http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=215104
A potentially very interesting thread, with medical and real life possibilities was closed by Xash without giving reason, and with no obvious reason from the conduct within the thread.
So Xash, please explain yourself, before I am forced to hit you over the head with something 
Possibly it was because the thread had the possibility to teach folks how to kill.
I don’t think the Chicago Reader would endorse such behavior.
I would argue quite the opposite. We are shown by movies that apparently hitting someone on the head with a vase will allways knock them out. I was hoping the thread could explore this myth and especially it could show that such an act is more likely to just hurt the target or to kill the target.
So we could potentially learn that an act which would seem to be reasonable self defence was infact overly dangerous, or was likely to mearly enrage the target.
At another level, I would like to know if in a situation where you can get a number of head strikes against an opponent who is presumably facing off another person, would it be better to strike once as hard as you can, or strike many times as possible getting progressively harder, or are head strikes so variable in their potential effect that any strike to the crown of the head should be avoided.
Other linked questions is to consider the difference between a hit uppon the brow, the crown or the rear of the head.
As you can tell from this post their is much to mdiscuss in the subject.
Does this count as xash’s first pitting as a mod?
Is this xash’s first official pitting as a mod?
Lord Ashtar appears to have been hit over the head.
Poor Lord…he could have been a contenda!
Dammit! I even looked! It wasn’t there! I swear!
Man, I think I should go lay down.
Yep. I’ve informed him of the honor.
Well, this one would be the first it wasn’t for hebesphenomegacorona’s earlier effort: Damn You. John Corrado! And Xash, Too!
Seemed like an interesting thread. I suggest e-mailing Xash and asking him personally. Don’t threat to hit him over the head with a vase.
If the discussion had focused more on reality vs. TV maybe, just maybe it would still be open.
I remember an old Different Strokes episode with Mr. T. on it. They were filming an A-Team episode at the Drummond household when the maid, thinking there was an intruder, smashed a vase over Mr. T.'s head. Mr. T staggered, then grabbed the prop vase and broke it over his head saying something like “wrong vase, fool!”
My old college roomate took a date to a club. A jelous guy who wanted her assaulted him. In the ensuing brawl, my roomate grabbed a bottle and hit him in the head. To his surprise, unlike on TV, the bottle stayed firm and the head he struck gave in.
Yeah, come to think of it, I can see the topic getting pretty gruesome.
I think it would be a good thread for cautionary tales and the like: Tell the Dopers what really happens when someone takes a crowbar to another’s head. Fight the ignorance spread by TV and movies and bad novels.
Road Rash,
I think one of our Doper’s had a similar thread going about getting into a barfight with two Chineese nationals while in the PRC or something like that. In any case, yes, those bottles break but no, not before the skull of the opponent goes first.
Lay off Xash. We should all be relieved that ban-tastic manahatten is no longer a mod. Xash seems like a level-headed guy with no delusions of grandeur.
Manahatten was a mod?
I think your gratuitous swipe at Manhattan was unnecessary. Manny and I are not exactly best friends, but I respect him. He was a good moderator.
Yeah, but that wasn’t a real pitting. The OP was just stoned.
well, I for one, appreciate this thread. my first thought was “who???” but I’ve been out of the loop for a while.
as for the topic of the original, closed, thread. I suspect all that would have happened would have been a list of anecdotal stories, people getting hit with various stuff.
the reality (FMPOV) is that there’s too many variables - how hard the blow is, where exactly on the head, what object is used etc to generate much specific data. Hell, wasn’t there a case recently where some guy got a drill through his head and lived??
Several good rules of thumb to keep in mind IRL:
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the movies aren’t really a good source of real data. Lots of fiction, lots of poetic license (hint, you really cannot out run an explosion, no matter how many times you’ve seen it done in the movies).
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Hitting people in the head w/objects isn’t (generally) a good thing to do, it may cause more harm than you intend (in case of playful, joking occasions), or less harm than you need/intend (you really cannot guarentee that hitting the bad guy in the head with the handy Ming vase is really going to knock him out and keep him unconscious for several hours).
No I wasn’t.
I just thought he needed an inaugration pitting.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?