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First funeral held using ‘living coffin’ made of mushroom fibre
- alex_duf 6y agoI wonder if that won't cause more bioluminescence when the body decomposes? I seem to remember modern coffin are pretty good at limiting these effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp#Natural_explanations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp#Natural_exp...
- datameta 6y agoFascinating, thanks for sharing. It seems to me that the buildup of phosphine and methane due to a non-permeable traditional container is what leads to the storage and eventual release of these combustible organics, whereas a hastier decomposition during which the vessel breaks down as well won't lead to enough accumulation to allow visible ignition.
- ashtonbaker 6y agoIs this something that needs to be limited?
- detritus 6y agoYou never hear of a chemical and then it pops up twice in a week! Now I'm wondering what sort of ghosts they have on Venus... .
- neolefty 6y agoA problem with local cemeteries (in the US) is that they require vaults in order to prevent collapse of graves, simply because it's a maintenance headache. You can even leave the bottom open to speed up decomposition, but you still need the vault. A friend told me that in the past, before concrete vaults were standard, cemetery workers would routinely fill in collapsed graves with soil. Seems like you'd need to do that for this coffin — or even for a wooden coffin without a concrete vault. I wonder if we could go back to that? Find a middle ground between giving people time to grieve and reusing land once nobody cares anymore. Have a periodic petition to preserve certain graves, but anything over a certain age by default can have its space reused.
- hakcermani 6y agoWould packing the coffin with compost and other 'material' tight prevent collapse ?
- chrisseaton 6y agoI thought the vast vast majority of people in the West are cremated? Are normal people still being buried?
- s1artibartfast 6y agoIn the US it is about 50/50
- datameta 6y agoLooks like the state with the highest rate of cremation is Nevada at 75.9% and Mississippi has the lowest at 19.7%. It turns out Japan's cremation rate is 99.97% (2014) which actually lead to the appearance of "corpse hotels" where the body can rest until a slot opens up. It seems countries where buddhism and hinduism are prevalent have some of the highest cremation rates, and unsurprisingly there is an overall trend of higher rates in denser areas (even in countries where the average rate is on the lower end).
- 7thaccount 6y agoThis is done regularly in the philippines. After decomposition they just scoop out the remains and incincerate if the family doesn't want the remains.
- t0mbstone 6y agoI mean... why even use a coffin at that point? Just bury the body under dirt and pile some extra dirt on top of the hole for when the body decomposes and things settle over time so it is eventually level.
- dx87 6y agoThe mushrooms absorb heavy metals from the body, so the mushroom coffin should make the body "healthier" for the environment.
- t0mbstone 6y agoHow many heavy metals are actually in the body? And wouldn't the dirt absorb them just as well as the mushrooms? Wouldn't the mushrooms eventually degrade and turn into dirt? Aren't coffins commonly made out of metal anyways? And who exactly is trying to plant shit on top of graves anyways?
- voisin 6y agoI sort of love the username posting these totally relevant, well-conceived questions.
- Someone 6y agoCustoms/culture, I would guess. There also may be legal restrictions on ways of burying that require a coffin, for example for public health reasons.
- jtsiskin 6y agoThis would make for a pretty gnarly funeral... lowering a body into the ground...
- asadlionpk 6y agoWhat's wrong with just burying the body without coffin? The west needs to learn a lot from Islam. Dying shouldn't be so expensive. Think of all the real-estate wasted by preventing the body to decomposed.
- 7thaccount 6y agoBiohazards I would guess. I would think that cremation is the most effective means of burying the dead to prevent the loss of key real estate.
- asadlionpk 6y agoI feel cremation would be hazardous to environment. Is there any resource on biohazards of burying? I will look into this sometime.
- 7thaccount 6y agoI mean. I guess a furnace does use energy, but humans have all sorts of disease you don't want getting into your groundwater.
- fred_is_fred 6y agoA pine box isnt going to stop that either.
- 7thaccount 6y agoAgreed, which is why I think we should always cremate.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y agoDeath by Quorn.
- tdlm 6y agoHow green-friendly is cremation at this point? I'd personally prefer not taking up space. Just give me a web page memorial in case people want to "visit" with me and I can even curate it before I die, and I'm good.