You might recognize the name Gilles de Rais as the real-life inspiration for the story of the killer Bluebeard. The real Gilles de Rais was a war hero who fought alongside Joan of Arc, but later was brought to trial for sodomy and child murder, with up to 150 victims. He confessed to the crimes (before his scheduled torture) and was executed in 1440. Rais' reputation grew, but the story was told differently in France and England. In England, he became known as a legendary serial killer and the inspiration for the fairy tale Bluebeard by Charles Perrault. In France, some biographers determined he was the victim of a politically-motivated witch hunt, on par with the persecution of Joan of Arc.
This exoneration isn’t a secret: many of Rais’ countrymen know him as the victim of Church conspiracy, falsely accused on account of his great wealth and political connections to Joan of Arc, who herself was tried for heresy and executed 10 years prior. Yet while attempts to clear Rais’ name go back to 1443, the majority of his biographers make little mention of this or of the suspicious circumstances around his trial. Those who have considered the possibility of Rais’ innocence are few and far between—and almost all of them wrote only in French. Add in the pre-Internet Court of Cassation and you’ve got a wealth of information that has remained inaccessible to an English audience. Like a 15th-century Steven Avery, Rais has been waiting for his very own season of Making a Murderer. Now, 600 years after his execution, he may finally be getting it.
Margot K. Juby is trying, almost single-handedly, to fix Gilles de Rais' reputation in the English-speaking world 500 years after the fact. Read about her research and findings at Atlas Obscura.
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This is the same company that tried to sell the motor brake control on its own merits and couldn't -- no user or saw manufacturer wanted it! So now they're trying to pass laws through Congress making this a mandatory requirement, and they're the only supplier. Talk about forcing a monopoly down every saw manufacturer's throat. If they can't sell it as an option based on performance...
I hate childproofing the world on the whole and Sawstop won't stop all the injuries: pieces can still bind and kick, debris can still be launched into eyes, flesh, carbide teeth can still fly, etc. But if this wasn't approx. an additional $1000 more (a comparable Unisaw runs about $1900) I wouldn't mind having one. I hate the legal bullshit the inventor is perpetrating; why can't he just 'make the saw-sell the saw'?
I still have questions though: Why wouldn't UL issue a certification? I've seen the UL stamp on some of the sketchiest stuff in the universe.
And does this gizmo work when your hand is making contact with the conductive metal table as well? Would it prematurely trip if I was pushing a particularly wet piece of wood through? If I had to reset and buy a new blade every time I pushed a green piece of stock through, that saw would be on the truck in about 5 minutes.
Too bad the inventor/jackass has effectively blocked much of the approval process by virtue of his avalanche of patents.
Haven't I read somewhere that most digit-severing accidents happen on chopsaws, not on table saws? Maybe I'm wrong.
Sure, but you could still drill the kids in safety: just don't tell them it's a safety saw and you'll always have it as a fallback.
I dunno, if my finger were nicked like that hot dog was, I think that would be enough to make me very careful. Ouch!
use goggles, gloves to prevent debris in your hands, no lose or hanging clothes, tie up your hair, use a bandana or similar f you feel like, and hold on the 'sides' of the piecde your cutting, so you would have distance to the blade. I'm at a mechanical line, so I know this...