Why not just save energy by not cremating the bodies.

hahahahah good one.

Because cremation saves real estate.

......and causes global warming.

Awesome. Better than the old way of wasting them by burying them.

in many cases this may be the only contribution that the deceased has ever made.!

bury them they turn into trees...there's a pecan tree coming up...guy must'a been a nut...there's a peach tree... she was a peach...there's a crab apple...guy was crabby...there's a forest of beech trees...that where they bury the folk that disagree with my comment's...

I see nothing wrong with it. After all, they used energy while they were alive, so why not contribute to energy for the people that are still alive. That should be your free ticket to heaven for some.

We do after all donate our body organs to save lives and for science to study and learn from.

I heard on the news that enough metal was put into the ground last year with coffins to build the Golden Gate Bridge. To me, this is a waste of metal, not to mention all of the embalming fluid being put into our ecosystem. I think cremation is the way to go. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Just a little faster.

This just make sense! With all the bodies already being cremated, it just makes sense.

We could cut to the chase and cremate all the politicians at once. It would give "Going Green" a whole new meaning since we'd save buckets of wasted taxpayers money.

1500 tvs was an unfortunate way to put it. Perhaps charge 100,000 kindles or a run a half dozen dialysis machines.

I had to reread the headline... my reaction was something along this line after reading it, "Wait... what? O.O That just read corpses. That's gotta be a typo--oooh it's not."

I like the idea of Solyent Green better.

With the high cost of medical care for the elderly and of course the high cost of food, energy, and other things needed for survival ....perhaps they will start picking up expendable people and bringing them on board the power system! Cheaper by the millions! (Extreme Sarcasm)

In other words Durham is preparing for the zombie apocalypse when zombies/corpses will be pentiful but electricity will be in short supply.

Eh, something like that...

Consider this:

When the railroad was built in Egypt in the 19th century, they had to do things a bit differently. No plentiful wood for ties, so concrete was used to bear the rails and the weight of the train. No wood to burn in the locomotive, no ample supply of coal, either. What to do?

They had plenty of mummies!

In ancient Egypt, just about everyone was mummified when they died. Only the poorest of the poor weren't given 'the treatment'. Thousands of years later, mummies could be found all over the place. I don't remember the estimated total, but it seems to me it was in the millions. The word 'mummy' itself comes from an old word for 'tar', used to preserve corpses. I hear they burnt very well.

I'm not sure just when they finally quit doing this, but the supply of mummies was thinned out greatly by utilizing them as fuel for the railroads.

Is this really that different?

There really is nothing new under the sun.

From Dust to Watts

watt???????????

Carol Ann's in the TV set! Change the channel.......

JK-4363698

"......and causes global warming."

Decomposing bodies create methane and other greenhouse gasses, so really either way you cause global warming.

At least by dying they are no longer breathing, so no more exhaling co2.

I would like my remains to be used to juice tasers to be used on all members of Congress and The Supreme Court.

Good idea but, I dispute the “output” calculations! Surely some people will produce much more heat / energy than others e.g. politicians as they are full of hot air to start off with and there is more combustible stuff in them…..

the TiGor:

130 years later, Mark Twain is still trolling people. No, Egyptians never burned mummies for locomotive fuel. But did you know they took the word gullible out of the dictionary? Go ahead and check; I'll wait.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2341/do-egyptians-burn-mummies-as-fuel

derp

No need to check, Rushman, I was already well aware of that. Would you believe they took 'sarcasm' out of the dictionary at the same time 'gullible' was redacted? Have you ever seen tar burn very well?

That should have been clue number two that I was being facetious.

I figured you'd have spotted it right off with the block quote of the zombie quip and my 'Eh, something like that...' line and recognized it as a tongue-and-cheek play off of the zombie joke.

If I recall, Mr. Twain had something else to say about it while keeping a very straight face. Precisely what escapes me at the moment, but it seems to me he was expressing in his own subtle way that it was, to the best of his knowledge, just a story. Kind of like zombies are.

In any case, if I'd expounded on the realities of the story, it would have rather spoiled it for those of us who enjoy good legends. Besides, does not Shakespeare's Polonious in Hamlet explaining, "Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief." still have relevance in 2011?

Thank you for bringing it up, though, I appreciate the thought.

It would be a few steps away from Soyent Green. This could be an indication of the lessening of value for human life. I know they would be dead. However, if we don't find the worth of human beings as sacred, living or dead, then we've drifted away from what it means to be human. If this would be kept at a purely voluntary basis by people when they were alive, so be it. But to assume those being cremated in England have given their blessing to their bodies being used in this mannet is naive.

It's a slippery slope to start with voluntary cremation requested by the deceased when alive to a state or national policy to create energy this way as a viable alternative.

TiGor:

I figured you'd have spotted it right off with the block quote of the zombie quip and my 'Eh, something like that...' line and recognized it as a tongue-and-cheek play off of the zombie joke

No, sorry, I don't usually conduct deconstructive analysis of internet messageboard comments where the average comment contains several spelling and grammatical errors, plenty of "internet-speak," and use of the English language as a sledgehammer rather than with the finesse and style it can convey. Regardless, as "but I was just being sarcastic" pops up as an excuse often enough in these sorts of misunderstandings, I should think it would be obvious enough by now that sarcasm is a spoken art, not a written one, what with tone and inflection being such an integral part of identifying sarcasm.

You may have been sarcastic, but the fact remains that I would be left entirely unsurprised if someone had repeated your story as truth, and attempted a vigorous defense, and, this being the internet and all, I tend to err on the side of "moron" in these matters. After all, that's why websites like snopes.com and thestraightdope exist.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that your subtlety and Shakespeare quotes are a case of casting pearls before swine, considering the audience.

(Edit for the slow: Yes, I just called all you newsviners philistines.)

Yeah, they should have put something in there like "could power 1500 respirators for cancer patients" or something.

Agree. There is something "Soilent Green" about this story.

The Church has okayed cremation as an acceptable means of departing this dimension, so, we'll see more cremations into the foreseeable future. The Church, though, specifies that the ashes must be kept together. Limited burial space, and lower cost, are leading the charge.

Yeah, Like "Let me out! It's so hot in here!"

when he was alive...that boy was about has bright as a two watt light bulb.... in a dust storm...well we all shine on...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaZx_t9dpUM

you're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to ME !!!!

Like.....WATTS Up?

I was thinking more on the lines of a "monetary" contribution...

Only to line the pockets of the 1 %.

Honey, would you throw another body on the fire, I'm not finished watching the game on tv.

You could only be a Democrat. I'm correct, aren't I? Denying it will only make it worse....

actually I'm a republican thank you.

That's what I was thinking! Can actual "Soylent Green" be far away? Doesn't seem quite as bizarre now, considering the Worlds overpopulation!

They feed cow's chicken poop....

.....OMG!, I could have gone a lifetime without knowing that.

we all eat dead chicken...ewwwww...kfc....anyone....

Hey Bulldog..The Republicans have been feeding us BS for years

Don't kid yourself Dave - they all feed us BS and we eat it up like candy.

Too bad all the BS we get from the Government can't be burned for energy. All it does now is fuel the fires of discontent!

It's People...People!

(boy, look at that word long enough and it just seems weird)

Next thing you know, we'll all be rendered down and used for fertilizer!

Gad this thread just keeps getting worse. People fertilizer next? Yeah I can see it happening seeing the way the world is going.

It's environmentally friendly. The fuel is plentiful. Limited natural resources are not wasted. All pros. But because it is "gross," we ought not to use it, right?

You know if we were to attaches hoses to the seats and chairs of all our government officials. I bet we could find another source for making electricity. With all the gases that these moron create, we'd have enough electricity to run the world ten fold.

Me too. I think it's a great idea.

I wanted to be Cremated and my ashes spread on my Ex-Wife's Living Room rug. Alas, that didn't work out, she died first!

I would either like to be cremated, or buried in eco-friendly way. I find wasting all that money to preserve a body, and bury it in a pretty casket absolutely morbid and positively disgusting, environmentally. The only reason why people still do it, is because it is the so-called "norm". Nothing normal about preserving a dead body that is going to be in the ground.

I don't agree with you. I find Cremation more disturbing and disrespctful. I don't understand why people are not bothered by a body being burned. Get over yourself. I want to be buried and I don't care what you think of it. I don't agree with cremations. People are suppose to turn into ashes that way.

I don't agree with you as well. I don't agree with cremations. Never have and never will. If you want to be cremated, that your choice. But I want to be buried. Just because everyone else is being creamted these days doesn't mean everyone is or want to be and I happen to be one of those bitches who are not going to be cremated. And I get tired of hearing this bull@!$%# about creamtions being cheaper than burials. Not it is not. Getting buried and cremated runs about the same price so get your facts straight. When someone is creamted there is no connection with the deceased. When you visit the grave site there is. Now don't get me wrong, both creamtion and burials are sad, but its more disturbing with a creamtion because a body is being burned. You mind as well burn the body alive. The only difference is that the person is deceased and even thought They are deceased and get creamted, its still disturbing to some of us who don't agree with cremation. And you better not get smart.

Wow talk about rambling. Ashes to ashes dust to dust. Read your bible. It doesn't matter what happens to the vessels once the soul leaves. You're just typing to hear your own thoughts $859.00 for a cremation $1500,00 to $6000,00 plus to a grave side burial. Where'd you get your facts. Oh wait must be the autism messing with your circuits in that brainless body of your. And we all have to get smart with a dumb-ass that doesn't research facts before putting in a form. Geez moron.

something to look forward too right?

I'm going to donate my body to science so they can study the long term affects of marijuana use....is it me, or does everybody smell brownies?

bulldog - be careful, the feds might be monitoring this site.

My husband has already asked that he be donated to the body farm in Tenn and left to rot for science. I told him I wont visit him there but I will send flowers.

Might be monitoring buwahahah of course they are!

Feds don't care about pot users just the people making tax free money from dealing it.

for one thing...alot of caskets are still manufactured by hand

two,in the town where i live there is an actual gravestone maker that also sells gravestones,they do hand engraving for the delicate stuff,and the shaping and polishing they do with specialized powertools designed to cut rock,and the only thing those use is electricity....and electricity its self is "green",it just depends on where it came from

also...about the wood...wood is wood,it could be harvested from demolished buildings

Here in Jersey(I have no idea how it is elsewhere) you have to put a concrete vault in the ground. It'll take several thousand years for your corpse to act as fertilizer. Such a waste of nutrients:)

I understand the worms that eat us are not from the ground, but from the worms and parasites inside us...they don't eat in they eat themselves out.

Oohhh! You learn something new every day. I totally believe that!

Think of the jobs LOST by cremation.

How will egor harvest more body parts for Doctor Holdren??

But benr I was going to say that!!! Unemployment up because of burning bodies for energy. Nobody making caskets, keeping up the cemetery, cutting the grass, making tombstones, flower vendors for the "offerings", the list goes on and on.

Still working, sounds like a corpse is an eat-out restaurant!

"You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people!"

that's what you call ...having someone over for supper...and fix'n left overs...

It will be called the Obamacabre!

To be fair, we are all on our way out the day we are conceived. Here in the USA, I think they go out of their way to make people live when sometimes, they really shouldn't. Example, my grandmother who was at the end of Alzheimer's. She had been "gone" for years. Her body wouldn't eat. They wanted to actually put a tube in her stomach. We rejected it to let her pass sooner rather than later. Our dear grandmother was already gone. The body is just that - a body.

Pelosi, reid, obama...all that gas...what a fire!

You in the Mafia?

Pelosi, reid, obama...all that gas...what a fire!

That would more likely cause a huge explosion!

Yeah, I know some bodies I would like to donate, too. "Hey Ma? Is that Justin Bieber outside my window?" "Quick! Throw him in! All that gas and hot air will heat this place up real quick!"

power for a vibrator...that's just wrong...

Wow, I have only seen battery powered vibrators!

Ummm, no! Hitler burned people alive and it wasn't for energy usage. Try using some brain cells before you ask a stupid question like this!

Hitler's people gassed the victims, then burned the bodies in great ovens. They started just shooting and burying them, but too much ammunition was being wasted.

The fat is the real fuel here, more "profit" could be realized if they strip the muscle for "protein wafers" then burn the fat for power. It would also provide more jobs.

My tulips need bone meal....

Glowing, would that be 2 Wong's to make a watt?

Seriously folks all the people in the world talking about making this a Greener world and this crematorium found a way to get paid twice for it's services. 1) The family pays for the cremation process and 2) the electric company pays them for the energy produced from burning the body. The family still gets the urn with the ashes and there is really nothing wrong with what they are proposing. If you don't want to be the light of someone's life after you die just don't go to that one or don't get cremated. Shoot let's be honest as well, for some people it will be the most productive they have ever been.... Just calling it like I see it. Sure it opens doors for buying and selling human dead but that has been going on by colleges, medical institutions and some shady people from the beginning of time. Atleast this way the loved one's of the deceased can say that the deceased truly went into the light.

TIM....Now that was too Fricken Funny! Two wong's to make watt! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha....I just about swallowed my teeth laughing at this one! Thank you

Good one John!

Yes, John, it will be your dead body! In you go!

Or, since watching tv provides entertainment, it is not a waste.

Hey, I watch tv, and I work hard.

I'm thinkin' that maybe my last job will be to produce electricity for my grandkids to watch the final episode of Sponge Bob, what do you think?

Who wants Soylent green...we can have Soylent brown, white, red, yellow...even soylent male or female.

Speaking of a waste of time...sitting here reading this crap and giving my opinion.