Recently Deceased

Here's a nice website round up of recently deceased famous people.

Obits

Over at Jezebel, Sadie mentions, "Elizabeth Barry of the University of Warwick finds that widely-read obituaries were one of the first ways regular people attained celebrity — albeit posthumously." Read for yourself.

Free Your Cremains

This Wired story from September 2002 summarizes a couple of the most interesting things that you can now do with cremated remains, aka "creamains."

The ones that I've looked into are:
•Diamonds
•Artificial Coral Reefs
•Earth Orbit

The article also mentions an artist who incorporated cremains into paintings, however the website link no longer works. Obviously, some of these ideas have stuck around longer than others.

Death for Your Dollar

It's come to my attention (from a few emails and a few websites) that even big-box club stores have gotten in to the supplying us with caskets and urns. For some reason, the Military Deluxe Flag Case shows up as an addition with each casket I look at, perhaps due to the times we live in.

Eco-Burial

Eco-Burial, or environmentally sensitive burial, has been getting more notice lately.
The NYT Magazine (Jan 1, 2008) mentions that in 2007, the first American was buried in an Eco-Pod, a recycled and bio-degradeable paper coffin. There are organizations supporting the cause, like Forest of Memories, promoting the development of Eco-Burial in the U.S. and Canada. Cardboard Casket even has a few images of the most basic casket you can get. The obvious ideas is that you are planted in to the earth, and your cardboard casket and you break down over a period of time. Traditional embalming doesn't allow the natural decomposition of the human body, nor does the coffin break down over time to allow the body to return to the ground.