"Editorial and Contents," Shroud of Turin News, July 2018

Shroud of Turin News - July 2018
© Stephen E. Jones[1]

[Previous: June 2018, part #1] [Next: August 2018, part #1]

This is the "Editorial and Contents," part #1, of the July 2018 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. I have listed below linked news articles about the Shroud in July as a service to readers, without necessarily endorsing any of them.

Contents:
• "The Bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin Are Probably Fake, Say Forensic Experts," BuzzFeed, 14 July 2018, Dan Vergano. [This is the first of many articles on the same topic, which I will respond to in a future post-see "News" below. [I have since decided to not waste my time responding to these sycophantic news articles about Borrini and Garlaschelli's paper, but instead I will respond directly to the paper itself: Borrini, M. & Garlaschelli, L., 2018, "A BPA Approach to the Shroud of Turin," Journal of Forensic Sciences, 10 July. But only after my next, "4 July 1988: On this day 30 years ago in the radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud"]. See also the next four linked articles below.]
• "`The Shroud’s fake blood stains'. But the new research raises many doubts," Vatican Insider, 17 July 2018, Andrea Tornielli.
• "`Not scientific!' Catholic Church HITS BACK after Turin Shroud `fake' claims," Daily Express, 19 July 2018, Ciaran McGrath.
• "Shroud of Turin expert criticises new study casting doubt on authenticity," Catholic Herald, 19 July 2018, Junno Arocho Esteves.
• "The Question of the Shroud's Authenticity and the Certainty of the Resurrection's Historicity," The Christian Post, 25 July 2018, Brian G. Chilton.
• "Researchers offer paltry evidence on Shroud of Turin findings," Boston Globe, Adam Marcus, 27 July 2018. [This is a forced retraction, against the authors' wishes, of a paper that found "ferritin iron bound to creatinine" in a sample of Shroud blood, as evidence that the man on the Shroud suffered "a severe polytrauma" - see 19Jul17. "The researchers remain undaunted, however, and stand by their article."

Editorial
Rex Morgan's Shroud News: My scanning and word-processing of the 118 issues of Rex Morgan's Shroud News, provided by Ian Wilson, and emailing them to Barrie Schwortz, for him to convert to PDFs and add to his online Shroud News archive, continued in July up to issue #105, December 1997 [Right (enlarge)], i.e ~89% completed. Issues in the archive are now up to #100, February 1997.

News As previously advised, I will respond to the article, "The Bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin Are Probably Fake, Say Forensic Experts," BuzzFeed, July 14, 2018, Dan Vergano, and other similar articles, in the near future. In the meantime, read "Shroud of Turin expert criticises new study casting doubt on authenticity," Catholic Herald, 19 Jul 2018, Junno Arocho Esteves:

"`Does it seem like a scientific criterion to take a mannequin — like the ones used to display clothes in a store window — and a sponge soaked in fake blood attached to a piece wood that is pressed on the right side of a dummy to see where the streams of blood fall?' Marinelli asked. `If this is considered science, I guess I'll just have to take my degree in natural sciences and throw it away,' she said."

Also read, "`Not scientific!' Catholic Church HITS BACK after Turin Shroud `fake' claims," Daily Express, July 19, 2018, Ciaran McGrath:

"Pierluigi Baima Bollone, honorary president of the International Centre of Sindonology of Turin ... said: `I have read that the work that has been presented is based on a system called BPA [Bloodstain Pattern Analysis], very criticised on a scientific level. This method – in many court cases in which it was used – has created many problems and has been disavowed.'"

And also read, "An Unrealistic Approach and Analysis of the Blood Flows on the Shroud of Turin," July 27, 2018, Mark Antonacci:

"From these experimental results [by Borrini and Garlaschelli], which differ from comparable blood flows on the Shroud of Turin, the authors conclude the blood flow patterns on the Shroud are unrealistic and indicate they were the result of artistry or were faked. In this article I will briefly explain how both sets of experiments are flawed in several respects, how the blood flows on the Shroud are quite realistic, and how the authors' conclusions are necessarily flawed. All of the comments that I will make about the blood marks on the multiply-wounded crucifixion victim wrapped in the Shroud are supported by decades of research by numerous pathologists, physicians, anatomists, battlefield surgeons, scientists and forensic experts ..."

Media release: In July I continued preparing my previously mentioned media release outlining my hacker theory, which I have since completed (see 15Jul18). I am now working on a word-processed version which I will email to news outlets in anticipation of an upsurge of media interest in the Shroud's radiocarbon dating as the 30th anniversary draws near of the announcement on 13 October 1988 [see 23Jul15] that the Shroud's radiocarbon date was "1260-1390".

Posts: In July I blogged 5 new posts (latest uppermost): "Media release: Were the Turin Shroud radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?," - 15th "Date index 2009: The Shroud of Turin blog," - 14th; "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Fourteenth century (3)" - 3rd; "Date index 2008: The Shroud of Turin blog" - 2nd and "`Editorial and Contents,' Shroud of Turin News, June 2018" - 1st.

Updates In July there was a significant update in the background of a past post, "`I would like to point out an important mistranslation of a French expression in your post'." I added a footnote 4 to, "Marguerite therefore must have meant that her grandfather Geoffroy I de Charny's possession of the Shroud was his by right of conquest[4] and therefore not something that her late husband, Humbert de Villersexel (1385–1437) could have given away to the canons of Lirey" ... 4. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, p.183:

"When the canons of Lirey wanted to claim their property back from the widow Marguerite, they had to take her to court. On May 8, 1443, she was ordered to restore to the canons the various "furnishings and vestments and relics" that had been entrusted to her husband. As for the sacred cloth, she declared she was not bound by her husband's signature as it belonged to her, having been obtained by her grandfather by right of conquest in war. ..." (Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.183. My emphasis)

Comments: In July, as in June, there were no comments!

My radiocarbon dating hacker theory: As can be seen above, I did blog about my hacker theory in July: "Media release: Were the Turin Shroud radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?."

My book: In July, writing the dot-point outline of my book, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus!" (see 09May17 and 06Jul17),

[Left (enlarge): The planned cover of my book.]

took a backseat to preparing the media release, but today (4 August 2018) I resumed writing my book!

Pageviews: At midnight on 31 July 2018, Google Analytics [Below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 927,977. This compares with 777,560 (up 150,417 or 19.3%) from the same time in July 2017. It also gave the most viewed posts for the month (highest uppermost) as: "My critique of `The Pray Codex,' Wikipedia, 1 May 2011.," May 27, 2012 - 300; "Three-dimensional #20: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!," Feb 5, 2017 - 139; "Media release: Were the Turin Shroud radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?," Jul 15, 2018, 134;"Re: Shroud blood ... types as AB ... aged blood always types as AB, so the significance of this ... is unclear," Mar 18, 2011 - 98 and "Shroud News - November 2007," Dec 1, 2007 - 85.

I presume the reason why my "Shroud News - November 2007" had a jump in pageviews in July is because it has a photo of the Jospice mattress imprint, which shows in a Google image search of it.

Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]

Posted 4 August 2018. Updated 14 December 2022.