'mad As A Hatter'

[Jeff Leahy]

Lets just be clear I’m not suggesting that schizophrenics can NOT be very dangerous. Quite the opposite. I’m just saying that the consideration of violent tendencies in schizophrenia is complicated and most schizophrenic's are completely harmless.

Schizophrenics experience ‘Psychosis’ but I believe certain drugs will induce those effects in perfectly healthy people.

As Rob states ‘Alcohol’ was the most common drug and it seems reasonable to suggest that this may have been the most likely factor.

What I’m exploring is the possibility of other drugs being available to Aaron, either deliberately or indirectly and having an effect on his condition.

As with Jukka’s paint sprayers, being exposed to chemicals wouldn’t necessarily make someone Jack the Ripper. But schizophrenics have a disproportional reaction to drugs.

Where one or two glasses of bear don’t affect the average person it might have a profound effect on someone suffering schizophrenia. Have you ever thought of asking if your paint sprayers employed any schizophrenics?

Certainly my understanding is that a large variety of chemicals could potentially have an effect on schizophrenia. And it seems reasonable to explore that as an idea

Pirate

[Marlowe]

Hi....

Knowing the movements of all mankind -- seeing the past, the present and future. Aaron could "shine". How?

Ergot (Jack-in-the-Rye) maybe...DMT?...blood?

What was his cause of death? Does anyone know?

Gangrene?

Marlowe

[Jeff Leahy]

Sweat Shops

Definition of a Sweatshop

The term has been around since the 19th century.

Definitions vary but essentially refer to workplaces where employees work for poor pay, few or no benefits, in unsafe, unfavorable, harsh, and/or hazardous environments, are treated inhumanely by employers, and are prevented from organizing for redress.

The term itself refers to the technique of “sweating” the maximum profit from each worker, a practice that thrived in the late 19th century.

Webster calls them “A shop or factory in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions.”

According to the group Sweatshop Watch:

A sweatshop is a workplace that violates the law and where workers are subject to:

– extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or long hours;

– poor working conditions, such as health and safety hazards;

– arbitrary discipline, such as verbal or physical abuse, or

– fear and intimidation when they speak out, organize, or attempt to form a union.

In the 19th century, mechanised looms and printed fabrics gave the kiss of death to the old craft. Brick Lane slumped. Into the abandoned houses and workrooms of the Huguenots poured Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing pogroms in eastern Europe. Most were craftsmen, tailors and leather workers. Of cruel conditions and punishing hours, London's rag trade was born.

When factory inspectors first used the word “sweatshop” at the turn-of-the-last century, they sought to describe much more than the cramped garment workplaces where immigrants labored. They also tried to explain the social dangers posed by these workplaces. Inspectors relied on their sensory responses. Citing odors as evidence, inspectors united fears of poverty, pestilence, and promiscuity in their definition of the sweatshop.

A Mantle Maker was a dressmaker who specialised in making Mantles, quite a skilled job as it edged towards tailoring. A mantle was the cape-like jacket worn by Victorian ladies when they went out, slightly fitted at the waist and falling over the crinoline .. slightly longer at the back than the front. It kept the upper body warm, the lower part being well-insulated by crinoline and layers of petticoats. Check out the pictures you get on Christmas cards of carol-singers ...bound to be some mantles there! It was almost always a female job, sometimes a tailor's wife would be his Mantle Maker if she had dressmaking skills.

Workers’ Friends Club and Institute founded in 1906 by a non-Jewish German immigrant, Rudolph Rocker. He learned Yiddish, organised the Jewish workers into unions and staged the 1912 Tailors’ Strike, which led to improved working conditions for workers in the notorious sweatshops.

http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/PoleCostume.htm