Expert says Jack the Ripper has been 100% identified by DNA

From the Tribune: "A researcher claims to have solved the 136-year-old mystery of Jack the Ripper, revealing a 100 per cent DNA match linking the infamous serial killer to a long-standing suspect. Russell Edwards, who has spent years investigating the case, says DNA extracted from a bloodstained shawl found at the crime scene of one of the Ripper’s victims, Catherine Eddowes, matches that of Polish-born barber Aaron Kosminski. Kosminski has long been a prime suspect in the brutal murders of five women in London’s Whitechapel district between August and November 1888. Edwards, working alongside genealogists, traced a living relative of Kosminski, who agreed to provide a DNA sample. When tested against the genetic material found on the shawl, it reportedly yielded a match. Now, the descendants of Eddowes and Kosminski are calling for an official inquest to legally confirm the killer’s identity."

A private equity analyst quit to devote his life to the welfare of shrimp

From Asterisk: "I left private equity to work on shrimp welfare. When I tell anyone this, they usually think I've lost my mind. I know the feeling — I’ve been there. The transition from analyzing real estate deals to advocating for some of the smallest animals in our food system feels counterintuitive, to say the least. But it was the same muscle I used converting derelict office buildings into luxury hotels that allowed me to appreciate an enormous opportunity overlooked by almost everyone, including those in the animal welfare space. After years of practicing my response to the inevitable raised eyebrows, I now sum it up simply: ignoring shrimp welfare would have been both negligent and reckless. Shrimp may not be high up on the list of animals that most people think about when they consider the harms done by industrial agriculture, but we do know that if shrimp can suffer, they are doing so in the hundreds of billions."

This doctor is still practicing medicine at 102

From People: "Nearly four years after being named the world’s oldest practicing male doctor by Guinness World Records, Dr. Howard Tucker, 102, is the subject of his grandson Austin Tucker’s documentary titled What’s Next? . The film explores the answer to that very question. In the documentary, which has its New York City premiere on Nov. 16, Austin, the film’s producer, and director Taylor Taglianetti follow Howard, a neurologist, through some of his daily activities. At the start of filming, that included going into Cleveland's St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, where he taught medical students. In November 2022, the hospital closed — forcing Howard to go on hiatus from practicing medicine and focus solely on teaching and his medical-law work, as he also has a law degree. If it wasn’t for the closure, Howard says he’d absolutely still be practicing." 

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

Researchers say these mysterious giant plants were a kind of life that no longer exists

From ScienceAlert: "Ever since their discovery more than 165 years ago, massive fossilized structures left by an organism known as Prototaxites have proven impossible to categorize. Researchers in the UK have now suggested in a report that is yet to be peer reviewed that there's a very good reason these oddities don't fit neatly on the tree of life – they belong to a branch all of their own, with no modern equivalent. Some 400 million years ago, the swamps of the late Silurian period would have sprouted a mix of horsetails, ferns, and other prototype plants that look positively alien today. Among them stretched 8-meter (26-foot) tall towers that defy easy identification. Wide and branchless, researchers have variously suggested these organisms were a form of algae or ancient conifer, based on what little evidence remains. National Museum of Natural History paleontologist Francis Hueber confirmed in 2001 that Prototaxites was indeed most likely an enormous fungus unknown previously."

A Michigan woman receives a 100-year-old postcard in the mail

From the Independent: "When Brittany Keech checked her mailbox one morning this week, it was flooded with the usual junk. But atop the pile of miscellaneous fliers and bills sat something that caught her eye: a tattered and timeworn postcard. Upon further inspection, she spotted a faded green one-cent George Washington stamp - postmarked Oct. 29, 1920. On the front of the postcard is a Halloween illustration, including a black cat, pumpkins, a witch, an owl and a broomstick, plus a play on words: "Witch would you rather be . . . a goose or a pumpkin-head?" As Keech deciphered the faded cursive on the postcard - which appeared to be addressed to a Mrs. Roy McQueen - she realized it was a letter from one family member to another. The letter is signed by Flossie Burgess. Keech decided she would try to reunite the long-lost postcard with the family to whom it was originally intended to be delivered."

The 1965 Dodge Deora is a blast from the past

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com