Saucy Jack

A month from now will mark 130 years since Jack the Ripper started his reign of terror in Whitechapel, London.

Much has been written and speculated about the identity of the killer which his still unknown. The police obviously didn't have the forensic methods available that we have today, and even so, murderers go undetected all the time. So, it's no wonder that the police in 1888 had a hard time finding the Ripper. This of course didn't stop the press and the citizens from decrying the police as incompetent.

But let's look closer at that, shall we?

Whitechapel was established as a district in 1855 and was 357 acres, or 1.44 km² in size. That may not sound that big, but the population in the 1891 census counted 74.420 people living at a density of 208 people per 0.004 square kilometers, and that's the registered population. A population that had recently swelled enormously with new immigrants, mostly Irish and Jewish. It's worth noting that the area also held a large number of illegal immigrants.

Added to this comes the fact that Whitechapel was a slum, badly built up, very poorly lit, and absolutely labyrinthine. Then we have the infamous smog and other industrial pollutants and we get a recipe for a policeman’s nightmare. On to this stage now steps the terrifying Ripper, who by the way wasn't the only serial killer in Victorian England, just the most famous and scary.

So the police has to find a killer in a labyrinth packed to the rafters with a population that's hostile to the police at the best of times, and is now almost hysterical with fear? Yeah, I wouldn't want that job either.

In case you don't know all that much about the case, here's a quick run down.

Friday, August 31, 1888. Mary Ann Nichols found at 3.40 am in Buck's Row.

Saturday, September 8, 1888. Annie Chapman found in the yard of 29 Hanbury Street.

Sunday, September 30, 1888. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes found at Dutfield's Yard, Berner Street and Mitre Square respectively. Both discovered early in the morning.

Friday, November 9, 1888. Mary Kelly found in her bed at 10.45 am in 13 Miller's Court.

These are the canonical five, though there may have been more, considering how violent the area was. I'm not going to go into the macabre details of their deaths, except to say all had their throats cut, and the fact that Stride wasn't brutally mutilated, and that Kelly was pretty much torn apart. In all cases but Stride, there were organs missing.

This will have to do for part one. Join me next time for a look at the suspects, but until then, have a nice and safe week!

I'm not complaining but...

I'm still melting.

This has indeed been a most enthusiastic summer. Not only did we have a record breaking May, but the last few weeks have been, let's say, a bit trying. Soaring temperatures during both the day and the night aren't helpful for creative thinking.

Instead, I have had to distract myself as best I can. This has included a revisit to one of the best comedy series of all time: Yes Minister/Prime Minister. 
As long as we have bureaucracy and political parties, this show is relevant. It's also trueer than one might think.
Many of the jokes in the show, like a hospital with full admin staff but neither doctors or patients was real. Likewise, setting up a 'communications room' in a fictional Islamic country and filling it with booze for an otherwise sober reception, has happened for real. Truth and fiction, right?

Anyway, the core of Yes Minister is the relationship between Permanent Secretary (later Cabinet Secretary) Sir Humphrey Appleby and James Hacker MP. The Political Will and the Administrative Won't.
What I have for you today, is a three part documentary about what the real Cabinet Secretaries and what really happens in Whitehall.

I shall see you again next time, so until then, have a magnificent week!

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDEkUWyQ8Y
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpK7jajX-rQ
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w55A9o9AGiY

No such place, again

Last week we looked at places that were erased from the map in order to allow for increased security surrounding nuclear weapon projects.

This week we are going to look at a couple of places that are tangential to the subject while somewhat different.

We start with Wunsdorf, in former East Germany.

Wunsdorf was originally built in the 1870's by the then German Empire, and later on expanded and fortified by the Nazi regime. When the Soviets found it, they made it their main base in East Germany, and restricted all access.

It quickly became known as “Little Moscow” and the “Forbidden City” and was the Red Army's main base in the west, housing between 60.000 and 75.000 personnel, mostly troops in case the Cold War would suddenly heat up. It even had direct train access to Moscow.

Today it's a crumbling ruin, slowly decaying under the gaze of an old statue of Lenin.

In England sits the town of Corsham, and underneath Corsham lies the previously secret town of Burlington Bunker.

A gigantic nuclear bunker system designed to house 4000 member s of government and their staff and families etc.

It had it all, from a hospital to it's own radio broadcasting station to it's own underground lake, for fresh water.

As you can guess, it was designed to be a safe haven for the UK government in case the four minute warning was sounded. The four minutes comes from the estimated time it would have taken Soviet nukes to fly to Britan.

Today it is a sometimes guided tourist attraction and in 2016 it was for sale for £1.5 million. No idea if anyone bought it.

Next up is Camp Century. Doesn't sound so bad does it? Well it's a decommissioned nuclear launch site, built under Greenland...

Constructed under the amazing name of Project Iceworm, it took over a scientific base and expanded it to an incredible 4000 km (2500 mi) tunnel network, leading to dozens of launch bays for ICBM's.

It was designed to be comfortable in the long run with everything from a cinema to a church.

There are more places like this, of course, but to keep listing them would be pointless. If you're interested you can do your own research, I'm sure, as the Cold War left a still seen and felt legacy of ingenuity, fear, paranoia, and defiance.

That's that for this time though, so I'll see you next time, and hope you have a great week!

No such place

If you don't know where you are or indeed where you're going, then the logical thing to do is to check a map. But if the place isn't on the map, what then?

There are entire towns that are know today, but back in the day they existed on no map.

Why would anyone bother erasing entire towns, you ask? For security, of course. It seems most of these places were instrumental for atomic research, so naturally they exist mainly in the U.S. and Russia.

First up, in the U.S. we start with Oak Ridge. Located 40 kilometers west of Knoxville, Tennessee, Oak Ridge was created and hidden by the military in 1943. This is where the Manhattan Project was born, so they were very keen on keeping spies out.

Once they were done being all theoretical, they moved to The Hill in Los Alamos, because setting off experimental atomic bombs near large cities wasn't and still isn't a good idea. The place was centered on an old school and quickly expanded to a small town. This is where Fat Man and Little Boy were created, and the place was so secure that babies born there simply had P.O. Box 1663 written on their birth certificates. In other words, doesn't exist.

The final location connected to the Manhattan Project is Hanford/Richland, in Washington state. This is where the fissionable materials needed for the first atom bombs were created, and where ultimately the first weapons grade plutonium in the U.S. was made. It's also the only one out of the three that was active during the Cold War.

If these places don't seem very interesting, keep in mind that they showed up on no map, and no one would admit that the places existed. If you lived and worked there, you lied to your families and friends, or else...

Let's now shift across the oceans to City 40, also known as Ozersk. This is where, in 1946, the Soviet nuclear program was born. The same levels of security that surrounded the three American locals were in place, except the Russians went one better: if you lived and worked in City 40, you didn't exist either. Your identity was erased from all records, and you were a ghost. All 100.000 of you...

In compensation, it was in all but one aspect the nicest place outside of the Kremlin. The living standard was incredibly high, and for good reason. They had several contamination issues, including one that was only surpassed by Chernobyl.

Today, people are free to come and go, but most inhabitants refuse to leave, they just like it so much.

Finally, we look at the Chinese variant of the above. Named 404, this city was built in four years at the edge of the Gobi desert an housed anywhere from 100.000 people to a million. That sounds high, but considering the Chinese population, it's still possible. It took them six years to develop nuclear weapons, and in 1964, China became an atomic power.

That's it for part one. More to follow next time. Until then, have a great week!

What it's about

So, I had this whole plan floating in my head about how I'd write up what we know about Fallout 76. Then, as all plans usually do, it fell to pieces.

Last week I slept badly three nights in a row and then spent seven hours in a combination of cars, buses and trains. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, it went extremely smoothly and I had a good time, but my brain is still utterly fried.

So, instead of playing journalist, I'm just going to take the easy route.

The following video sheds light on the design process of Fallout 76 and what it's about. I'm intrigued, but until they roll out private servers sometime after release, I'm not making any decisions as to whether I'm getting this game.

Still, the video is interesting, so enjoy and I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great week!

direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi8PTAJ2Hjs