"Jack the Ripper" is the best known pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter by someone claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the media. Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved women prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and extremely disturbing letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper. An investigation into a series of brutal killings in Whitechapel up to 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888, but the legend of Jack the Ripper solidified. As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity, and the murders have inspired multiple works of fiction. (more...)
... that the Brinje Tunnel was declared to be the safest tunnel in Europe by an FIA and ADAC EuroTAP survey?
... that Richelieu Foods produces over 50 million frozen pizzas and more than 20 million crusts annually—for other companies to market under their own private labels?
... that playwright Alan Bennett's definition of a classic book is "a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have read themselves"?
... that political strategist Rod Shealy sought to increase the turnout of white voters in South Carolina by paying an unemployed black fisherman to run for Congress in 1990?
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The prickles of a rose plant. Prickles, which are needle-like extensions of the cortex and epidermis, are often confused with thorns, which are modified branches or stems, and spines, which are modified leaves. All three are hard structures with sharp, pointy ends, which are generally used by plants to protect themselves from herbivores. Thorns likely first evolved as a defense mechanism in plants growing in sandy environments which provided inadequate resources for fast regeneration.
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