I thought they held the head up to show it to the crowd. So maybe you had 5-10 seconds to admire the view.
Punchline to the crucifixion joke - “Hey, Peter, I can see your house from up here!”
Regards,
Shodan
I’m pretty sure they take a few seconds to take the last guy’s head out the basket. They’ve got to take the rest of him off the table to make room for you anyway.
Personally I’d opt for having a small catapult placed under my chin so when the head comes off I get a last flight.
Back when we were still test-detonating nuclear devices, I would have suggested a seat at ground zero as the most painless way possible. Just save up the death row convicts until the next test.
The thing about Nitrogen/Helium/Low Oxygen atmosphere is that it’s a reversible process. And lots of people have come back to report what the experience was like. Getting shot in the back of the head – no so many reports that it was painless 
“Ventricular fibrillation” is another one that sounds OK. According to www.mayoclinic.org, “Loss of consciousness is the most common sign of ventricular fibrillation.”, and I think it could be easily induced with a little care.
Regarding the guillotine: nobody does that to animals, because it’s not regarded as humane. Humane methods are (1) Shot in the head (optionally, with captive bolt). (2) Low-oxygen asphyxiation (3) Cutting the throat while holding the head back, so that (i) the animal bleeds out and dies quickly (as with the guillotine), but (ii) the cut is held open, because apparently it’s painful if you do it any other way.
Nitrogen asphyxiation for me, thank you very much.
It’s also available as an audiobook, if you need something to fall asleep to.
Don’t tell the airlines. That’ll be the new cheap seat in coach.
As I understand it a captive bolt shot to the head is considered a stun, not a kill, at least in regard to cattle slaughter. Death comes when bled.
I thought that what electric shock did anyway?
What, Old Sparky is reliable in inducing it?
Electricity tends to kill you in one of two ways.
At lower current levels, it can screw with your heartbeat, and once your heart goes into fibrillation, it tends to stay in fibrillation. You pass out in about 10 to 15 seconds, and then slowly die from oxygen starvation.
As the current level increases, the chance of electricity causing fibrillation also increases, to a point. But it is always a bit hit or miss, and is not all that easy to intentionally induce.
Once you get to a high enough current level, instead of going into fibrillation, the heart muscles tend to just clamp. At that point, the heart is not pumping blood, so if the source of electricity is not removed then you will again pass out in about 10 to 15 seconds and will then slowly die from oxygen starvation. At this current level though, if the source of electricity is removed, the heart usually will go back into a normal rhythm.
Fibrillation and oxygen starvation is not how Old Sparky kills you.
At even higher current levels, electricity basically cooks you to death. Electricity flowing through anything that isn’t a superconductor generates heat. If you shove a nail into either end of a hot dog, then attach electrical wires to either nail, and then plug those wires into a standard electrical outlet, you’ll cook the hot dog fairly quickly. Actually, don’t do that, because exposed electrical wires are dangerous and you can easily kill yourself doing this if you don’t know what you are doing. But trust me, it works.
Old Sparky does the same thing to you. High levels of current are run through your body, literally cooking your internal organs to death. The theory is that the first jolt of electricity fries your brain, so you don’t feel your body being slowly cooked to death, but then people generally don’t tend to survive the experience so they can’t exactly confirm that it is as painless as its proponents claim that it is.
This used to be standard fair at Cub Scout and Boy Scout outings.
My understanding was that back in the days the whole shebang was public spectacle, much like hangings? The gore only amplified it
What difference does it make? Once you’re dead, you have no memory, so any suffering is erased. Isn’t the “humane” bit just for the benefit of the still living?
By that token, why would we ever care about anyone’s suffering?
If I recall “No Country For Old Men” the bolt to the head is basically like being shot in the brain (if held up close). It simply is quieter and less messy, since there is no explosives and the bolt goes a guaranteed but limited distance into the brain. I assume between the shock wave and the massive disruption of a hole shoved through the brain and the loss of blood pressure, death is quick.
I assume animals are not treated this way because the act of wresting a frightened ton of beef into a locking neck holder is not worth the hassle. The guillotine would have to be significantly more powerful too. The bolt I assume is much more efficient.
Isn’t the blade sitting in front of the neck a good way to limit the spray of blood and display of gore? I don’t imagine there’s a lot to spurt out of the head itself? But yes, killing a person by removing body parts is inherently more gory than cooking or poisoning them.
Certainly used in the 20th century, possibly more often than electrocution, gas chamber or lethal injection. The Nazis guillotined 14,000 during the war. Johann Reichhart executed 3,000 using a portable guillotine. He served the Weimar republic, the Nazis, and the Allies. His record was 32 in a day.
Um, Nazis … gas chambers. I think they beat 14000 that way.
San Quentin-style gas chambers I mean.
I’ve had too much nitrogen and too little oxygen, working with liquid nitrogen in an enclosed space. Turns out this is a very dangerous situation. I would have been much less at risk if I understood it better at the time. I noticed I was feeling intoxicated, but also that I felt extremely pleasant and relaxed and at ease with the situation. We don’t raise our defenses when what we feel is the opposite of frightening or painful or worrisome. Anybody at risk of being in too much nitrogen should know ahead of time that when the hazard starts they will not object at all. Being under water, or in a tiny sealed container, can cause one to die, but one knows very well that things are going wrong, unlike with just nitrogen. In fact, I think our defenses against suffocation are driven by our ability to sense high CO2 in the air we breathe, and am surprised they would mix CO2 into nitrogen for euthanasia. Wouldn’t that feel like suffocation and produce agonized struggling and panic?