Profile: Joel Rifkin
- Full Name – Joel David Rifkin
- Nickname – Joel the Ripper
- Born – January 20, 1959
- Location of Activity – New York, USA
- Years of Activity – 1989 - 1993
- Number of Kills – 9 confirmed, 17+ suspected
- Date of Death – n/a
- Cause of Death – n/a
Joel Rifkin began his life in a way that is common to many kids these days. Born to a poor college couple, he was given up and adopted by a Jewish family when he was just three weeks old. Aside from being a bit shy, his childhood was not too different from many. He was fairly intelligent, though suffered from dyslexia and therefore struggled somewhat with his studies. Still, he went on to college, majoring in political science but never finishing his degree.
After college, Rifkin worked at many jobs, eventually settling into a regular position as a part time horticulturist while doing landscaping on the side. It wasn’t until he was 30 years old, in 1989 that his killer nature began to surface.
Ever since his college years, Rifkin had a penchant for hiring prostitutes. He often spent all his money on these ladies of the night and managed to get himself into debt. At some point and for whatever reason, he decided to start killing them. He would claim at least nine and possibly 17 or more lives before he was finally caught.
Almost all of Rifkin’s victims were New York prostitutes. He would pick them up and either kill them in his car or bring them back to his house to do the job. Usually he beat them to death or strangled them, after which he would dismember their bodies, dumping them in various places.
Eventually the police caught up with him, though mostly my accident. He had killed his last victim and was in the process of taking the remains somewhere to dispose of them when a cop tried to pull him over for driving without plates on his truck. He attempted to flee but ended up running into a utility pole. The cops then found the remains in the back of his truck and took him to jail. Rifkin now sits in prison with around 200 years of his sentence still to be served.
Manchester’s National Winter Ales Festival
Sometimes referred to as the winter version of the famous Great British Beer Festival, the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester is an event that focuses on bringing the best of seasonal brews to the people. It is put together by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) with the purpose of celebrating a long-standing tradition of winter ales, ciders, perries and more.
This event lasts for four days, from Wednesday to Saturday, and takes place in January of each year. It has been going on for more than 10 years, 2013 celebrating the 12th event in its history. Since its beginnings, the National Winter Ales Festival has grown to where it now brings in more than 10,000 people over the course of the celebration.
More than 300 varieties of both local and foreign brews will be on tap at the festival. In addition to the drink, there is plenty of food to enjoy, primarily English and Indian cuisine. There are also many varieties of entertainment to keep attendees busy, from pub games to live music to fancy dress parties. For those that feel like bringing home a souvenir, there is a crafts market selling a wide variety of beer-related items.
The National Winter Ales Festival is also considered a family event, despite the focus on alcohol. A special family area is available for those who want to bring the kids and don’t feel like having them sit quietly by while pounding back pint after pint.
This event presents the perfect opportunity to experience this winter brewing tradition and try dozens of beers that one might never have a chance to partake of otherwise. What’s more, it’s a festival still in the making and the organizers work harder and harder each year to surpass the one before it, taking input from visitors and making changes to improve the overall experience.
This year, National Winter Ales Festival is running from January 23rd to the 26th, so if you want to get in on the festivities, better start planning that vacation now and make sure it includes a stop in Manchester.
Australia’s Big Day Out
Yet another great Australian music event, Big Day Out promises the best and delivers on that promise in spades. It takes place in late January of each year, during the heat of the Australian summer, touring through five of the country’s best cities. Sydney, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth all host the festival as it makes its way across the land.
Big Day Out started up way back in 1992 with just a single performance - one day in one city. Fortune intervened that year when Nirvana, still relatively unknown at the time, signed up for the festival. Before Big Day Out came to be, Nirvana released their first album and people flocked to see them live, ensuring that this event would be remembered.
The following year, they added more cities to the tour and even more the next year, making the festival what it is today. Now, Big Day Out moves from city to city, playing the major venues as well as having many “sideshows” where lesser known bands play at smaller venues as part of the organized event.
Now known as one of the best rock festivals in the world, Big Day Out brings plenty of music from a variety of musicians, both local and international, that are guaranteed to please most everyone. Rock, electronic music and more all show up to take their place on one of the seven or eight stages that the event sets up.
Over the years, music giants such as The Ramones, Nirvana, Metallica, Neil Young and more have made their way to play at Big Day Out. For those looking at something different, the event also features The Boiler Room. Often referred to as a “festival within a festival”, this is a separate section of the event that focuses on bombarding the audience with electronica and dance music as opposed to rock.
This year, the tour brings Big Day Out through Sydney on January 18th, Gold Coast on the 20th, Adelaide on the 25th, Melbourne on the 26th and Perth on the 28th. The headliners for this year are the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Killers - two giants of the music world. But these are just two bands in what looks to be an excellent line-up. Big Day Out is a great way to both experience Australia and get in some memorable concerts during a vacation.
Florida’s Ultra Music Festival
The world is filled with a seemingly endless number of great events for those that enjoy electronic music. One of the biggest and the best occurs each year in March in the city of Miami, Florida. The Ultra Music Festival takes place right in the city’s downtown, in Bayfront Park, and has been running for nearly 15 years now.
Founded in 1999, Ultra was originally held in South Beach, Miami. It grew so fast, however, that they had to quickly change venues in order to accommodate the huge crowds that were attending. It began with just one day of music and has now grown to a three-day event that brings in more than 150,000 people each year. Since its inception, Ultra Music Festival has gained the reputation of being one of the top electronic music events in both the U.S. and the entire world.
The reason for Ultra’s quick and continued success is that the organizers make it a point to bring in the very best of electronic music performers. The biggest names arrive each year to show off their skills. These are people who have defined and reinvented the genre since it began - legends like Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto and more.
The event has become so popular that “Early Bird” tickets sell out in a matter of minutes, so if you want to get a chance to see the festival you have to make sure to buy early. Luckily, this year’s Ultra marks an expansion in the event, with another weekend being added to the line-up. From March 15th to the 17th and from the 22nd to the 24th, Miami will be filled with the sounds of trance, electronica, EBM and more.
As of now, the Early Bird tickets are gone, but General Admission tickets go on sale starting in January, so there’s still a chance to pick one up. And if you can’t manage to get your hands on one, you can always hit up Miami the previous week, as often many of the acts that perform at Ultra will put on other performances throughout the city before the festival begins. If you’re a fan of electronic music, Ultra Music Festival is not one to be missed.
Benin’s National Voodoo Day
The practice of voodoo is not usually viewed as an acceptable religion in most places of the world. The country of Benin, however, regards this form of religious worship differently than most. In fact, despite voodoo being banned within the country for a long period, nearly two-thirds of the population of Benin still hold these beliefs as sacred. To celebrate the importance of their religion, the people hold National Voodoo Day - what is, essentially, their equivalent of the Western tradition of Christmas.
This holiday takes place every January at a location known as “the point of no return.” It is so called because this is where slaves were once carried from the country to be sold across the seas.
For those that wish to learn more about the truth of the voodoo religion, National Voodoo Day provides the perfect opportunity to become enlightened. The majority of people know almost nothing about this tradition. Most of what people think of as fact is really more of a Hollywood-inspired depiction that fetishizes and demonizes the religion and has little to do with reality. National Voodoo Day is a chance to break that stereotype and gain some true understanding.
During the event, those celebrating dress in colorful and traditional clothing. There is plenty of drumming and praying, as well as speeches given by the priests of the religion, similar to sermons at a mass. The most striking part of the celebration is definitely the use of animal sacrifices in certain rituals. Priests tear the throats of chickens out with their teeth, spraying the blood of the creatures onto the ground as well as onto the surrounding crowd. This is all a part of giving tribute to the forces of nature which practitioners of voodoo hold sacred.
National Voodoo Day is certainly not a celebration for the faint of heart or the close-minded. But if you wish to see something unique and learn a bit about one of the world’s least-practiced religions, then January in Benin is a great time to go and observe.
Indigenous Peoples 4 - African Tuareg and Uranium Mining
The Tuareg are a nomadic people who inhabit the Sahara desert in Northern Africa. Most Tuareg live in Niger or Mali but they do move their herds across national borders in that area. They resisted the French invasion of their territory but lost and signed a treaty in 1917. Fighting continued until 1922 when the Niger became a French Colony. The northern part of Niger is traditional Tuareg territory while the southern part consists of Hausa tribal lands.
Uranium was first discovered in the northern part of Niger in 1957. Further exploration uncovered additional deposits of high-grade uranium ore. The first uranium mine began production in 1971 under the control of Areva, a company owned by the French Government. The city of Arlit was created to serve the mine. Additional mines were opened. Niger became independent of France in 1980. Today, the two main uranium mines in Niger provide about seven percent of the world’s uranium production. Most of the uranium produced in Niger goes to fuel reactors in Europe. Niger is the Saudi Arabia of uranium.
About eight thousand people live in the two cities created by Areva to service the mines. The mine has produced millions of tons of uranium mine tailing which are piled up near the cities and exposed to the weather. The red dust, containing radioactive materials, blows down the streets and coats the buildings.
A Tuareg who created an organization to fight for the rights and health of the Tuareg started working in the mines in 1978. After work, he would go home and play with his children in clothing covered with radioactive dust. The first time that this man heard about radioactivity was in 1986 after the Chernobyl disaster was publicized. After that he was giving a paper mask for protection from the radioactive dust in the mine. Eventually, a lung ailment forced him to quit working. Many of the Tuareg have died from mysterious illnesses. The hospitals which are owned by Areva are vague about the causes of the illnesses and death among the Tuareg around the mine. The company claims that there is no proof that people are dying because of work related radioactive exposure but some cases of cancer have been documented by outside physicians. There is evidence that there was a policy at the company hospital of deliberately not telling mine workers that they had cancer.
In 2010, a team from Greenpeace went to Arlit with Geiger counters. They found dangerously high levels of radioactivity in the air, water and dirt that were hundreds of times above the normal level. Radioactive waste from the mines was used as a construction material for buildings and roads. People even used radioactive scrap metal for cooking pots. Well-water is contaminated. The uranium mines are using huge quantities of ground water and the pastures that the Tuareg depend on to feed their herds of cattle are disappearing.
Politically, the Hausa dominate the country and have turbulent relations with the Tuareg in the north. One third of the children in northern Niger are malnourished and many die from diarrhea and pneumonia. Tuareg citizen groups claim that the little money that Areva gives Niger for the uranium stays in the south or even winds up in the pockets of the President and his friends. The north gets nothing in return for the devastation of their lands but radioactivity that will last of thousands of years.
Some Tuareg organizations have been negotiating with Areva for better radiation monitoring, health programs and environment remediation but many are skeptical that much will result from this. Some of the Tuaregs have turned to violent revolution against the government in the south and the French company who profit from the uranium torn from the soil of the Tuareg territories.
Arlit uranium mine from diane.sr.free.fr:
Fun extras for runners: holiday edition
A great way to ensure that your favorite runner heads happily into the new year is to load him up with gifts of running gear. But where to begin? Have a look at our list of the top five best holiday gifts for runners.
Garmin Forerunner 10: Garmin has a reputation for being expensive, but with the Forerunner 10, you can give the gift of Garmin without shelling out a quarter of a paycheck. The Forerunner 10 tracks mileage, speed and calories burned, and it even lets you upload your runs to Garmin Connect for map viewing and elevation stats. The Forerunner 10 is small, practical and efficient ... and it looks cute, too.
Subscriptions: Running magazine subscriptions are a win-win gift for you and the runner in your life. Annual subscriptions to Runner's World, Trail Runner, and Running Times go for less than $30 each, and you'll even be notified when it's time to renew. We recommend Trail Runner for the wilderness runner and Running Times for the serious athlete. If you're unsure of which one to choose, go for Runner's World, which combines all aspects of the sport. This is a gift that will be appreciated by your favorite runner month after month.
Zombie Runner Gift Certificate: Every running enthusiast knows that Zombie Runner is the Mecca of all running stores. (Thank goodness a pilgrimage is only a click away). They carry everything running-related, from books and magazines to the latest gear and shoes. Their selection is so massive that choosing the perfect gift for a runner might be a tad overwhelming. Not to worry. If you have a loved one who runs, a gift certificate from Zombie Runner is one of the best holiday presents an athlete could ask for.
INKnBURN: We've said it before and we'll say it again: INKnBURN is the best running apparel on the market. Tested on athletes and ultrarunners, INKnBURN is so lightweight that you can't even feel the clothes. That means no rubbing or chafing, which is a dream come true for runners everywhere. Don't forget that the apparel never fades or shrinks, either. Plus, these high-quality clothes have the most unique designs of any running apparel. . .ever! To ensure a happy holiday, fill up that empty space under the tree with boxes of INKnBURN athletic wear. Don't forget to load up on some for yourself, too.
Race Entry: For a runner, there's nothing quite as exciting as a race. But let's face it: racing is expensive, especially if one prefers large events or road races. The cost of racing adds up more quickly than we'd like to admit. One of the best holiday gifts you can give a runner is entry into an upcoming event. 5Ks are the cheapest. Half marathons cost just a little more, and marathons are the most expensive. Active is one of the best places to verify event costs and find upcoming races in your area. Why not get motivated and buy an entry for yourself, too?
If you're still unsure about what to get for the runner in your life, have a look at some of our other posts about fun extras for runners. You're bound to find something there.
Happy running and happy holidays!
Sketchy Sketches: "Dinner Party" and more scripted dumps