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Dissolving the dead (A radical alternative to burial and cremation)
BBC News ^ | May 22, 2017 | William Kremer - BBC World Hacks

Posted on 05/22/2017 12:58:21 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

For decades, most people arranging a funeral have faced a simple choice - burial or cremation?

But in parts of the US and Canada a third option is now available - dissolving bodies in an alkaline solution. It will arrive in the UK soon.

Its technical name is alkaline hydrolysis, but it is being marketed as “green cremation”.

So long, Robert Klink

Robert J Klink spent his life near water.

When he was growing up in the 1950s, his parents had a cabin on South Long Lake, in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. He learned to fish and hunt near the water’s edge.

It became a lifelong passion, and for many years he and his second wife Judi Olmsted kept a couple of cabin cruisers on the Saint Croix River. Bob would fish and shoot ducks, which he prepared and ate by himself.

Shortly before Bob’s death in March from colon and liver cancer, Olmsted approached her local funeral home, Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center in Stillwater.

She told the people there that her husband wanted to be cremated when his time came.

She was surprised to learn that Bradshaw’s offered two types of cremation: the one that everyone knows about, involving fire, and a new kind, which uses water.

A pamphlet explained that this “gentle, eco-friendly alternative to flame-based cremation” used an alkaline solution made with potassium hydroxide to reduce the body to a skeleton.

“At first, I was thinking, ‘Well, I don’t know about that,’” Olmsted says.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that it was the best way to go.”

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: alkalinehydrolysis; burial; cremation; funeralhome; soylentgreen
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To: SpaceBar

Any solution with a ph high enough to do the job would be a hazardous waste when done, unless it was neutralized.


41 posted on 05/22/2017 5:46:45 AM PDT by umgud
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To: sukhoi-30mki
My son (in his 40's) and my daughter-in-law asked me which way I wanted go, burial or cremation.

I told them to " Let it be a surprise"

42 posted on 05/22/2017 5:48:29 AM PDT by capt. norm (Two can live as cheaply as one...but for only half as long)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

43 posted on 05/22/2017 5:53:00 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (My wish list: https, failover server, six sigma uptime.)
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To: reg45
"Human lutefisk."

Payback for the ultimate "uff-dah"

44 posted on 05/22/2017 5:57:02 AM PDT by capt. norm (Two can live as cheaply as one...but for only half as long)
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To: Chode
"Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
If you don't
Take it out
And use it
It's going to Rust."

(Michael Ironside as General Katana)

45 posted on 05/22/2017 5:57:24 AM PDT by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Plop-Plop! Fizz-Fizz! Oh what a relief this is...


46 posted on 05/22/2017 5:58:57 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

47 posted on 05/22/2017 6:01:54 AM PDT by PLMerite ("Government should be done to cattle and not human beings." - John Milius)
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To: dsrtsage
"Just don’t do it in your upstairs bathtub"

Can't, I'm soaking my transmission in kerosene.

48 posted on 05/22/2017 6:03:48 AM PDT by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Then what, do they pump the deceased into the sewer system or just pipe him straight to the nearest river?


49 posted on 05/22/2017 6:24:39 AM PDT by dangerdoc (disgruntled)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Check out Promession (freeze-drying method) as another alternative.


50 posted on 05/22/2017 6:27:26 AM PDT by fortes fortuna juvat (God, Guns, and Trump will save the USA)
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To: clearcarbon
"An increased demand for that kind of process for the dearly departed should lead to increased supply of the chemicals required to achieve that end."

Shortage?? Sodium hydroxide is already produced in multi-megaton quantities. Dissolving a few corpses won't even dent the supply.

51 posted on 05/22/2017 6:29:35 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

I saw Walter White do that.


52 posted on 05/22/2017 6:45:25 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Waiting for inspirations)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

I wonder if burial at sea will become more popular.


53 posted on 05/22/2017 6:48:22 AM PDT by Brookhaven (If CNN is playing, ask them to change the channel. #ChangeCNN)
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To: SoothingDave

So where is the energy saving component?


54 posted on 05/22/2017 6:51:50 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

“... used an alkaline solution made with potassium hydroxide to reduce the body to a skeleton....”

...which is hung in the closet until Halloween.

“Granny just loved Halloween so much.”


55 posted on 05/22/2017 6:57:55 AM PDT by moovova
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To: eartick

It pays to read the comments before posting. I didn’t...and you beat me to the excellent skeleton/closet/Halloween meme.

I lose.


56 posted on 05/22/2017 7:17:29 AM PDT by moovova
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Or, one can continue to shine on....
http://lifegem.com/


57 posted on 05/22/2017 7:21:15 AM PDT by Mechanicos
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To: sukhoi-30mki
Well there is always this old method. Run a rod through the results and make a lamp. Great conversation piece for parties.


58 posted on 05/22/2017 8:24:12 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

No screenshot from Soylent Green.


59 posted on 05/22/2017 8:26:00 AM PDT by MSF BU (Support the troops: Join Them.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Well, Grandpa always did light up the room...


60 posted on 05/22/2017 8:27:21 AM PDT by bar sin·is·ter
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