Dead Girls Gone Wild!
May 8th, 2009
Thanks to Robert for the link.
Archive
Archive for May, 2009
Morbid Trinkets!
May 8th, 2009
The irrepressible (not to mention irreplaceable) Madame Talbot has put up a new batch of framed curios. I am enraged with envy at those who have the resources to purchase any of them – because I want them ALL!!! Perhaps you can see why?
Morbid Fact Du Jour For May 7, 2009
May 7th, 2009
Today’s Deaf and Dumb Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In 1735 at Nottingham assizes an alleged murderer, apparently deaf and dumb from birth, was unable to plead, and was pressed to death. The judges believed that the accused had only pretended to be dumb, as was discovered – too late for the prisoner to plead – to be the case in Ireland in 1740. Mathew Ryan was accused of highway robbery at Kilkenny assizes. A moving description of the incident was published in The Percy Anecdotes (vol VIII, 1823):
“The judges on this desired the prisoner to plead, but he still pretended to be insensible to all that was said to him. The law now called for the peine forte et dure; but the judges compassionately deferred awarding it until a future day, in the hope that he might in the meantime acquire a juster sense of his situation. When again brought up, however, the criminal persisted in his refusal to plead: and the court at last pronounced the dreadful sentence, that he should be pressed to death. The sentence was accordingly executed upon him two days after in the public market-place of Kilkenny. As the weights were heaping on the wretched man, he earnestly supplicated to be hanged; but it being beyond the power of the sheriff to deviate from the mode of punishment prescribed in the sentence, even this was an indulgence which could no longer be granted to him.”
Culled from: The History Of Torture
Morbid Fact Du Jour For May 5, 2009
May 5th, 2009
Today’s Horrifically Painful Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Long the fate of witches and heretics, burning to death is torture. Hot smoke and flames singe eyebrows and hair and burn the throat and airways, making it hard to breathe. Burns inflict immediate and intense pain through stimulation of the nociceptors – the pain nerves in the skin. To make matters worse, burns also trigger a rapid inflammatory response, which boosts sensitivity to pain in the injured tissues and surrounding areas. As burn intensities progress, some feeling is lost but not much, says David Herndon, a burns-care specialist at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “Third-degree burns do not hurt as much as second-degree wounds, as superficial nerves are destroyed. But the difference is semantic; large burns are horrifically painful in any instance.”
Some victims of severe burns report not feeling their injuries while they are still in danger or intent on saving others. Once the adrenalin and shock wear off, however, the pain quickly sets in. Pain management remains one of the most challenging medical problems in the care of burns victims. Most people who die in fires do not in fact die from burns. The most common cause of death is inhaling toxic gases – carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and even hydrogen cyanide – together with the suffocating lack of oxygen. One study of fire deaths in Norway from 1996 found that almost 75 per cent of the 286 people autopsied had died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Depending on the size of the fire and how close you are to it, concentrations of carbon monoxide could start to cause headache and drowsiness in minutes, eventually leading to unconsciousness. According to the US National Fire Protection Association, 40 per cent of the victims of fatal home fires are knocked out by fumes before they can even wake up.
Culled from: New Scientist
Generously submitted by: Aeron
Poor carbon monoxide gets such a bad rap. It sounds like a damned good friend to me.
Morbid Fact Du Jour For May 4, 2009
May 4th, 2009
Today’s Philosophical Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
When the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880 his final words were, “Such is life.”
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears
All A-Twitter
May 4th, 2009
Due to unpopular demand, I have started a Twitter page. I am sure you are rapt with anticipation. Come join the misery!
“1816: The Year Without A Summer”
May 2nd, 2009
MoxieHart posted a follow-up to the April 28th Morbid Fact regarding the “Year Without A Summer” that I wanted to make sure nobody missed. Rasputina have a song entitled “1816: The Year Without A Summer” that has an awesome video created by Dr. Mangor and Dame Darcy. Excellent viewing, and educational too!
