Showing posts with label dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dead. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

4 Ways To Determine Time of Death In a Dead Person

Regardless of your desire to know this information, we're here to discuss the four primary indicators of time of death in a corpse. (Because you obviously can't determine the time of a person's death if they're still alive) I would like to point out that all of these indicators can only help you estimate the time of death, since many environmental factors can change the observed events. Hopefully, you won't come back with pitchforks and torches if you come across a dead person (as often as you do) and quickly induce the person's time of death, only to find out how wrong you were, based on what we've told you.

If you look closely enough, you can see the imminent, post-apocalyptic future. On the other hand, there are some neat skulls there. 

4. Livor Mortis

Livor Mortis is one of the first things you don't see on crime shows and movies, despite it being one of the first things that happen to a dead body. Livor mortis is the resultant color of a dead person's pooling blood at the work of gravity. What do I mean? Think of it this way, once you're dead, your heart stops beating. If your heart stops beating and your blood vessels stop moving, there is nothing to circulate your blood. Therefore, after you die, your blood simply flows down your once active blood vessels, into the lowest part of your body. (Regardless of body position.)

Livor mortis is clearly observed by a dark purpleish hue onto the skin in which the blood has flown and pooled. Depending on the time, this color can/will become permanently fixed onto the body in a matter of time. What this all means is that you can determine the position the person died, along with the the estimated time of death.

Don't worry, this is the most graphic picture in this article. (Even though I found hundreds of pictures of half-decomposing bodies everywhere, so you owe me one.)

After the first two to eight hours of death, lividity (pooling of blood in body) will be present on the body. However, it would be easily removed by pressing onto the afflicted area with a finger/any pressure. If the color disappears, the person probably died less than eight hours ago. If the color remains, the person must have died beyond the eight hour time frame.

Before you start jumping around like some type of leprechaun with your new-found knowledge, allow me to inform you about the factors that affect livor mortis. First off, the environmental temperature of the body can greatly influence how long it takes before lividity becomes permanent. If the temperature happened to be extremely cold at that time, livor mortis could be slowed down. (The opposite is true as well) Accessories and clothing such as tight belts and wristwatches could easily externally constrict blood passage as well, which can also slow down livor mortis.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Horrifying Tuesday: The Mystery of The Ourang Medan

Horrifying Tuesday isn't all about scary plants and animals, it's about bringing together the most terrifying things in nature and history, together. Today, we're going to talk about one of craziest ship sinking you've probably heard of. Everybody's heard of the Titanic and it's maiden voyage, but what about the mysterious Ourang Medan, a ship in which it's own existence is in question.


The incident was said to occur around June 1947; two American ships were navigating their way between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra when they began to receive strange distress messages from a Dutch merchant ship called the S.S. Ourang Medan. The radio operator of the distressed ship reported the death of the captain, the officers, and possibly the entire crew. After saying that, the operator continued to send incomprehensible messages before finally stating "I die."

The first American ship to board the Ourang Medan was the Silver Star. The crew located and boarded a seemingly undamaged Ourang Medan in a rescue attempt. Instead of finding bullet ridden bodies and/or anything that would make sense, they found the entire ship covered with corpses of the crew down to the ship's dog. They found all of the bodies in a fixed, terrified posture, with almost no injuries, All of the bodies were found with their eyes still opened, faces affixed to the sun, mouths stretched opened and a few with arms outstretched.



Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hippopotamuses Wants You Dead

Better known as simply "Hippos", they are one of the most aggressive animals in the world. For unknown reasons, this animal was misplaced in our previous post about "the most aggressive animals in the world". Worry not, we shall cover this vile beast below!

Hippopotamus, you mean those cut-, littl-, lovel-, you got me. They're simply horrible. One does not use the words "Hipoptamus", and "cute" in the same sentence. Because they're not. If you have never seen a Hippo in real life, here's a picture of one.

I lied, here's about eleven. Enjoy.

As you can see, they look like giant water pigs. Not really appealing. The average hippo can weigh 3650 pounds. If you stack 6 Hippos together, you'll have the weight of a bus. (Although, older male hippos can weigh almost 10,000 pounds.) They can become 11 to 17 feet long, which is almost as long as four people lying down toe to face on the ground.
Monday, July 25, 2011

A Look Back: "Experiments in the Revival of Organisms"

"A Look Back", is going to be a series of articles based on various topics and genres, that have already occurred before the twenty first century. It'll be posted at random interval so don't expect one every week. Without further ado, here's the article.

The 90s were a very confusing time in human history. People began to think, "Hey, we don't really have to just make weapons and bombs, we could actually make things to benefit daily life!" and those same people, were swiftly picked up for a ten day exclusive vacation at a re-education camp water park sponsored by the KGB.

On 1940, a motion picture was released under the name "Terminator: Dawn of the Machines" "Experiments in the Revival of Organisms". Obviously, this isn't one of your casual summer action flicks. This motion picture, was a nineteen minute and thirty one second clip 'documenting' Soviet research into resuscitation of clinically dead organisms.