Topsy the Elephant

Emperor Lusgelnio said:
If a hanging is done correctly, it snaps the neck and kills the person instantly. It's actually a pretty humane method if done correctly. Of course, if the rope is too short, it's just strangulation, which is a horrible death. That's probably how it was done almost all of the time in ancient times as well; I simply have to grimace looking at the incredibly short ropes on old gallows. But people became more interested in "humane" execution in the 19th century, and I think that all modern hangings are done using appropriate methods. And if it is botched, that's bad, but I imagine that they undo the rope and try again rather than watching them suffocate. This is unlike the common lethal injection method where, for some reason, we give them a chemical that paralyzes them as well as a chemicals that kill them, so if it's done wrong they'll just lay there in pain, paralyzed and unable to say anything about it. Moderners are much more interested in how an execution looks that how it actually is.

Of course, electrocution is said to cause brain death instantly if done correctly as well. But it is a very nasty and complicated method of getting the same result. However, I doubt that this was done correctly - I doubt they did a lot of research into the subject of electrocuting an elephant, and the nodes appear to be attached to the elephants feet.
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It was. It was the British who developed the log drop form of hanging designed to surgically snap the victims neck causing almost instantaneous brain death.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
It was. It was the British who developed the log drop form of hanging designed to surgically snap the victims neck causing almost instantaneous brain death.
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It's funny but I was just reading about the origin of the word derrick, amazing story.

[h=2]The hangman who gave his name to a crane[/h]In Elizabethan London, the best-known gallows was at Tyburn, near Marble Arch; and the best-known hangman was a thoroughly dodgy crook called Thomas Derrick.
There hadn’t been enough applicants for the role of executioner, so the Earl of Essex, a favourite of Elizabeth I, pardoned a rapist on condition that he took on the job.
That rapist was Derrick. He turned out to be a very original hangman, developing a sophisticated new gallows. Rather than just slinging the rope over a beam, he invented a complicated system of ropes and pulleys; and it was by this method that, in 1601, he executed his old boss, the Earl of Essex, for treason.
His rope system began to be used for loading and unloading
goods at the docks; and that’s why modern cranes still have a derrick - named after a rapist.
 
DamnYankee said:
So? You Brits still did it.
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Yes and your pals in North Carolina were stringing up niggers in the trees not that long ago.

From the end of the Civil War through 1941, there were 168 North Carolinians who lost their lives to lynching. This form of mob violence was often justified as a means of controlling the black population; protecting white wives and daughters; and defending family honor. Legal attempts to deter lynching--including the 1893 law that classified it as a felony and sought to hold a county liable for damages--generally failed because of a lack of local support and ineffectual enforcement by state officials.
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http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/452/entry

http://1906lynching.blogspot.com/
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Yes and your pals in North Carolina were stringing up niggers in the trees not that long ago.



http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/452/entry

http://1906lynching.blogspot.com/
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A second attempt at the "you too" defense likewise fails. Has the State of North Carolina sanctioned lynching?

Also, I will wait with great anticipation for Poet or TouchyLiberal to judge you to be a racist by using the term "nigger" to describe Americans of African ancestry.
 
DamnYankee said:
A second attempt at the "you too" defense likewise fails. Has the State of North Carolina sanctioned lynching?

Also, I will wait with great anticipation for Poet or TouchyLiberal to judge you to be a racist by using the term "nigger" to describe Americans of African ancestry.
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Let's face it when people like you try to fling shit around, you need to remember your own soft underbelly first. As to the word nigger, it's all about context and I make no apologies for its use. I am sure that the lynchers were properly respectful and only said N-word whilst hanging some poor bastard.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Let's face it when people like you try to fling shit around, you need to remember your own soft underbelly first. As to the word nigger, it's all about context and I make no apologies for its use. I am sure that the lynchers were properly respectful and only said N-word whilst hanging some poor bastard.
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You attempted to compare mob rule with State-sanctioned activities. You can man-up and admit failure or continue to spin.

You used the word "nigger", Tom, to describe people of African ancestry, in a simple discussion. You could have used many other less insensitive terms but you chose the one with the most racist connotation. That is the context.
 
DamnYankee said:
You attempted to compare mob rule with State-sanctioned activities. You can man-up and admit failure or continue to spin.

You used the word "nigger", Tom, to describe people of African ancestry, in a simple discussion. You could have used many other less insensitive terms but you chose the one with the most racist connotation. That is the context.
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You voted for Bush 3 times.
 
DamnYankee said:
A second attempt at the "you too" defense likewise fails. Has the State of North Carolina sanctioned lynching?

Also, I will wait with great anticipation for Poet or TouchyLiberal to judge you to be a racist by using the term "nigger" to describe Americans of African ancestry.
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There is a concept of sanctioning by omission rather than commission, did any of those people that took the law into their own hands suffer any consequences?
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
There is a concept of sanctioning by omission rather than commission, did any of those people that took the law into their own hands suffer any consequences?
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It's not up to me to prove your point.

Perhaps that's the way the law works in the UK, "guilty until proven innocent", but here in the US, we have established the exact opposite law. Perhaps to spite you. :)
 
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