mediumaevum:

The most popular shrine in England was the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. When Becket was murdered local people managed to obtain pieces of cloth soaked in his blood. Rumours soon spread that, when touched by this cloth, people were cured of blindness/epilepsy and leprosy. It was not long before the monks at Canterbury Cathedral were selling small glass bottles of Becket’s blood to visiting pilgrims.

image: Altar marking the spot of Thomas Becket’s martyrdom, Canterbury Cathedral.

frangry:

Chris Cornell, who was once super crazy hot despite his awful facial hair, performs I Will Always Love You live in San Francisco on February 16, 2012

I’ve always had the biggest crush on Chris! Still Super HOT!

theossuary:

I’m lucky to have so many alert and knowledgable readers. For instance, a few of you (via reblog) recently corrected my post from a while back about Robespierre. While I wrote that he attempted suicide the night before his execution, you pointed out that this is actually debatable. 

Newest case: Alison M., who emailed me about (the possibility of) retaining consciousness after decapitation. As I’ve mentioned, 1) I’ve been meaning to post on this for a while; and 2) Josh and Chuck over at Stuff You Should Know have done a whole podcast on this. In it, they discuss rat decapitation (de-rat-itation?). I guess this is the favored method among researchers for dispatching lab animals. Tiny and sad, right? If anything, at least it’s quick.

Or is it? Perhaps, as Josh and Chuck suggest, smothering with a tiny pillow (while petting) might be more humane. Recent EEG evidence from the Netherlands indicates that the rats’ brains continued to operate consciously for a few seconds after decapitation.

For centuries, accounts of lucid decapitation have circulated anecdotally. Alison pointed me to this article by Alan Bellows on Damn Interesting. Bellows mentions some famous accounts of lucid decapitation from the Guillotine, and he also quotes a more recent account of an accidental decapitation in a car crash:

In 1989, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Korean war was riding in a taxi with a friend when it collided with a truck. The witness was pinned to his seat, and the friend was decapitated by the collision:

“My friend’s head came to rest face up, and (from my angle) upside-down. As I watched, his mouth opened and closed no less than two times. The facial expressions he displayed were first of shock or confusion, followed by terror or grief. I cannot exaggerate and say that he was looking all around, but he did display ocular movement in that his eyes moved from me, to his body, and back to me. He had direct eye contact with me when his eyes took on a hazy, absent expression … and he was dead.”

Go and read the full article, and listen to that podcast.

Image: Francisco de Goya, “The French Penalty,” 1824-28.  Source: Wikipedia.

moth:

SNL’s great Taran Killam recreates Robyn at 4:30am on writing night. 

via popculturebrain:

With bonus flashlight rave from Bobby Moynihan, Vanessa Bayer, Sarah Schneider, and Abby Elliot.

Love it

doremifasolatidomusic:

WARNING: NOT FOR THE SENSITIVE READERS
During the 19th Century, Postmortem Funeral Photography was very popular. It is a practice of taking pictures of a deceased person with the family members and/or funeral attendees. I was surprised to find an old picture from my Aunt in Leyte. Creepy, I know, but it used to be common practice in the Philippines too, in the old times specially in the provinces and has been part of the Filipino culture. I’ve seen this documentary on Travel Time (show hosted by Susan Calo-Medina and Wency Cornejo) once. Go figure. I just find it interesting and creepy at the same time. Here’s one from my great grandfather’s.

netzanette:

Postmortem by jack_mord on Flickr.