tagged w/ Cremation
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A New Jersey congressman wrote directly to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta two months ago to seek details about the Dover Air Force Base mortuary’s practice of dumping troops’ cremated body parts in a landfill but says he never received a reply.
The congressman’s letter raises questions about when Panetta learned that the mortuary disposed of cremated portions of remains at the King George County, Va., landfill. Panetta has said he was unaware of the dumping before this week.
Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), acting on behalf of a constituent whose husband was killed in Iraq and was prepared for burial by the Dover mortuary, said he sent a letter to Panetta on Sept. 16 “seeking clear and definitive answers” about the mortuary’s landfill practices. Holt said he had raised the issue a few months earlier with the Pentagon’s legislative affairs office but was “frustrated by a failure” to get a full response......Read More http://www.factoverfiction.com/article/4859A New Jersey congressman wrote directly to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta two... more
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CNN...
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General: Ashes from service members' remains went to landfill
From Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent
updated 10:07 PM EST, Wed November 9, 2011
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The mortuary at Dover Air Force Base handles the nation's war dead. Some remains were dumped in landfills, a general says.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The practice was stopped in 2008; ashes from partial remains are now disposed of at sea
An Air Force official emphasizes the remains were 'parts of bone and other DNA material'
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(CNN) -- The ashes of cremated body parts from some of the nation's war dead were dumped in landfills until 2008, unbeknownst to their survivors, an Air Force general acknowledged Wednesday.
The practice was stopped, and remains from cremated body parts now are disposed of at sea, Air Force Chief of Public Affairs Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick said.
The landfill disposal of the ashes was first reported in The Washington Post.
Kodlick issued a statement describing instances prior to 2008 when families had authorized portions of remains to be disposed of. Another Air Force official, speaking on background, emphasized that these situations did not involve bodies but "parts of bone and other DNA material."
Military escorts accompanied the remains to a crematorium near Dover Air Force Base Mortuary, which processes remains of service members killed overseas, the statement said.
After cremation, the ashes were escorted back to Dover, Kodlick said, and then turned over to a contractor "for further incineration and disposition in accordance with medical disposition."
"The common practice was that any residual matter remaining after incineration was disposed of by the contractor in a landfill," Kodlick said.
"We could have done it better," he said.
The Air Force official speaking on background emphasized that families had authorized disposal of those remains, but did not know the ashes would be put in a landfill.
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General: Ashes from service members' remains went to landfill... more
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Human beings have kind of a sick obsession with dead bodies.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a monster, I get that the rapidly decaying, lifeless corpse over there used to belong to someone you had some fondness for. But at no point forward will that bio degrading fleshy mound of used ta was, ever do anything again that it used to do when previously possessed by the life force of who ever they aren’t anymore. Tickle it all you’d like, it ain’t never gonna giggle that unmistakable titter that you fell in love with. Call it by name, dangle it’s favorite bag of salty treats in front of it, it’s not going to pop up and suddenly begin recirculating all of your favorite bloods and give you a great big knowing hug. And if it DOES, run like hell for a stabbing or shooting utensil because your loved one is now zombified and it’s either you or it Jack!
The point I’m trying to make is this: the second your beloved friend, relative or lover breathes their last, the container they left behind that they used to drive around in to be recognizable to other things living in this plane of existence is no more them than the carton that the milk came in is going to help increase your bone density. You’re just left with an expensive bag of recycling. Feel free to mourn the person you’ve lost, but let’s try to be a little more reasonable about what remains, and treat it more like the ’74 Rambler that it is.
Now that I’ve angered and alienated most of you, let’s get to the two stories I found this morning about the uproar caused by the cremating of one barely dead (and mistaken) infant, and one already excessively dead Nazi…
Appropriateness at this point really isn't an issue I don't think...
Apparently, last year an Ohio funeral home made an isty bitsy boo boo and set alight the wrong dead baby, which, surprisingly, wasn’t met well by the guardians of said unintentionally reduced child shell. The story states that, due to a morgue mix up the body of a 14 month old was mistakenly released to the Marlan J. Gary Funeral Home, in stead of the 22 DAY old infant intended for a ride on the grill. And because the Funeral Home just cooked the baby they were given, they had their license suspended for six months.
This issue raises a lot of, what I feel are natural questions with me. Now, I’m no baby scientist, I’ve said that time and time again when ever someone runs up to me in a panic, desperately pleading for my expertise in baby science, so I feel it bears repeating: I’m no baby scientist, but I’m fairly certain that there is a decided difference between the density and general volume of the body of a one year and two month old child versus that of a three week and one day old child. I could go to Target right now and pick up a jumper with a tag that says “0-4 months” or something, and compare that to a pair of slacks in the ”Pre-pre-pre School to Pre-pre School” section and likely not be surprised by the decided difference in expected sizes.
So, does a hearse just back up to a morgue, wait to hear the thump in the bed and drive off, or are there some sort of checks in place to make sure that not only is the morgue giving away the right dead baby, but that the funeral home is RECEIVING the right dead baby? Just the shere handling of the body seems like it would tip me off if I were a dead baby delivery man. If I’m delivering a deceased 22 day old, I expect I should be able to chuck that bitch in the back of a corpse limo with one hand. Just lob it in under hand and high five myself for another day of life more than that poor bastard. And if it took say, two hands and a little bit of heft, and I checked my clip board and it said “22 dayer” I would probably wonder if I had the right infant cadaver.
Conversely, if I were a crematorier, just thinking from a strictly business stand point, I imagine I use a different amount of fuel to burn the body of a 22 day old than I would for a 14 month old. So if I were intending to roast a 22 day old, put in a bag of 22 day older fuel and just tossed in what I thought was a 22 day old, I imagine if I were to come back later, I would likely find a good deal of 14 month old left uncrematized and wonder if my baby burning fuel supplier was fucking me over.
Aside from all of that obviousness, what gets me the most about the article is where is says:
“A hearing officer noted that cremation is irreversible and said funeral directors must take precautions to ‘get it right.’ “
I doubt that most people need be reminded that reducing human remains to ash is awful difficult to undo. I’m certain that most of us didn’t think that cremation was just a fancy term for “dehydration” and that a body could just be returned to its former glory by simply splashing it with a Dixie cup of water.
Hmmm, skinheads are different than I remember...
Meanwhile, over in Germany in what seems like one of the more extreme promotional tie-ins I’ve seen for tomorrow’s release of Marvel’s “Captain America: The First Avenger”; the bones of Rudolf Hess, one of Adolph Hitler’s deputies, were exhumed and cremated. Germans don’t quite get the collectible cup level of promotion, and you can’t tell them that they’re doing it wrong or they might murder millions of Jews.
It seems that, with the lease on Hess’ burial plot coming up for renewal in October, and with the grave site having become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis, “Hess’ relatives and Lutheran church authorities in the town decided it was best to remove the remains.” And viola, no more neo-Nazis. Right?
“The grave is now empty,” said cemetery administrator Andreas Fabel. “The bones are gone.”
Soooo… neo-Nazis couldn’t still commune at the former grave site of their martyred hero?
They apparently “cremated the remains and scattered them secretly in a lake, whose name and location are not being divulged”, so in a way, they’ve sort of made just about anywhere a fair place to come together and celebrate the memory of Rudolf Hess. He’s now circulating in the water ways of Where Ever Germany, being carried out to sea, and floating about on the breeze. These short sighted Nazi haters have effectively dusted all of us with Nazi particles. Thanks, just what I needed, to breathe Nazi while I’m just minding my own business, hating just fine on my own thank you very much. I really have a hard time believing that neo-Nazis are so sentimental that they’re going to have any difficulty mustering up enough focused drive to gather for a hate fest just because the bones of one of their heroes, that they could never positively confirm or deny the existence of in the first place, might not be where they were last week.
But if it makes you feel any better Lutherans, congratulations, you just re-killed a dead Nazi. You won World War II. And you just spoiled the ending of “Captain America” for me, assholes!
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For all of your rickety, windowless, primered comedy needs, visit:
vanfullofcandy.comHuman beings have kind of a sick obsession with dead bodies.
Don’t get me... more
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A Virginia man accidentally set his house on fire while trying to cremate Thor, his dead Rottweiler, in his backyard.
When Charles Harris discovered his beloved Thor had died of unknown causes, he contacted several animal shelters to try to dispose of the body. They were all closed. He then contacted local animal hospitals, who said they'd have to bring the dog to them, but Thor was too heavy. So he set about performing a do-it-yourself cremation.
From the News & Messenger report:
The Fire Marshal's Office discovered that [Harris] allegedly tried to dispose of his 11-year-old Rottweiler, who died last week, by putting wood next to the dog's body and using gasoline to intensify the fire, Robertson said.
The fire caused $70,000 in damages to Harris's home, which is currently uninhabitable. His insurance company is covering hotel costs until repairs can be made. He also has a court date set for August 24, as it is against local law to burn without a permit. All in all, a bad week for Mr. Harris.
http://gawker.com/5822067/man-burns-down-house-trying-to-cremate-his-rottweilerA Virginia man accidentally set his house on fire while trying to cremate Thor, his... more
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Nobody said saving the world is always a pretty job.
A borough council in England is proposing a plan to save money and energy by heating a public pool with warmth generated at a crematorium next door. Proponents on the Redditch council say the crematorium heat would be wasted otherwise, and diverting it to the pool could save the city £14,000 a year in energy costs.
Council leader Carole Gandy defended the plans, saying it would save money and energy. "I'd much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky. It will make absolutely no difference to the people who are using the crematorium for services. It's only a proposal at the moment but personally I'm supportive of it because I think it will save the authority money and, in the long-term, save energy which is what we're all being told we should do."
Some Redditch residents are calling the plan "strange and eerie," and the council will hold briefings with faith groups later this week to gauge the religious community's reaction. But as for now, it seems like a pretty ingenious idea to us. What better way to cap off a life well-lived than by literally keeping your neighbors warm?
http://www.good.is/post/idea-heating-a-pool-with-cremated-bodies/Nobody said saving the world is always a pretty job.
A borough council in England... more
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November 15th, 2010
06:44 PM ET
Afghanistan dog hero accidentally euthanized
A dog rescued from Afghanistan after she alerted soldiers to a suicide bomber was accidentally euthanized at an Arizona shelter on Monday.
A Pinal County Animal Care and Control employee has been placed on administrative leave for failing to follow procedures and euthanizing the wrong dog.
The dog, Target, was recently brought over from Afghanistan by a soldier who had returned from his tour of duty. Target was featured by CNN for heroism after saving dozens of soldiers from a suicide bomber on February 11.
"She got her name because the Afghans we lived with were constantly trying to off her. She's been shot in the leg. ... The Afghans actually ran over her," Sgt. Christopher Duke said, who helped care for Target in Afghanistan and has adopted her packmate Rufus. "There's no killing this dog for sure. She's pretty much been through it all, " he said upon their reunion in July in Georgia.
Target's new owner, Army Sgt. Terry Young whose life was saved by the stray, helped bring the 2-ish-year-old from Afghanistan to her new home in Arizona. She disappeared from Young's home on Friday. Facebook postings requested help in finding her.
Target saved U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan
Animal Care and Control received a call about a stray female shepherd-mix dog in the San Tan Valley area on Friday. An animal control officer picked up the dog and brought her to the shelter where the dog stayed over the weekend. The dog was not microchipped or licensed with the county, shelter officials said.
On Monday morning, the employee mistakenly took the dog out of its pen and euthanized it. The dog was not scheduled for euthanasia.
“I am heartsick over this. I had to personally deliver the news to the dog’s owner, and he and his family are understandably distraught,” said Animal Care and Control Director Ruth Stalter. “We work hard get to strays reunited with their owners. When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow. Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures.”
In an e-mail, Young told CNN affiliate KPHO, "I'm an absolute wreck today, and it's everything in my power to hold it together for me and my family. My 4-year-old son just can't understand what is going on with Target and keeps asking me to get the poison out of her and bring her home. They don't want her to go be with God yet."
“An investigation is under way, and we will cooperate fully. We will also thoroughly review procedures to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” Stalter said. “This is unacceptable, and no family should be deprived of their companion because procedures were not followed.”
Target was pregnant when she helped thwart the suicide bomber by attacking him. She had her litter of puppies in Afghanistan. Target's puppies have since been brought to the United States.November 15th, 2010
06:44 PM ET
Afghanistan dog hero accidentally euthanized... more
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These aren’t your standard number two pencils. Created by Nadine Jarvis, these pencils are made using carbon from cremated human remains. Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the deceased and only one pencil can be removed from its container at a time. The pencil is then sharpened back into the box, leaving the sharpenings to occupy the space left by used pencils.
Read more: http://www.whitespace.bz/ws/web/forms/pulse/PulseMainArticle.aspx?id=464These aren’t your standard number two pencils. Created by Nadine Jarvis, these... more
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“When doctors and undertakers meet they always wink at each other.”
W.C. Fields (1880 – 1946)
Born in Philadelphia on January 29, 1880, W.C. Fields was a versatile comedian who starred in both silent films and talking pictures before he began writing screenplays. His career options dwindled as he was plagued by an addiction to alcohol and a recurring illness. He died of a stomach hemorrhage on Christmas Day, 1946 in Pasadena, California.
Was his cynicism justified?
Maybe so.
Are Americans dying too soon? asked The Washington Post recently.
Well…when it comes to ‘preventable deaths’ — an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age — the US trails other industrialized nations, and has been falling further behind over the past decade.....
read more at Heroin and Cornflakes.....http://arch1design.com/blog/?p=6822“When doctors and undertakers meet they always wink at each other.”
W.C.... more
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You’d think by leaving this planet (and I don’t mean by spaceship) that it’d lighten the carbon load since you’re no longer taking up space and using resources, right? Sorry to burst your eco bubble, but death takes quite a toll on both your loved ones and the planet.
Most coffins, headstones and burial plots take up precious space, not to mention the formaldehyde that pollutes the ground during decompostition. “Well, what about cremation?” you ask. Think again: the process of cremation has a huge carbon footprint, using as much energy in one session as an average household uses in one week.
Lucky for us eco-conscious folks, Scottish biochemist Sandy Sullivan has come up with a much cleaner and greener option. He is the innovator behind the Resomation system: an “accelerated version of the body decomposition hydrolysis found in nature”, says Sullivan, which is similar to ” a non-burial alternative that achieves what cremation achieves,” (minus all of the energy usage).
According to this article on the process by The Guardian:
“The Resomator is a pressurized chamber that liquefies rather than burns (the unit is made by a family engineering firm in Leeds). The body is immersed in a diluted alkaline solution and rapidly heated; within three hours it is turned to white ash. The Resomator has a carbon footprint four times smaller than that of a typical cremation process, there are no dioxin emissions, amalgam mercury is safely recycled, the only coffin is a transfer casket (used many times), and expensive medical implants (such as hip joints) are recovered in pristine, reusable condition.”
(Read the rest on the original post.)You’d think by leaving this planet (and I don’t mean by spaceship) that... more
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Living an eco-friendly existence doesn’t have to end when you do.
Ghoulish as it may sound, the business of burials is something we’re all fated to deal with eventually but new environmentally responsible options to handle this morbidly necessary event have emerged here in the US adding a note of green to this eerie realm of commerce.
Elizabeth Fournier, Director of Cornerstone Funeral Services and Cremation in Boring, Oregon, is the self-proclaimed “Green Reaper.”
A lot of people have chosen cremation already and a lot of that is the idea of, ‘Hey, I don’t want to take up space, I don’t want my family to shell out a bunch of cash, and I want to do something good for the environment.’ But of course, what we’re learning is the idea of cremating somebody isn’t so environmentally conscious as we once thought. Actually burying somebody the Green way with no chemicals, no concretes, and no metals in the soil is actually a better choice.
It’s the goal of Ms. Fournier and others in her industry to offer ways families can continue the responsible legacy of their deceased…beyond the grave.
For more on this and the full interview with Elizabeth Fornier, scythe through some of the following links:
Composting the dead (Environmental Graffiti)
Burials and cemeteries go green (NPR)
Do cemeteries impact on the environment? (University of Technology, Sydney)
Japan’s high tech graveyard solution as burial space grows scarce (Treehugger)
Artwork by amanda.f.i.
http://greenairradio.com/?p=2249Living an eco-friendly existence doesn’t have to end when you do.
Ghoulish as... more
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You may think that you've considered the absolute MOST eco-friendly way to say buh-bye once you reach your final curtain call, but there's a crazy little thing called "promession" waiting in the wings...jumping up and down and screaming "pick me! pick me!" You might as well take a peek inside this article to see what all of the hullaballoo is about.You may think that you've considered the absolute MOST eco-friendly way to say... more
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According to a Jackson family spokesperson, once the King of Pop’s remains are cremated, his ashes will be laid to rest deep inside the buttocks of a little boy. [more]
-- TheSkunk.orgAccording to a Jackson family spokesperson, once the King of Pop’s remains are... more
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A group of four men responsible for cremating the dead were set upon by an angry mob after they were discovered eating the half cooked remains of the corpses they were supposed to be cremating.
The four, including a father and son, worked at a public cremation ground in the north Indian state of Haryana, where human corpses are usually disposed of by burning on a funeral pyre.
Witnesses reported that late one night the men were tending such a funeral pyre left burning into the night, but instead of overseeing an orderly cremation, they pulled a half-burnt corpse from the pyre, began drinking, and started to eat the roasted cadaver.
The night-watchman who witnessed this particular scene quickly reported it to the authorities responsible for the grounds; soon word had spread and an outraged mob had formed, which began beating the men for their brazen cannibalism.
The cannibals escaped lynching when police arrived and took them into custody; police have levelled an impressive list of charges against the men, mostly centred on blasphemy rather than corpse abuse and cannibalism: “trespassing on burial places with the intention of wounding feelings of any person, insulting religion, defiling a place of worship with intent to insult religion of any class, and wanton provocation.”
It is not clear whether this was an isolated incident.
The sources are quiet on the matter, but it is likely that the workers involved were members of India’s “dalit” caste, hereditary lineages of impoverished peasants tasked with work traditionally considered “unclean”, and who are highly discriminated against.A group of four men responsible for cremating the dead were set upon by an angry mob... more
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A Detroit couple accused of trying to cremate their slain 2-year-old son on a barbecue grill and then collecting his welfare benefits have pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors.A Detroit couple accused of trying to cremate their slain 2-year-old son on a barbecue... more
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A Hindu elder is challenging Newcastle council over its decision to reject his open-air cremation. The high court will to day rule on the outcome which Davender Ghai, 70 claims if rejected "will enslave his soul in endless earthly entrapment".A Hindu elder is challenging Newcastle council over its decision to reject his... more
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In his book 'Discovery of India', Jawaharlal Nehru writes,
The Ganges, above all is the river of India, which has held India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. The story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India's civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man…
A Documentary Film about the Ganges River. Filmed in Varanasi, India during May 2004.In his book 'Discovery of India', Jawaharlal Nehru writes,
The Ganges,... more
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Constant Reader, I must be honest. This morn I awoke prepared to wax philosophical on the matters that plague our minds when they are free to wander - questions concerning life, death, and the meaning of it all. But I believe we all know the answers to those ponderings: Death is a bummer and the meaning of life is, as Douglas Adams said all along, 42. So let’s skip the depressing issues and get to the nifty gritty by replacing that iconic phrase, ‘What do you want on your tombstone?’ with, ‘What do you want on your cremation urn?’Constant Reader, I must be honest. This morn I awoke prepared to wax philosophical on... more
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Death as part of the natural life cycle has been forgotten in the UK. The biological process of what happens to the body and the environment during burial and cremation is largely unknown. In an ultimate bid to recycle, should we take more responsibility for what we leave behind?Death as part of the natural life cycle has been forgotten in the UK. The biological... more
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The ashes of John Lea, a former postman from Weymouth, Dorset, England, wound up on a Dutch island not once, but twice, making him a national celebrity in Holland.
"I thought that it would be nice for dad to go on one last big adventure, and hopefully it is continuing," said John's son, Kevin.The ashes of John Lea, a former postman from Weymouth, Dorset, England, wound up on a... more
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