So you say you like to re-cycle?

[stubeeef]

Well this is the ultimate re-cycling job.......

Link-thing (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&e=2&u=/nm/20050428/od_nm/life_australia_cemetery_dc) Australia's Victoria state government has approved plans for the cemetery at Darlington, 200 km (125 miles) southwest of the Victorian capital Melbourne, where corpses will be buried vertically in body bags -- instead of caskets -- on grazing land. "When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment," a spokesman for Palacom, which will establish the cemetery, told Australian Associated Press on Thursday.

"You're not burning 90 kg of gas in a crematorium and there's no ongoing maintenance costs."

He said burials would cost about A$1,000 ($781), with bodies held in a morgue in Melbourne and transported to the cemetery in batches of up to 15 in a bid to reduce costs. Animals would be allowed to graze on the land again once it was stable.

[mkrishnan]

In a way, it's kind of beautiful. I'm not sure I'd do it, but.... Zoro-Astrians in India leave the bodies of the dead in special places to let the vultures eat them. It sounds harsh, but if you believe that the physical body is not what is important after death, then it reinforces the idea that the attachment to it is something you must give up. From a Buddhist perspective, it seems good too, because protecting the dead body from the wheel of life could be seen as part of the ignorance that tries to distinguish us from nature.

[PlaceofDis]

i would have no problems doing this, might prefer it over creamation myself; its between those two now

[emw]

It makes perfect sense to me - I'd do it. That is, if I don't donate my body to science (since I am quite the specimen, you know :rolleyes: )

[stubeeef]

It makes perfect sense to me - I'd do it. That is, if I don't donate my body to science (since I am quite the specimen, you know :rolleyes: )

Guessing you liked the art thing? Fancy yourself in the ultimate "flasher" scene do ya? :p

[nagromme]

Sound good to me!

Except I'd rather my burial land area be used to feed 20 (http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/101.html) x the people... which is what happens when land is used to grow food crops instead of for grazing meat animals. Putting a lifetime of crops into an animal that gets eaten only once* is not good for world hunger.

* Someone mitigated if the people who eat the beef agree get buried back in the plot ;)

I'll just crawl into a volcano when I feel it coming on. I don't want any fuss.

[virividox]

sounds like a good idea, but i guess for some ppl they like a place to visit and hold a service...but i can see this as a very good alternative for ppl who dont really give a big hoot about it

[DeSnousa]

Call me a traditional guy but i would not like that at all. Still got many years ahead of me before i worry. One would hope any way :eek:

[MongoTheGeek]

I think its a good idea. I don't want anything fancy or expensive. I've given the following suggestions to my wife.

1) Flush me down the toilet.
2) Cremate me then scatter the ashes by the ocean
3) Cremate me then #1
4) Dump the body beside the road.
5) Plain wooden box.
6) Load me up into a cardboard box, take a collection at the funeral and take it to fed ex and find out just far they would send me.

Some other corpse disposal rites I've found interesting.

1) Viking funeral. Load the body on a boat with their trophies, push it into the water and set it on fire.
2) Zoroastrian. They believe the corpses are unclean and don't want them to pollute the 4 elements (earth, air, fire or water) so they place the body on an elevated platform and let the animals pick the bones clean.

[evoluzione]

sounds good to me. i think i'd rather be buried than cremated. seems like it would be a lot better for the environment too. that's a lot of gas to cremate you, and that ain't good. also, those lavish caskets you can get now, what a waste of exotic woods.

whatever has minimal impact on the world is fine for me. i would like a headstone under a big oak tree in the middle of nowhere though....

[CorvusCamenarum]

I remember hearing somewhere that you can now be made into a diamond once you expire. Basically its just a higher-temperature, higher-pressure cremation, and they add a few things and you end up with a half carat or so stone. They can even color it for you, and you can then spend eternity as the stone of <your name here>.

[aloofman]

I've got no problem with it at all, although I still think I'd prefer cremation and scattering to being buried in the ground under some kind of marker. It seems to me a colossal waste to dress someone up and put them in a VERY expensive box that people will only see for a few hours.

[rainman::|:|]

wish they allowed that here. best i can do, for not wanting my family to spend a bunch of money on crap, and for my body to make the least impact, is to be cremated in a cardboard box (they require a container) but even cremation isn't perfect (it is, however, better than leeching formaldahyde into the ground water for 3 decades). So this sounds like exactly what i've wanted. Eventually, maybe more will catch on...

[Apple Hobo]

In my opinion, the funeral industry is too expensive. Tell me why I should pay thousands and thousands of dollars just for dying. Dump me in a remote forest and let nature take its course. Natural and free for me. :D No need for a fancy casket that will be only be seen for a few days before it's buried forever. I'd rather buy a dual G5... ;)

[wdlove]

I have been thinking about cremation. This is really a different concept. Sounds as though there still wouldn't be a head stone.

[CanadaRAM]

In my opinion, the funeral industry is too expensive. Tell me why I should pay thousands and thousands of dollars just for dying. Dump me in a remote forest and let nature take its course. Natural and free for me. :D No need for a fancy casket that will be only be seen for a few days before it's buried forever. I'd rather buy a dual G5... ;)
You could be cremated and then buried IN your Dual G5.
How cool would that be?

[CanadaRAM]

Animals would be allowed to graze on the land again once it was stable.
Now, would you buy a steak from the ranch who had grazing rights to this land, given that there was a statistical probability that at least some of the molecules in the steak were once Uncle Jake?

:confused:

[Cybernanga]

Better yet, donate your body to the Body Farm, http://www.deathsacre.com/

I watched a documentary about this place, and it's pretty amazing, although you prpbably need to be interested in forensics, and or a CSI / Quincy fan ;)

[Apple Hobo]

You could be cremated and then buried IN your Dual G5.
How cool would that be?

Way too geeky for me. :D I've never thought about this, but maybe someday we'll have a news article about a geek who requests to be cremated and buried in his Linux box. :eek:

[JeffTL]

Oak coffin (NO GASKET -- rotting is cleaner than anaerobic liquification, particularly if you ever have to be exhumed) and unembalmed doesn't seem too bad.

[Chip NoVaMac]

i would have no problems doing this, might prefer it over creamation myself; its between those two now

Sort of the same for me.

I have given serious weight to cremation over the years. Even thinking of how I would want my ashes handled. My thought was to have my ashes scatter half of my ashes a couple days or so after my passing by my family and closest friends at sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. Then a year later (on my dime) have them spread the remaining ashes at sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

I talked with one of my friends about this idea. His only comment was that I always loved spreading myself thin. :D

[velocityg4]

I think I would just want to be stuffed and mounted over the fireplace :D

[angelneo]

1) Flush me down the toilet.

That must be one pretty mean looking toilet you have....

I prefer the most inexpensive method. I wouldn't want to burden anyone with the cost of the burying me, seems pretty pointless to spend so much since I would be gone.

[840quadra]

You could be cremated and then buried IN your Dual G5.
How cool would that be?

Well hopefully nobody turns it on and starts Folding. When the fans kick in there would be a helluva mess to clean up ;)

[840quadra]

That must be one pretty mean looking toilet you have....
.

I just about fell off of my chair after reading that! :D

[stubeeef]

I talked with one of my friends about this idea. His only comment was that I always loved spreading myself thin. :D

LOL, our friends know us well!