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126 Comments
- Sideshowxela, on 01/28/2008, -3/+40I thought for sure this would link to a cracked article
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -2/+38The content-to-crap ratio per page on that website is threatening the rainforest.
- mkling176, on 01/28/2008, -6/+38buried for not putting content on one page
- bosssmiley, on 01/28/2008, -4/+34Dugg, but list would have been better if it had included ritual self-mummification
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/07/self-mummif ... - ichunxo, on 01/28/2008, -0/+27I didn't even think most of those were that weird. Disposing of the body through means of natural composition seems less weird than putting them in expensive polished boxes of wood and metal.
- EricPeters, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2610. Towers of Silence
Zoroastrians believe the body is impure and shouldn't pollute the earth after death through burial or cremation. Instead, the deceased are brought to a ceremonial "tower of silence", usually located on an elevated mountain plateau, and left exposed to the animals and elements. When the bones have been dried and bleached by the sun, they are gathered and dissolved in lime.
9. Tree Burials
Indigenous tribes in many parts of the world discovered that the best way of disposing the dead was to put them up high, rather than down below. Groups in Australia, British Columbia, the American southwest and Siberia were known to practice tree burial, which involved wrapping the body in a shroud or cloth and placing it in a crook to decompose.
8. Viking Ship Burials
Middle Age Vikings lived and literally died by the sea. After death, wealthier Vikings were placed in ships filled with food, jewels, weapons, food and even sometimes servants or animals for their comfort in the afterlife. The boats were interred in the ground, set alight or sent out to sea. The ultimate postmortem destination for Viking warriors was Valhalla, or "Odin's Hall", made famous in the Old Norse sagas.
7. Tibetan Sky Burial
Ever wanted to fly? In Tibet, you get to do just that, only after you're already dead. Instead of trying to bury bodies in the hard, rocky ground, some Tibetans send their loved ones to the top of a mountain and leave them to be eaten by the vultures. The disassembled corpses are even mixed with flour and milk for a tastier treat, to make sure every bit leaves the Earth for good.
6. Bog Bodies
Plenty of travelers perished accidentally crossing the murky bogs of northern Europe, but at least some individuals, especially in the Middle Ages, were buried there carefully and on purpose. Lucky for archaeologists, the chemical make-up of a bog preserves human flesh very well, allowing them to study the unlucky bog bodies closely.
5. Neanderthal Cave Burials
Before they began interring their dead in the ground proper around 100,000 years ago, Neanderthals routinely left the deceased deep inside the caves of Europe and the Middle East. To Neanderthals, the dark, mysterious recesses of a cave may have seemed like a good place to transfer over to the otherworld, some archaeologists have argued.
4. Plastination
Send your corpse on a tour of museums 'round the world with plastination, developed by German scientist Gunther von Hagens. His popular "Body Worlds" exhibits showcase the controversial preservation technique, which involves dissecting the body into bits, embalming it with a hardening fluid and reposing the body into various 'educational' positions.
3. Balinese Cremation
Contrary to the more somber western funerals, cremation ceremonies among the Hindus of Bali have an almost carnival-like atmosphere. Festive floats parade down local streets accompanying the body to a burning ground, where it is transferred into a ceremonial bull receptacle and set alight.
2. Cryonics
Who's never heard of Walt Disney's quest for immortality by having his body frozen? While that was an urban legend, cryonic science is a reality, currently only legal to perform on those who've been pronounced dead. Soon after dying, participants are stored in a liquid nitrogen solution to prevent decay until that time when death becomes a reversible phenomenon. Until then, the bodies remain on ice.
1. Mummification
The mummies of ancient Egypt are probably the world's most famous dead bodies. Reserved for members of the upper classes, mummification involved the removal of all organs including the brain, which was pulled through the nose by a hook. The body was then stuffed with dry materials like sawdust and wrapped in linens. The Egyptians believed that mummification preserved the soul for its journey into the afterlife. - Draje, on 01/28/2008, -0/+22These other ways are weird? I think sticking bodies in the ground in elaborate boxes with stones above them is weird enough.
- TomK88, on 01/28/2008, -3/+24I wouldn't mind trying out cryonics when I die. Nothing to lose and the possibility of "immortality".
- midbc, on 01/28/2008, -1/+19yeah then when you wake up in a thousand years you can bite my shiny metal ass
- DimensionalPunk, on 01/28/2008, -1/+16I want to be crushed into a diamond
- Smirk1967, on 01/28/2008, -1/+15Like the saying goes..."I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather, not yelling like the passengers in his car"....and I want cremation after I go, and distributed in the mountains....
- alainb, on 01/28/2008, -0/+12pumping a body full of formaldehyde, and putting it in a really expensive box, dressed in expensive clothing underneath an expensive piece of ground, where it won't have a chance to decompose, and rejoin the natural cycle of life, all for the sake of making everyone mourning the body to feel good seems to be weird, and slightly neurotic.
- TomK88, on 01/28/2008, -0/+12I saw on TV today, this man lost his son, his son died
So he had him cremated, took his ashes, and then made it to a Diamond ring
Now he watches his son shine everyday
-Nasir Jones - Tweekster, on 01/28/2008, -0/+11Burying people in expensive boxes seems to be a strange and rather stupid method of dealing with the dead.
- SemiSarcastic, on 01/28/2008, -11/+22When I die I want my corpse to be attached by a cruise missile and then launched against Al Qeada terrorists!
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -3/+12That would be epic win.
- Chicken, on 01/28/2008, -0/+7Stfu.
- jbrown101st, on 01/28/2008, -0/+7Is it me, or does the viking one not seem that strange?
- dunderballer, on 01/28/2008, -0/+7According to Wikipedia, it is $150,000 for whole body cryopreservation and $80,000 for neuropreservation of the head alone. I can just imagine them waking my head up in 100 years only to realize that I didn't have the money pay to have my head attached to something in order to survive nor the $80,000 to be refrozen. Maybe I'd put some gold nuggets in my mouth before dying so as to not wake up as a broke ass head in an age where my skill sets are no longer relevant and my reproductive organ has long since decayed.
- MindTrigger, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6One thing I will never understand, is why Hispanic people go and have huge memorial stickers made, and stick them on the back windows of there cars. "In loving memory of ......... 1965 - 2007 We will always remember". Can anyone explain this to me? In Southern California where I live, you can drive around town for a few minutes and see about 20 cars with these giant window stickers. I'm not trying to be an *****, I am actually curious as to why someone would do this, as if everyone who sees the back of their car in traffic is going to have the slightest clue who the person is on the memorial sticker. Trips me out.
- TomTruelle, on 01/28/2008, -1/+7AMERICA ***** YEAH!!!
- Gman1223, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6My friend has had his fathers body in the freezer for about 2 years, so he can collect his pension (died in his sleep).
- teh_techie, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6What about being taken up just far enough in the atmosphere, that when they let you go, you'd burn up completely on the way down. That'd be the equivalent to being cremated and having your ashes VERY WIDELY spread...
Is that wierd? - JorgeGT, on 01/28/2008, -0/+6Are you being sar... uh... semisarcastic? how can anyone be semisarcastic?
- CannibalTom, on 01/28/2008, -2/+7Its all rather confusing.
- Eggzb, on 01/28/2008, -2/+6There's only one real way to deal with the dead.
Kill the brain...kill the ghoul. - SemiSarcastic, on 01/28/2008, -0/+4I was trained by socially pessimistic high-school professors and local comedians in the back ally-ways of Austin Texas.
- drgirlfriend, on 01/28/2008, -2/+6Horribly-written article on a horribly-designed website. Ugh. Buried.
- merper, on 01/28/2008, -1/+5Same here. Actually I could afford it if I died tomorrow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics
Check the prices. Range is from $30k to $160k, and the latter invest $100k of that to account for transport costs,increased coolant prices, etc. in case of domestic unrest. Of course, once you're dead, you can't make sure they do what they say they'll do, but the people involved seem like pretty committed scientists and hey what's there to lose? Just take out a life insurance policy, make them the trustee and you're all set for cost. - fuzzynyanko, on 01/28/2008, -0/+4I kinda like the Viking one. Well, not sure about sending servants with me when I die, but the concept is cool to me nontheless
- unklesam666, on 01/28/2008, -0/+4lame article. generic common knowledge information. isn't anybody else sick of people making a list and posting it online?
- abid786, on 01/28/2008, -1/+4Go read the article on Zoroastrianism on Wiki. The practice is not done by most zorastrians now, but some in India still do it.
- doyoulikeworms, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3Best way to deal with the dead: "By removing the head or destroying the brain."
- aaron117, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3Corpse hump.
- shortmilton, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3The best way I've found to get rid of a body is to wrap the body in a blanket, and then,um ...nevermind.
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -2/+5Yeah, how does this make the front page? Cryogenic freezing sounds good as a concept, but I'll probably just go with cremation. Cemeteries are a complete waste of space.
- 68024, on 01/28/2008, -2/+5You sure made a lot of effort to comment on the whole ordeal though!
- dorkslayer, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3One day you'll grow up and have children and you'll understand.
- insomniac8400, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3They need mandatory cremation. Too many people are obsessed over burying bodies. Cemeteries are the dumbest concepts ever. It's wasted real estate.
- gabdewulf, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3yeah, this is the 2nd best way to go. At least, u leave ur family some riches for collatoral
- greenlight2001, on 01/28/2008, -4/+7Speaking as someone who recently lost his first* child to a spontaneous abortion many months in, when you lose a child/fetus/whateveryouwanttocallit after months of excitement, waiting, name finding, clothes buying, phone calling, ultrasounding, etc you do weird things. I for one talked to my aborted child. Stood right there in the bathroom holding it in my hands and told him (we think) how much I loved him. Some people might think that's weird, perhaps it was, but it sure as hell felt right at the time. *shrug*
- darkheartlor, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3This web site is very disorganized. It's real hard to follow some of their other top 10 lists and I have a hard time seeing the point in some of them.
- DeathAngel0125, on 02/01/2008, -0/+3I sincerely hope you get to experience real grief some day soon you ***** dork.
- VaporBro, on 01/28/2008, -0/+3Lame; but very true.
- inactive, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2what makes putting dead bodies in boxes and burying them in the ground so 'normal'?
- goblindegook, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2The list would have been even better if it mentioned the practice of mortuary cannibalism in the tribes of Papua New Guinea. Or maybe that's not freaky enough for the writer.
- RobotBuddha, on 01/29/2008, -0/+2The transport is the huge downside, as far as I'm concerned. The synapses rot away pretty fast and there's not many cryonics facilities around. A me without my synaptic connections might as well just be a clone. And I can preserve the material to do that a lot cheaper, if I wanted to for some reason.
- greenlight2001, on 01/28/2008, -2/+4Lame
- jsaya, on 01/28/2008, -0/+2If I don't get to live forever I'd want to be cryogenically frozen and then dipped into lava; ingenious, igneous rock.
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