Torturers do still try thisand they often claim that what theydo is effective.

 The question of whether they actually believe that or not is aninteresting one.

 I get the impression that a lot of the time they do honestly andgenuinely believe torture is effective. They are….more than a little delusionaland tend to be rather convinced of their own importance.

 But- I think one of the things we need to understand in order topractically tackle torture in the real world is that information really isn’t the point. If it was then torturewould have been abandoned completely a very long time ago.

 The point is usually power. Kicking someone lower down the peckingorder. ‘Revenge’ for perceived societal level slights.

 How dare those homeless peoplewander into a nice neighbourhood. How darethose minorities ask for the same opportunities as everyone else.

 And so on.

 Italked a little bit about the reasons torture continues in an ask here.

 As you’ll probably be able to tell if you read through the ask the wholething makes me very very angry. Because it isso very pointless and preventable.

 So there are ‘reasons’ poor asthey are, even if torturers know they won’t get any information. And generally most torturers do seem tobelieve what they say that torture is ‘effective’.

 The extent to which they believe that doesn’t change the facts.

 As for how people get information- well that depends on whether you meaninvestigators or torturers.

 Torturers generally don’t tryanything that isn’t torture. I’ll talk more about that in a moment but I’d liketo cover genuine investigation first.

 Genuine investigators usually won’t put much stock ininterviews/interrogation, talking to suspects isn’t a particularly good way to get information.

 Igo into more detail on genuine investigation here but the crux of it isthat people willingly volunteering information is the backbone of police workand without it policing systems can’t function. Systematic forensicinvestigation also makes asignificant contribution. Watching people, mapping their routine and contacts,going through their documents, emails, phone records and so forth. Those areall possibilities for getting good, accurate information.

 Torturers don’t do any of thosethings.

 They tend to suffer from something Rejali called ‘deskilling’. Inessence when they start to torture they stopdoing everything else. And that means they gradually lose the skills theylearnt previously. They’re out of practice. They miss blindingly obviousthings.

 As an example Rejali quotes a case where a particular police departmentarrested a suspected terrorist. They confiscated his phone and computer. Theystarted torturing him. They tortured him for days without realising the information they wanted was on his computer.No body checked, they didn’t eventurn the damn thing on.

 That’s typical of how torturers operate.

 They also have a toxic and corrosive effect on any organisation they’repart of.

 They tend to basically split an organisation into torturers and peoplewho follow the rules. A group of people who shouldbe working together in order to achieve a goal, such as a police departmenttrying to get information, gets divided in two. The two groups spend most oftheir time trying to get around each other.

 Sometimes it gets so bad that the group fractures completely and the twofactions start killing each other. That’s not an exaggeration, (it happened inBrazil and Rejaligoes into it in some depth if you’re interested).

 The presence of torturers effectively hampers the investigative abilityof any organisation they’re part of. Both by having large numbers of people whoare torturing rather than working and by the strong negative effect torturershave on the people around them who actually areworking.

 In addition to this the presence of torturers makes people much lesslikely to volunteer information. That cuts off a major source of informationand hampers investigations further.

 So- basically torturers don’tuse methods of investigation and their presence in an organisation hamperspeople around them who do.

 But there’s nothing about the scenario that you’ve outlined that’simplausible.

 What you have is a good andrealistic use of torture in fiction.

 If you feel more motivation is necessary for some or all of yourtorturers then I do have a couple of masterposts that might help, as well asthe ask I linked to earlier.So this one here is how Rejali classifies torture in democratic countries,it talks a bit about the systems that encourage torture and stated motivations.

 I think you might also get something from some of the little studies Idid of torture being used for different ‘reasons’. I came up with this divisionto help writers so it’s a pretty different approach to Rejali. I think the poston Syria,focused on humiliating victims, the post on the Mau-Mau,focused on maiming victims and the post on Haitiand the slave trade, where torture was used to terrorise a large section ofthe population, would all be helpful for you.

 Honestly though? I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about.

 I hope this helps. :)

Hmm, okay so first of all, I’ve always said I’m pretty bad at tutorials and explanations, so I absolutely can’t like, guarantee that any of this stuff will work for anyone, let alone everyone. Artists have different techniques that they find work best for them. 

On the other hand, I didn’t want to just say “practice!” and leave it at that. So here’s an attempt to explain how I, personally, go about drawing heads and faces. (Apologies if the images come out gigantic and make this post really long.)

First of all, I do the typical circle with two lines. I don’t necessarily use the circle as the actual head structure; I just find that this really helps me get a feel for the direction I want the person to be looking, and where the features should be placed. The main thing that helped me get a hang of faces was always keeping in mind that they’re three-dimensional, and not just a flat oval with lined features slapped on top (I started off in 2001 drawing anime so I had a lot of bad habits to break and actual anatomy to learn. Nothing against anime, it’s just not the best thing to start from because it’s SO stylized.) 

Sometimes I’ll do that little line on the side to remind me to keep the features where they should be and not let them slide too far over on the face. It’s sort of…where I differentiate between the side of the head and the front of the face, I guess.

I also like to draw the nose early on because it’s in the middle of the face and helps me know where the rest of the features will be. Sometimes I’ll do eyebrows too, which I’ll touch on later. 

Rest of the features next. Once again, keeping in mind that the eyes are sunken into the face a little, and the nose protrudes. 

Sometimes if I’m having trouble I’ll do some really crude shading ot help me figure out where exactly things should be placed, keeping in mind the structure of the skull underneath (pink being where shadows would fall).

Hairline comes next - I no longer need the circle underneath.

I like to add hair last, on top of an already-drawn head so that I don’t accidentally make the skull too big or too small. Hair probably needs its own whole tutorial or something so I’ll leave it here for now. 

Different face shapes are pretty easy if you break them down into really simple ones to start. Detail comes after, so don’t get too caught up in it in the start. Like I said before, I like to do noses, and sometimes eyebrows, because it really keeps me in line and helps me not make the rest of the features too big or too small (at least not past where I want them, stylistically) and it keeps them where they SHOULD be according to the structure of the face.

Honestly I have no idea if this is at all coherent. I never took many actual drawing classes or anything, most of this is just stuff I’ve figured out myself that works best for me. I like to look at things that artists better than myself do, figure out why I like it so much, and work at improving those areas of my own art. Personally, my own biggest problem to get past was that whole 3D thing and not drawing a human face as a flat thing with lines slapped on top of it. Knowing the underlying structure is boring, but important. 

Yes, veterinarians provide out of hours services, though how those services are structured will depend on the type of service the veterinarian usually provides, and where they’re located.

For example in small animal medicine, you may have a dedicated 24 hour clinic that the general practice clinics refer to. This clinic may be open overnight, weekends and public holidays only (that is to say, the reverse of the normal clinics), or they might be truly 24 hours. This situation is where you’re likely to find your emergency specialists and the fancy toys, including CT scanners and automatic ventilators.

For some reasons (usually political) or in places too sparsely populated to maintain a 24 hour clinic, the GP vets generally provide an after hours service. Clinics will vary, but either the phones are diverted to their mobile, or a message on the answering machine and door will tell you who to call when the clinic is closed. If there are multiple clinics in the same location, they may ‘share’ the after hours load in order to give themselves more breaks in between.

Large animal clinics, and mixed practices, often work this way. This is especially true where the value of the individual patient isn’t all that high (eg cattle).

Equine medicine may work this way with mobile vets, or they may have staff on duty in a fixed location hospital. Sometimes they’re just called in as needed. Partly this depends on how busy they expect to be.

Specialists of most disciplines often have an on-call roster, where they take turns being on call. In this situation the calls are fielded by the other after-hours staff, only calling in the specialist where required. For example, if I’m working overnight and I get a minor surgery that I can manage, I treat it myself. If it has a broken leg, it’s triaged and managed until morning when the surgeon gets in, and then handed across. If a patient presents with complete paralysis and loss of deep pain sensation in its hind legs, then surgeon-boy (they are not all boys, but the one who always seems to be rostered on when I am is) gets called in. 

Some specialists do not have a roster, but the emergency clinics have a means to contact them. There is very rarely a dermatology emergency, for example. Some consultants or individual vets may also choose to hand out their  personal mobile numbers for special cases.

As to how long a vet should be on call, well, what ‘should’ be and what ‘actually is’ is often very different, and laws will vary by country.

A typical ‘on-call’ period is 24 hours, but a veterinarian can be expected to do multiple on-call periods in a row (eg Friday, Saturday, Sunday). A vet working on their own in practice might be on call every single night for their entire working lives.

This, typically, drives one a bit crazy.

The sheer unpredictability and broken sleep of on call work isn’t great for your mental health. It’s not as though you get the next day off to sleep if you get called in, unless you’re working in a dedicated 24 hour center. (Dedicated 24 hour clinics have made my life so much better, you just do not understand unless you’ve lived it.)

[Hey! I’m so sorry, but forensics isn’t my area of expertise. Everything below is a guess and what I read on the Internet, so if you find a better source than me, PLEASE use them. 

[Explore Forensics agrees with your formula], though it’s worth noting that their site states that the temperature drops by 1.5* Celsius per hour; starting temp should be 37. 

I also.... this is one of those areas where what I’m reading doesn’t match with what makes sense to me. Their site, for example, states that bodies in cold temperatures take longer to cool, which is quite backwards from what makes sense thermodynamically. 

Meanwhile, there’s an excellent resource from [Writer’s Digest] which cites the same 1.5-degree-per-hour formula in Fahrenheit, but then goes on to mention a cooling curve. 

(They also discuss different types of time of death, which is really important to understand; physiological, legal, and estimated.) 

Then there’s [Forensic Pathology Online], who point out that the body temperature cannot be assumed to be normal -- the character may have suffered fever, hypothermia, had their core temperature rise because of a fight, been lower because of sleep, etc. They also list several factors that affect cooling rate, such as whether the body was covered, the body’s physique, ambient temperature, etc. 

Lastly, if you feel like looking at a resource behind a paywall, [this article] from 1974 might help you. But because I can’t read it, I have no idea if it will help you or not. 

In short: The formula might work in celsius, it might work in fahrenheit, it might not  work at all, and I should stick to areas of medicine I know and understand rather than reaching into areas I don’t. 

Hope this was at least entertaining, since it was almost certainly not helpful! 

xoxo, Aunt Scripty 

That’s a little personal isn’t it?