had found out about the Germans' experiments, or had come up with the idea themselves. While the concentration camp doctors preferred mescaline, in spring 1943 the OSS decided to conduct a series of experiments with marijuana. For security reasons, the agency was incorporated into the Manhattan Project. The development of the atomic bomb was the most secret and best-shielded project that existed at the time. Because the secret world is often absurd, the Manhattan Project leaders registered twelve of their employees as the first volunteers. The subjects swallowed the marijuana as a liquid concentrate and vomited. Inhaling marijuana vapors had little effect. Then the secret service invented something that had long been known in the real world: the joint. The first field test began in New York on May 27, 1943. "Wild Bill" Donovan, chief of the OSS, was on loan from the Army to Captain George White, a drug agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Given the code name "Morgan Hall", White knew August Del Gracio, a mafioso belonging to Lucky Luciano's gang. At one meeting, he offered him cigarettes with a marijuana extract. Del Gracio immediately became very talkative, although it is unclear whether this was the effect of the cigarettes or whether the gangster could not generally keep his mouth shut. At a second meeting, White had so much marijuana added to the cigarettes that Del Gracio passed out. The attempt was still considered a success. A pattern becomes clear here: the US secret service preferred to select test subjects who were not to be feared they would make the matter public if they found out what had happened to them; people who if something went wrong could always be said to have somehow deserved it. White and another agent drove to Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans, where they tried their cigarettes on a dozen soldiers in army barracks suspected of being communists. Because White liked to combine work and pleasure, they did some self-experiments along the way. Many of these operations from early years of the OSS and CIA are reminiscent of a child's birthday that got out of hand, or the pranks of adolescents. The second agent told John Marks, author of The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate” (www.amazon.com/Search-Manchurian-Candidate-Behavioral-Sciences/dp/0393307948 ) that he and White lay stoned on their hotel beds after one of the interrogations in New Orleans, from which White shot his initials in the ceiling stucco with a 22 automatic. In the 16,000 pages from OSS and CIA collections, which John Marks fought for approval in the 1970s, all names and other larger passages have been blacked out. Much of what has to do with "Agent Hall" can be reconstructed, because George White thought nothing of all the secrecy. White's widow donated his private papers to Foothills College in Los Altos, California, where they can now be viewed and many real names read. To conclude from this that everything will eventually come to light would probably be naive. In 1973, the scientific records in the CIA archives from decades of mind control experiments were destroyed. One has only the word of various CIA bosses on the fact that the many attempts to program people were ultimately unsuccessful. It cannot be verified. Gains and Losses After White's southern pleasure trip, the experiments appear to have stopped because the OSS did not really believe a joint would induce a suspect to reveal his secrets to others. But what about hypnosis? Could a hypnotist make other people his willless tools, like Dr. Caligari sending the somnambulist out at night to commit murders and kidnap the virgin Jane? Stanley Lovell, head of the OSS department for research and development, worked out the following plan: Under hypnosis, a German prisoner of war is programmed to hate the Nazis and have to also kill Adolf Hitler. The programmed assassin is then sent back to Germany, where he kills the Führer under duress. Most of the psychiatrists and psychologists Lovell interviewed thought that was impossible. However, there was also George Estabrooks, head of the Colgate University Psychological Department. Estabrooks was convinced of the military potential of hypnosis and had been reporting to the Army with imaginative suggestions since the early 1930s. He enjoyed going to hypnosis shows and doing experiments with his students. However, experimental evidence that a hypnotized person would also commit a crime was too risky for him. If the government were to take responsibility, according to Estabrooks, that wouldn't be a problem: All 'accidents' that might happen in the course of the experiments are simply recorded under gains and losses; this is a triviality compared to the enormous waste of human life that is an integral part of war. The OSS finally refused. The disappointed professor turned to journalism. He saw it as his duty to warn Americans of the dangers of hypnotic infiltration. His best-known work is the 1945 novel Death in the Mind, written together with Richard Lockridge: The captain of an American submarine shoots at one of his own ships. Other Allied personnel suddenly also do things one would not expect. Secret agent Johnny Evans finds out they are under hypnotic Nazi control. Even the beautiful agent he loves is affected. Then she is also tortured. Johnny decides to beat the Nazis at their own guns ... Operation Paperclip When the trial of 20 concentration camp doctors began December 9, 1946 in Nuremberg, agents in the audience were hoping to learn more about the experiments. However, nothing came up that had not already been documented in files confiscated at Dachau and other camps. According to one theory, the agents should make sure nothing was revealed in court about the experiments classified top secret. Because the enemy - it was the Russians now - was listening. At the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, the 1st American Military Tribunal issued a statement on "permissible medical experiments". The "Nuremberg Doctors' Code" names 10 points that must be followed: the test subject must have given their consent, there must be no foreseeable harm, etc. Beyond that no one could actually speak, out of not having known what was allowed and what was not. Immediately after the victory over the Germans, leading Nazi scientists whom the Americans had found online were brought to Kranzberg Castle near Frankfurt and there interrogated. Operation Paperclip began in the summer of 1945. According to government agencies, several hundred German researchers were brought to the USA over the next few years and most of them naturalized very quickly; According to independent estimates, there were more than 5,000. Officially, only scientists who had not committed war crimes were eligible for the operation. In fact, only the purely technical qualification played a role. The most well-known of the "Paperclip Boys" was Wernher von Braun, father of the US space program (more on this in The Paperclip Conspiracy by Tom Bower, and Moonstruck by Reiner Eisfeld). In the paranoid world of the Cold War, the crucial question was who could help gain an advantage over the other side. The rest was secondary. Not only did the aviation pioneers around von Braun, who had built the V and V2 rockets for Hitler with slave laborers from the Dora concentration camp, soon find themselves in the USA, but also SS doctors and other experts in chemical and biological warfare. Some of them continued the brainwashing experiments they had started in the Third Reich in American laboratories. It was best for Dr. Friedrich Hoffmann, one of the leading German poison gas experts. Because the Chemical Corps of the US Army wanted to know more about tabun and mustard gas, he made experiments with dogs, cats, mice and US soldiers who had "volunteered". Later he traveled across the world on behalf of the CIA to look for naturally occurring hallucinogens in the most exotic places. The less urbane Dr. Karl Tauböck was more of a man for the laboratory. In a previous life, on behalf of the Gestapo, he had researched hallucinogenic extracts of the medicinal plants grown in the concentration camps and tested them on Wehrmacht officers who were suspected of planning an assassination attempt on Hitler. Hypnosis for Beginners Albert Hofmann, the Indiana Jones of hallucinogens, owed his travel activities to a colleague from Switzerland. Dr. Hofmann first produced LSD November 16, 1938, in a laboratory of the pharmaceutical company Sandoz. Almost five years later, April 16, 1943, he accidentally came into contact with the substance that had entered his bloodstream through the skin or airway. Hofmann experienced the first LSD trip in history (more on this in his book LSD My Problem Child (www.amazon.com/LSD-Problem-Child-Reflections-Mysticism/dp/0979862221). In 1947, an article about the drug's effects appeared in a Swiss journal. The newly founded CIA doesn't seem to have noticed at first. They were very self-preoccupied. As is usual with such start-ups, the departments fought over money, personnel and responsibilities. Anyone who had no scientific training preferred to deal with popular culture anyway. Estabrooks' Death in the Mind had sold well and was reissued in 1947. Otto Preminger's film Whirlpool (www.imdb.com/title/tt0042039/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 ) was released in November 1949. Gene Tierney plays the kleptomaniac Ann who is married to a psychiatrist and apparently finds help from hypnotist David Korvo (José Ferrer). Korvo actually takes Ann under his control, whereupon she breaks into her husband's patient archive in a trance. CIA man Morse Allen was so enthusiastic about the obvious possibilities of hypnosis that he read everything he could find on the subject. In 1951 he went to New York to attend a 4-day introductory course with a well-known stage hypnotist. The magician was a show-off. Back in Washington, Allen reported to his superiors that his teacher had sex with hypnotized women five times a week on average. Then with approval from above he began his own experiments. After the office closed, he hypnotized young secretaries and made them steal secret files and give them to strangers. Allen at least was convinced he was able to impose his will on the young women. But the impetus to finally tackle behavior and the mind control programs that had been planned for some time was not a novel or a film, but rather the show trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty in February 1949. The primate of Hungary looked like a zombie and with a glazed look confessed to crimes he had not committed. The CIA believed the Russians had made the cardinal their willless tool through drugs and hypnosis. In summer 1949, the head of the Scientific Intelligence department traveled to Europe. In order to better assess what the Russians had done, he used "special interrogation methods" (drugs and hypnosis) with refugees from the east and prisoners of war returned from there. Back home, he recommended sending a team to Europe. To further experiments. PROJECT BLUEBIRD The CIA’s bureaucratic structures gradually solidified, and the chief of its security department, which was supposed to ward off penetration attempts by the enemy, suggested all activities in the field of hypnosis and other manipulations of human consciousness be grouped together, preferably under his leadership. On April 20, 1950, the director approved the project code-named BLUEBIRD and its covert funding. BLUEBIRD was so secret that even within the Agency as little as possible should be known about it. Those responsible later claimed the project was purely defensive; one had to explore techniques of the communists in order to be able to protect one's own personnel. Just like at 13 Rue Madeleine, where prospective agents learn how to withstand Gestapo's interrogation techniques for as long as possible. The reality was more like the Estabrooks spy novel. Johnny Evans makes a fiery plea to get back at the bad guys (in this case the Nazis) and now hypnotizes them. The CIA saw it that way. So now you did what you would say to the other side. As suggested by the head of Scientific Intelligence, interrogation teams of three were formed: a psychiatrist; a polygraph expert with hypnosis training; and a technician. In July 1950, one month after the beginning of the Korean War, such a team traveled to Tokyo on a secret mission. They tried several combinations of sodium amytal (sedative) and amphetamines (stimulant) on two test subjects, presumably suspected double agents, and the stimulant picrotoxin on two other people. They also tried to induce memory loss in the four subjects. In September, an article by Edward Hunter appeared in the News (Miami) newspaper. Headline: "Brainwashing Tactic Forces Chinese To Become Communists". It was the first demonstrable use of the term "brainwashing" in print. The word quickly made a career for itself in the Cold War. By the way, Hunter was a CIA agent disguised as a journalist. In October another interrogation team was on the road. This time interrogation methods "further developed" were tried out on 25 test persons (apparently North Korean prisoners of war). Details are not documented. Soon after, Morse Allen rose to head BLUEBIRD. Allen was part of the Security and Counter-Espionage Department. The CIA had trained him in use of the polygraph. He was not scientifically trained. However, he would soon travel to New York for further training, a hypnosis course with the stage magician. The first plan he drew up in his new role was to acquire a machine that would be experimented with in a Richmond hospital. Electrodes were attached to the subject's head, then the machine put him into a deep hypnosis-like sleep. "Although the device is not suitable for use on our own people, because there is at least in theory a risk of temporary brain damage," says one of Allen's memos, "it might be of value in certain areas that involve interrogating Prisoners of war, or even as applied to people of interest to the Agency. " At a unit price of $ 250, the "electric sleep machine" would have been a real bargain. But because it actually didn't work, or at least not in the desired way, the business was abandoned. Cauliflower in the brain The story is funny only if you forget the poor patients in the Richmond hospital. It can be even scarier. In late 1951, Allen had an exchange with a psychiatrist who had for some time been a consultant for the CIA and who ran a successful private practice. This gentleman had given his patients electric shocks and noticed that a temporary memory loss occurred afterwards; as the drowsiness subsided, he extracted new information from his patients. According to the doctor, his Reiter electric shock machine is good for a lot. When the amperage is set correctly, it causes excruciating pain, which can be used to make people talk. Allen's answer is typical of him. He wanted to know whether the psychiatrist had tried using hypnosis to gain control over his patients during the drowsy phase. No, replied the doctor, but he would try it out soon. He also reported that continuous electric shocks could turn a person into a "vegetable"; after two weeks this could no longer be proven. John Marks found a memo from Allen in the released files, in which the latter indicated that portable, battery-operated electric shock devices could now be bought. But the head of BLUEBIRD had doubts, or at least he expected others might have some: Of course, the objections would concern the use of electric shocks if the end result were the creation of a "vegetable". I believe these techniques should be considered only in the most extreme emergency; neutralization by detention and/or removal from the area would be much more appropriate and certainly safer. A recommendation had been made to grant the psychiatrist research funding of $100,000 "to develop electroshock and hypnotic techniques." Research by a private practitioner into developing "neurosurgical techniques" (likely lobotomy) should also be funded with $100,000. In both cases, it is no longer possible to determine whether the funds have actually been paid out. The names of the researchers have been rendered unrecognizable. In contrast, Dr. Paul Hoch, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, wrote sentences like this: "It is possible that certain damage to the brain may be of therapeutic value." Hoch believed he could help his patients with a combined therapy of lobotomy and personality-changing drugs. He was associated with the CIA as a consultant. In his opinion, LSD and mescaline could induce a temporary model psychosis that could be used to better research the disease. This was interesting for intelligence services because it gave rise to brainwashing opportunities. That had to be investigated further. The money came from the Army's Chemical Corps. Hoch made the test persons available, whose consent seemed optional to him. Harold Blauer, a former professional tennis player turned tennis teacher, suffered from depression after a divorce from his wife. In December 1952 he began psychotherapeutic treatment at Hoch's institute. In the course of this, Dr. James Cattell gave him mescaline a total of five times in varying doses. Neither Blauer nor Cattell had any idea what the liquid was. "We didn't know," Dr. Cattell later told Army investigators "what we gave him whether it was dog piss or whatever." This was Dr. Hoch's variant of a double-blind study. After all, he worked according to strictly scientific methods. The dose administered January 8, 1953 from 9:53 a.m. to 9:55 a.m. led to a circulatory collapse and heart failure in Blauer. Dr. Cattell recorded everything precisely: from Blauer's "protest against the injection" (9:53 am) to the "complete stiffening of the body" (10:01 am), "tremor of the lower extremities" (10:09 am), "snoring respiration" (10:10 am) and "occasional rearing up" (11:05 am) until Harold Blauer's death at 12:15 pm. There is no excuse for such inhuman experiments. But one can try to understand how they came about. Some psychiatrists really believed they could help their patients by giving them electric shocks and removing part of their brain. The research money did not come directly from the army or the CIA, but from charitable foundations. So if you didn't want to know whose money you were experimenting with and what for, you could suppress it; some of them probably really had no idea. On the other hand, if necessary, there was a state institution that assumed responsibility or at least suggested it. And last but not least, many agents worked for the CIA who had seen terrible things during the war and believed they knew exactly what the other side (first the Nazis, then the Communists) was capable of. The spirit in which the human experiments took place is captured by a secret study commissioned by then President Herbert Hoover in the early 1930s which did not take full effect until the 1950s. The study comes to the following conclusion: It is now clear we are dealing with a relentless enemy whose declared aim is world domination, by whatever means and at whatever cost. There are no rules in such a game. American notions of "fair play" that have have long existed and been acceptable up to now must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counter-espionage services, and must learn to infiltrate, sabotage, and destroy our enemies using methods that are smarter, more sophisticated and more effective than those used against us. As far as can be reconstructed, there seems to have been a radicalization in the secret war against communism in 1952. That was the year the Chinese government launched a propaganda offensive. It included the publication of recorded statements about Korea having shot down US pilots who "confessed" to various crimes, including use of chemical and biological warfare agents. By the end of the Korean War, 70 percent of the 7,190 US soldiers held prisoner in China had either made such "confessions" or signed a petition calling for an end to American engagement in Asia. What was even more worrying, however, was that many of the soldiers upon their return home held onto the confessions instead of withdrawing them, even speaking pro-communistically. According to opinion leaders in the US, this could only mean one thing: they had been brainwashed. (Interlude) OUTER LIMITS: NIGHTMARE (1963, ABC-TV) Season 1, Episode 10 (Act 3): ALIEN (in “POW commandant” role, collaborating with covert Earth operation to test human soldiers under duress): The grief and loss we caused your planet was an accident. We promised we would do anything to rectify this unforgivable mistake. But we cannot sanction the continuation of such immoral and inhuman experimentation. DIRECTOR OF EARTH INTELLIGENCE (played by Whit Bissell - “Dr Brandon” from I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF): Inhuman? What do you know of humans, sir? Have you ever seen the humans in prisoner of war camps on earth? ALIEN: I have. DIRECTOR: Then you know… about the POWs in the Korean war. It's a matter of shameful record that in the Korean war no prisoner successfully escaped. There was no organized resistance. One out of every group of 10 prisoners was an informer. A total of 38% of our prisoners died, many by what the psychiatrists call psychological surrender… How do we defend our planet if we don't know what to anticipate from our fighting men? We must know how they will behave or misbehave under conditions like the ones we're artificially inducing here. Psychopaths, Psychiatrists and Psychonauts (con't): The army and navy were much more hesitant than the CIA in the later destruction of the files. That is why we can still get an idea of what it was like when upright Americans fought against communists by all means. In August 1952, on behalf of the Navy, some people flew from Washington to Frankfurt, where they met with CIA representatives who were working for the super-secret project, which for a year was no longer called BLUEBIRD, but ARTICHOKE. Since 1947, the armed forces had been running a very similar project aimed at developing a truth drug called CHATTER. Since 1951, it has been headed by Commander Samuel Thompson, chief of the psychiatric research department at the Navy Medical Research Institute. To illustrate what was at stake, the Navy's intelligence service had asked Dr. Thompson, when he was appointed head of CHATTER, the following question, which Jack Bauer (24) is confronted with once a year: Consider a case where someone hid a nuclear bomb in one of our cities and we have 12 hours to find out where it is. What could we do to get the person to talk? Operation CASTIGATE Thompson flew to Frankfurt with a man who claimed to know the answer: Dr. G. Richard Wendt, director of the University of Rochester's Psychological Institute. Wendt has been testing drugs to combat seasickness and fatigue in pilots for several years. By the end of 1950, the Navy had awarded him $300,000 for a research project to find out whether a truth serum could be developed from barbiturates, amphetamines, alcohol, heroin, and whatever else he could get. Wendt always had enough student guinea pigs to whom he paid a dollar per hour. As a responsible university teacher, he took only subjects over 21, and first tried each substance on himself. For heroin, he noted it had a "certain but low value for interrogation," and only if administered "over a long period of time." In his self-experiments, this period became longer and longer. In summer 1952, Wendt reported to the Navy he had found the truth drug. He did not want to say anything about its chemical composition. For security reasons. If Wendt had been a pharmacologist, he would have known one could buy his miracle drug, a combination of a sleep aid and a stimulant, as Dexamyl in the pharmacy ("goofball" it later became a popular party drug). For a field trial under operational conditions, Morse Allen, head of ARTICHOKE, provided the subjects: Russians detained on suspicion of espionage at Camp King, the European headquarters of the US Army's secret service in Oberursel. A first meeting took place at the CIA’s headquarters in Frankfurt, which at that time was housed in the former administration building of the IG Farben. For the CIA, whose world is a constant mixing of fiction and reality, this was the right place to stay. The building was designed by architect Hans Poelzig, originator of the buildings in The Golem (1920 - www.imdb.com/title/tt0011237/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm ) as he came into the world, and the one in Edgar G. Ulmer's film The Black Cat (1934) with Boris Karloff (as "Hjalmar Poelzig") hosting occult human trials in a Bauhaus castle built on a battlefield (www.imdb.com/title/tt0024894/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 ). The Americans had requisitioned some remote villas in the Taunus, formerly inhabited by Nazibonzen and SS notables. In their research for the ARD documentary Deckname Artischocke and book of the same title, Egmont R. Koch and Michael Wech found out that the operation CASTIGATE ("scourge") was most likely carried out in the "Haus Waldhof" near Kronberg. Wendt had brought his mistress with him, who assisted him. He preferred to experiment without doctors, because such concerns only limited the freedom of research. Thompson thought it was unethical, so a medic was called in. As things stand, this must have been Dr Blome, the camp doctor at Camp King. Prof. Dr. Kurt Blome, author of the 1942 book Arzt im Kampf: Erlebnisse und Gedanken (The Physician In Wartime: Experiences And Thoughts), had previously been deputy leader of the Reich Medical Association and a member of the Reich Research Council. He had approved the human trials in Dachau and ensured that Dr. Sigmund Rascher could rehabilitate by writing about his sadistic experiments commissioned by the Luftwaffe, in which about 100 concentration camp inmates died. Pilots were particularly valuable to the Nazis. It was important to know how long a pilot could survive when he crashed and fell into the sea. That's why prisoners of war had to float in the cold water. Rascher recorded the body temperature and tried out how best to defrost the ones frozen solid. To find out whether naked women led to accelerated warming in the male subjects, four forced prostitutes were brought to Dachau. Since the experiments were supposed to lead to survival training for pilots, it cannot be completely ruled out that drowning was also experimented with. Reading today how the CIA is fighting terror can make one feel very bad. (Part 1 - part 2 to be posted below)
Roadkill is a little more work, but costs a lot less money, and provides some interesting flavors. There's some paperwork involved in most states, but once you've filled out the forms and perhaps paid a nominal fee, the next time you see a deer or moose corpse on the side of the road, it's yours. The only drawback is, you might have to buy an extra freezer.
• ALABAMA (Only non-protected animals and game animals during open season may be salvaged) • ALASKA (Individuals are not allowed to salvage animals, but moose, caribou, and other species may be distributed through volunteer organizations) • ARIZONA (Permit required; only big game animals may be salvaged) • ARKANSAS • CALIFORNIA (Pilot program will designate specific areas with "high wildlife vehicle collisions" by 2022, and the law will sunset in 2029) • COLORADO (Proper authorization required) • GEORGIA (Native species may be salvaged; State notification of road-killed black bears required) • IDAHO (Reporting of time of salvage required) • ILLINOIS (Proper Hunting or Trapping License and/or Habitat Stamp required) • INDIANA (Permit required) • MARYLAND (Permit required) • MASSACHUSETTS (Permit required; Must submit roadkill for state inspection) • MICHIGAN (Permit required; only deer and bear may be salvaged) • MISSOURI (Wildlife Dispensation Permit from the Missouri Department of Conservation required) • MONTANA (Permit required) • NEW HAMPSHIRE • NEW YORK (License or Tag may be required, depending on species) • NEW JERSEY (Permit required; only deer may be salvaged) • NORTH DAKOTA (Permit required) • NORTH CAROLINA (DNR staff phone registration required) • OHIO • OREGON • PENNSYLVANIA (Reporting to State Game Commission within 24 hours required) • SOUTH DAKOTA (Proper notification and authorization required) • TENNESSEE • UTAH (Permit for non-protected species required) • VERMONT (Possession Tag for big game and furbearers required) • WASHINGTON • WEST VIRGINIA (Reporting within 12 hours required) • WISCONSIN (DNR staff phone registration required) It's obvious that salvaging roadkill is the superior option to the multiple other methods of removal, and fish and game agencies across the United States seem to agree. Free-range, wild animals are going to encounter vehicles, and it's just a simple fact that roadkill is a consistent cause of their death.
Get information about Charity Gaming. View the Indiana Statutes and Rules concerning gaming. Sign up for the Voluntary Exclusion Program. View the Monthly Revenue reports. View to Indiana Gaming Commission Annual Report. View the yearly riverboat evaluation reports. Become a supplier to an Indiana gambling operation. If the owner is not directly resonsible for the type II gaming the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission requires that a manager be responsible. The Alcohol and Tobacco Commission has the following requirement for managers: Q. They must have been an Indiana resident for 5 years or work in a restaurant with a minimum of $100,000 annual food sales; Q Licensing Forms Occupational License Applications. NB: The Indiana Gaming Commission only accepts occupational license applications from persons who have an offer of employment from an Indiana casino. Please contact an Indiana casino if you want to apply for casino employment. Gaming Forms An organization recognized as a public-spirited organization by the governing body of a city or county may apply for a local permit to conduct only raffles, bingo, sports pools to be conducted throughout the year, or may apply for a charity local permit to conduct a onetime gaming event where the organization may conduct only What qualification requirements must be met with the Indiana Gaming Commission for a charity gaming event? What is the cost to obtain a charity gaming event license? What are the responsibilities of an operator of a charity gaming event? Is there a gambling addiction counselor in my area? How many charity gaming licenses can an organization hold? Get information about Charity Gaming. View the Indiana Statutes and Rules concerning gaming. Sign up for the Voluntary Exclusion Program. View the Monthly Revenue reports. View to Indiana Gaming Commission Annual Report. View the yearly riverboat evaluation reports. Become a supplier to an Indiana gambling operation. FOR INDIANA GAMING COMMISSION USE ONLY Signature of Charity Gaming Program Coordinator Date (month, day, year) NOTIFICATION ON FILE. E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (317) 232-4646 Fax: (317) 232-0117 Page 2 of 2 Instructions CG-EN, Exempt Activity Notification First, check the home page of the State agency that will be receiving the form or asked you to fill it out. Agency homepages frequently link directly to useful forms for their customers. If you do not find a direct link to the form you need, check the State Forms Online Catalog provided by the Indiana Archives and Records Administration (IARA). ). Instructions for using the Catalog can be
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