Tuesday, August 31, 2021

The Axumin Scan I Have To Get Today - And Why Thousands More Men May Need One

One patient's results following an axumin PET scan

 Following a visit to the urologist's last week, a number of in- office tests were made, including an ultra sound to detect bladder retention of urine.  (It's well known that voiding issues are a recognized sign of prostate cancer).  None of the tests, however, delivered an unambiguous reason for why my last PSA (in May) had shot up to 8.7.   

Stumped,  the urologist suspected prostate cancer  "mets" (metastases) might be involved. Thus he ordered what's called an axumin positron emission tomography scan to be done - scheduled for this afternoon.  These fun facts were found at one (Boston U.) website.

 Axumin is indicated for Positron Emission Tomography—Computed Tomography (PET/CT) imaging in men with suspected prostate cancer recurrence based on elevated blood prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels following prior treatment. The higher the PSA, the more sensitive the test (>2 is best). Axumin PET CT is a new and valuable tool in managing the treatment of prostate cancer. 

 Patients with suspected prostate cancer recurrence make the best  candidates.. The patient has been diagnosed and treated but now has a rise in PSA. Axumin is most sensitive in patients with a PSA of 2.0 or higher but still valuable below 2.0. Axumin is also effective in cases with a high doubling rate.

Axumin PET CT can detect tumor recurrence in the treated prostate bed as well as local and distant lymph node and bone involvement. This helps the clinician determine the proper treatment.  

Axumin PET CT is less sensitive for recurrent tumor detection in patients with a PSA level below 2ng/ml. If the PSA is above 2ng/ml, the detection rate of tumor recurrence is 91.7%. If the PSA is less than 1, the detection rate is 37.5%. Axumin may not accumulate in densely sclerotic bone metastases, so careful review of the CT images is necessary. In addition, a supplemental radionuclide bone scan may be necessary. Axumin uptake can be detected in benign prostatic hypertrophy nodules in residual prostate tissue. 

 Patients need to fast for four (4) hours. Scans begin 3 to 5 minutes post injection. Scans last 20 to 30 minutes. Patients lie on their back with arms above the head. It is critical that patients are on time for their appointment as Axumin (like FDG) has a short expiration. 

The main component in the scan is the use of a radioactive tracer, 18- F -Fluciclovine, details for which can be found on this radiographic site:

Review of 18F-Fluciclovine PET for Detection of Recurrent Prostate Cancer | RadioGraphics (rsna.org)

Basically, the patient gets the injection and the scanning commences in 5-7 mins.  The whole scanning procedure lasts from 40-45 minutes.  The tech who called to remind me of the appointment just a half hour ago said that after the intravenous injection drip was in place she'd begin taking images shortly thereafter.  

 Given the powerful resolution of this tool in detecting mets, there is little doubt it's going to be ever more widely prescribed by oncologists, urologists.  Since significantly more men are seeing their PSAs rise after treatment (biochemical recurrence) as well as failure of  followup (salvage )therapy - I'd expect thousands more to have this scan done in the next few years.

What happens if a bone met is found?  Well, the urologist indicated 1-5 would need treatment.  He said he will advise use of targeted stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) along with 6 months of Lupron.  (The Lupron addend went out by yesterday p.m. when he phoned to report the in-office blood test showed a whopping low testosterone level of 105 - when 294 is the baseline.  Since it's already low it doesn't make sense to involve Lupron to make it lower.)    

Still, he is setting up another appointment with an oncologist to also discuss that as well as another issue, why the hematocrit part of the blood panel is so high - at 63. This could be part of why I've been suffering with low oxygen the past four months (readings of typically 77- 86% on the pulse oximeter) or very near Covid territory.  Thus, the red blood cells are trying to "make up" for what the lungs can't do.  (Though I am now somewhat better after using an oxygen concentrator  machine every night.)

As I noted in a previous post these oxygen issues are likely due to the lung condition known as bronchiectasis. This was detected in an earlier CT scan. See e.g.


Monday, August 30, 2021

Newsflash! Sirhan Sirhan Was Another Patsy - So Kennedys Are Correct To Approve His Parole

 Sirhan B. Sirhan was accused of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy in June, 1968.   But one of the mysteries surrounding that awful event - if unofficial records can be believed  - is why the shells and impacts recovered in that Ambassador Hotel kitchen  passage way exceeded the shots purportedly fired by his pistol.

A likely culprit is Robert Maheu - who would have had access to the CIA’s experiments in hypnosis and mind control, which were being conducted at the time in California and elsewhere. That would have enabled him to frame Sirhan Sirhan as a patsy for the slaying of Kennedy, while other gunmen actually fired the fatal shots.   This has been argued by long time Kennedy assassination researcher  Lisa Pease, who spent 25 years researching her book, “A Lie Too Big to Fail."

So before anyone blows a brain gasket and goes ape shit considering this possibility, I strongly suggest they read Lisa's book.   As a primer they may also wish to get hold of Philip Nelson's masterful 'Who Really Killed Martin Luther King Jr.: The Case Against Lyndon B. Johnson And J. Edgar Hoover'.

On p. 82, we learn of Hoover's "planning list" in which he had listed three sets of initials:

JFK

RFK

MLK

The significance?  

"Nothing in the way of planning on the remaining subjects could be started until the first priority was complete: The assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Only when that was done could the remaining actions be put into the gristmill of street-level planning.  After the first target was eliminated in November, 1963, the next two were moved up to the top of the list, and the two men (LBJ and Hoover) whose cooperation in many hidden areas had been underway for two decades, reached a common goal. 

Johnson and Hoover undoubtedly agreed that the next subjects would be planned jointly and simultaneously, because they both knew that time was limited and the plans for each would require long lead times. "

The basis for the above was exposed based on research by author William Pepper,  tracking down Hoover's  communication of his hit list - conveyed to partner Clyde Tolson then to big mouth Sen. Joseph McCarthy - who was to confidentially convey it Russel Adkins.  Clearly, McCarthy was the weak link in the chain in terms of secrecy.  

Beyond that, Nelson shows clearly how Johnson and Hoover worked in concert to nail the other two targets after they took out JFK.  The key thing with Martin Luther King was to get him to come to Memphis where a SOG hit team could take him out at the Lorraine Motel.  To this end Clyde Tolson was instructed to "make it happen in Memphis".  So it was decided to enlist the help of Memphis mayor Henry Loeb III to "use the city's garbage workers as a catalyst."  Further (p. 83):

"It had to be carefully designed to ensure the target was exactly where they wanted him to be, at the point where the plans and logistics - the men and their equipment - would all be in place. Every contingency would have to be anticipated down to the point of having the patsy - James Earl Ray - on site and ready to be shot and killed, but with a backup plan in place if he wasn't."

Given the scenario worked - but not entirely as planned (Ray wasn't killed but escaped, only arrested later)-   it was clear Hoover and Johnson recognized the need for a patsy in every hit. Hence the need to find one for RFK too. 

In this latter case, researcher Lisa Pease's efforts are stellar in exposing the warp and woof of how the RFK hit likely went down based on detailed physical findings (e.g. the bullet holes in the Ambassador Hotel kitchen pantry's walls) to the testimony of numerous witnesses. As Pease aptly put it in her second major book ('The Assassinations'), co-written with long time JFK researcher James Di Eugenio (p. 545):

"Those who wish to refute the evidence of conspiracy in this case just choose to ignore statements such as those given to the LAPD."

Some of those include (ibid.):

"The guy with the gun could have left. No one seemed to be paying any attention." - Darnell Johnson, 7/24/ 68

"My god, he had a gun and we let him go by." - Joseph Klein referring to a man leaving pantry in a hurry while Sirhan was being subdued.

"We had reports from two of the eyewitnesses that there were two assailants involved."-  Larry Scheer, live broadcast footage from 6/5/68

Even more suspicious, as Ms. Pease notes, the recovered bullet fragments were improperly entered into the evidence log.  Nor could this merely be attributed to carelessness.  For example, the likely lethal 6 x 3 x 2 mm fragment found in Kennedy's head- saw no mention of recovery. Slides were taken but nowhere in the autopsy report does it state who took them or booked them into evidence.  Stranger still, items 13-27 are listed on one page - but items 24, 25 are absent. (The number of the item booked immediately after 23 is 26). In addition, the handwriting changes drastically.  According to Ms. Pease, "it looked like the numbers 26 and 27 were added over previous numbers that were partially whited out."

Pease goes on to question why the numbers of the actual evidence vials and tags were changed.  Also, why were photos of another doctor (George Clayton) booked into evidence instead of items 24, 25? What was so important about the photos it necessitated reordering the evidence the evidence log? Or, was the purpose to hide the bullet evidence related to the only fatal wound?

These contradictions and divergences bear a disturbing resemblance to the confusion that accompanied the JFK autopsy at Bethesda.  For example, the original autopsy notes of Dr. J.J. Humes were burned.  JFK's brain (remnant) disappeared during the autopsy and up to now has not been recovered. A "special" bullet, designated CE 399 - was deemed to have caused all 7 wounds on Connally and JFK -  despite clear evidence this was impossible. 

Neutron activation analysis showed separate bullet fragments different in composition from CE399, also that CE399 had likely never been fired into bone mass.  In the words of Dr. Robert Shaw, Connally's doctor:

"I am sure the bullet that hit Governor Connally was fragmented much more than this bullet shows."

Indeed. And tests conducted by the Warren Commission itself - using similar bullets, even fired into wads of cotton - showed more deformity than did CE 399.   Further, the initial draft of the autopsy report  (signed by Dr. George Burkeley) stated:

“A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder to the right of the spine."

But Warren Commissioner Gerald Ford altered it to read:

“A bullet had entered the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine."


Clearly, Ford wanted the document to conform with the single bullet myth - validating the spurious exhibit CE 333-  and would stoop to altering a document on record to attain the goal.

 As in the case of the JFK hit, both LBJ and Hoover bet on a chaos and confusion aftermath muddying the waters and diluting any effort to identify a conspiracy.  It also appears they "helped" things along at critical points, such as the autopsies.  Basically it worked given 9 of 10 'Muricans are convinced Sirhan B. Sirhan killed Bobby. But given the patsy template this is no longer a viable takeaway - especially given Hoover's initial planning list. 

Sirhan himself has insisted he didn’t remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his conviction, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

Robert Kennedy was a  U.S. senator from New York at the time seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down  moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Five others were wounded.

California’s parole board voted Friday to free Sirhan after two of RFK’s sons said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if he’s not a threat to others.  As he relate to the Board:

“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face. I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spoken in favor of Sirhan’s release in the past and met with him in prison, wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan.  He also is one of the few convinced that Sirhan was not the assassin.  (See last link) 

In the end governor Gavin Newsome will have final  say on whether Sirhan gets parole. Alas for Sirhan, Newsome is trapped in a political vice spawned by the idiotic recall vote - to take place on Sept. 14th.  There is very little chance Newsome will want to risk his future by letting RFK's alleged assassin go free - thereby triggering yet another media and right wing meltdown just before the vote. Just my 0.02.

 “A Lie Too Big to Fail"  - for those interested-   is also available as a pdf, downloadable file.

See Also:

Sirhan Sirhan's Lawyers Say He Was A 'Hypnotized' Patsy Who Didn't Kill Robert Kennedy - The Atlantic


AND:

Who killed Bobby Kennedy? His son, RFK Jr., doesn't believe it was Sirhan Sirhan

Saturday, August 28, 2021

National Psychosis and Limitless Stupidity On Afghanistan - A Long Overdue Guest Perspective.

Posted here in entirety:

Afghanistan, Cable News, Psychoses, Hyperpartisanship and Limitless Stupidity
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by P.M. Carpenter | August 28, 2021 - 7:17am

I hadn't watched so much cable news since 9/11. Now I hope to make it another 20 years of CableLite. The most appalling and concentrated bullshit rained from the airwaves and onto our screens yesterday as unmistakable symptoms of America's rolling crackup — a national display of soulless psychoses mixed with poisonous partisanship seasoned with extraordinary stupidity, ignorance and every imaginable flavor of sheer pixilation.

Before me were elected officeholders, former public officials, military veterans and national security "analysts" pounding their Zoom tables and calling for a rejuvenation of the very hellhole of 20 years from which President Biden was finally extricating us.

The hysteria, as hysteria is wont to be, was nuts: calls for an abrupt cancellation of the withdrawal timeline; more Marines to expand Kabul airport's defensive perimeter; the reoccupation of the Bagram airbase; a landing of the 101st Airborne; an American-manned hunt for IS-K terrorists; necessarily massive redeployments to secure every last American and every last ally anywhere in Afghanistan. Essentially, a whole new war.

The number of the "stranded" and "Biden-abandoned," which last week was somewhere around 60,000, grew over the last few days to 90,000, then to 120,000, and by yesterday the number on cable news had grown to hundreds of thousands. Hysteria inflation.

Reports on two suicide bombings that killed 13 American troops swiftly morphed into screaming chyrons announcing that "President Biden has blood on his hands," though cable commentators wanted his head. Team Biden had warned of such bombings in Kabul's highest-risk areas, unlike the Bush administration's indifference to hijacked-airliner warnings that would kill 3,000, or Trump's knowing indifference to a global plague that would kill more than 600,000 Americans. By this morning the Washington Examiner, in full cable-news mode, would declare the war deaths of "at least 12 U.S. service members" to be "a historic catastrophe." 

Throughout yesterday members of the Trump Party were demanding Biden's resignation, of course; that, or the president and vice president should "face impeachment and removal from office." Notes the Washington Post: "It’s now increasingly clear [that] if Republicans win the House majority" — and they will, because they're stealing it — "Biden is very likely to be impeached." And there you have it: a leading cable-news story for the next year and a half; a further unfolding of America's psychotic, partisan meltdown.

By yesterday's end I had decided against sound judgment to catch a minute of Chris Cuomo's CNN program, in which Chris himself was keenly advising Joe to just make everything peachy. There also sat as a guest the normally sane, usually reasonable military veterans advocate Paul Rieckhoff, now asserting with seeming earnestness that President Biden's sole responsibility Thursday was "to ensure that every one of our service members is safe." In a war zone. No dangers, no potential loss of life in a Taliban-ISIS-infested perimeter.

That's when I clicked off, clutching strands of my vanishing hair. I've yet to decide if today I'll click back on. If I do, I shall be chemically fortified, I think. No one should go unarmed into cable news' hell of soulless psychoses, poisonous partisanship and extraordinary stupidity.


See Also:

by Alex Henderson | August 28, 2021 - 6:49am | permalink

— from Alternet


Excerpt:

Far-right Republicans have a long history of freaking out if one dares to suggest that violent White nationalism and White supremacy pose as great a terrorist threat to the United States as radical Islamists, let alone saying that they are an even greater threat. But facts are stubborn things, and the fact is that violent White nationalists and White supremacists have committed one terrorist attack after another in recent years — from the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building to a horrific plot to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the anti-Latino massacre inside an El Paso, Texas Walmart in August 2019.

Wingnuts at Fox took notice when journalist David Rothkopf described the MAGA movement and White nationalism as more dangerous to the U.S. than the Taliban or Al Qaeda, but in a biting op-ed published by the Daily Beast on August 26, Rothkopf doesn't back down and stands by his argument

AND:

by P.M. Carpenter | August 29, 2021 - 6:34am | permalink

Excerpt:

If you're looking for evidence of mounting, hawkish cynicism behind one national publication's declaration that the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in Kabul was a "historic catastrophe," look no further than Paul Wolfowitz's Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning.

He too notes the "terrible recent events in Afghanistan." The deaths that occurred "will hang like a dark cloud over the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of 9/11," writes George Bush's infamous deputy defense secretary.

But wait, was that number of U.S. deaths really so "terrible" — so "catastrophic" — in Wolfowitz's eyes? Turns out, no, not at all. For later he writes that had Americans "been told that U.S. combat deaths had been averaging around 20 a year since we switched to a largely advisory mission in 2015," well, we probably would have been fine with that. "[We] would have seen those 20 years of human and financial costs in a different light."

Solutions to GRE Physics Problems (Set 2)

 1) This solution can be treated classically since 6 x 106 m/s is much less than c, the speed of light. Thus:


dv/dt = a and upon integration:

v - v(o) = at

and dx/dt = v

Integrating a second time one obtains:

x - x(o) = v(o)t + ½ at2

Now: a = -1.2 x 1014 m/s/s

v(o) = 6 x 10 m/s and the final velocity is: v(f) = 0

So: v(f) - v(o) = at = 0 - 6 x 106 m/s = (-1.2 x 1014 m/s/s) t

whence: t = [0 - 6 x 106 m/s ] / (-1.2 x 1014 m/s/s)

t = 5 x 10-8 sec

Now: x(f) - x(o) = v(o)t + ½ at2

= (6 x 106 m/s)(5 x 10-8 sec) - ½((-1.2 x 1014 m/s/s)(5 x 10-8 sec)2

x(f) - x(o) = 0.15 m = 15 cm

2) By Newton's law of universal gravitation, the force between the two masses is:

GMm /r2

From the integration of the above the potential energy can be obtained as: -(GMm/R) and the kinetic energy as KE = GMm/2R.

let d = 2R then the total KE available is:

GMm/d

Now: Momentum must also be conserved so (assuming conservation of linear momentum along the line of action):

mv(m) = M v(M)

But: KE = ½ [mv(m)2 + M v(M)2] = GMm/d


Using algebra:

v(M)2[1 + M/m] = 2GM/d and

v(m)2 + v(M)2 + (m/M)v(m)2 + (M/m)v(M)2= 2G/d{M + m}

v(m)2 + v(M)2 = 2G/d (M + m)


Therefore: v R  =  [2G/d (M + m)]`1/2

3) We define current as the rate at which charge flows, thus:


I = dQ/ dt so dQ = I dt, or Q = It

since I = 5 A (amps) = 5 coulombs/sec

then for 4 minutes (= 4 x 60 sec = 240 secs):

Q = 5 coulombs/sec (240 sec)
= 1200 coulombs


4) The effective value of a sinusoidal emf is its root mean square value, defined:

v(eff)2 = v(rms)2 =   [v(max)2 sin wt dt] T = ½ v(max)2

(integrated from 0 to t)

so v(eff) = [½ v(max)2]1/2 = 1/ [2]1/2 (v(max)) or

v(eff) = Ö 2  (v(max)) / 2


5) Potential difference is the work needed to move a test charge (q) from point A to B, or:

V = W/q

In this case, W = 2 J and q = 20 C, so:

V = 2J/ 20 C = 0.1 Volt


6) For a parallel plate capacitor,

C = k k(o) A/ d

where k(o) = 1 for air, and k is the relative dielectric constant: or

k = k(mica) k(o) = 6 k(o) = 6

Then C(mica) = 6 (15 m mF) = 90 m m F

(A/d is the same in each case)


7) The charge on the electron, q = 1.602 x 10-19 C

Again, from Problem #18, the current is charge moved per unit time:

I = dQ/ dt

In this case, since the angular frequency is the key information given, and it is related to time via:

 w = 1/T

then:

I = q w = (1.602 x 10-19 C) (6.6 x 1015 /sec)

I = 1.05 x 10-3 amp, or I = 0.00105 A



8) For a plane mirror the applicable law of geometrical optics is that the image appears to be as far behind the mirror as the object is in front. Therefore, one's eyes must be focused to a distance of 40 cm.

9) We apply the
 lens makers' formula here, see e.ghttp://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/06/introduction-to-basic-physics-thin.html:

1/ f = (n - 1) [1/r1 - 1/r2]

where f is the focal length of the convex lens (to be found)

n = 1.65 (the refractive index) and r1 = 40 cm

then r2 = -40 cm (recall for convex lenses, r2 = -r1)

Then:

1/f = (1.65 - 1) [1/40 cm - (1/ -40cm)]

1/f = 0.65/ 20 cm

So: f = 20 cm/ 0.65 = 31 cm


10) In this nuclear reaction, the charge and nucleons must be conserved, meaning that the upper index total on the right side must be equal the upper index total on the left, plus the lower number on the right must be equal to the sum of lower numbers on the left. The only one which fits this is (D)
8 O 17.

11) Here, we use the relativistic form for the kinetic energy:

K= Mc2    -  M(o)c2

We are given the rest mass is 106 MeV so M(o)c2 = 106 MeV

We also have: K = 4 MeV, then:

Mc2 = K + M(o)c2 = 4 MeV + 106 MeV = 110 MeV

We also know:

M = M(o)/ [1 - (v/c)2)]1/2

But K = M(o)c2 [1/ (1 - (v/c)2)]1/2) - 1]

Therefore (with some algebraic working):

(v/c) = 0.28

or

v = 0.28c = 84,000 km/sec

12) The system depicted in the graphic below  is the one used for solution here.


The Lagrangian is the difference between kinetic and potential energies:

L = T - V

And from the system:

T = ½ m1v12 + ½m2v22 = ½ (m1 + m2)x' 2

V = (m1 x - m2 x) g

So:

L = ½ (m1 + m2)x' 2 - (m1 x - m2 x)g

= ½ (m1 + m2)x' 2 + (m2 x - m1 x)g


13) Applying force balance:

m2 g - T = m2 a

and:

m1 g - T = -m1a

(where T is the tension in the string.)

so: Using algebra to solve the simultaneous equation:


m1 m2 g - m1 T = m1 m2 a

m1m2 g - m2T = -m1m2 a
----------------------------

2 m1m2g - (m1 + m2) T = 0


and T = (2 m1m2 g) / (m1 + m2)

14) The efficiency of a Carnot cycle engine is:

e = 1 - Q(R) / Q(W)

where Q(R) denotes the heat returned to a reservoir at T2, and Q(W) is the heat withdrawn from a reservoir at T1.

Then:

Q(R)/ Q(W) = T2 / T1

and

e = 1 - Q(R) / Q(W) = 1 - (T2/T1)


15) From the quantum principle for the total angular momentum:

L = L1 + L2........[L1 - L2]

Thus:

L = 5, 4, 3, 2, 1