On the loss of your head.

[Мастер]

[Dragon Star]

Apparently, I'll get me coat...and head.

[Мастер]

Apparently, I'll get me coat...and head.

It's not you in the emoticon.

[umop ap!sdn]

The eyes should stay coherent for a few seconds after the blade hits. Just another of those little details that jumps out at me....

[Мастер]

The eyes should stay coherent for a few seconds after the blade hits.

It really frightens me that you know that.

[Blue Monster 65]

I dated a girl like Umop for a while. When I moved, I made sure I didn't leave any public forwarding information.

Woof! - Scott

[umop ap!sdn]

Not to worry though, my memory is faulty.

[Lance]

:glp-rotflmao:

Not to worry though, my memory is faulty.

How does he know? If the blade were good and sharp, how much of a "blow" would there be?

I'm not too sure I believe that.

Yahoo Answers

Damn Interesting

[KLA2]

My (laymans) opinion is that if the blow did not, the "explosive" drop in blood pressure would result in virtually instantaneous unconsciousness.

*There are, however, accounts from a French physician at the time of the revolution who claims that victim's heads attempted to speak and blinked their eyes for a number of seconds after decapitation. (Too lazy to look it up; I think it is on Wikipedia.)

Seems unlikely to me. I think what Charles Dickens called "that hideous instrument of torture" (A Tale of Two Cities) is in fact the most humane method of execution.

{Edited to note: * what Lance's links above said. If I had bothered to read them.}

[KLA2]

As for oxygen and minutes, I think it is fairly well documented that a person shot through the heart dies instantly. If oxygen was the only issue, they should be ably to walk, talk and certainly retain consciousness for minutes. Beheading should result in much faster death (for the head :wink: )

[Lance]

I think it is fairly well documented that a person shot through the heart dies instantly.

Or not...

If you get shot through the heart why do you die immediately? Why is there not a slight delay before you die?

You do not die "instantly".

First, it depends on the nature of the cardiac injury. Some injuries can be repaired, and you don't die at all. Others produce a leakage of blood and poor perfusion of the heart and other vital organs, and in that case, you'd take minutes to hours to die. Massive injury to the heart muscle would cause exsanguination into the chest and a quicker death, on the order of minutes.

In order for you to be completely dead, your brain has to stop functioning. WIthout any blood (and therefore, oxygen) going to the brain, you'd pass out in a few minutes, but your brain would continue to function for several minutes more. Even if you are resuscitated after a severe injury, anoxic injury to the brain would likely leave you a vegetable.

I am learning far more about this than I ever wanted to know.

[Blue Monster 65]

I'd still rather go in my sleep. Or at the height of "la petit mort." :D

Woof! - Scott

[Enzo]

I am reminded of the old bit of wisdom that if you die in a dream, you will really die in the flesh. I always wondered: how would anyone know that?

[umop ap!sdn]

Or at the height of "la petit mort." :D

Have to agree with ya on that one!

I am reminded of the old bit of wisdom that if you die in a dream, you will really die in the flesh. I always wondered: how would anyone know that?

Well I've died in my dreams more than once and nobody lives forever so I guess that saying will someday come true once again. :P

[Blue Monster 65]

Wait a minute ... "no one lives forever?" Huh? Where did you get that? Got a link? Sounds fishy to me ...

Woof! - Scott

[Arneb]

...and nobody lives forever...

[BAUT mode]Would you care to provide evidence, please? And may I ask you to aquaint yourself with the rules of this board while bringing forward your ATM theory? Please be advised that all questions directed at you must be anwered in a swift and timely manner, [/BAUT mode]

[umop ap!sdn]

Everyone feel free to prove me wrong. :)

[KLA2]

I think it is fairly well documented that a person shot through the heart dies instantly.

Or not...

If you get shot through the heart why do you die immediately? Why is there not a slight delay before you die?

You do not die "instantly".

First, it depends on the nature of the cardiac injury. Some injuries can be repaired, and you don't die at all. Others produce a leakage of blood and poor perfusion of the heart and other vital organs, and in that case, you'd take minutes to hours to die. Massive injury to the heart muscle would cause exsanguination into the chest and a quicker death, on the order of minutes.

In order for you to be completely dead, your brain has to stop functioning. WIthout any blood (and therefore, oxygen) going to the brain, you'd pass out in a few minutes, but your brain would continue to function for several minutes more. Even if you are resuscitated after a severe injury, anoxic injury to the brain would likely leave you a vegetable.

I am learning far more about this than I ever wanted to know.

I agree that in principle, brain death is the true determination of … death. Even after destroying the heart, the brain should not die for about four minutes. But nitpicking and paragraphs of caveats aside …

In every cowboy film I have ever seen, the bad guy shot (directly) through the heart dies instantly. Never moves, talks, or thinks again. Doesn’t say “Darn you, sheriff”, take aim, and fire off four more shots. Doesn’t say, “Gonna get me a last drink before I die” and saunter into the bar. Doesn’t wave over the town floozy and say “I got four minutes left. Let’s make the most of them.” Never recites Hamlet’s soliloquy. Same for war movies.

I am sure we all agree that Hollywood does not lie, or exaggerate, in movies.

Would be interesting to get comments from FWIS, where a lot of military people post.

I think I will ask. 8)

[MM_Dandy]

Not even in Blazing Saddles? :D
I'm pretty sure no one is shot through the heart in that flick.

Well, from eyewitness accounts, it took only a very few seconds for Steve Irwin to lose consciousness after being stabbed in the heart. I'd say that Hollywood (at least in the movies that you've seen) has that part right.

[Lance]

He pulled the barb out though. That did more damage that the initial penetration.

[KLA2]

I think it was the very toxic stingray poison rather than the wound to the heart that killed Steve Irwin.

He probably did the right thing extracting the "sting", unless it broke off in his chest.

http://elasmo-research.org/education/to ... y_city.htm
"The venom is a fairly powerful nerve toxin which affects the heart in complex and dangerous ways. "

[KLA2]

Not even in Blazing Saddles? :D
I'm pretty sure no one is shot through the heart in that flick.

Yeah. How Mel Brooks overlooked that, I will never know.

[Heid the Ba]

Old joke wraning:

I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my dad, not screaming in terror like his passengers.