Summary
What's the Code of Hammurabi? If earthworms could write horror movies, what would the monster look like? Come learn about the limbless amphibian who eats their mother on this episode of Species.
Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4CxfnqU4OobOIvPQPk7FWcLsZHqzPHOPY-rlT5c8YE/edit?usp=sharing
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Code of Hammer Abbey is an ancient code of laws, carved into a seven-foot-tall jet-black spire. |
| 0:09.8 | Scrawled on it are 4,000 lines of legal text detailing the law of Old Babylon. |
| 0:18.7 | It's likely over 3,750 years old, making it one of the earliest records of human law. |
| 0:30.5 | Justice, according to this document, include some of the following precepts. |
| 0:36.9 | If a son strike his father, his hand shall be hewn off. |
| 0:41.8 | And if a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. |
| 0:47.8 | This is, of course, the famous eye for an eye law. |
| 0:51.6 | And if a son of an illicit relationship says to either of his adoptive parents, |
| 0:57.8 | you're not my father or you're not my mother, his tongue shall be cut off. |
| 1:03.8 | Humans aren't particularly humane when it comes to crime and punishment. |
| 1:09.2 | It seems amputation is one of the oldest punishments known to civilization. |
| 1:15.1 | I call it a partial death penalty, not just because it's got the same violence and finality, but because in a literal sense, you kill part of the person. |
| 1:26.5 | And it's one of the most severe punishments imaginable. |
| 1:29.4 | It's a permanent burden, a permanent obstacle, a permanent disadvantage in a world |
| 1:35.3 | largely designed for people who still have all their pieces. |
| 1:39.6 | Thankfully, most of the world today has deemed amputation to torturous a punishment. |
| 1:45.9 | And so it's counterintuitive to realize that nature cut the limbs off of today's animal, |
| 1:52.9 | not as a punishment, but as a gift. |
| 1:57.8 | Today we're going to talk about the ringed Sicilian, Siphonops, and Yulatus. |
| 2:04.6 | I'm Mackin. This is Species. |
| 2:11.2 | Welcome to the show. So I've moved the request and animal form to MaconMurphy.org slash contact, and I'd like more |
| 2:20.2 | suggestions for species I should do episodes on. My list of previous requests isn't as organized as I'd |
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