Anyone with a milk allergy needs to be on high alert. In the midst of a flurry of ongoing food recalls, the FDA has updated its initial recall of a handful of Cal Yee Farms’ chocolate products to the highest risk level. Originally, the FDA announced a recall of numerous Cal Yee Farm products because they may have contained undeclared milk, soy, wheat, sesame, FD&C #6, and/or almonds. The recall has now been elevated by the FDA to the most serious level of recall, Class 1, for only a few of the affected products: the company’s dark chocolate almonds, dark chocolate apricots, and dark chocolate walnuts because the chocolates contained undeclared milk.
The speed w which I was ready to start arguing w the Jack the Ripper news. Rolling up my gd sleeves rn
And yet ppl everywhere are going to read those headlines and take them as fact. Kill me
When I’m in a contest for most analytically illiterate amateur conspiracy theorist masquerading as a historian and my opponent is Ripperologists
please please please write the longest post explaining why we can’t know who jack the ripper is and the latest claims
This gonna be kind of quick and dirty but the gist of it is basically that a (deteriorated) shawl that allegedly belonged to one of the victims (Catherine Eddowes) was tested for mitochondrial DNA, and based on those results there’s a historian named Russell Edwards claiming that it’s definitive proof that a man named Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper.
There are a lot of problems with this.
– One, this shawl has never been 100% authenticated and its provenance can’t be traced back to the murder scene with zero doubts, so there’s an argument to be made that it never really belonged to Catherine Eddowes/wasn’t at the scene of her murder anyway.
– Even if it is really her shawl, and was found at her murder scene, it’s been passed down through several generations and spent a long time in storage. It’s badly degraded. And it’s likely that several people have come into close contact with it in the last 130 years, which means lots of potential sources of contaminant DNA.
– DNA degrades over time, and given that the garment itself is in pretty bad shape, it’s harder to take the test results at face value.
– The testing done was for mitochondrial DNA. Experts have already commented that mitochondrial DNA cannot/should not be used to determine a positive connection in a case like this; ideally, under these circumstances, and in the context of forensics, it’s more useful for ruling out potential non-matches instead.
– Even if it were somehow possible to fully authenticate the DNA results, they would not, in and of themselves, be evidence of murder. Even if they could be determined without any doubt to belong to Aaron Kosminski, it doesn’t prove he killed Catherine Eddowes; it only proves he had contact with her and her shawl, at some point.
– The genetic material in question is alleged to come from a semen stain. Given that a lot of the suspects interviewed by police at the time had a habit of patronizing local sex workers, it’s not unthinkable that there could be DNA on her shawl from someone who was just a normal paying customer in one of those encounters.
– “Aaron Kosminski” is literally a made up suspect. I’m not joking. There were several, several men police actually interviewed and interrogated during that time, but the only reference to a “Kosminski” is literally just the last name “Kosminski” appearing on a 1894 memorandum written by Sir Melville Macnaghten, the Assistant Chief Constable of the London Metropolitan Police, in a list of possible suspects. This was a. several years after the murders stopped and b. is literally just a Polish last name with no other identifying information.
– A Ripperologist produced the identity of Aaron Kosminski entirely on their own, by tracking down someone who just happened to be named “Kosminski” on asylum admittance records from 1889. This Aaron Kosminski was a Polish Jew from Whitechapel; obviously, a place a lot of Polish Jews lived in London. He was recorded as suffering from psychosis w paranoia, and was likely schizophrenic. There are no records of him ever being violent.
– At the time of the murders and during the initial investigation, antisemitism and xenophobia became absolutely out of control in connection to the case. The extent of this cannot be understated. Jews and other racial and ethnic minorities were harassed in the streets, riots broke out, ridiculous and cartoonish conspiracy theories abounded. At one point during all of this, the newspaper The East London Observer reported a belief that “no Englishman could have perpetrated such a horrible crime, and that it must have been done by a Jew.”
– I mean that’s blood libel. We’ve arrived at blood libel.
– When it came to police, Polish Jews were particularly targeted for investigation and interrogation, regardless of any actual connection to the victims or the circumstances of the murders.
– So. Ripperologists literally pulled a mentally ill Polish Jew who was from Whitechapel out of a hat, based of off someone who was maybe, possibly, at some point a suspect having the same last name. In a specific area of a massive urban city with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Polish Jews living there. And then a man tested DNA from people who are, many generations later, reportedly distantly related to that man. And he tested it against a sample taken from an artifact that’s never been fully authenticated and is significantly degraded.
– And now that man is claiming that the “positive match” is definitive proof that said mentally ill Polish Jew pulled out of a hat was Jack the Ripper. Bc why not continue the legacy of conspiracy thinking and antisemitism at a time like this, right?
It’s just irresponsible. Both of Russell Edwards, and of the news outlets reporting on it without any pushback or criticism.
(I recommend checking out the podcast Historical Blindness’s two part series of Jack the Ripper. That’s where I found a lot of the primary source material referenced here).
This is making the rounds on BlueSky, but I haven’t seen it here yet.
Twitter is rolling out a “Recreat this with Grok” button directly on images now when you open them. Also, some people have experience their artwork getting labeled as ‘made with Grok’
I understand why some people have tried to stay but, please at the very least start transitioning your work to other places so at the very least you have a exit without hurting your finances too much.
Twitter is only going to become more hostile towards artists. It’s full of poison and it’s only a matter of time before it fully erodes.
On reflection, it seems clear that the greatest trick Donald Trump has ever pulled is convincing his supporters that because he hates the same people they do (which he does), he actually likes his supporters. He does not, of course: he hates them too. As they are all too rapidly learning these days.
As Elon Musk cements his place in history as a fascist tech overlord and the rest of the world looks at us in horror, I really do want to reiterate what I feel will be lost to the history books
Nearly everyone in america has thought and continues to think that Elon is very cringe.
Despite not being a USA citizen, everyon has… no, MUST remember that the billionare Elon Musk has such a tiny, pathetic and childish ego, that he had the need to lie about being a hardcore epic gamer in Path of Exile 2, only to be caught red-handed as the hilarious sham that he is, and ban everyone who exposed him.
the doge meme is from 2013. its easy for dates in history books to get kinda blurry and to just print something like “the department of government efficiency was named after a popular meme at the time”, but i think its important to record that musk named the agency that is illegally seizing our government after a joke so outdated that the dog in the picture has since died of old age
one of my top ten french behaviors is that i find it deeply jarring to see croissants (as a whole) be considered as “pastries”. a Pastry is an éclair or perhaps a millefeuille or lemon tart or macaron. it is colorful and sugary and generally dainty (not always) or indulgent (not always). croissants (including chocolate/almond croissants) are Not! Pastries. but carmine, you cry! what are they then? VIENNOISERIES. like wien. you know. the city. we stole them from the austrians like a william years ago. no yeah no it Is a stupid name. still not a Pastry however,
the humble Croissant will sate you in a pleasant but ultimate useful way. it is an Efficient and Unexpensive helpmate for hungry children after school and lovers who want to treat their beloved to a breakfast deserving of the name after a beautiful night and tired grownups who want to find a Reliable and Unexpensive reason not to Kill Themselves and get them through the day.
the frivolous Pastry will be bought and consumed by Relatively Moneyed Workers on their Company-Subsidized Lunch Break, Families who visit their In-Laws on Sundays, and Lovers wishing to Court their Beloved in an Ambitious and Elegant Manner,
another of your top ten french behaviors is having all these fucking rules. a croissant is an air sandwich to be eaten on boats. a croissant is a vessel for lox. a croissant is duck bait. a croissant is meant to be stored in the basket of a bicycle for one hour before consumption. a croissant must be chewed in time with a psalm. a croissant is technically not bread and therefore cannot be eaten with cheese. a croissant must be fucked gently. croissants cannot be eaten before ten o’clock or after three o’clock. what gives, man.
Thy Name Shall Only Be Spoken In Great Shame And Contempt By Thy Countrymen.
Signal boost! The eugenicist Nazis are once more trying to do eugenicist Nazi things. Since this is a Republican effort, it’s especially important to contact your AG if they are one (gross, I know). Reminder that you can find them here:
amhrancas 