Here's an odd question.

[old man emu]

I've heard of a process in which the body is placed in some kind of chemical solution which liquefies everything but the bones. At the end, the slurry is discharged through the sewage system and the bones are removed, washed and dried. After that the bones are placed in an ossuary, which is a chest or box made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. The word also refers to rooms or tunnels where skeletal remains are placed.

 

So, instead of taking up 750 x 2400 x 1800 mm of space, I can be odour-free in a box 500 x 200 x 300 in an ossuary.

 

 

[spacesailor]

TAKE THE CHEAP WAY !.

 

Buy a packet of Helium balloons about $30, With the gas.

 

Use a funnel the put ashes (cold of course) into balloons, Blow up, tie & give to the assembled.

 

One, Two, Three, all together  & away the deceased goes. At a certain hight the balloons will burst & scatter the contents everywhere.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[turboplanner]

Someone decided to fly over Port Phillip Bay and spread a person’s ashes.

 

The Ashes fell on a Wedding Party on a boat out in the Bay and ruined the day.

 

I think they caught the pilot.

 

 

[skippydiesel]

I've heard of a process in which the body is placed in some kind of chemical solution which liquefies everything but the bones. At the end, the slurry is discharged through the sewage system and the bones are removed, washed and dried. After that the bones are placed in an ossuary, which is a chest or box made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. The word also refers to rooms or tunnels where skeletal remains are placed.

 

So, instead of taking up 750 x 2400 x 1800 mm of space, I can be odour-free in a box 500 x 200 x 300 in an ossuary.

 

What is it with our species - always going for the high cost high tech solution (pun intended) - Just put the carcass on an ants nest OR let the blow fly maggots do the job - nil cost, nil pollution, feed the ecosystem and beautiful clean bones.

 

Got-ta-ask - why the need to have bits to remember the departed? If it's that important hire a taxidermist and have the old boy mounted (another possible pun in bad taste).

 

Once again I suggest composting - this is a fair dinkum process. Many years ago, NSW Agriculture was looking for a non polluting (air & groundwater) way of disposing of carcasses in a diesese outbreak eg foot and mouth. I, along with a lot of others, participated in a trial where 20  steers volunteered to be the simulated diseased animals. Disposal methods were below ground (pit), above ground  and composting. Burning not an option due to obvious air pollution issues and known ability to spread infective organisms in rising air. Long story short - composting really does work - all parts of the animal completely broken down, composting temperatures high enough to kill disease organisms , only thing left was the plastic ear tags. Beneficial byproduct  - a high quality organic fertiliser ($$$$). If composting can completely dispose of a steer carcass, it can do the same for you. Only problem would be the widespread use of prosthetics & other life prolonging devices - compost would need to be screened (unfortunate additional cost)  to remove these items, possibly for recycling ($$$$ ).

 

Other options might be leaving your unwanted remains to science or having your relo's deny any knowledge of the deceased and let the State (to whom you have been paying taxes) take car of the remains, at no cost to your family.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

What is it with our species - always going for the high cost high tech solution (pun intended) - Just put the carcass on an ants nest OR let the blow fly maggots do the job - nil cost, nil pollution, feed the ecosystem and beautiful clean bones...

 

Several cultures do this. I visited an open cemetery in Asia where bodies are left in the open to break down. Maggots in the eye sockets, etc. didn't upset me like I expected. I found it to be a peaceful place.

 

 

[Marty_d]

My father-in-law was carried from the church to the strains of Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls".

 

You don't have to take funerals too seriously.

 

 

[spacesailor]

WELL

 

You can all-ways feed cadavers to the pigs, they only leave Teeth , after digestion.

 

"English pig farmer found to have murdered dozens of backpacker farm hands"

 

politicians should go well, always having their noses in the trough.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[old man emu]

I want a permanent site for my remains, and I want that site to contain my bones. Perhaps 100 years after my demise, my descendants might like to have somewhere to go to say, "If not for him, then there would be no me". I've done nothing spectacular to leave my mark on Society, so why can't I hope to have my bones be my memorial? I have one great-uncle whose bones have lain since 1918 who knows where under some field near Strazeele France. I have two uncles who died in infancy and who lie in unmarked graves in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. 

 

 

[turboplanner]

It's not until you start studying your family's history that you realise the value of conventional graves with headstones.  These lock in beyond all doubt the identity of some relatives who lived in an era when there could be six Jack Schidts in a radius of 20 miles.

 

It's not until you've built up a family tree of more than five hundred people that you really get that feeling of power and belonging that's never there in just today's family.

 

Where people just disappeared you lose your roots.

 

 

[red750]

My 'kids' are in their 40's with no permanent or serious partnerships, the likelihood of grandkids is looking more and more remote. As the saying goes, it looks like we've come to the end of the line. 

 

 

[KRviator]

TAKE THE CHEAP WAY !.

 

Buy a packet of Helium balloons about $30, With the gas.

 

Use a funnel the put ashes (cold of course) into balloons, Blow up, tie & give to the assembled.

 

One, Two, Three, all together  & away the deceased goes. At a certain hight the balloons will burst & scatter the contents everywhere.

 

spacesailor

 

You'd be surprised at the weight of a persons cremains. I'd estimate my mates at around 5kg, and plugging that into a web-based calculator suggests in excess of 400 balloons would be needed. Though I do like the idea!  

 

 

[440032]

How about a SKY BURIAL in Tibet. (google it)

 

 

[skippydiesel]

You'd be surprised at the weight of a persons cremains. I'd estimate my mates at around 5kg, and plugging that into a web-based calculator suggests in excess of 400 balloons would be needed. Though I do like the idea!  

 

Don't forget the pollution from all those balloons plus the gas to burn the body

 

 

[skippydiesel]

My 'kids' are in their 40's with no permanent or serious partnerships, the likelihood of grandkids is looking more and more remote. As the saying goes, it looks like we've come to the end of the line. 

 

I feel for you. As a smug new Grandad, I am continually surprised and delighted to have the privilege of not just one high energy bundle, but two. As another grandparent commented to me " if I had only known how much fun grandchildren would be I would have missed the in between stage"

 

 

[skippydiesel]

It's not until you start studying your family's history that you realise the value of conventional graves with headstones.  These lock in beyond all doubt the identity of some relatives who lived in an era when there could be six Jack Schidts in a radius of 20 miles.

 

It's not until you've built up a family tree of more than five hundred people that you really get that feeling of power and belonging that's never there in just today's family.

 

Where people just disappeared you lose your roots.

 

Its an individual thing - I am spectacularly disinterested, as are my siblings however I have close relatives who have not only thoroughly researched the family "tree" but have even bought into the  genetic testing stuff. All very interesting - yawn!

 

My feeling of identity is not that of my parents or grandparents, who had very strong geographic/cultural & religious roots. I consider myself an international, a citizen of the world if you like, with non of the bagage (my view) that nationalism and organised religion bring with them.

 

 

[KRviator]

Don't forget the pollution from all those balloons...

 

That reminded me of the ill-fated Balloonfest in the US. 1.5 million helium balloons, and half of them landed in Lake Erie.

 

 

 

 

[skippydiesel]

How about a SKY BURIAL in Tibet. (google it)

 

Not so sure I would want to be the person doing the dismemberment  - necessary to facilitate/speed the activities of the vultures.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Its an individual thing...

 

I totally agree, Skip.

 

This fascinating discussion (thanks Red) shows a huge range of preferences, some of which I share, but all of which I support.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

My 'kids' are in their 40's with no permanent or serious partnerships, the likelihood of grandkids is looking more and more remote. As the saying goes, it looks like we've come to the end of the line. 

 

Red it looks like you are part of an expanding group. Many of our friends also remain childless; sometimes by choice, but it sure affects their parents.

 

 

[IBob]

How about a SKY BURIAL in Tibet. (google it)

 

Sadly, the most ancient, excellent and highly organised system of Parsi sky burials is no longer an option...pharmaceuticals having decimated the vulture populations, and inter-faith politics having dealt to the rest..(

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/26/death-city-lack-vultures-threatens-mumbai-towers-of-silence

 

 

[Love to fly]

How about a SKY BURIAL in Tibet. (google it)

 

No need to google for me.  I've been to Tibet and heard about these.  The Tibetan Buddhists have a very different outlook on life and death.  The monks also create butter sculptures using ashes of the deceased and yak butter.   Google will tell you more but this is what was done with Kurt Cobain's remains.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Don't forget the pollution from all those balloons plus the gas to burn the body

 

Oops, now that's out it could lead to agitations for banning by the global warmists, banning of cremations where huge amounts of gas are used on the production line, and a new calculation of a further 3.234 mm in sea levels around the world displacing a further 34,459,234 million people per year.

 

 

[GraemeK]

Sadly, the most ancient, excellent and highly organised system of Parsi sky burials is no longer an option...pharmaceuticals having decimated the vulture populations, and inter-faith politics having dealt to the rest..(

 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/26/death-city-lack-vultures-threatens-mumbai-towers-of-silence

 

Recently in Mumbai - and it's bizarre that the "Towers of Silence" are effectively in the middle of the city, exclusive real estate.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Sadly, the most ancient, excellent and highly organised system of Parsi sky burials is no longer an option...pharmaceuticals having decimated the vulture populations...

 

Yep, drugs have made our bodies toxic. It's been decades since the average human was fit to eat.

 

 

[old man emu]

Yep, drugs have made our bodies toxic. It's been decades since the average human was fit to eat.

 

Global warming has ruined the quality of the Chianti.