Saruman and Stalin both start with "S"...

Interesting tidbit on the Bioethics.net blog referring to this article about Stalin and his plan to create half-human/half-chimpanzee warriors:

"A SECRET plan to create hordes of half-man half-ape super-warriors to conquer the rest of world has been uncovered in Moscow.

If successful, the plan would have seen humans and chimpanzees cross-breeding to create a new race of "living war machines", which ignored pain and fear and which thrived on hardship."

It didn't work with the technology available to Stalin, but with the expanding knowledge of cellular mechanics and etc, one might pause to ponder the future.

Makes half-orcian Uruk-Hai look plausible. Does life imitate art, or art, life, one wonders?

mary