Scientia Press

After signing a consent form, a 70-year old semi-retired male engineer in good general health reported that he had had tremor in his hands, but nowhere else, for 25 years. He recalled his father having had the same tremor. A general practitioner had diagnosed this engineer’s case as familial tremor. He had also heard it termed “anticipatory tremor”—it occurred mainly when he moved his hands to undertake some action.

Over time the tremor had gained in amplitude. When he held a piece of paper, he had a hard time reading because his hands would shake. When he lifted up a briefcase, his hand would “go wild”, with jerks of a full inch back and forth. However, the tremor was not so bad as significantly to disrupt his manual activities at work. He is right-handed. The tremor was worse in his left hand than in his right at a ratio that he estimated as 3:2.

April 4, 1968.  Civil rights leader Martin Luther King was killed by a single bullet as he stood on the second floor balcony outside his hotel room in Memphis.1   The shot came from high on his right, not on a horizontal trajectory from the rooming house behind the hotel of the alleged assassin, James Earl Ray.  Ray, a mediocre shot, would have needed to stand on the edge of the common bathroom tub to see out the window, and a wall (since conveniently removed) would have kept him from aligning the rifle.  Ballistics, forensics, and medical evidence all rule him out.  The House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that there had been a conspiracy, with Ray as the patsy.

Critical researchers have argued that the federal government, especially FBI or perhaps CIA, carried out the assassination

June 8, 1968.  Running for the Democratic nomination, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the crowded “pantry” (actually, a food preparation area) of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after his primary election victory.1   His alleged killer, 24-year old Palestinian-American Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, never got close to Kennedy.  He fired shots that hit five bystanders as Kennedy supporters struggled to subdue him; but none of his shots hit Kennedy.  The fatal shot behind Kennedy’s ear came from just 1-3 inches away, according to Thomas Noguchi MD, who performed the autopsy.

On April 4, 1968, a single bullet from an assassin’s rifle killed renowned civil rights leader Martin Luther King.   Many investigators have argued that James Earl Ray, the alleged gunman, was part of a conspiracy, and some have pointed to FBI or CIA.  But he pleaded guilty and was treated as a lone gunman.  A very few observers have suggested that the KGB perpetrated King’s murder.  Now Kenneth J. Dillon of Scientia Press has devised a theory that shows why we should consider the KGB the leading suspect.  See https://www.scientiapress.com/kgb-theory.  Here Dillon is interviewed by Stephen J. Dillon.

Did the KGB Assassinate Martin Luther King?.mp4

Many Germans have earnestly sought to overcome the Nazi past by publicizing its depredations, by acknowledging wrongdoing, by seeking restitution of stolen property,  and by maintaining a respectful, responsive stance toward Jews in general and Israel in particular.  Still, such is the burden of the Holocaust that another approach may also prove attractive to certain Germans.  It involves Yiddish.

While Yiddish contains elements of Hebrew and Slavic languages, it is mainly an old dialect of German.  A German speaker can understand most of it, and in fact Yiddish forms part of the study of German linguistics and literature, correctly understood.  This means that a simple initiative could help bring Germans and Jews closer.

On April 27, 1996, 76-year old William Colby, former director of the CIA, disappeared from his vacation home on the water at Rocky Point, Maryland.  Colby had spent the day at a marina fixing his sloop.  He returned home after 6 pm, phoned his wife, who was visiting her mother in Texas, and told her he was tired and would eat supper, then go to bed.  He watered his trees, met with his gardener and his visiting sister around 7:15 pm (sunset was at 7:57), and fixed himself a meal.  The next day there was no sign of him.  Eventually, a neighbor phoned the police.  They found his supper half-eaten.  The computer and radio were on.  His canoe was missing.1

By the next day a full-scale search with helicopters and divers was under way.

August 4, 1962.  Celebrity actress Marilyn Monroe died in her bedroom in Los Angeles (or in the guest house near her house, from which she was carried back to her bedroom).1

On October 12, 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer was murdered on the canal towpath in Georgetown1. A divorced artist from a prominent family, Meyer was known by insiders to have been President John F. Kennedy’s senior female consort during his White House years, though the story never leaked to the public.

Her murder and the ensuing trial of Raymond Crump, Jr., an African-American laborer found by the police in the vicinity of the murder, drew a good deal of attention at the time. Crump had been identified by a gas station attendant helping start a car on a road overlooking the canal. Hearing cries of “Somebody help me. Somebody help me” and two shots, the attendant ran to look.

Sometimes a storyteller misses the real meaning of the story.

By all accounts, the Cuban Missile Crisis was the most dangerous episode of the Cold War.  The United States and the Soviet Union came frighteningly close to launching nuclear attacks at each other.  Only fear, luck, and occasionally inspired negotiating moved them onto the path of resolving the crisis−via a humiliating Soviet withdrawal in the face of U.S. nuclear superiority.

Historians have identified many motives for the initial Soviet decision to place missiles in Cuba. 

The Internal Armed Conflict in Colombia since 1948

                          by Stephen J. Dillon

El Bogotazo and La Violencia 

On April 9, 1948, Jorge Eliecer Gaitán was assassinated in Bogotá, Colombia, and nothing would ever be the same. Gaitán was the leader of the Liberal Party, nicknamed “The People’s Leader” for his social-populist stance, and had been highly influential for nearly twenty years, having successfully mobilized public opinion against the United Fruit Company in 1929, while representing the interests of the oppressed workers of the Banana Zone. He had meetings scheduled for that afternoon with Fidel Castro, then a student activist, and Rómulo Betancourt, former president of Venezuela, but when he went out for lunch, he was killed by Juan Roa Sierra, a young shoeshiner with delusions of grandeur. The circumstances of his assassination remain ambiguous, but a conspiracy is suspected.

Every nation has divisive issues.  While most are perennials, over time new issues gain salience as others fade.  At times of rising political and social tensions, such as the US since 1990, divisive issues multiply and take on a sharper edge.

If we wish to cope with these issues or even resolve some of them, it is useful to have a shared understanding of what they are