Best-Worst-Last-First-Whatever Lists

[sdreid]

Five B.C. Serial Killers [#-name-year(s)-place then/now-description]:

1-Roman Femme Fatale Poison Syndicate-331B.C.-Roman Republic/Italy-A ring of mostly upper crust women who conspired to rid themselves of troublesome men in their lives with poison.
2-Prince Liu Pengli-144 to 116B.C.-East Han/China-Royal family member who, along with some minions, made sport of brutally murdering lower class citizens in nocturnal raids.
3-Oppianicus the Younger-about 74 to 66B.C.-Roman Republic/Italy-Killed several family members as well as others with poison.
4-Calpurnius Bestia-about 60 to 54B.C.-Roman Republic/Italy-Murdered his wives with the poison aconite.
5-Anula of Auradhapura-50 to 47B.C.-Auradhapura Kingdom/Sri Lanka-Queen regent who poisoned four husbands and a son to remove them as threats to her reign.

[Mayerling]

Five B.C. Serial Killers [#-name-year(s)-place then/now-description]:

5-Anula of Auradhapura-50 to 47B.C.-Auradhapura Kingdom/Sri Lanka-Queen regent who poisoned four husbands and a son to remove them as threats to her reign.

It did not seem to do her murderous majesty much good - she only held power three years.

Notable Murder Stories That Somehow Don't Sound True

1) Sawney Bean (no ancient records of this cannibal murder family has turned up in Scotland)
2) Bela Kiss (supposedly a serial killer of women in old Austria-Hungary, who manages to remain one step ahead of the law - including using another dead soldier's identity papers to flee - some say he ended up working peacefully as a janitor in New York City's "Yorkville" section of Manhattan into the 1950s!)
3) Sweeny Todd (in original Thomas Peckett Press novel, "A String of Pearls", of 1844, the story of the evil barber and meat supplier is set in 1782, and the title says "founded on fact"; one study of the novel and it's background suggests two incidents of that period of a lunatic who may have cut two throats, but many dispute this finding.)
4) Florence Maybrick (a possible poisoning of a brutal husband by his unfaithful wife, but a strong possibility of the victim poisoning himself with arsenic used as a tonic and self applied medicine - or of being accidentally poisoned.)
5) Eliza Fenning (executed for attempted murder in 1815 of her employer and his family; most scholars feel the evidence is very weak that she did anything to her employers, and the causes of the mass sickness in the household may have been just that - sickness.)
6) Edith Thompson (most commentators of this story feel she did not plan to manipulate Frederick Byswater into killing her husband Percy Thompson; executed due to adultery being played up, poor performance under pressure in witness box, and government refusing to let pathologist it used (Bernard Spilsbury) testify he found no evidence of poison or glass in Percy's body, as Edith's letters to Byswater suggested.)

[Fleetwood Mac]

26) Logic behind "Battle of the Somme" - 1916

Relieve Verdun. The British Army had planned for a few months later, weren't ready but decided they needed to draw German forces away ready or not.

Not a good decision for the British Army and her soldiers, but a very good decision for the wider Allied war effort.

Also the British and French were meant to be pushing the Germans out of France, so while the Germans could sit there and consolidate what they'd gained, the British and French were obliged to make an effort to push them back.

27) Logic of Von Falkenheym for Battle of Verdun - 1915-16

A potential war winning victory. Verdun held a special place in the collective French mind. The expectation was that were they able to defeat them at Verdun then that would be the beginning of the end.

For any attacking force during WW1, particularly up until the end of 1917 when lessons were learned and tactics improved, it was very difficult for any attacking force. The advantage lay with the defenders as a few well placed machine guns could take care of tens of thousands.

This particularly suited the Germans who spent much of the war on the defensive beckoning the Allies to come and take back early German gains, and had dug into the high ground as they had the choice of the best land after making early gains. This meant, for example, that the Germans could see right down into the British lines, unknown to the British, and were ready for most offensives.

[Mayerling]

Hi Fleetwood,

Both of those comments on the Somme and Verdun seem quite fair. I don't think you are going to find anything positive about Nivelle's offensive. If you do I'll catch it here.

Jeff

[Scorpio]

As best I can tell, the most deadly life forms to Americans, excluding disease organisms and other humans, and the approximate number they kill in a quadrennial:

13-Scorpions(1)
12-Aligators(2)
11-Cougars(4)
10-Sharks(6)all "man eating" species
9-Bears(8)all three North American species
8-Pigs(10)
7-Cattle(12)mostly rodeo bull riders
6-Spiders(26)both native poisonous species
5-Snakes(60)all native poisonous species
4-Horses(80)
3-Dogs(124)
2-Bees(212)including wasps and hornets, mostly from allergic reactions to their venom
1-Deer(600)all native species, mostly from traffic accidents they cause particularly with motorcyclists

How do you get killed by pigs?.
Do you mean feral ones ?

[Steadmund Brand]

How do you get killed by pigs?.
Do you mean feral ones ?

well some folks eat A LOT of bacon!!


Steadmund Brand


Sorry bad joke....as I am one of those folks myself... on the plus side, my cardiologist loves me as I think I am putting her kids thru college with my bills alone

[sdreid]

How do you get killed by pigs?.
Do you mean feral ones ?

There are people killed by feral pigs who are quite aggressive and there are cases where farmers fall into pens with pigs and are killed by them. I was actually charged by a big sow when I was a little kid and might have been killed by her had my grandfather not intervened and bashed her on the snout with a feed bucket. She was protecting one of her little pigs that squealed when I picked it up. I wasn't hurting the pig; it was just scared because it had never been picked up before. When I heard her snort and start running toward me, I put the little pig down in a big hurry!

[GUT]

How do you get killed by pigs?.
Do you mean feral ones ?

Pigs both feral and domesticated are dangerous buggers.

[GUT]

well some folks eat A LOT of bacon!!


Steadmund Brand


Sorry bad joke....as I am one of those folks myself... on the plus side, my cardiologist loves me as I think I am putting her kids thru college with my bills alone

Mmmmmmmm Bacon.

[Mayerling]

Mmmmmmmm Bacon.

Yeah it is quite nice - even if just on a blt sandwich with mayonnaise.

If even domesticated pigs are dangerous why did our ancestors even try to domesticate them?

Jeff

[GUT]

Yeah it is quite nice - even if just on a blt sandwich with mayonnaise.

If even domesticated pigs are dangerous why did our ancestors even try to domesticate them?

Jeff

Isn't the answer self evident.

Ham
Bacon
Pork

What did Homer Simpson say, all from one anilmal "A magical, mystical animal."

[Mayerling]

Isn't the answer self evident.

Ham
Bacon
Pork

What did Homer Simpson say, all from one anilmal "A magical, mystical animal."

"Hmmmm. Donuts....!!!"

[alkuluku]

Top 6 thrash metal albums:

Slayer - Reign in Blood
Kreator - Extreme Aggression
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
Metallica - Kill 'em All
Annihilator - Alice in Hell
Testament - The Gathering

[alkuluku]

Isn't the answer self evident.

Ham
Bacon
Pork

What did Homer Simpson say, all from one anilmal "A magical, mystical animal."

That was brilliant. As was the hot dog ingredients:

[Robert]

I think in the 19th century the toshers (sewer scavengers) told stories of a colony of feral pigs that you had to avoid if you didn't want to get eaten, but as to the truth of that, I don't know.