You may want to reconsider your analysis. If it were rigor the weight of the torso and head would cause the body to be on it's back or side. I'd agree if it were his legs in the air but this appears to solar plexus contraction and not rigor.

Rigor mortis would not have time to set in. These pictures were claimed to have been taken shortly after a bombing.

What Aaron said: "Rigor mortis would not have time to set in. These pictures were claimed to have been taken shortly after a bombing."

What Aaron's Link to the story said: "The caption reads: "Bodies of Lebanese residents of the southern village of Qana near the port city of Tyre, Lebanon, are laid covered after they were removed from under the rubble of a demolished building, background, that was struck by Israeli war plane missiles Sunday, July 30, 2006".

So the claim was NOT that it was taken right after the attack. The claim was that it was taken some time after the bodies were removed from the rubble. Perhaps several hours after the attack? Perhaps less? It probably took awhile to remove them from the rubble don't you think?

The onset of rigor is very much dependent upon the conditions anyway, so its pretty much impossible for you to pass judgement from in front of your computer on whether enough time had passed. It normally occurs withing about 3 hours and lasts about 12, but can occur in just minutes. Any kind of heat sink, say like cold cement in the bottom of a collapsed building can draw heat from the body and bring on rigor more quickly. But since you don't know the condition that the bodies were exposed to, and you don't know how long there was between the time of death and the time of the photograph its quite impossible for you to make any kind of pronouncement except that driven by your own bias.

The person who posted this originally has apologized to the photogrpaher and the newspaper for getting this wrong.

WIll you?

KS, the picture was claimed to have been taken on July 30 and the bombing took place on July 30.

Rigor mortis does not set in on the same day.

I stand by that statement.

Aaron,

I earned my Medical Degree from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. Where did you earn yours?

Rigor does set in on the same day that death occurs. Full rigor is almost never later than 12 hours post mostum.

As usual, you just make things up to fit your beliefs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis

You stand by things you make up? What a loon. Doesn't even bother to make an effort, just shits all over his own website. Tsk tsk.

On August 8, Wall Street Journal online columnist James Taranto, in his Best of the Web Today blog, showed an Associated Press photo billed as being of Qana airstrike victims, (a photo that had previously made the front page of the Washington Post). The photo showed the bodies of victims laid out draped in white sheets. Taranto claimed that one of the bodies shown was in fact that of a man sitting down or trying to stand. Later the same day Taranto admitted the 'evidence' he had cited and the claim he had made was entirely wrong. He was alerted to the fact that there were numerous photos of victims bodies in a state of advanced rigor mortis. He appeared unaware that this theory had been debunked two days previously and described the claim he had made as "mistaken".

After the blog by Taranto, it was monkey blogger see, monkey blogger do all around the net with the proto-fascists doing their usual fine job of passing on information from the uninformed and adding their own misinfromation to it.

"And people wonder why the Right trust nothing from the Drive by Media".

For the most part, people don't wonder. Those of us who aren't right wingers already know that the typical right wing blogger starts with what he/she wants to believe first, then second, rejects everything that refutes or challenges that belief, third, accepts every bit of information that supports the belief no matter how dubious the source, and finally contributes to the false data base of support by creating his/her own false information which they "stand by".