The Executioner's Art

Jeff Wilson · 15 Oct 2012, 05:42 · from 2012-October.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at clueland.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:42:59 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Executioner's Art
Message-ID: <507BA263.6010803 at clueland.com>

Found at I, Cringely, a technology blog: 
http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/09/off-with-their-heads-why-financial-regulation-stopped-working/

"Thirty years ago, when I was working for a time in Saudi Arabia, I saw 
a public execution...."

"He was dragged up the steps to a platform and there fell to his knees. 
Another man whom I quickly came to understand was the executioner 
climbed to the platform with the prisoner and poked him in the side with 
a long curved sword. The prisoner involuntarily jerked up just as the 
sword slashed down and just like that there was a head rolling off the 
platform, the body falling dead like a sack of flour."

I'm having a bit of trouble evnvisioning how the sword can poke and then 
stroke again so quickly, but it seems that this eyewitness account bears 
out the subtle manipulation of the condemned and unhesitating resolve of 
the headman as depicted in the BOTNS.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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