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The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch[1] and the White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933, in the United States, to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator.[2][3] Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general, testified under oath that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow Roosevelt. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the "McCormack–Dickstein Committee") on these revelations.[4] Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said, "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."

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During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses included physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body.[3][4][5][6] The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs by CBS News in April 2004, causing shock and outrage and receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.[7] The George W. Bush administration stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and not indicative of U.S. policy.[8][9]: 328  This was disputed by humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, which stated that the abuses were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO).[9]  There were also 36 prisoners killed at Abu Ghraib due to insurgent mortar attacks, which provoked further criticism due to the facility's location in a combat zone.[10] The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that most detainees at Abu Ghraib were civilians with no links to armed groups.[11] Documents known as the Torture Memos came to light a few years later. These documents, prepared in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States Department of Justice, authorized certain "enhanced interrogation techniques" (generally considered to involve torture) of foreign detainees. The memoranda also argued that international humanitarian laws, such as the Geneva Conventions, did not apply to American interrogators overseas. Several subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), overturned Bush administration policy, ruling that the Geneva Conventions do apply.

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"'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens" is the title of a series of articles perennially published by the American news satire organization The Onion satirizing the frequency of mass shootings in the United States and the lack of action taken in the wake of such incidents.[1][2][3] Each article is about 200 words long, detailing the location of the shooting and the number of victims, but otherwise remaining essentially the same. A fictitious resident—usually of a state in which the shooting did not take place—is quoted as saying that the shooting was "a terrible tragedy", but "there's nothing anyone can do to stop them." The article ends by saying that the United States is the "only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years," and that Americans view themselves and the situation as "helpless".[4][5]

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A drug of last resort (DoLR), also known as a heroic dose,[1] is a pharmaceutical drug which is tried after all other drug options have failed to produce an adequate response in the patient. Drug resistance, such as antimicrobial resistance or antineoplastic resistance, may make the first-line drug ineffective, especially in case of multidrug-resistant pathogens and tumors. Such an alternative may be outside of extant regulatory requirements or medical best practices, in which case it may be viewed as salvage therapy.

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Coingate is a nickname[1] for the Tom Noe investment scandal in Ohio revealed in early 2005 in part by Toledo, Ohio newspaper The Blade. The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) invested hundreds of millions of dollars in high risk or unconventional investment vehicles run by people closely connected to the Ohio Republican Party who had made large campaign contributions to many senior Republican party officials.

The rare coin investment fund attracted particular scrutiny after it was reported that two coins worth more than $300,000 had been lost. Further investigation then revealed that coins worth $10–$12 million were missing and that only $13 million of the original $50 million invested could be accounted for. Tom Noe was convicted of running a criminal enterprise, the theft of $13 million from the fund, and of keeping a second set of books to cover for it.[2]

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The kids for cash scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US.[1] In 2008, judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at a private prison operated by PA Child Care.[2]

Ciavarella disposed thousands of children to extended stays in youth centers for offenses as trivial as mocking an assistant principal on Myspace or trespassing in a vacant building.[3] After a judge rejected an initial plea agreement in 2009,[4][5] a federal grand jury returned a 48-count indictment.[6] In 2010, Conahan pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison.[7] Ciavarella opted to go to trial the following year. He was convicted on 12 of 39 counts and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.[8]

In the wake of the scandal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned hundreds of adjudications of delinquency in Luzerne County.[9] The Juvenile Law Center filed a class action lawsuit against the judges and numerous other parties,[10] and the Pennsylvania state legislature created a commission to investigate juvenile justice problems in the county.[11]

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Harlequin-type ichthyosis is a genetic disorder that results in thickened skin over nearly the entire body at birth.[4] The skin forms large, diamond/trapezoid/rectangle-shaped plates that are separated by deep cracks.[4] These affect the shape of the eyelids, nose, mouth, and ears and limit movement of the arms and legs.[4] Restricted movement of the chest can lead to breathing difficulties.[4] These plates fall off over several weeks.[3] Other complications can include premature birth, infection, problems with body temperature, and dehydration.[4][5] The condition is the most severe form of ichthyosis (except for syndromes that include ichthyosis, for example, Neu–Laxova syndrome), a group of genetic disorders characterised by scaly skin.[8]

Harlequin-type ichthyosis is caused by mutations in the ABCA12 gene.[4] This gene codes for a protein necessary for transporting lipids out of cells in the outermost layer of skin.[4] The disorder is autosomal recessive and inherited from parents who are carriers.[4] Diagnosis is often based on appearance at birth and confirmed by genetic testing.[5] Before birth, amniocentesis or ultrasound may support the diagnosis.[5]

There is no cure for the condition.[8] Early in life, constant supportive care is typically required.[3] Treatments may include moisturizing cream, antibiotics, etretinate or retinoids.[3][5] Around half of those affected die within the first few months;[7] however, retinoid treatment can increase chances of survival.[9][8] Children who survive the first year of life often have long-term problems such as red skin, joint contractures and delayed growth.[5] The condition affects around 1 in 300,000 births.[7] It was first documented in a diary entry by Reverend Oliver Hart in America in 1750.[6]

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Roberts syndrome, or sometimes called pseudothalidomide syndrome, is an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder that is characterized by mild to severe prenatal retardation or disruption of cell division, leading to malformation of the bones in the skull, face, arms, and legs.

It is caused by a mutation in the ESCO2 gene. It is one of the rarest autosomal recessive disorders, affecting approximately 150 known individuals. The mutation causes cell division to occur slowly or unevenly, and the cells with abnormal genetic content die.

Roberts syndrome can affect both males and females. Although the disorder is rare, the affected group is diverse. The mortality rate is high in severely affected individuals. The syndrome is named after American surgeon and physician John Bingham Roberts (1852–1924), who first described it in 1919.

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Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd's syndrome or dysmetropsia, is a neurological disorder that distorts perception. People with this syndrome may experience distortions in their visual perception of objects, such as appearing smaller (micropsia) or larger (macropsia), or appearing to be closer (pelopsia) or farther (teleopsia) than they are. Distortion may also occur for senses other than vision.[5]

The cause of Alice in Wonderland syndrome is currently unknown, but it has often been associated with migraines, head trauma, or viral encephalitis caused by Epstein–Barr virus infection.[6] It is also theorized that AIWS can be caused by abnormal amounts of electrical activity, resulting in abnormal blood flow in the parts of the brain that process visual perception and texture.[7]

Although there are cases of Alice in Wonderland syndrome in both adolescents and adults, it is most commonly seen in children.[2]

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Numerous incidents of deaths and violence have occurred at Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.[a] Originally opened as a middle-class hotel on December 20, 1924, in Downtown Los Angeles, it eventually became a budget hotel, hostel, and rooming house. Its reputation is due to at least 16 sudden or unexplained deaths that have occurred in or around the hotel.[2]

In 2011, the hotel's name was changed to "Stay on Main" in an effort to distance the establishment from its past.[3]

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Reduplicative paramnesia is the delusional belief that a place or location has been duplicated, existing in two or more places simultaneously, or that it has been 'relocated' to another site. It is one of the delusional misidentification syndromes; although rare, it is most commonly associated with acquired brain injury, particularly simultaneous damage to the right cerebral hemisphere and to both frontal lobes.

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The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666 was not real however the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that originated in Central Asia in 1331 (the first year of the Black Death), and included related diseases such as pneumonic plague and septicemic plague, which lasted until 1750.[1]

The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter of London's population—in 18 months.[2][3] The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium,[4] which is usually transmitted to a human by the bite of a flea or louse.[5]

The 1665–66 epidemic was on a much smaller scale than the earlier Black Death pandemic. It became known afterwards as the "great" plague mainly because it was the last widespread outbreak of bubonic plague in England during the 400-year Second Pandemic.[6][7]

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The Chernobyl disaster[a] began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union.[1] It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. The initial emergency response and subsequent mitigation efforts involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion roubles—roughly US$68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation.[2] It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.[3][4][5]

The accident occurred during a test of the steam turbine's ability to power the emergency feedwater pumps in the event of a simultaneous loss of external power and coolant pipe rupture. Following an accidental drop in reactor power to near-zero, the operators restarted the reactor in preparation for the turbine test with a prohibited control rod configuration. Upon successful completion of the test, the reactor was then shut down for maintenance. Due to a variety of factors, this action resulted in a power surge at the base of the reactor which brought about the rupture of reactor components and the loss of coolant. This process led to steam explosions and a meltdown, which destroyed the containment building. This was followed by a reactor core fire which lasted until 4 May 1986, during which airborne radioactive contaminants were spread throughout the USSR and Europe.[6][7] In response to the initial accident, a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) radius exclusion zone was created 36 hours after the accident, from which approximately 49,000 people were evacuated, primarily from Pripyat. The exclusion zone was later increased to a radius of 30 kilometres (19 mi), from which an additional ~68,000 people were evacuated.[8]

Following the reactor explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two more, an emergency operation to put out the fires and stabilize the surviving reactor began, during which 237 workers were hospitalized, of whom 134 exhibited symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Among those hospitalized, 28 died within the following three months. In the following 10 years, 14 more workers (9 of whom had been hospitalized with ARS) died of various causes mostly unrelated to radiation exposure.[9] 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths were attributed to the disaster as of 2011.[10][11] A United Nations committee found that to date fewer than 100 deaths have resulted from the fallout.[12] Model predictions of the eventual total death toll in the coming decades vary. The most widely cited study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2006 predicted 9,000 cancer-related fatalities in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.[13]

Following the disaster, Pripyat was abandoned and eventually replaced by the new purpose-built city of Slavutych. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus was built by December 1986. It reduced the spread of radioactive contamination from the wreckage and protected it from weathering. The confinement shelter also provided radiological protection for the crews of the undamaged reactors at the site, which were restarted in late 1986 and 1987. However, this containment structure was only intended to last for 30 years, and required considerable reinforcement in the early 2000s. The Shelter was heavily supplemented in 2017 by the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, which was constructed around the old structure. This larger enclosure aims to enable the removal of both the sarcophagus and the reactor debris while containing the radioactive materials inside. Clean-up is scheduled for completion by 2065.[14]

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Patau syndrome is a syndrome caused by a chromosomal abnormality, in which some or all of the cells of the body contain extra genetic material from chromosome 13. The extra genetic material disrupts normal development, causing multiple and complex organ defects.

This can occur either because each cell contains a full extra copy of chromosome 13 (a disorder known as trisomy 13 or trisomy D or T13[1]), or because each cell contains an extra partial copy of the chromosome, or because there are two different lines of cells—one healthy with the correct number of chromosomes 13 and one that contains an extra copy of the chromosome—mosaic Patau syndrome. Full trisomy 13 is caused by nondisjunction of chromosomes during meiosis (the mosaic form is caused by nondisjunction during mitosis).

Like all nondisjunction conditions (such as Down syndrome and Edwards syndrome), the risk of this syndrome in the offspring increases with maternal age at pregnancy, with about 31 years being the average.[2] Patau syndrome affects somewhere between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 21,700 live births.[3]

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Mirrored-self misidentification is the delusional belief that one's reflection in the mirror is another person – typically a younger or second version of one's self, a stranger, or a relative.[1] This delusion occurs most frequently in patients with dementia[2] and an affected patient maintains the ability to recognize others' reflections in the mirror.[3] It is caused by right hemisphere cranial dysfunction that results from traumatic brain injury, stroke, or general neurological illness.[4] It is an example of a monothematic delusion, a condition in which all abnormal beliefs have one common theme, as opposed to a polythematic delusion, in which a variety of unrelated delusional beliefs exist.[1] This delusion is also classified as one of the delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS).[4] A patient with a DMS condition consistently misidentifies places, objects, persons, or events.[4] DMS patients are not aware of their psychological condition, are resistant to correction and their conditions are associated with brain disease – particularly right hemisphere brain damage and dysfunction.[5]

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The syndrome of subjective doubles is a rare delusional misidentification syndrome in which a person experiences the delusion that they have a double or Doppelgänger with the same appearance, but usually with different character traits, that is leading a life of its own.[1][2] The syndrome is also called the syndrome of doubles of the self,[3] delusion of subjective doubles,[1] or simply subjective doubles.[4] Sometimes, the patient is under the impression that there is more than one double.[1] A double may be projected onto any person, from a stranger to a family member.[4]

This syndrome is often diagnosed during or after the onset of another mental disorder, such as schizophrenia or other disorders involving psychotic hallucinations.[5] There is no widely accepted method of treatment, as most patients require individualized therapy. The prevalence of this disease is relatively low, as few cases have been reported since the disease was defined in 1978 by George Nikolaos Christodoulou (b.1935), a Greek-American Psychiatrist.[5][6] However, subjective doubles is not clearly defined in literature,[7] and therefore may be under-reported.[5]

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The Macdonald triad (also known as the triad of sociopathy or the homicidal triad) is a set of three factors, the presence of any two of which are considered to be predictive of, or associated with, violent tendencies, particularly with relation to serial offenses. The triad was first proposed by psychiatrist J. M. Macdonald in "The Threat to Kill", a 1963 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry.[1] Small-scale studies conducted by psychiatrists Daniel Hellman and Nathan Blackman, and then FBI agents John E. Douglas and Robert K. Ressler along with Ann Burgess, claimed substantial evidence for the association of these childhood patterns with later predatory behavior.[2] Although it remains an influential and widely taught hypothesis, subsequent research has generally not validated this line of thinking.[3][4]

The triad links cruelty to animals, obsession with fire-setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five, to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior and sexually predatory behavior.[5] However, other studies claim to have not found statistically significant links between the triad and violent offenders.

Further studies have suggested that these behaviors are actually more linked to childhood experience of parental neglect, brutality, or abuse. Some argue this in turn results in "homicidal proneness."[6] The "triad" concept as a particular combination of behaviors linked to violence may not have any particular validity, however, and it has been called an urban legend.[7]