An Introduction to the Jack the Ripper Mystery

An Introduction to the Jack the Ripper Mystery Someone in London murdered and mutilated a number of prostitutes during the autumn of 1888; the press went into a frenzy, politicians pointed the finger at each other, hoaxers polluted the investigation, and one of several nicknames stuck: Jack the Ripper. Over a century later, Jacks identity has never been wholly proven (there isnt even a leading suspect), most aspects of the case are still debated, and the Ripper is an infamous cultural bogeyman. The Enduring Mystery The Rippers identity has never been established and people have never stopped looking: the publishing rates average is a new book a year since 1888 (although most of these have come in recent decades). Unfortunately, the wealth of Ripper source material - letters, reports, diaries,  and photographs - provides enough depth for detailed and fascinating research, but too few facts for any incontrovertible conclusions. Just about everything about Jack the Ripper is open to debate and the best you can get is a consensus. People are still finding new suspects  or new ways to reframe old suspects, and books are still flying off the shelves. There is no better mystery. The Crimes Traditionally, Jack the Ripper is considered to have killed five women, all London prostitutes, during 1888: Mary Ann Polly Nichols on August 31, Annie Chapman on September 8, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30 and Mary Jane (Marie Jeanette) Kelly on November 9. In practice, there is no agreed list: the most popular change is to discount Stride and/or Kelly, sometimes adding Martha Tabram, killed August 7th. Authors naming more than eight have achieved very little consensus. At the time Polly Nichols was sometimes considered the second or third person to have been killed by the same person, and plenty of later investigators have searched the world in search of similar killings to see if the Ripper moved on. The Ripper generally killed by strangling his victims, then laying them down and cutting the arteries in their throats; this was followed by a varied process of mutilation, during which parts of the body were removed and kept. Because Jack did this quickly, often in the dark, and because he seemed to have great anatomical knowledge, people have assumed the Ripper had a doctors or surgeons training. As with much of the case, there is no consensus - a contemporary thought him simply a blunderer. There have been accusations that the missing organs werent stolen from the bodies by the Ripper, but by people dealing with them later. Evidence for this is scant. The Letters and Nicknames During the autumn and winter of 1888/89, a number of letters circulated among the police and newspapers, all claiming to be from the Whitechapel murderer; these include the From Hell letter and one accompanied by part of a kidney (which may have matched a kidney taken from one of the victims, but like everything Jack, were not a hundred percent sure). Ripperologists consider most, if not all, of the letters to be hoaxes, but their impact at the time was considerable, if only because one contained the first use of Jack the Ripper, a nickname the papers swiftly adopted and which is now synonymous. Horror, Media, and Culture The Ripper killings were neither obscure nor ignored at the time. There was gossip and fear in the streets, questions at high levels of government,  and offers of rewards and resignations when nobody was caught. Political reformers used the Ripper in arguments and policemen struggled with the limited techniques of the time. Indeed, the Ripper case remained high profile enough for many of the police involved to write private accounts years later. However, it was the media who made Jack the Ripper. By 1888, literacy was common amongst the crowded citizens of London and newspapers reacted to the Whitechapel Murderer, whom they initially christened Leather Apron, with the frenzy we expect from modern tabloids, stirring opinions, fact,  and theory – along with the probably hoaxed Ripper letters – together to create a legend which seeped into popular culture. From the very start, Jack doubled as a figure from the horror genre, a bogeyman to scare your kids. A century later, Jack the Ripper is still hugely famous world over, an unknown criminal at the center of a global manhunt. But he is more than that, hes the focus of novels, films, musicals,  and even a six-inch high model plastic figure. Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer adopted by the modern media age and hes been at the forefront ever since, mirroring the evolution of western culture. Will the Mystery Be Solved? Its extremely unlikely anyone will be able to use the existing evidence to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, who Jack the Ripper was and, while people are still uncovering material, the discovery of something unarguable has to be regarded as a long-shot. Fortunately, the mystery is so fascinating because you can do your own reading, draw your own conclusions and, with some critical thinking, generally have as much chance of being right as everyone else! Suspects range from people the detectives at the time suspected (such as George Chapman / Klosowski), to a whole gallery of strange suggestions, which include no less than Lewis Carroll, a royal doctor, Inspector Abberline himself, and someone who even blamed their relative decades later after finding some tenuous items.

The Tropical Rainforest Biome

The Tropical Rainforest Biome All tropical rainforests have similar characteristics including climate, precipitation, canopy structure, complex symbiotic relationships and an amazing diversity of species. However, not every tropical rainforest can claim exact characteristics when compared by  region or realm  and there are rarely clear defining boundaries. Many may blend with adjoining mangrove forests, moist forests, mountain forests, or tropical deciduous forests. Tropical Rainforest Location Tropical rainforests mainly occur inside the worlds equatorial regions. Tropical rainforests are restricted to the small land area between the latitudes 22.5 ° North and 22.5 ° South of the equator - between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. The global distribution of the tropical rainforest can be broken into four continental regions, realms or biomes: the Ethiopian or Afrotropical rainforest, the  Australasian  or Australian rainforest, the Oriental or Indomalayan/Asian rainforest, and the Central and South American Neotropical. Importance of the Tropical Rainforest Rainforests are cradles of diversity. They spawn and support 50 percent of all living organisms on Earth even though they cover less than 5% of Earths surface. A rainforests importance is truly incomprehensible when it comes to species diversity. Losing the Tropical Rainforest Just a few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests are estimated to have covered as much as 12% of the land surface on earth. This was about 6 million square miles (15.5 million square km). Today it is estimated that less than 5% of Earths land is covered with these forests (about 2 to 3 million square miles). More importantly, two-thirds of the worlds tropical rainforests exist as fragmented remnants. The Largest Tropical Rainforest The largest unbroken stretch of rainforest is found in the Amazon river basin of South America. Over half of this forest lies in Brazil, which holds about one-third of the worlds remaining tropical rainforests. Another 20% of the worlds remaining rainforest exists in Indonesia and the Congo Basin, while the balance of the worlds rainforests is scattered around the globe in tropical regions. Tropical Rainforests Outside the Tropics Tropical rainforests are not just found in tropical regions, but also in temperate regions like Canada, the United States, and the former Soviet Union. These forests, like any tropical rainforest, receive abundant, year-round rainfall, and are characterized by an enclosed canopy and high species diversity but are without the year-round warmth and sunlight. Precipitation An important characteristic of tropical rainforests is moisture. Tropical rainforests usually lie in tropical zones where solar energy produces frequent rainstorms. Rainforests are subject to heavy rainfall, at least 80 and in some areas over 430 of rain each year. High volumes of rain in rainforests can cause local streams and creeks to rise 10-20 feet over the course of two hours. The Canopy Layer Most of life in the tropical rainforest exists vertically in the trees, above the shaded forest floor - in the layers. Each tropical rainforest canopy layer harbors its own unique plant and animal species interacting with the ecosystem around them. The primary tropical rainforest is divided into at least five layers: the overstory, the true canopy, the understory, the shrub layer, and the forest floor. Protection Tropical rainforests are not all that pleasant to visit. They are hot and humid, difficult to reach, insect-infested, and have wildlife that is hard to find. Still, according to Rhett A. Butler in A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face, there are undeniable reasons to protect the rainforests: Loss of local climate regulation - With forest loss, the local community loses the system that performed valuable but unnoticed services like ensuring the regular flow of clean water and protecting the community from flood and drought. The forest acts as a sort of sponge, soaking up the tremendous amounts of rainfall brought by tropical downpours, and releasing water at regular intervals. This regulating feature of tropical rainforests prevents destructive flood and drought cycles.Erosion and its effects - The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crops yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest.Loss of species for forest regeneration - A fully functioning forest has a great capacity to regenerate. Exhaustive hunting of tropical rainforest species can reduce those species necessary to forest continuance and regeneration. The increase of tropical diseases - The emergence of tropical diseases and outbreaks of new diseases including nasty hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and Lassa Fever is a subtle but serious impact of deforestation.Destruction of renewable resources - Deforestation can rob a country of potential renewable revenues while replacing valuable productive lands with virtually useless scrub and grassland (desertification).