Kate Hackett
Get ready to cringe a little, folks!
Over on AskReddit earlier today, u/Bancoarotelle asked
“What is the most disturbing thing to know?”
We combed through and found the best of the answers — some of which are particularly horrifying (I mean, this first one, yikes). To be entirely honest, I think we need a follow up AskReddit question: why the heck do you know this??
As always, these come from the internet, so take them with a grain of salt.
1. Sarin gas
Sarin gas is one of the worst ways to kill another human being and we have seen multiple instances where it has been used on innocent people
Wether relaxed or contracting your muscles need certain signals in order to function.
When you flex a muscle a neuro transmitter called acetylcholine floods the muscle cells telling them to contract.Your brain eventually tells the muscles to stop contracting and so that acetylcholine has to be removed.This is done with acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme which breaks it down and allows your muscles to relax.This happens for every movement of every muscle in your body wether you’re flexing your bicep or blinking, every beat of your heart.
Sarin kills because it bonds with acetylcholinesterase completely changing its structure and rendering the enzyme useless.This means your muscles never relax, they flex harder and harder and harder.Your entire body can cramp your pupils, everything..
The burning gets worse and worse and the pain is unbearable.
If enough of it enters the bloodstream usually via skin it will lock up your diaphragm and you will asphyxiate.It kills quickly but I struggle to imagine too many things that would be worse than dying from cramps in muscles you didn’t even realize existed.
It’s not the worst weapon humans have at their disposal, as if you survive a sarin attack you’re likely to make a full recovery as it doesn’t scar lung tissue like other chemical weapons
That being said, it’s still classified as a weapon of mass destruction and is supposed to be banned
E: adding the wiki for sarin for anyone interested.
2. Burnt bodies
Often, burnt bodies are found in the same stance, known as the “Boxer Pose” due to muscles contracting from heat.
It’s an incredibly disturbing looking thing, I first heard about it from my Grandfather that fought in Burma. During the war he was present at a Burmese funeral in which the cadaver was burnt on a pyre. Just as the flames began to singe the corpse, it sat up straight.
The Burmese, of course, got a good laugh out of the British soldiers collectively shitting themselves, as contractions due to heat during cremation is apparently rather common.
Doesn’t make it any less creepy.
3. Cyanide
Cyanide poisoning is an incredibly painful way to die
Cyanide was what Jonestown consumed for mass suicide
Parents were instructed to give it to their children and convinced the crying was just fear
4. Pelicans are demonic
Pelicans will go into other birds nests, shove the parents out of the nest. They will then swallow babies whole, fly back to their own nests, and regurgitate the still half alive, partially digested babies, to their own babies for them to consume. Some pelicans are literally raised on the partially digested, living flesh of other baby birds.
5. Abandoned kids
Some people will take their child to a doctor. Child gets diagnosed with cancer. Child goes to first appointment. Kid gets wheeled back for treatment. Parents then leave, go home, pack and disappear. The kid is in the treatment waiting room .. waiting for parents that will never ever come . Sick and facing death alone.
It doesn’t happen a lot but enough to have processes in place.
The worst is when they are like 4 (although a 7 year old was also rough)
6. Brains
If you try to grab the brain in its natural state it will fall apart, when you see scientists pick up the brain they have used chemicals to harden it.
7. Bears
Polar bears are the only bear species that actively hunt and kill humans for food. There’s a rhyme that everyone living where bears live needs to know, and why the rhyme is so important;
If it’s brown, lie down. Brown or grizzly bears will leave you alone if you play dead. Climbing up a tall tree works with adult brown bears, since they can’t climb trees.
If it’s black, fight back. Black bears will back off when they realize you’re more of a threat than they realize, but DO NOT climb a tree to escape. Both cubs and adult black bears can climb trees.
If it’s white, say goodnight. Polar bears are not only the largest bears, but they are ambush predators. If one manages to sneak up on you, you’re as good as dead. The best you can do to escape is either run and drop your clothes (fortunately for you, they have very short attention spans and they’ll stop momentarily to sniff at your clothes because it’s not normal for their food to suddenly drop something like that), or start praying to whatever deity you believe or don’t believe in.
8. ALS
That if you have ALS, you’re more than likely going to suffocate to death.
9. Japan’s atrocities
During World War 2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with the bubonic plague.
10. Cave Death
The Nutty Putty Cave accident— Google for full disturbing details/ a map of the cave but basically a guy got stuck caving in a very narrow unmapped tunnel, UPSIDE-DOWN. They could not get him out, but almost did, one of the rescuers made eye contact with him apparently but then their pulley system broke and he fell further down. Unfortunately he ended up dying of cardiac arrest from being upside-down for so long and they couldn’t get him out/ never retrieved the body because it was too dangerous for rescuers. Truly so disturbing, I’ve thought about it probably once a week since I found out about it a few months ago.
11. Rabies
By the time you show the symptoms of rabies, it’s already too late (it can also be dormant for a year before you show those symptoms)
12. Elephant death
If an elephants mate dies then they can die from broken heart syndrome.
13. The liver
The liver can be ruptured in one punch (liver is the second most fragile organ in the human body).
14. Surgery
I work as an anaesthesiologist. I’ve put people to sleep in an emergency situation knowing that they will almost certainly not survive the surgery. These are generally situations where without surgery the patient will not survive but even with surgery the chances of survival are still small. In most of these instances the patients are too obtunded or aren’t conscious enough to be aware of the gravity of their situation but in a number of instances the patients have been conscious, talking although clearly anxious. I try to reassure and tell the person that we won’t leave their side, that we will take care of them and that they will be fine. It kind of fucks me up a bit to say this to someone but I always include the last part because I just don’t see the point in telling them the truth. I had one guy tell me he felt like he wasn’t going to make it. I told him he would make it but knew he wasn’t going to. I put him to sleep knowing that the last human face he would see before he died was mine as he stared up at me as I held an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. I’d consider myself quite a resilient person but knowing this stuff is a bit of a load to carry around.
15. Necrophilia in War
It is known that at the time of violent death, the victim suffers from spasms of the anal sphincter. Many potential necrophiles have sought to take advantage of this fact by engaging in anal intercourse with dying soldiers on a battle- field. Soldiers during the Russo-t urkish War of 1877–1878 and Moroccan campaigns of 1919–1926 were violated in this way on the battlefield.24,45 The practice has been termed warm necrophilia, although the term is more suit-ably applied elsewhere. (Please see Chapter 3, “Classification.”) The Chinese are known to engage in sexual intercourse with geese and to kill them intentionally at the point of ejaculation for similar reasons.1
During the infamous Nanjing Massacre, often referred to as ἀ e Rape of Nanking, in 1937, Japanese soldiers raped an estimated 80,000 Chinese women. Since the Japanese army had officially outlawed the rape of enemy women, Japanese soldiers found it convenient to murder Chinese women after raping them. In many cases, Chinese men were forced to commit acts of necrophilia (forced necrophilia) on the murdered women.48 At least one Chinese man was murdered because he refused to commit necrophilia with the corpse of a woman in the snow.49
16. Marilyn Monroe
It has been alleged that necrophilia was committed on Marilyn Monroe’s dead body, too, after she died on August 5, 1962.53 ἀ omas Noguchi, who performed Monroe’s autopsy, found 8 mg of chloral hydrate in her blood and 13 mg of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her liver tissue. On this basis the cause of death was given as suicidal overdose of barbiturates. However Noguchi also noted a fresh bruise spanning Monroe’s lower back and hip which “might have indicated violence,” but this was ignored.53 Deputy Coroner Lionel Grandison signed the death certificate under protest and later resigned his position. In 1978 he disputed the suicide diagnosis, claiming his signature was “forced.” He also described numerous bruises on Monroe’s corpse that were not listed in Noguchi’s report, suggesting a violent struggle prior to death. He claimed that one or more necrophiles employed at the county morgue had violated Monroe’s corpse before it was released for burial.53
17. Surprise Cancer
That you can have a cancer but you don’t know about it.
18. We’re enormous
The disk of our home galaxy – the Milky Way – is bigger than we previously thought. A new study shows it would take 200,000 years for a spaceship traveling at the speed of light to go across the entire galaxy
At light speed.
19. Slavery
That slavery is still one of the biggest profiting trades in the world.
20. You’re a zoo
For every one human cell in your body, scientists estimate there are 1-10 non-human cells. Aka lots of little microorganisms living inside you!
