Cold farewell for Sweden's dead (what?!)

AP ^ | 8 February 2004 | AP

[fdsa2]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Concerns about the environmental impact of cremating the dead in Sweden has led one company to seek a solution that's more ice than fire.

Instead of normal cremation, where a body is incinerated at high temperature, Swedish company Promessa Organic AB, says bodies are flash-frozen to minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 64 Fahrenheit) and then dipped in liquid nitrogen with a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 385 Fahrenheit).

[fdsa2]

As a Swede experiencing 2 month´s of summer and the rest pre/post winter I do not find this attractive at all.

[billbears]

Instead of normal cremation, where a body is incinerated at high temperature, Swedish company Promessa Organic AB, says bodies are flash-frozen to minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 64 Fahrenheit) and then dipped in liquid nitrogen with a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 385 Fahrenheit).

The bodies, extracted from the super-cold solution, are brittle as glass and broken down with bursts of sound to leave a powdery substance.

You have to hand it to the inventor though. It's probably something no one else ever came close to thinking of.

[prion]

"On top of the grave you can set a plant, that is taking advantage of the nutrients in the 'compost,"'

Ohhhh, that's a little too 'circle of life' for me, thanks.

Dipped in liquid nitrogen, shattered with sound waves, sifted, put in a cornstarch box and buried just under the surface? This is like Rube Goldberg meets Lost in Space.

[The Great RJ]

About 70 percent of all Swedes are cremated, the rest are buried some 2 meters (6.6 feet) below the surface, far too deep for the moldering to occur quickly. It may take several years before a body is fully decomposed....

Like who is digging these bodies up to check and what difference would it make if they "moldered" for 2 years or 10? The nanny state can't even let the dead rest without interfering in the name of something.

[ZOOKER]

I do not find this attractive at all.

On the contrary, at one of the finest restaurants in San Francisco, we secretly replaced the coffee they served with Goldberg's Crystals. Most people we talked to liked it better!

"That's not Herb tea. That's Herb!" --- Night Court

[camle]

I know a few people i'd like to dip inliquid o2, but I'd prefer a sledgehammer instead of sound waves...

better yet, drop them off the teble...

[MoralSense]

And just how much energy is required to create that kind of super-cold?

[Jonah Hex]

"A little Soyent green tea, Herb?"

[Pylot]

There is a Riders in the Sky skit about reincarnation in which the process of being buried, decomposing and perhaps having a flower planted to grow from your nutrients is explained.

The skit uses a fictional freind named Gus in the example. After Gus grows into a flower a Mule comes along and eats the flower. This is the part where Gus is actually reincarnated.

In the end (pun intended) the skit concludes that after the Mule processes Gus that he had not changed that much after all!

[fdsa2]

excellent question! But I guess the alternative is not too environmentally friendly either.

Their website did not say (and it´s in English?). Typical indicator that this would be a PR thing...

http://www.promessa.se/index_en.asp

[JimRed]

I've frequently said that ("civilized") man is the only creature who tries like hell not to get back into the cycle of life, death and renewal...

[Gritty]

the remains are moved through a metal screen that filters away any precious metals in fillings

Hmmmm.

No sense letting all those "precious metals" go to waste!

[Servant of the 9]

When the people powder is placed in the ground, it will absorb moisture, reconstitute and become fresh ground people.
Burried only one foot deep, that is gonna get really ripe in a few weeks, if scavengers don't dig it up first.

SO9

[ClearCase_guy]

"Then it can be returned to the ecological cycle in a dignified manner."

Freeze me.
Pulverize me.
Push me through a metal screen.

But do it in a dignified manner, I beg you.

[1stFreedom]

Greeeaat. Now some serial killer is gonna get the clue to do this and destroy ANY evidence whatsoever of his crimes.

(Some serial killers are very intelligent, and will know how to get all the supplies.)

[mitchbert]

minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 64 Fahrenheit)

Wrong. Plus 18 celsius is 64F. Minus 18C is roughly 0F.

[ZULU]

What happened to those Viking burials - you know, the buring ship set afloat to sail off into the sunset, with sword and shield beside the deceased warrior?

Has political correctness ended those? (I wouldn't mind going that way and I'm not Swedish - but the quick frozen - freeze-dried method doesn't appeal at all.)

[Charles Martel]

Dipped in liquid nitrogen, shattered with sound waves, sifted, put in a cornstarch box and buried just under the surface? This is like Rube Goldberg meets Lost in Space.

I was thinking "Logan's Run". Remember what happened to the previous "runners"?

[CaptRon]

Concerns about the environmental impact of cremating the dead in Sweden has led one company to seek a solution that's more ice than fire.

Yep. More proof that we humans are environmentally evil right to the last.

[sandbar]

I want this procedure!!!!!!!!!

Either this or the carbon diamonds.