Friday, April 24, 2009

This is how we waterboard you

Yet another brave journalist volunteered for a quick waterboarding. The process seems really timid, and the reaction of the journalist seems a bit over the top. Is it really that bad? After  5 seconds?

Of course, one has to be there to experience it, but there is a striking discrepancy between the appearance and the result. It must be a pretty clever method of torture. No wonder the Spanish Inquisition came up with it first.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sawing a man in half as punishment

Sometimes I think I should stop surfing Wikipedia, because I usually stumble upon truly bizarre articles. Apparently, sawing was a popular kind of capital punishment back in the middle ages.

What's even stranger the people on this contemporary picture seem quite happy. Even the condemned! Maybe the artist tried to soften up the subject a little bit?