“Trial by Touch” was a peculiar method of determining guilt in a murder case that was used occasionally in colonial America, brought over from earlier trials in Europe. The accused murderer was charged to touch the corpse of the victim before witnesses.
It was widely believed in those days that "murdered blood cried for vengeance" just as the blood of Abel was said to have "cried up from the ground." This formed the rationale for a further belief that if a murderer touched the corpse of his victim, that corpse would either bleed or have the "blood come fresh upon it."
But the corpse didn’t have to bleed to indicate guilt. If it moved or bruised, that was good enough. Read more about Trial by Touch and an account of a woman who was hanged for murder because of it, at Weird Universe.
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This is probably a case of him subconsciously (or consciously if he has trained to do it) opening a metabolic pathway that is normally closed. It probably uses up a lot of energy, but it seems a much better way to survive extreme cold than sacrificing the extremities.
chilly story.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:55 am
The article says “…climbing the Everest in his shorts”. Is that Mount Everest or just a local hill known as The Everest? hmmmm….
well he's dutch, and in the Netherlands we don't have hills, our biggest one is 300 meter :P. but its the everst.
i've seen te guy in action, standing in a ice tank for wel over an hour, than climbing out under own power. (2 meter high tank.