…and my Dolphins, who got me so incredibly jazzed after their first week’s incredibly strong showing, lose incredibly badly to the Buffalo Bills.
All is apparently right in the world.
Category Archives: General
Jack the Ripper…unmasked?
Easily one of the most notorious -and first to gain notoriety- serial killers was Jack the Ripper. Though his identity remains unknown even today, yesterday a new claim was made as to who this barbaric killer might have been. You can read all about it here:
Many have pointed out the fact that this article comes from The Daily Mail (apparently not a very reliable “news” source) and that the person behind this claim is also (not so coincidentally) releasing a book to promote his views as reasons to be highly skeptical of the claims.
But even looking at them with as much neutrality as possible, one has to be impressed with at least one aspect of this new claim: The use of DNA testing in identifying a potential suspect.
If you don’t want to read through the article (though I recommend you do), the bottom line is that a shawl supposedly owned by Catherine Eddowes and taken from her by a policeman after she was found dead -a victim of Jack the Ripper-, was handed down over the years only to wind up with businessman Russell Edwards. The shawl was then tested for DNA.
Through this DNA testing and subsequent testing of distant relatives of one Aaron Kosminski, a match was made regarding material found on the shawl. Mr. Kosminski, it appears, left behind DNA traces on the murder victim’s shawl, probably in the form of semen, and that links him to this victim’s item. What makes this all the more fascinating is that the police back then viewed Mr. Kosminski as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders!
Anyway, I find the whole thing fascinating though I don’t believe it positively answers the question as to whether Kosminski was the Ripper. Even taking everything the article has at face value, what we ultimately have is Kosminski linked to a shawl that a victim and known prostitute had on her when she died. Kosminski could well be the Ripper, but he could have also been nothing more than a “client” of the victim. For all we know, he might have met her days, even weeks before she was eventually slain and this is how his DNA wound up on her shawl.
Still, the fact that we’ve been able, after all these years, to link one person, and this person in particular, to one of the Ripper victims is fascinating, though grim, stuff.
Craziest Items Seized by the TSA…
…and there are some mighty crazy items!
http://www.weather.com/travel/craziest-items-seized-tsa-20130319
Its infuriating to see all those live, and often endangered, animals found among the seized articles, but even more scary are the various concealed weapons. One can’t help but think with some of them (the razor blade, the pocket knife concealed in a container of potato chips!) that the person trying to smuggle them into the airplane had some weird notions about what s/he was going to do with the items.
Chilling.
Whodathunkit?!
My Miami Dolphins defeat The New England Patriots 33-20 on opening day?!?!
This after three horrific consecutive offensive series in the first half by the Dolphins that ended with turnovers?!?!
Color me amazed.
Yes, it is the first game in what will be a loooong season. And, yes, the first half performance by the Dolphins was worrying. And yes, Dolphin Quarterback Ryan Tannenhill’s accuracy was wobbly. And yes, finally, it appeared the Florida heat really got to the New England players in the second half.
And yet, this is the first time in a very long time that the Dolphins put an opponent of such quality away well well before the final minutes of play. It is the first time in a long time I’ve seen them rack up 23 points in their comeback win, all during the second half, while their opponent could do almost literally nothing.
We’ll see what happens next, but for today, and after way too, too many years of mediocrity or worse, I’m happy to be a Dolphin fan! 😉
A topic sure to inflame passions…
From author Valerie Tarico for Salon.com, 5 Reasons to Suspect that Jesus Never Existed:
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/01/5-reasons-to-suspect-that-jesus-never-existed/
I’ve heard variations of most of the reasons before and, while I am willing to believe there might well have been someone (or a couple of someones!) that served as the inspiration for what would be the Jesus of the Bible, I tend to think the person in the Bible may well be more fabrication than reality.
Why?
Mainly for what is outlined in the very first of the five reasons: Secular and Pagan texts written concurrently to Jesus’ lifetime make no mention of him and this, to me, is not a small matter.
I could go into more detail but I suspect those who believe will continue to do so despite whatever clumsy material I offer and, frankly, I have no problem with those who do.
Still, it is a fascinating -though incendiary!- topic.
The Truth about Extraterrestrials…
…Will We Ever Discover Intelligent Life in the Universe?
Fascinating article (the first of a promised two) by Caleb A. Scharf and presented on Salon.com.
I found the two answers to the above (and below) question are incredibly insightful even as they are brief and cut to the core:
Do you think we’re alone in the universe?
Answer A) : No, absolutely not. It’s a huge universe, we’re not at the center or central in any way and it would be the height of vanity to think humans or Earth are in any way special or significant.
Answer B): We might be. There’s never been any firm evidence of extraterrestrial life, and our galaxy is old enough that intelligent civilizations should have spread everywhere by now.
If you find that interesting, read the rest of the article. Fascinating stuff!
10 Most Gruesome Torture Techniques…
…From Medieval Europe:
http://io9.com/the-10-most-gruesome-torture-techniques-from-medieval-e-1626942115
I’ve seen bits and pieces of information regarding the “creative” torture techniques from the Middle Ages and before. While we live in far more enlightened times today, it is truly scary to see how incredibly sadistic humans can be.
Today, the death penalty is a controversial subject, no more so than most recently when the so called “execution” drugs have been harder and harder to find and some prison officials seem to be perfectly fine with the idea of experimenting with unknown medications to kill someone.
Yet looking over the above website, the word “gruesome” comes again and again and I certainly couldn’t help but feel for the many people who fell into these torture devices, some of which kept their victims alive but in extreme agony for days.
Hopefully, we’ll never return to anything resembling this…
Let’s hope, anyway.
What do you have in your attic?
Me? Not much more than dust.
Yet the appeal of PBS’ Antiques Roadshow hits a cord. It’s part history, part treasure hunt and works on the notion that anyone may have something valuable and/or historical buried away in their home. In the following case, involving some very rare baseball cards, the result was quite eye-opening:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/11/antiques-roadshow-baseball_n_5669247.html
Maybe I’ll take another look up in the ol’ attic… 😉
Wow…
…Israel invading Gaza, the taking down of the Malaysian airliner and loss of all aboard, Microsoft cutting 18,000 jobs…
A trifecta of absolutely terrible news. It was like the world threw up on itself (though I could think of more colorful metaphors) yesterday.
Here’s hoping today isn’t quite so grim.
Worst fast-food burger?!
Over on Salon.com you can find this article by Allegra Kirkland concerning the above topic.
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/09/which-fast-food-chain-makes-the-worst-burger-in-the-u-s-partner/
While perhaps giving the whole article away, toward the end of it they offer the following chart from Consumer Reports which lists the “Best” to “Worst” fast food burgers, as well as Chicken, Burritos, and Sandwiches/Subs:
I find the above chart a fascinating read as the more “popular” or well-known fast food restaurants appear to fall toward the end of each list. Least tasty burger? McDonalds. Least tasty chicken? KFC. Second least tasty sandwich/sub? Subway. Least tasty burritos? Taco Bell.
Pretty much hits all the biggest chain names, right?
As for my own preferences towards burgers…well…I really don’t like the “big three” chains all that much. Having said that, I’d be lying if I didn’t frequent them now and again, whenever I need a quick meal. If I were to rank the three best known burger chains in order of my personal preference (given what I said above about not really liking any of them all that much), I’d go 1) Wendy’s, 2) McDonalds, and 3) Burger King.
Interestingly, I’ve only eaten at 12 of the 21 listed burger restaurants. The others are not to be found in my area.
A couple of years ago Five Guys made their debut down here and word of mouth was very strong about how great their burgers were. That restaurant is the highest ranked one that I’ve actually tried, coming in at #3 and beaten out by The Habit Burger Grill and In-N-Out Burger, neither chain of which is at present in my neck of the woods.
I think Five Guys is…ok. I’d put it above the “big three” chains of Wendys, McDonalds, and Burger King, but I can’t say their burgers knock my socks off. They tend to offer a more “stripped down” burger, giving you the standards (Onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo, mustard, ketchup) but not going too far afield into more extravagant or “experimental” burgers.
The next highest chain on the list that I’ve tried comes in at #5, Fuddruckers. I like Fuddruckers, but whenever I go there (and its a bit of a drive) I tend to order their Ribeye Steak sandwich. I think one of the first times I tried Fuddruckers I ordered a burger, but it was so long ago that I honestly don’t remember what it tasted like.
Next up, Steak ‘N Shake (#10 on the list and roughly in the middle of the pack) does offer some interesting variety to their burgers. I happen to like their guacamole burger.
Some of the others: Checkers is Ok, though I tend to get their chili dog. Their french fries, however, are quite terrible IMHO. The last time I ate at Sonic, the food was horrible. Still, I like their TV commercials. Finally, Krystal isn’t bad, but it’s been a while since I ate there and the last time I did, I dimly recall, I didn’t like it all that much.
Whew.
I have to admit, seeing that list makes me curious as to the top two restaurants. Maybe one day they’ll show up around my area and I’ll give them a try…