Sometimes the bizarre overlaps with the morbid, so you will have to forgive me if you were expecting a less disgusting and tragic post. If it is shocking, surprising or unexpected, it will eventually find its way on this blog, which is why we are going to talk about coffin birth today. This phenomenon is also known as postmortem fetal extrusion. Yes, it is precisely what it sounds like. Let's continue.
When a pregnant woman dies, if the fetus is not developed enough for extraction and subsequently extracted, it inevitably dies with its mother. It will often remain encased in her womb and is buried with her. Given the right circumstances, the bloating and pressure that comes as a body decomposes will push the baby out of the womb. Mind you, the fetus is dead like its mother. This is quite different from a baby that is born from a dying or just dead mother.
Interestingly, a dead female's uterus will be pushed out in these scenarios, whether there is a fetus in it or not. Gruesome, yes, but both are very rare and made even rarer by modern embalming techniques. It is not that embalming makes it so the fetus could not be pushed out, but rather it prevents the gas from building up in the first place by killing the bacteria that leads to it.
Enjoy your dinner.
The Bizarre Experiments of Carl Vaernet
Among some of the most outrageous human rights abuses of World War II are the acts of Nazi doctors in concentration camps. Many of them used the prisoner populations immediately available in these camps to conduct nightmarish human experiments. All of these incidences are bizarre in their disregard for the humanity of their subjects, though some are little known. Among the less infamous cases is the work of Carl Vaernet. This doctor was interested in finding a hormonal cure for homosexuality.
While Carl Vaernet was not nearly as prolific as well-known monsters like Josef Mengele, he was no less monstrous. His experiments included injections into the testicles of male prisoners at Buchenwald and surgical implantation of artificial testosterone glands into the groins of 17 prisoners. Interestingly, not all of these men were homosexual. Perhaps he simply wanted to test the viability of the gland. Whatever the case may be, two of his subjects died from subsequent infections after surgery. That is one way to cure homosexuality and likely the only "success" the doctor ever had.
Clearly, the ideas proposed by Vaernet were medically unfounded. Today, we would even consider them absurd. Then, they caught the attention of Heinrich Himmler, who made it possible for Vaernet to conduct his experiments, but even the insane doctors employed by the Nazi party realized there was no merit to Vaernet's research, but the war ended very quickly after his experiments in 1944. He was captured and managed to escape (allegedly with the help of Great Britain). He died in Argentina in 1965.
While Carl Vaernet was not nearly as prolific as well-known monsters like Josef Mengele, he was no less monstrous. His experiments included injections into the testicles of male prisoners at Buchenwald and surgical implantation of artificial testosterone glands into the groins of 17 prisoners. Interestingly, not all of these men were homosexual. Perhaps he simply wanted to test the viability of the gland. Whatever the case may be, two of his subjects died from subsequent infections after surgery. That is one way to cure homosexuality and likely the only "success" the doctor ever had.
Clearly, the ideas proposed by Vaernet were medically unfounded. Today, we would even consider them absurd. Then, they caught the attention of Heinrich Himmler, who made it possible for Vaernet to conduct his experiments, but even the insane doctors employed by the Nazi party realized there was no merit to Vaernet's research, but the war ended very quickly after his experiments in 1944. He was captured and managed to escape (allegedly with the help of Great Britain). He died in Argentina in 1965.
Two Men Who Will Not Speak to Each Other are the Only on Earth Who Speak a Dying Language
As strange as it may seem, languages are still being lost to history in the present. Such is the case with Ayapaneco, an indigenous language from the Tabasco region in Mexico that the only two remaining speakers call Nuumle Oote or "True Voice." With two people left speaking it, you would think the language could be rescued, but that is dependent on the efforts of linguists attempting to salvage the dialect. Why? Because the two men left who speak it do not talk to each other.
Manuel Segoria, who is 75 and Isidro Velazquez, who is 69, have not said why they do not speak to each other and express no open animosity. However, people who know the two Ayapa village residents say they never liked each other. Now, linguists are trying to piece together the nearly dead language both speak and even their usage of the language does not match up. Since they cannot bring the two men together to figure out the discrepancies, the team putting together a dictionary of the language has to use its best judgment.
Unfortunately, while at least one of the men was interested in having Ayapaneco classes, that has proven impossible thanks to budget problems and lack of interest locally. The hope is that the language will be taught before there is no one left who understands fully how to speak it.
Manuel Segoria, who is 75 and Isidro Velazquez, who is 69, have not said why they do not speak to each other and express no open animosity. However, people who know the two Ayapa village residents say they never liked each other. Now, linguists are trying to piece together the nearly dead language both speak and even their usage of the language does not match up. Since they cannot bring the two men together to figure out the discrepancies, the team putting together a dictionary of the language has to use its best judgment.
Unfortunately, while at least one of the men was interested in having Ayapaneco classes, that has proven impossible thanks to budget problems and lack of interest locally. The hope is that the language will be taught before there is no one left who understands fully how to speak it.
Bizarre Experiments: The Milgram Experiment
When it comes to horrifying, strange or surprising experiments, medical ones usually take the cake. World War II itself is enough evidence of that. However, psychology has its fair share of surprising experiments with questionable ethics. One of these is Stanley Milgram's experiments regarding authority, which he conducted at Yale in 1961. While not as frightening as the Stanford Prison Experiment on the surface, I think you will find that it only takes a little thought to see how the results of the research was equally appalling.
The experiment began with Milgram seeking out 500 men between the ages of 20 and 50 in the New Haven, Connecticut area. When the subjects arrived for their sessions, they would see one other "subject" that was actually what we would call a confederate. This means there really was only one subject per session. The other participant was working with Milgram, who was also present as the authority figure in these experiments.
The subject was given the role of "teacher" and led to believe this was an arbitrary assignment, but really all subjects were teachers and all confederates played the role of "student." The student was kept in a room separate from the teacher, who could hear the student, but not see him. The teacher was told that the student was attached to a device that would zap him when the teacher told it to. Milgram even demonstrated this with a small electric shock to the subject. However, there really was no current going to the student during the session.
The entire experiment took the guise of a test. The teacher would ask the student a question. If the student got it wrong, the teacher would zap him. The kicker is that he would also have to turn up the machine every time, so every subsequent wrong answer was more painful, or so he thought. As the test progressed, the student would begin to complain saying things like, "I don't want to do this anymore." and expressing pain. What is interesting is that 65% of the subjects continued the experiment until the machine was at maximum power with just a little gentle coaxing from Milgram. In other words, their hands did not need to be forced. Milgram merely had to state that it was part of the experiment and to continue and the majority of the subjects did as they were told.
Milgram's experiment is easily duplicated and has been a number of times. Different variables have been thrown in to see just how pervasive this behavior is. Apparently, certain things, such as conducting the experiment outside of the school, showing another subject dissenting and being able to see the student, made the subjects less likely to follow through. The moral of the story, kids, is that saying no to an authority figure that wants you to do something immoral is not only okay, but it will also make it more likely for others to dissent. Furthermore, just because you cannot see a person does not mean you are not hurting him. Imagine what the world would be like if more of us learned this lesson, as the subjects of Milgram's experiment did.
The experiment began with Milgram seeking out 500 men between the ages of 20 and 50 in the New Haven, Connecticut area. When the subjects arrived for their sessions, they would see one other "subject" that was actually what we would call a confederate. This means there really was only one subject per session. The other participant was working with Milgram, who was also present as the authority figure in these experiments.
The subject was given the role of "teacher" and led to believe this was an arbitrary assignment, but really all subjects were teachers and all confederates played the role of "student." The student was kept in a room separate from the teacher, who could hear the student, but not see him. The teacher was told that the student was attached to a device that would zap him when the teacher told it to. Milgram even demonstrated this with a small electric shock to the subject. However, there really was no current going to the student during the session.
The entire experiment took the guise of a test. The teacher would ask the student a question. If the student got it wrong, the teacher would zap him. The kicker is that he would also have to turn up the machine every time, so every subsequent wrong answer was more painful, or so he thought. As the test progressed, the student would begin to complain saying things like, "I don't want to do this anymore." and expressing pain. What is interesting is that 65% of the subjects continued the experiment until the machine was at maximum power with just a little gentle coaxing from Milgram. In other words, their hands did not need to be forced. Milgram merely had to state that it was part of the experiment and to continue and the majority of the subjects did as they were told.
Milgram's experiment is easily duplicated and has been a number of times. Different variables have been thrown in to see just how pervasive this behavior is. Apparently, certain things, such as conducting the experiment outside of the school, showing another subject dissenting and being able to see the student, made the subjects less likely to follow through. The moral of the story, kids, is that saying no to an authority figure that wants you to do something immoral is not only okay, but it will also make it more likely for others to dissent. Furthermore, just because you cannot see a person does not mean you are not hurting him. Imagine what the world would be like if more of us learned this lesson, as the subjects of Milgram's experiment did.
The Most Brutal Female Pirate in History: Jeanne de Clisson
Jeanne de Clisson was born sometime around 1300 and married just 12 years later to a man 7 years her senior. The marriage lasted more than a decade and produced two children, but her husband died when she was in her twenties. A few years later, she married Olivier II de Clisson, which was the first step to her infamy. The two appear to have been in love and had five children together. They lived a comfortable life, thanks to de Clisson's wealth, until the man was tried for treason, found guilty and hanged.
After her husband was beheaded, Jeanne de Clisson went what we might call a little bit crazy. She sold her husband's land and even prostituted herself to wealthy men, allegedly. When she had enough money, she bought three ships, which were painted black and outfitted with red sails. She was a truly frightening figure in her rage.
Jeanne, also known as the "Lioness of Brittany," sought only French ships, killing all but a few on board, so they could tell her tale in France. When she captured the ship of an aristocrat, she beheaded the man with an ax and tossed the body overboard. Then, in 1356, she was done with her revenge. She moved to England, married Sir Walter Bentley and then died three years later.
Human Stampedes and Crushing Deaths at the Hajj
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| Crowd around the Kaaba Courtesy of Bluemangoa2z from Wikimedia Commons |
The Hajj is a very famous and widespread pilgrimage that is required by Islam. If you are Muslim, able-bodied and can afford to make your way to Mecca, you must go. It is your duty to your religion and your god. With more than one billion Islamic people on the Earth today, it is not surprising that things get a bit crowded at the holy place during the four days of Hajj every year. Unfortunately, in the fervor to throw stones, kiss/touch a stone and do other obligatory rituals, people are crushed and thousands have reportedly died over the years.
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| A field in Kansas Courtesy of FEMA |
To be fair, attempts have been made to make the journey a much safer one. They are just only as effective as a massive crowd of religiously moved people allow them to be. You can only do so much to stem human crushing behavior when the people involved are motivated by an obligation they feel they owe a god.
Bizarre Human Experimentation: Unit 731
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| Unit 731 Complex Photo Copyright Expired |
When it comes to bizarre human behavior, Unit 731 is one of the most revolting and horrific examples. Of course, all human experiments beyond the most benign have something strange about them, but this was extreme. Unit 731 operated from the 1930's until the mid-1940's. It was a branch of the Japanese Imperial Army that was charged with developing chemical and biological weapons. This unit carried out some of the most heinous war crimes in history and this was around the same time Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was conducting his infamous experiments on twins, so that is saying something.
In order to give you a better idea of what kind of scumbags we are talking about here, let's take a look at what happened in a single camp. Thousands of Chinese and Russian prisoners were sent to Pingfang Camp. There, some 3,000 to 12,000 of them died at the hands of Japanese military researchers, many of them doctors. Most of the victims were Chinese. In one establishment, nearly 200 American POWs were killed in a medical experiment. It would be nice to say it was, "a medical experiment gone awry," but these people were not in the business of saving lives.
Among the examples of what Unit 731 did in its quest for knowledge are vivisections. In case you are unaware of what a vivisection is, think of it as an autopsy on the living. The procedure is not quite the same, but the point is to cut into the living person just to see what is going on inside of them. These procedures were not done humanely, if such a thing were even possible. Pregnant mothers were sliced into. Some of the victims were infants. Other atrocities include intentional freezing of limbs on live subjects, intentional spread of disease, unnecessary amputations, partial and total organ removal, attempts to infect prisoners using parasitic insects and germ warfare. Germ bombs dropped on China around this time killed up to 400,000 people. They even used humans to test the results of explosives on people.
Once World War II ended, so did Unit 731. Some of the doctors who were involved were taken to the Soviet Union to stand trial. Those caught by the United States were given immunity, of all things, because they coughed up what they learned in their experiments. Make of that what you will.
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