In the shadow of the news: 1940's US syphilis experiments on humans

Guatemalans subjected to U.S. syphilis experiments in the 1940s are suing federal health officials to compensate them for health problems they have suffered.

The lawsuit comes after revelations that U.S. scientists studying the effects of penicillin in the 1940s deliberately infected about 700 Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients, soldiers and orphans. None was informed or gave consent. (...)

The Guatemalan experiments were hidden for decades, until a medical historian uncovered the records in 2009. (Source)

Why does this remind me of the experiments on humans another nation did around the 1940's?

Guess the earlier US apology did not help.


Cartoon courtesy Indiana University

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Picture of the day: Ash anyone?

Another link sent in by Juan, one or our readers in Guatemala, testifying of the past two weeks and how rough it has been: first they had to deal with a volcanic eruption and the subsequent ash fall. Then Tropical Storm Agatha, the first of the season, washed away bridges and filled some villages with mud. (More foto's)

Picture courtesy Reuters/Daniel LeClair

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A hole in my bucket, eh city...

The Guatemala City "sinkhole", about 60 feet (18 meters) wide and 300 feet (100 meters) deep, swallowed a three story building in an almost perfect cylindrical hole. A burst sewer pipe or storm drain probably hollowed out the underground cavity that allowed an underground cavity to form.

The hole appears to have been caused by the deluge from tropical storm Agatha blocking sewerage pipes. Spill water gushed away the underground. Guatemala city is built in a region where the first few hundred meters of ground are mostly made up of a material called pumice fill, deposited during past volcanic eruptions. And just like loose gravel can be washed away by water, so was the underground in this spot. (Full)

With thanks to Juan for the tip.
Picture courtesy Paulo Raquec, National Geographic.

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