August 2007 Archives

The British press is, of course, busy getting all overexcited about one particular death that happened on this date. But there's another, to my mind far more interesting, death anniversary today.

It was 119 years today that the body of Mary Ann Nichols (usually know as Polly Nichols) was found in Buck's Row, London. Nichols is generally accepted as the first victim of Jack the Ripper. The deaths of the other four victims followed over the next ten weeks. I'll note the anniversaries as they arrive.

Years ago I was planning to organise a walking tour of all of the sites associated with the Ripper murders. Currently I'm working within walking distance of most of them. I've really got no excuse for not getting on with that.

Maybe I'll have something ready in time for the 120th anniversary next year.

From this weeks Popbitch

Joss Whedon's long awaited UK based Buffy spin-off, Ripper, starring Anthony Head, starts filming next summer for BBC.

I sooo want that to be true.

Did ya miss me?

Been off touring New Zealand for a few weeks (Mr Torkington, that's a beautiful country you have there). Got home just before midnight last night (about three hours later than expected due to flight delays).

Not entirely sure what time of day it is, but I'll be catching up over the next few days. There will be photos. There will be stories. There may even be an update to Movable Type 4.

My main problem currently seems to be that my spam filter broke about two days after I went away and I've been getting undiluted spam in my inbox for the last three weeks. I'm being rather cavalier about cleaning it up so if you sent me something important in the last three weeks and you don't get a reply in the next couple of days, then you might consider resending it.

Christianity: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

It's from a t-shirt. I saw it whilst reading PZ Myers' excellent rebuttal of Alister McGrath.

I've read two things this morning that show that even in the 21st century, misogyny and sexism are alive and well.

Firstly, here's brian d foy writing about a nasty advert that was published in a Linux magazine recently. The company involved seem to think that drawing a comparison between their products and oral sex is a reasonable way to act.

And then there's a (female!) Daily Mail reporter explaining why women shouldn't object to having their bottoms pinched. In fact she thinks it should be encouraged. She goes on to say that she enjoys it when she attracts wolf-whistles.

It's like it's still the 1950s. I despair.