Product Description

Russ Kick has proved himself a master at uncovering facts that "they" would prefer you never hear about. The giant Disinformation Guide series edited by Kick has become the definitive place to find revelations about government cover-ups, scientific scams, corporate crimes, medical malfeasance, historical whitewashes, media manipulation, and other knock-your-socks-off secrets and lies. This CD-sized book packs the same powerful punch in a small, attractive package. Among Kick's amazing discoveries, all thoroughly documented:

The first genetically modified humans have already been born.
Hitler's blood relatives are living in the U.S.
The CIA commits over 100,000 serious crimes per year.
The U.S. planned to explode an atomic bomb on the moon.
An atomic bomb was dropped on North Carolina.
The main hero of the movie Black Hawk Down is a convicted child molester.
The discoverer of HIV no longer believes the virus is the sole cause of AIDS.
Kent State wasn't the only massacre of U.S. college students during the Vietnam era.
Lincoln didn't free any slaves.

A uniquely valuable tool to debunk modern mythology and the people and institutions serving it up, 50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know makes an amazing gift item and will prove just as essential in fashionable bathrooms as on the most well-heeled coffee tables.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149812 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780971394285
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"An assortment of little known facts in a bite-size format ... most readers will find [it] provocative." -- Time Out New York, Nov 27-Dec 4, 2003

"full of things "they" don't want you to know" -- New York Times, Nov. 13, 2003

About the Author
Russ Kick is the all-star editor of five previous Disinformation Guides and three Disinformation books. He has been labeled as an "information archaeologist" by the New York Times in a major profile. He runs the popular blog TheMemoryHole.org and is well known for his intelligent and successful FOIA requests and unveilings.

Customer Reviews

Decent bathroom reading.
If you're looking for earth-shattering news, this is not the book for you. While there were a couple of eye openers, most of the information is well known if you've kept up on current events.
Some information is noteworthy. The fact that people are killed or injured from prescription medication is not news. Tragic? Yes, but it's not a secret. It is something that has been studied and needs to be addressed.
Some information is pointless. Carl Sagan was a pothead? Why am I not supposed to know that? More importantly, what's the significance of that? Drug and alcohol use is hardly a rarity among great thinkers.
Some information is questionable. Someone in the goverment considered biological warfare in Afghanistan? I'd be surprised if someone didn't at least think of that. Creativity is not bad in itself, but the execution of the idea may be. Considering that Rumsfeld and Rice put the kibosh on the idea, I'd say the government acted correctly, and thus, no shocker here.
There are definitely a few winners in here. Not a great book, but okay to have in the bathroom for some short reads.

Little facts more people should know
No, it's not a book that's majorly in-depth, and it won't reveal anything new to anyone at all seriously interested in things the mainstream media doesn't tend to tell us, because they'll know most of the facts already. But that isn't really the point of the book, is it? It's 50 things that most people - the most people who mostly get their information from the mainstream media, that most people - don't know about.

And some of them are pretty darn important. Like the US making plans to provoke terrorist attacks as part of the war on terrorism; juries right to judge the law, not just the fact; the obligation (or rather non-obligation) of the police; medical error and prescription drug death rates (amazingly high).

Other facts are more amusing and interesting than they are important, but even the entries that seemed rather obvious to me (the rather duh fact that advertisers exercise massive control over the media, for instance) contained interesting figures, facts and research.

If you've already read up on these kinds of topics, this book isn't going to add anything much to your knowledge. But it's a great little book to have sitting in your bathroom or on a table in a waiting room for other people to leaf through!

A Fun Romp through the World of "Secrets"
Russ Kick has written a fun little book that combines the "truthiness" of tabloid journalism with paranoid conspiracy theory in 50 little bite-size chunks. It's a blast to read if you don't take it too seriously.

Some of the "secrets" disclosed in Kick's book are pretty tame and obvious. For example, some African-Americans did indeed fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The Germans did use IBM computers to keep track of many concentration camp inmates. And of course, the government is known to lie, dissemble and distort the facts about just about anything when the political pressure is on.

On the other hand, Kick himself is way off base on several counts. His technique is pretty easy to decipher: Take a little known fact from the history books and blow it up into a massive "revelation" meant to shock and astound the reader. Examples include:

-- The police aren't legally obligated to protect you
-- The Supreme Court is wishy-washy on the use of illegal drugs
-- Many early feminists opposed abortion (for different reasons)
-- One of the Popes wrote an erotic book
-- Some environmentalists strongly support nuclear power

When you really dig into the details, you'll find that most of these claims either half-truths or overly inflated trivia. Nevertheless, "50 Things" is a great conversation starter and you can read the entire book in about an hour. Good for grins, if nothing else.