Essay

G07N2903

In this essay the concept of web 2.0 will be introduced in relation to the phenomenon and trend of a blog formerly known as a weblog. A blog is suggestive of an online diary which is a form of a communication device which is obliterating communication barriers around the world. The benefits and changes this form of technology has established in and around the world will be discussed using three different blogs namely: a South African, African and International blog. The focus of the blogs being chosen is based on the topic of the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa. Different uses of reporting techniques, blogging styles and the use of web 2.0 will be contrasted and compared. The ways that these specific bloggers present their ideas and views will be intrinsically dissected and analysed to underline similarities and differences in their blogs.

It is the first time that this prestigious sporting event has ever been hosted in an African country. This has caused much controversy and speculation to whether a Third World ranked country could make a success of a Eurocentric, Western world dominated event. Due to the global economic crisis there is further uncertainty to whether this event will be a success. Many expected international visitors would possibly not make the trip due to financial circumstances. As this event is an international one, countries across the globe have been articulating their views and opinions over the World Wide Web through the form of Web 2.0.

Tim Berners Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web. Through his initiatives of such an invention the creation of other web technologies such as web 2.0 were allowed to be introduced. The term web 2.0 is closely linked with Tim O’Reilly due to the O’Reilly media conference which was held in 2004. Web 2.0 is not the latest version of the World Wide Web but rather is the changes in which software developers use the web. Web 2.0 correlates with the concepts of web design and web development which makes possible the interactive user centred design and rapid information sharing. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, wikis, web applications, and blogs. Web 2.0 allows users to interrelate with others or to alter content on sites, in comparison to previous non- interactive sites were unreceptive viewing of information is only authorized.

A blog is an interactive online form of a diary or commentary of news or an event. An individual can exhibit their thoughts, and writings on the web in regular entries of commentary. These blogs can be categorised based on topics, events, hobbies, and themes. They can be daily routine like blogs, weekly bogs or even monthly blogs. A blog can be written in a formal or informal manner depending on the bloggers approach or style. They can be personal, subjective, objective, written in a news like manner or even just informative. An important feature of a blog is that readers can leave their comments about the blog. Another intrinsic part of a blog is having links to related sites and other blogs. The growth of blogs has meant that it has become some individual’s jobs to write blogs were as others just use it for hobby purposes. The concept of a blog reduces space, time and distance and allows people from varying parts of the world to be able to communicate with each other in an interactive manner from the comfort of their homes.

The blog from South Africa is “2010 Fifa World Cup readiness update” by Nicholas Whiteley and Sarah Gurney. As this blog is from the hosting country it is expected that the blogs which come from this country are pro 2010 hype and publicity. As a citizen of this country it is only ones patriotic duty to inform the world that their country is ready for the world and the tournament. This tournament is being hosted in an African country for the first time and has thus put immense pressure on South Africa to deliver the same standards of quality that previous European countries have. This blog is a collaborated piece by two Capetonian’s and reflects on numerous aspects regarding the world cup. The layout of the blog has been structured in a formal almost essay like manner: there is an introduction, body and conclusion. In the body of the blog there are several different sub headings such as safety and security, transport, accommodation, Green Point stadium, electricity, Fan fest, Cape Town Tourism ready to welcome visitors, and lastly the 2010 legacy. These bloggers delve into all aspects of scepticism associated with South Africa hosting the world cup. The tone of the writing is informative and positive. It has the flare of a tourism brochure in which the country and the tournament are paraded as must see tourist attractions.

As this blog is written from the perspective of a South African it had tendencies of being perhaps a little biased. At the same time every South African has become a marketing tool for the 2010, in promoting its growing success. The conclusion states that, “Ultimately, the success of the World Cup in Cape Town will depend largely on the welcome visitors receive from Capetonians and on the readiness of citizens to embrace them in our football celebrations. With Cape Town’s excellent reputation for hospitality, it’s a welcome Capetonians are sure to provide!” The use of pictures of the progress of stadiums and the patriotic vukuzela being blown with picturesque Cape Town in the background expels the ideas of readiness and confidence which these bloggers embed into this blog. At the end of the blog the feature of the comment bar has been used by reader Peter Max who states that, “As a sales representative for one of the material suppliers, it is amazing to see how the stadium takes shape upon each visit to the site. I have no doubt in my mind that Cape Town and its soccer/football loving inhabitants will make a success of the upcoming Fifa World Cup 2010. We are ready to welcome the world”. This comment reiterates the idea of all South Africans promoting the 2010 which will add a sense of international status to this country.

The blog from an African country is from Nigeria and is called “S Africa strike hits stadia” by the Admin staff at Afrigator. This blog website allows individuals all over Africa to post blogs on any topic thinkable. It was very easy to find a blog from South Africa and an International one but it was a lot more of a search to find a blog from Africa. Afrigator is one of the main blog websites displaying blogs on all topics. It is only expected that a blog from an African country such as Nigeria would be supportive as it is the first time that an African country is hosting this event, “This is the first time the football World Cup will be hosted in Africa”. However, there might be a hidden sense of jealousy that South Africa was chosen over all the other African countries when it comes to international affairs. The blog has been written more like a hard news story with a striking headline and a hard-hitting first paragraph typed in bold font which introduces a negative tone to the piece, “Some 70, 000 construction workers in South Africa have gone on strike, halting work on stadiums being built for the 2010 World Cup”. There is only on dreary looking picture of construction at the stadium site with a caption stating that “Work on the South African stadiums seems to be on schedule so far”. This caption does not correlate with the headline of the blog which suggests that construction on the stadiums would be falling behind because of the 70, 000 workers on strike. Both this blog and the blog from South Africa have used the technique of presenting information in a way that the reader reads the blog as containing factual data rather than mere estimates and opinions. This blog is considerably shorter in word count in comparison to the South African and International blog. In antithesis to the other blogs, this blog is the only one which has almost a constant tone of pessimism entrenched in the writing style. However, there is a slight hint of hope in this piece which can be seen through all the negativity which suggests that they still want 2010 to be a success as it is the first time that Africa is hosting the event. They still have a proud feeling knowing that they are part of Africa and Africa is hosting such a prestigious event.

The blog from an International country is from the United Sates of America and has been named “The road to 2010 world cup final” by screen name writer Amunti on Blog Catalog. By using a screen name it is like creating a persona and character for yourself which gives the reader a sense of the unknown. In the first blog the bloggers use their name which suggests a sense of authorship and authenticity. Unlike, the first two blogs which are interested in the construction aspects and readiness of South Africa for 2010. This blog is the journey of the blogger which is explored in the introduction to this blog, “My journey from Brooklyn, New York January 4, 2007 to the world cup final match 11 July, 2010 in South Africa. How will I get there? I have no idea? Join me as I travel around Africa, write a book, make some friends and watch the beautiful game!” The title of the blog alone has a different feel when compared to the first two blogs which focus more on the host country and its people. This blogs theme is on the game of soccer and the hype created around this well anticipated tournament. This shows the spatial distance that USA has from SA as there is no mention of scepticism, the electricity load shedding or construction worker strikes. It is as if the blogger has no political agenda but writes for the love of the game. This blog features the full draw for the 2010 UEFA Champions League, road to 2010 tidbits, latest news on new players, injured players and scandal on players, teams and coaches. This blog is the longest of all three blogs and has the most amount of information available for a reader. There are numerous entries made to update and inform other soccer fans around the globe. In the casual use of language and writing the blog comes across as more as a diary formatted blog in comparison to the other blogs which take on a more formal stance. There are numerous links which allow potential readers other sources of information. The pictures used have mostly been of soccer teams and their logos and the UEFA Champion League Logo. This is vastly different to the previous blogs in which the pictures were mainly of the construction of the stadiums.

In each of these blogs there are similarities and differences which have been noted. The overall view of each blog is as follows: South African blog uses positive tone in which all scepticism is discarded. There is use of formal and informative persuasive writing styles. The writing technique used can be compared to having the flare of tourism brochure which portrays the world cup and South Africa as must see sites. The blog from Africa is drenched in a negative tone as it releases ideas of scepticism, propaganda and portrays information as facts. However, there is still a hint of hope in the blog which suggests that they still want 2010 to be a success as it is the first time that an African country is hosting the world cup. The blog from USA has taken on the blogging style of casual and informal diary entry. Unlike, the previous two blogs which focused on the scepticism and South Africa and its people this blog focuses on the tournament and the love of the game. The overall view is that all these blogs focus on the 2010 world cup from varying aspects whilst still promoting the world cup and its success in their own styles and techniques. Each blog employs their role of being part of the phenomenon of the blogging world and web 2.0 in reducing space, time and distance through the breaking down of communication barriers from people around the world.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is the belief that when one dies, one's body decomposes, but something of oneself is reborn in another body. It is the belief that one has lived before and will live again in another body after death. The bodies one passes in and out of need not be human. One may have been a Doberman in a past life, and one may be a mite or a carrot in a future life. Some tribes avoid eating certain animals because they believe that the souls of their ancestors dwell in those animals. A man could even become his own daughter by dying before she is born and then entering her body at birth.

The belief in past lives used to be mainly a belief in Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, but now is a central tenet of much woo-woo like dianetics and channeling. In those ancient Eastern religions, reincarnation was not considered a good thing, but a bad thing. To achieve the state of ultimate bliss (nirvana) is to escape from the wheel of rebirth. In most, if not all, ancient religions with a belief in reincarnation, the soul entering a body is seen as a metaphysical demotion, a sullying and impure rite of passage. In New Age religions, however, being born again seems to be a kind of perverse goal. Prepare yourself in this life for who or what you want to come back as in the next life. Belief in past lives also opens the door for New Age therapies such as past life regression therapy, which seeks the causes of today's psychological problems in the experiences of previous lives.

L. Ron Hubbard, author of Dianetics and the founder of Scientology, introduced his own version of reincarnation into his new religion. According to Hubbard, past lives need auditing to get at the root of one's "troubles." He also claims that "Dianetics gave impetus to Bridey Murphy" and that some scientologists have been dogs and other animals in previous lives ("A Note on Past Lives" in The Rediscovery of the Human Soul). According to Hubbard, "It has only been in Scientology that the mechanics of death have been thoroughly understood." What happens in death is this: the Thetan (spirit) finds itself without a body (which has died) and then it goes looking for a new body. Thetans "will hang around people. They will see a woman who is pregnant and follow her down the street." Then, the Thetan will slip into the newborn "usually...two or three minutes after the delivery of a child from the mother. A Thetan usually picks it up about the time the baby takes its first gasp." How Hubbard knows this is never revealed.

Channeling, like past life regression, is distinct from reincarnation, even though it is based on the same essential concept: death does not put an end to the entirety of one's being. In classical reincarnation, something of the consciousness of the deceased somehow enters a new body but as that body grows only one unified consciousness persists through time. Channeling might be called temporary intermittent past life invasion because there is a coming and going of the past life entity, which always remains distinct from the present self-conscious being. For example, JZ Knight claims that in 1977 the spirit of a Cro-Magnon warrior who once lived in Atlantis took over her body in order to pass on bits of wisdom he'd picked up over the centuries. Knight seems to be carrying on the work of Jane Roberts and Robert Butts, who in 1972 hit the market with Seth Speaks. Knight, Roberts, and Butts are indebted to Edgar Cayce, who claimed to be in touch with many of his past lives. One would think that channeling might muck things up a bit. After all, if various spirits from the past can enter any body at any time without destroying the present person, it is possible that when one remembers a past life it is actually someone else's life one is remembering.

From a philosophical point of view, reincarnation poses some interesting problems. What is it that is reincarnated? Presumably, it is the soul that is reincarnated, but what is the soul? A disembodied consciousness?

Reincarnation does seem to offer an explanation for some strange phenomena such as the ability of some people to regress to a past life under hypnosis. Also, we might explain child prodigies by claiming that unlike most cases of reincarnation where the soul has to more or less start from scratch, the child prodigy somehow gets a soul with great carryover from a previous life, giving it a decided advantage over the rest of us. Reincarnation could explain why bad things happen to good people and why good things happen to bad people: they are being rewarded or punished for actions in past lives (karma). One could explain déjà vu experiences by claiming that they are memories of past lives. Dreams could be interpreted as a kind of soul travel and soul memory. However, past life regression and déjà vu experiences are best explained as the recalling of events from this life, not some past life. Dreams and child prodigies are best explained in terms of brain structures and genetically inheritable traits and processes. And since bad things also happen to bad people and good things also happen to good people, the most reasonable belief is that there is no design to the distribution of good and bad happening to people.
Stories, especially stories from children, that claim knowledge of a past life, abound. One collector of such stories was the psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who made a weak case that the stories offered scientific evidence for reincarnation.

Finally, since there is no way to tell the difference between a baby with a soul that will go to heaven or hell, a baby with a soul that has been around before in other bodies, and a baby with no soul at all, it follows that the idea of a soul adds nothing to our concept of a human being. Applying Occam's razor, both the idea of reincarnation and the idea of an immortal soul that will go to heaven or hell are equally unnecessary.

How Death came into the world

Traditional, mythic accounts of the origin of death extend back to the earliest hunter-gatherer cultures. Usually these stories are morality tales about faithfulness, trust, or the ethical and natural balance of the elements of the world.

According to an African Asante myth, although people did not like the idea or experience of death, they nevertheless embraced it when given the choice, as in the tale of an ancient people who, upon experiencing their first visitation of death, pleaded with God to stop it. God granted this wish, and for three years there was no death. But there were also no births during that time. Unwilling to endure this absence of children, the people beseeched God to return death to them as long as they could have children again.

The death myths of aboriginal Australia vary enormously among clans and linguistic groups. Among most of them, however, death is often attributed to magic, misfortune, or to an evil spirit or act. Occasionally death is presented as the punishment for human failure to complete an assignment or achieve a goal assigned by the gods. Still other stories arise from some primordial incident that strikes at the heart of some tribal taboo. Early myths about death frequently bear these moral messages.

Among the Tiwi of Bathurst and Melville Islands in northern Australia, the advent of death is explained by the Purukapali myth, which recounts a time before death entered the world, when a man lived with his infant son, his wife, and his younger brother. The younger brother was unmarried and had desires for his brother's wife. He met her alone while she was gathering yams, and they spent the rest of the afternoon in sexual union. During this time, the husband was minding his infant son, who soon became hungry. As the son called for feeding, the husband called in vain for his missing wife. At sunset, the wife and younger man returned to find that the infant son had starved to death. Realizing what had happened, the husband administered a severe beating to his brother, who escaped up to the sky where he became the moon. His injuries can still be seen in the markings of the moon every month. The husband declared that he would die, and, taking the dead infant in his arms, performed a dance—the first ceremony of death—before walking backwards into the sea, never to be seen again.

The Berndts, Australian anthropologists, tell another ancient myth about two men, Moon and Djarbo, who had traveled together for a long while but then fall mortally ill. Moon had a plan to revive them, but Djarbo, believing that Moon's idea was a trick, rebuffs his friend's help and soon dies. Moon dies also, but thanks to his plan, he managed to revive himself into a new body every month, whereas Djarbo remained dead. Thus, Moon triumphs over bodily death while the first peoples of that ancient time followed Djarbo's example, and that is why all humans die.

Death As a Being

None of these stories is meant to suggest that aboriginal people do not believe in spiritual immortality. On the contrary, their lore is rich in accounts of immortal lands. These are accounts of the origin of physical rather than spiritual death.

The idea of death as a consequence of human deeds is not universal. The image of death as a being in its own right is common in modern as well as old folklore. In this mythic vein, death is a sentient being, maybe an animal, perhaps even a monster. Sometimes death is disguised, sometimes not. Death enters the world to steal and silence people's lives. In Europe during the Middle Ages death was widely viewed as a being who came in the night to take children away. Death was a dark, hooded, grisly figure—a grim reaper—with an insatiable thirst for the lives of children. Children were frequently dressed as adults as soon as possible to trick death into looking elsewhere for prey.

The film industry produced two well-known films, the second a remake of the first, which examined this idea of death as a being who makes daily rounds of collecting the dead: Death Takes a Holiday (1934) and Meet Joe Black (1998), both of which portrayed death as perplexed at his victim's fear of him. In a wry and ironic plot twist, a young woman falls in love with the male embodiment of death, and it is through an experience of how this love creates earthly attachment that death comes to understand the dread inspired by his appearance.

But the idea of death as a humanlike being is mostly characteristic of traditional folktales that dramatize the human anguish about mortality. By contrast, in the realm of religious ideas, death is regarded less as an identifiable personal being than as an abstract state of being. In the world of myth and legend, this state appears to collide with the human experience of life. As a consequence of human's nature as celestial beings, it is life on Earth which is sometimes viewed as a type of death. In this way, the question of how death enters the world in turn poses the question of how to understand death as an essential part of the world.

The Garden of Eden

In the book of Genesis, the first man, Adam, wanders through the paradisiacal Garden of Eden. Pitying his solitary nature, God creates the first woman, Eve, from Adam's rib. Adam and Eve are perfectly happy in the Garden of Eden and enjoy all its bounty with one exception: God prohibits the couple from eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

The Garden of Eden is utopian. Utopia, in its etymological sense, is literally "no place." It is a perfect, probably spiritual domain for two celestial beings who, bearing the birthmarks of the God who created them, are immortal. These two beings eat from the Tree of Knowledge, which ironically, distracts them from their awareness of God and his omnipresence. As a result of this error, Adam and Eve become the embodiment of forgetfulness of the divine. In other words, they become material beings, as symbolized in their sudden awareness of and shame in their nakedness.

Adam and Eve thus "fall" into the flesh, into the world as it is known, with the entire legacy that embodiment entails: work, suffering, and physical death. Paradoxically, the Tree of Knowledge heralds ignorance of their divine nature, and the fall into flesh signals their sleepwalking indifference to that nature. Human beings therefore need God's help through the divine mercy of his Son or the sacred texts of the Bible to awaken them to their divine destiny. Without this awakening, the wages of sin are eternal death—an eternal darkness spent in chains of ignorance, a blindness maintained by humans' attachment to mere earthly concerns and distractions. This famous story thus embodies all the paradoxical elements of creation, implying that human life is actually no life at all, but its opposite: death.

In the kernel of this local creation story lies the archaic analogy of all the great stories about how life is death and death is the beginning of true life. The cycles of life and death are not merely hermeneutic paradoxes across different human cultures, but they are also the fundamental narrative template upon which all the great religions explain how death entered the world and, indeed, became the world.

In Greek mythology, as Mircea Eliade has observed, sleep (Hypnos) and death (Thanatos) are twin brothers. Life is portrayed as a forgetfulness that requires one to remember, or recollect, the structures of reality, eternal truths, the essential forms or ideas of which Plato wrote. Likewise, for postexilic Jews and Christians, death was understood as sleep or a stupor in Sheol, a dreary, gray underworld in the afterlife. The Gnostics often referred to earthly life as drunkenness or oblivion. For Christians, the exhortation was also to wake from the sleep of earthly concerns and desire and to watch and pray. In Buddhist texts, the awakening is a concern for recollection of past lives. The recollection of personal history in the wheel of rebirth is the only hope anyone has of breaking this cycle of eternal return.

Sleep, then, converges with death. Both have been the potent symbols and language used to describe life on earth. It is only through the remembering of human's divine nature and its purpose, brokered during an earthly life of asceticism or discipline, or perhaps through the negotiation of trials in the afterlife, that one can awaken again and, through this awakening, be born into eternal life.

Modern Accounts

The humanistic trend of twentieth-century social science and philosophy has diverged from this broadly cross-cultural and long-standing view of death as earthly existence and true life as the fruit of earthly death. Contemporary anthropology and psychoanalytic ideas, for example, have argued that these religious ideas constitute a "denial of death." The anthropologist Ernest Becker and religious studies scholar John Bowker have argued that religions generate creation myths that invert the material reality of death so as to control the anxiety associated with the extinction of personality and relationships.

Like-minded thinkers have argued that philosophical theories which postulate a "ghost in the machine"—a division of the self into a body and a separate spirit or soul—are irrational and unscientific. But, of course, the assumptions underlying these particular objections are themselves not open to empirical testing and examination. Criticism of this kind remains open to similar charges of bias and methodological dogma, and tends, therefore, to be no less speculative than religious views of death.

Beyond the different scientific and religious arguments about how life and death came into the world, and which is which, there are several other traditions of literature about travel between the two domains. Scholars have described the ways in which world religions have accounted for this transit between the two halves of existence—life and death. Often, travel to the "world of the dead" is undertaken as an initiation or as part of a shamanic rite, but at other times and places such otherworldly journeys have been part of ascetic practices of Christians and pagans alike.

In the past half century psychological, medical, and theological literature has produced major descriptions and analyses of near-death experiences, near-death visions, visions or hallucinations of the bereaved, and altered states of consciousness. Research of this type, particularly in the behavioral, social, and clinical sciences, has reignited debates between those with materialist and religious assumptions about the ultimate basis of reality.
Traditionally confined to the provinces of philosophy and theology, such debates have now seeped into the heretofore metaphysics-resistant precincts of neuroscience, psychology, and medicine. What can these modern psychological and social investigations of otherworldly journeys tell experts about the nature of life and death, and which is which?

The religious studies scholar Ioan Peter Couliano argues that one of the common denominators of the problem of otherworldly journeys is that they appear to be mental journeys, journeys into mental universes and spaces. But such remarks say more about the origin of "mental" as a term of reference than the subject at hand. The glib observation that otherworldly journeys may be mere flights of fancy may in fact only be substituting one ambiguous problem with yet another.
As Couliano himself observes, people in the twenty-first century live in a time of otherworldly pluralism—a time when such journeys have parallels in science and religion, in fantasy and fact, in public and private life.

Conclusion

Death has permeated life from the first stirrings of matter in the known universe—itself a mortal phenomenon, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of contemporary physics. Death came incorporated in the birth of the first star, the first living molecules, the birth of the first mammoth, the first cougar, the first human infant, the first human empire, and the youngest and oldest theory of science itself. Early cultures groped with the meaning of death and its relationship to life. The very naming of each, along with the attendant stories and theories, is an attempt to somehow define and thus master these refractory mysteries. All of the major myths about how death entered the world are, in fact, attempts to penetrate below the obvious.
Most have concluded that Death, like Life, is not a person. Both seem to be stories where the destinations are debatable, even within their own communities of belief, but the reality of the journey is always acknowledged—a continuing and intriguing source of human debate and wonderment.

Marvel Universe: Death Embodiment

Like Eternity, Lord Chaos and Master Order, and Infinity, Death is an abstract entity embodying the concept of the mortality and extinction, inasmuch as its opposite, Eternity, embodies life. Death and Eternity even regard themselves as siblings, having come into existence at the moment the universe was formed.

During the times that Death has manifested itself on the physical plane, it often takes the form of a skeletal female; however, the body Death chooses to manifest as can be in any form or size.
Death's motives and modus operandi are hard to fathom. It works in some kind of partnership with Galactus, a being who survived the destruction of the previous universe, and also provides some measure of power for Death-gods like Hela and demons like Mephisto, who are allowed to rule in her name over extradimensional realms inhabited by the souls of the dead.

Death seems to be always seeking out new conquests and may manipulate mortals with or without their knowledge in order to gain them. Death once attempted to destroy the vampire lord Dracula through human pawns because Dracula was depriving it of conquests by creating vampires who were neither truly alive nor truly dead. Death failed on that occasions, but Dracula eventually fell victim to permanent destruction.

Although Death ordinarily seems content to maintain a balance in the universe between its power and Eternity's Death will seize opportunities that arise to achieve dominance over Eternity. Death once appeared to the mad Titan Thanos in the form of a woman with whom he fell so much in love that he was willing to destroy the universe in order to please her. Indeed, nearly all of Thanos' activities from that point on involved his desire to win Death's favor. When Thanos possessed virtual omnipotence by means of the Infinity Gauntlet, however, Death, for reasons of its own, turned its back on him. Thanos himself has yet to fathom Death's motives for this relationship.

Death has on occasion taken the role of gamesman, having once played a tournament of champions with the Elder to the Universe called the Grandmaster, the end result of which proved the Grandmaster and fellow Elders immune to Death's power.
At one point, Death was "killed" by the Beyonder, who later "recreated" it. The implications of this on Death's nature are still a mystery.

Later, Death appeared to the Phoenix Force, claiming it to be the product of power of all life yet unborn, and thus somewhat an agent of Death and abstract entity the likes of Eternity and Death. Death helped to convince the Force to leave its then-current avatar, Rachel Summers.
Death has seemed to take a fascination with the mercenary known as Deadpool, appearing to him on several occasions in the context of a somewhat romantic nature. Again, the implications of this are still a mystery, even to Deadpool. Death's ultimate goals are unknown. There may be a master plan guiding its movements or nothing more than random chance. Virtually all living creatures in the known universe must eventually surrender themselves to Death. Even the offshoot of humanity known as the Eternals and the otherwordly Asgardians age, although they do so very slowly, and will someday die. Olympians do not age, but can be killed by a sufficient powerful force. Galactus, the only known entity said to predate the creation of the universe itself, has since died. Death remains one of the greatest mysteries of the universe.
Retrieved from "http://www.marvel.com/universe/Death_%28embodiment%29"

O.J. Simpson, Murder for Love

The O. J. Simpson murder case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in history, in which O. J. Simpson, former American football star and actor, was brought to trial for the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 after a lengthy trial—the longest jury trial in California history.

Simpson hired a high-profile defense team led by Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. Los Angeles County believed it had a solid prosecution case, but Cochran created, in the minds of the jury, the belief that there was reasonable doubt about the DNA evidence (then a relatively new type of evidence in trials), including that the blood-sample evidence had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians. Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the Los Angeles Police Department. Simpson's celebrity and the lengthy televised trial riveted national attention on the so-called "Trial of the Century". By the end of the criminal trial, national surveys showed dramatic differences between most blacks and most whites in terms of their assessment of Simpson's guilt.

Later, both the Brown and Goldman families sued Simpson for damages in a civil trial. On February 5, 1997, the jury unanimously found there was a preponderance of evidence to find Simpson liable for damages in the wrongful death of Goldman and battery of Brown. In its conclusions, the jury effectively found Simpson liable for the death of his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. On February 21, 2008, a Los Angeles court upheld a renewal of the civil judgment against him.

Jack the ripper

Jack the Ripper is a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London, England, in late 1888. The name originated in a letter sent to the London Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer.

The victims were women earning income as prostitutes. Most victims' throats were slit, after which the bodies were mutilated. The removal of internal organs from three of the victims led some officials at the time of the murders to propose that the killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.

Newspapers, whose circulation had been growing during this era,bestowed widespread and enduring notoriety on the killer because of the savagery of the attacks and the failure of the police to capture the murderer.

Because the killer's identity has never been confirmed, the legends surrounding the murders have become a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. Many authors, historians, and amateur detectives have proposed theories about the identity of the killer and his victims.

World War 1

The total number of casualties in World War I, both military and civilian, were about 37 million: 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 6.8 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost 5.7 million soldiers and the Central Powers about 4 million.

Classification of casualty statistics

Estimates of casualty numbers for World War I vary to a great extent; estimates of total deaths range from 9 million to over 16 million Military casualty statistics listed here include 6.8 million combat related deaths as well as 2 million military deaths caused by accidents, disease and deaths while prisoners of war. The table lists total deaths; the footnotes give a breakout between combat and non-combat losses. The figures listed below include about 6 million civilian deaths due to war related famine and disease, these civilian losses are often omitted from other compilations of World War I casualties. The war disrupted trade resulting in acute shortages of food which resulted in famine in Europe, the Ottoman Empire and Africa. Civilian deaths include the Armenian Genocide, and it is debated if this event should be included with war losses. Civilian deaths due to the Spanish flu have been excluded from these figures, whenever possible. Furthermore, the figures do not include deaths during the Turkish War of Independence and the Russian Civil War.