DailyDirt: Bring Out Your Dead...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jul 2nd 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Disposing of dead bodies is usually not a funny topic for anyone -- except for maybe Monty Python. But until we figure out how to cheat death, we're going to need to deal with corpses. Burying the dead six feet under might not be practical in some places, and not everyone is keen on cremation. Here are just a few other options.

The Urban Death Project is working on a human compost pile... that is respectful but at the same time practical. It's not exactly a pleasant thought that the deceased bodies of loved ones would be mixed with organic waste products, but Nature doesn't have a problem with it at all. If various kinds of composting don't appeal to you, maybe you'd prefer launching your remains into space? [url]
What do astronauts do if their colleagues were to die in a spacecraft on the way to Mars? There are some proposed solutions (such as a body bag for a promession process), but the answer hasn't been decided yet. [url]
Liquid cremation (aka alkaline hydrolysis) is another method of dealing with a cadaver. This process doesn't produce as much carbon emissions as traditional cremation, and it uses less energy (but more water). It's also not legal in every state. [url]

Hopefully, you won't need to actually employ any of these options any time soon.

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Filed Under: alkaline hydrolysis, astronauts, cadavers, composting, cremation, death, promession, rip, urban death project

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TDR, 2 Jul 2015 @ 5:12pm

I heard the title of this post in Kareen Abdul-Jabbar's voice. Only thing missing was the bell.

"Bring out your dead! The dark man's coming! The man with no face!"
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2015 @ 5:36pm

oh, wow, man.

if you was to die on mars, say, and your stinky remains couldn't be brought back, you'd be the only known human in the history of humanity to spend your eternity anywhere other than earth. at least until the next one, anyway.

almost worth volunteering for it. talk about a name to remember.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2015 @ 6:45pm

Showing more respect for the dead than the living
It is interesting that we often show more respect for the dead than the living. We dedicate houses for the dead, we dedicate land for the dead, we honour the dead. Yet we happily run the living out of town, we take away their houses and their livelihoods and their freedom. We treat people as less important than currency (that thing that seems to be money and isn't - not worth the paper or metal used).

The living we abuse,
The living we fight,
The living we kill (and then respect),
The living we enslave,
The living we starve,
The living we imprison and then
The living we are expected to respect.

Wha, sense it does not make.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2015 @ 6:47pm

Re: Showing more respect for the dead than the living
The living we are expected to respect.
The dead we are expected to respect.

FTFM.
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Ehud Gavron (profile), 3 Jul 2015 @ 7:43am

The Last Ship - burn dead people for fuel
A currently running US television show, The Last Ship, shows a post-cataclysmic society that sends dead people to be used as fuel in a [formerly coal] energy plant. It's a gritty show.

The Last Ship S02E01. If you haven't been watching this show... do yourself a favor and watch all of S01 before hitting this ep... it's not a fun one.

E
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Roger Strong (profile), 3 Jul 2015 @ 1:25pm

Dead Guy vs. Dead Guy
My last words will be "Either this wallpaper goes or I do", just to be sued posthumously by Oscar Wilde's descendants.

If I can be sued for a copyright violation after the original author's death, then I should still be legally answerable for the same violation after my own death.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jul 2015 @ 2:32pm

Re: Dead Guy vs. Dead Guy
I can see two problems with that.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jul 2015 @ 4:28pm

Granny soup
Liquid cremation has the bad rap of turning granny into soup. Although it could technically be called liquid soap, not soup.
Not the thing you wish to dwell on at a stressful time in life.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jul 2015 @ 6:17am

I've never felt overly concerned about what happens to my body after my death, but if I had to choose from being buried in a coffin, cremation, and composting, I'd go with being composted. I'd rather just be buried in the woods without any kind of coffin, but that's probably not legal. Why have this beautiful and expensive coffin if you're just going to stick it in the ground?
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That One Guy (profile), 6 Jul 2015 @ 12:16am

Re:
Because money. And stupid traditions. But mostly money.

But never mind that, think of the coffin makers man, you don't want them to go the way of the buggy whip makers do you?!
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