Saddam's hanging, regression and autograph books, skinning people, gruesome deaths

Google Video of Saddam's hanging... no, I haven't watched it. This is for you people who might, out of morbid curiosity. :P (you can also see another link below if you wish)

This skim milk is good. Time to go back to bed, but I should probably take a shower first, haha. This sounds so high school, but I want an autograph book so all my friends' signatures and such can go in it, because I'd like to see their handwriting and look back on it in later years. I mean, I'm THIRTY FREAKIN' YEARS OLD and I want one of those?! How old does that make me mentally? Like... 14? :P It could be argued that I have my saved postcards / greeting cards / guestbook / 25th birthday scrapbook for that (all of which I treasure), but somehow a book with everyone's stuff in it at once also sounds like an excellent idea. Who knows. I probably won't go for that... heck, it's been years since some of my friends stopped attending my church for their own reasons, and I don't keep in touch with my high school / college friends either! Maybe I'll do that in the New Year, haha. Everyone will think I've regressed to the "wanna sign my high school yearbook?" stage of life, though! *sigh* What to do... I know, I'm a bit crazy!


Today's Skinned Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick charms. Police said they arrested Martin Kalunga, 25, and his associate Nico Benson, 31, in Lilwa village in southern Tanzania Tuesday after neighbors overheard Benson accusing Kalunga of plotting with their buyer to skin him as well. The identity of the buyer was unclear. "The two were arrested after they had a loud quarrel, because Benson suspected Martin of colluding with their buyer to skin him," Suleiman Kova, police commander for the southern Mbeya region, told Reuters. "During interrogation, Martin confessed that they were both skinners and that they had skinned a boy in Mbozi six months ago. They then threw his body into the river Jianga," Kova said. "These cases are few, but are very shocking," he said. Human skins are used by witch doctors to make charms or potions designed to make their users rich, especially in southern Tanzania, renowned as a center for traditional sorcery. Police say the once rampant practice has decreased significantly in recent years due to tougher action by the authorities, describing this as the first suspected skinning case in southern Tanzania since April 2004.

Culled from: Reuters
Generously donated by: Jason

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Oh well, no skin off their backs! *groan*

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Morbid Mirth Du Jour!

Okay, I know I'm late... but I just LOVE the Scared Of Santa photo collection! It brings a smile to my lips just thinking of those frightened little brats... :)

Thanks to Elizabeth for the link.

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Wretched Recommendations!

Evilpresly has a film recommendation for us:

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

"This movie is a Blair Witch-style romp through the jungle that looks like it was filmed in the 70's. Several youths film their violent exploits as they rape and murder their way through uncivilization. It, of course, depicts the natives quite terribly. But then, this was a terrible movie. What is the purpose of all this? I don't know. This movie was shown at a bar I went to with the sound off, which made it even more puzzling. But there is quite a lot of actual animal death (the part that turns my stomach, poor animals) and overall, I'd say this movie was borderline snuff."


Today's Severed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Patrick Hartnett was convicted of the January 18, 1884 ax murder of his wife which was witnessed by his five children. Hartnett's execution, on September 30, 1885, is widely considered to be one of the most gruesome executions in Ohio history. The condemned man's head was almost entirely severed from his body during the execution.

Culled from: Ohio Death Row
Generously suggested by: Jeff

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Of course, this brings to mind the not-quite-as-gruesome death of Saddam Hussein. As expected, video of the execution has been leaked already. Live Leak has this footage which was captured on a cell phone. It isn't the best, but it does show the entire execution, including some shots of Saddam hanging from the rope at the end.

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Morbid Mirth Du Jour!

Kainlane has an online gaming suggestion for us:

"You may have heard of this before, as I think it has been on the Net for quite some time, but I just discovered a game called Funeral Quest. The game is where you are the head of a funeral home and you have to sell people caskets and various other gems like Casket Air Freshener and Casket window, etc., etc. The people come into your parlor (which you name to your liking) and they will have a certain mood, be it Nervous, Crying, Angry, in a Hurry, or what have you. It will also say whether they are Super Rich down to Poor in varying levels. By selling caskets you get tags, Gold tags (from selling a Gold casket or exchanging wood / silver to gold) are used to buy things at the Di-Mart store such as a new Hearse (no longer using a bicycle!) or security for the parlor, to weapons and arson tools to use against your fellow moratoriums. The great thing is that you can go down the funeral row and visit any other funeral home in the city and break in, steal their tags, burn the place down (I assume, I haven't done that yet) or attack the owner. Other locales are the hospital, bank, university (to learn psychology on how to coax people into buying more stuff and other pursuits), bar, and church. It is a pretty basic massive multiplayer online game, where people will be logged in at the same time, so they will be in their funeral home at the time. It is limited, though. There are numerous servers with different people, but here is the oldest running."

I haven't tried it - I never have time for games, sadly - but it sounds like a very interesting game.

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Morbid Trinket Du Jour!

Looking for the perfect gift for that special someone? Why not an anatomically-correct chocolate heart? Lord knows, it would work wonders with me!

Thanks to Tiger NightWillow for the link.