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Twenty things about death that you never knew

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Let's really get off the beaten trail:

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Lists/?article=20ThingsDeath&GT1=27004

20 Things You Didn't Know About ... Death
Soapy corpses, ecological burials, dead relatives on parade and more

By LeeAundra Temescu
Provided by Discover magazine
1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

2. There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a "Star Trek" favorite).

3. No American has died of old age since 1951.

4. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.

5. The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word "agon," meaning "contest."

6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.

7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid -- formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol -- into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air.

8. Alternatively, a Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in six to 12 months.

9. Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.

10. The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.

11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.

12. If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called "famadihana." The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.

13. Sometimes, under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, fatty tissue of a buried body will turn to a soap-like substance called adipocere, or grave wax. Adipocere formation relies on a cold, damp environment and an absence of oxygen; once begun, this saponification can continue for centuries.

14. Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.

16. In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.

17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

18. Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.

19. More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.

20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.
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Im glad I dont live in India. or Madagascar
 
#8 sounds like something we should be doing.
 
China Cat>Rider said:
why not just get cremated then?
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From their website:

Differences between the burial forms' effect on the environment

There is a great difference between the burial forms effect on the environment, especially compared to the ecological burial.

The traditional casket burial effects the drainage-, ground- and drinking water as well as the ground itself and contributes to eutrophication and oxygen depletion of the seas. The main reason is the lack of oxygen on the depth a casket is buried which leads the body to root instead of convert to mulch. Large burial areas are required with high demands on preparation, drainage and sewage treatment. The consumption of energy is small and there is no effect on the air.

The energy consumption during a cremation is high, equivalent to 23 litres of fluid oil and half a kilograms of activated carbon for each cremation. The effect on the air is considerable. During the combustion flue gases, carbon dioxin- and dioxide which increases the green house effect, and also mercury in the form of gas. Studies estimate that 1/3 of the total mercury emissions in Sweden come from crematory.

Small land areas are used for the burial, but lakes and the sea are effected in the same negative way as for a casket burial since the ash is on its way to the sea already upon the first rainfall after burial.

The ecological burial is energy consuming as for the production of the liquid nitrogen. It is however not produced for this purpose since it´s a residue when producing oxygen. On the other hand there are no effects on the air, lakes and the sea or the drainage-, ground- and drinking water and the effect on the ground is positive since the remains are converted into mulch. Medium sized land areas are used with possibility to reuse old burial-ground. The demand for drainage and sewage treatment are low.
 
I don't care what happens to my body when I die, I won't be able to at that point anyway lol.
 
ActionJackson8 said:
I don't care what happens to my body when I die, I won't be able to at that point anyway lol.
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I want to be buried, not cremated and thrown in a lake!
 
Floppy said:
I want to be buried, not cremated and thrown in a lake!
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I'm not religious at all so to me a burial ceremony is a waste of resources. I'd rather my friends spend my or their money on something productive. I think post-mortem requests are that do not benefit the living are selfish and illogical.
 
hmmm...wow never knew that about cremation. I guess I never really chose to research it. Maybe I should. I wish to be cremated when I meet my maker. And my father was just cremated. But I had no idea it had that big of a negative effect on the enviroment.
 
17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.
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They used to tie a string to the dead person's finger that led to a little bell above their grave, so if they were accidentally buried alive, they could ring it. So graveyards hired someone to sit there and listen for bells ringing. It's where the terms "graveyard shift" and "nightwatchman" came from.
 
julie_m said:
They used to tie a string to the dead person's finger that led to a little bell above their grave, so if they were accidentally buried alive, they could ring it. So graveyards hired someone to sit there and listen for bells ringing. It's where the terms "graveyard shift" and "nightwatchman" came from.
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In some places where the local folk lore involves voodoo, (Jamaica, Barbados...ect.) they still do that. Creepy (not that I'm judging).
 
ActionJackson8 said:
In some places where the local folk lore involves voodoo, (Jamaica, Barbados...ect.) they still do that. Creepy (not that I'm judging).
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Whew, weird! Very creepy. I do notice sometimes there are bells incorporated into headstones. I assume it's all from the same lore.
 
m.u.i.
Wow who would of thought that dying would be a green issue.I'll tell you this.Once I die I don't think the enviroment will be a concern of mine.I want to be cremated to give me a taste of what I'm in for in the afterlife.
 
jefffann said:
m.u.i.
Wow who would of thought that dying would be a green issue.I'll tell you this.Once I die I don't think the enviroment will be a concern of mine.I want to be cremated to give me a taste of what I'm in for in the afterlife.
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LMAO if there is an afterlife, I'll be right behind you.
 
jefffann said:
m.u.i.
Wow who would of thought that dying would be a green issue.I'll tell you this.Once I die I don't think the enviroment will be a concern of mine.I want to be cremated to give me a taste of what I'm in for in the afterlife.
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lol...thats messed up. unfortunately I'll probably be sharing the taxi with you
 
#3 is hilarious. but i thought it was because we seem to die from because of this and that now instead of just old age.
 
I plan to donate enough of myself that there won't be enough left to matter.
 
I never thought this thread would be so popular! Death is a popular subject!
 
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