| 13 May 2004 at 13.34.25 ZuluTime
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Posted by Gremlin [24.8.27.194 - c-24-8-27-194.client.comcast.net] on 13 May 2004 at 13.34.25 ZuluTime:
In Reply to: Some final thoughts on his final moments. posted by Jurassosaurus on 13 May 2004 at 06.05.58 ZuluTime:
This is almost creepy. As it happens, I woke up [five minutes ago; count the typos] thinking exactly the same thing: that you can't slice through someone's neck with a Cutco breadknife while they're alive, and keep them that still. It just doesn't work.
I could watch through it again, but I think I get the jumpcut now. I'm guessing, given all the symptoms, that the guy was already dead by the time they started sawing through his neck. That would explain the evident compliance, the lack of blood, and so on.
As for the ability to cut through someone's neck: it's not easy, if he's alive. The cervical vertebrae are effectively interlocking, compressed into place by the muscles surrounding them. Although, once the muscles are sevred, the bones come apart and there's just the spinalcord to get through. The real trick is getting someone's head off in a single swipe with a sword. In more advanced beheadings [nonsequitur or not], they use a scimitar, which really just pulverises the vertebrae through sheer inertia.
I'm still not sure about the backstory on this guy. One source has claimed he was in the active military; another called him a war profiteer; a third suggests he was a tourist; a fourth hints that he was simply a guy named Berg, and therefore the natural enemy of the muslims...I have no idea, at this point. Of course, in the past, when confronted with four conflicting gospels about a guy, I've ended up dismissing the minutia out of sheer apathy, which is quickly becoming the strategy here--regardless the tale leading up to this event, everyone telling it is making a big deal about how much I should care about it, without giving me a real reason.
As time goes by, I'm sure we'll get more information on the whole mess. And it'll probably turn out that this was the guy who hit the Columbia with the purple beam, by one account or another....
--Gremlin