THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE TORTURE

Number Five: Glasgow Smile. This weeks first pick is the Glasgow Smile. I thought I would start this week's post with a nice easy one. This fun little method supposedly originated in Glasgow, Scotland hence the name Glasgow smile. However it became popular with a lot of gangs in England. Basically the victim would have the sides of their mouth cut into in order to form the "smile". Imagine how the joker's mouth looks better yet a picture of his mouth.

So now you have the smile image in your head. The next step in this method is to torture the victim via, beatings, burning, stabbing until the muscles in the face contract forcing the smile to rip itself open more. Beautiful. This doesn't kill the victim either unless other measures are taken to make sure the victim dies OR the wound is left untreated and they bleed out. Most victims are just left with a scar, that looks just like the joker's.

Number Four: Colombian Necktie. For this one my friends I strayed off the path of torture and this is simply murder. However, I bring it to this blog because it is an old, old favorite of mine. This method of murder came to be during "La Violencia" a 10 year period of civil war in Colombia. Alright so I'm sure you are all just dying to know how one gives another this "colombian necktie" so let me tell you. It's a fairly simple, effective technique. You make a horizontal slash across the victims throat, and pull the fool's tongue out through the wound you just created. This was actually used more as a tool of intimidation rather than real execution method. No pictures for this one sorry folks.

Number Three: Denailing. This is another one of those methods that gives me goosebumps and a smile. As the name would suggest, it is the forced removal of toenails and fingernails, fun. Denailing is a method that is still popular to this day. It is considered to be one of the most highly efficient and effective methods as well. First step is to secure the torturee to a table, hands and feet chained down. Then pliers, usually red hot are used to slowly pry the nail from the nailbed until it has been removed from the toe or finger. In medieval spain a small wedge of wood was put between the flesh and nail, then hammered until the nail came off. Another form of this uses skewers dipped in boiling oil, the skewer is placed under the toe or finger and drilled until it has removed the nail.

Number Two: Force-feeding. Force-feeding may not sound like a method of torture to some people. Sometimes it is used in hospitals medically, or in prisons when prisoners went on hunger strikes. However for those people who believe it isn't torture, can't utilize what they have properly. First off, let us take a look at what Force-feeding is. It is simply the act of feeding someone against their will, usually with a small plastic tube that goes from nose or mouth to the stomach. Sounds yummy right? However take a look at this, according to the Declaration of Tokyo: it may be extremely painful and result in severe bleeding and spreading of various diseases via the exchanged blood and mucus, especially when conducted with dirty equipment on a prison population. Still not satisfied? How about someone giving a description of a first hand experience? "The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat. I could breathe neither in nor out at first; I wheezed like a drowning man — my lungs felt ready to burst. The doctor also seemed ready to burst into tears, but she kept shoving the pipe farther and farther down. Only when it reached my stomach could I resume breathing, carefully. Then she poured some slop through a funnel into the pipe that would choke me if it came back up. They held me down for another half-hour so that the liquid was absorbed by my stomach and could not be vomited back, and then began to pull the pipe out bit by bit."- Vladimir Bukovsky. In some Serbian countries, prisoners were force fed soap and paper. It is also reported Muslims have been forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. Two things Islam strictly forbids.

Number One: Prematue burial. For those of you who already know what premature burial is, you probably shudder a little when you read the name. Not I however, this method of torture is also a fear many people claim. Premature burial is the act of burying someone when they are still alive. Imagine it, waking up to find yourself locked in a coffin and all you can do is scratch at the wood until your fingers bleed and you have no nails. Most death from premature burial is either from asphyxiation (no oxygen down in a coffin), dehydration, starvation or hypothermia. You will most likely only live for an hour or two before your oxygen is gone, you lose consciousness and finally die three minutes later. Even if rescued from the coffin depending on how long you were down there you may have brain damage from the lack of oxygen. The only way to escape asphyxiation is if you have fresh air coming in from somewhere, but even then most would rather die from that. The longer you are buried the more time your mind has to lose itself. This is why, Premature Burial is the weeks; Number One.