One said: “Sometimes when families ask to get relatives’ ashes back, the plastic container for them is too small.”

“Sometimes when families ask to get their relatives’ ashes back, the plastic container for them is too small.

“This wasn’t every time but every now and then there were too many remains.

“Instead of getting a bigger container, the spare ashes were tipped into an emptied-out bottle of embalming fluid which also contained grit.”

In addition, staff allegedly sold used coffins as new and one family was even given the wrong ashes. Needless to say, police are investigating.

After Daniel’s death five months ago, Smith purchased three additional plots – for herself, her lawyer Howard K. Stern and her infant daughter Dannielynn.

Before Anna Nicole, the cemetery claimed only “comon people of the Bahamas.” Daniel Smith’s grave was unmarked, but there’s talk now about how the cemetery will become a tourist spot once the former playmate is buried there.

Source: Canada.com

Getting approval was the easy part. How to actually move the bodies is proving more difficult. Cemetery officials have hired surveyors and contractors to figure out the best way to move the graves, but they are concerned that the drop off is so unstable, that it may give way if people try to unearth the bodies.

Source: LiveScience

Nicelli was paid up to $1,000 per body to deliver corpses to a secret operating room at his funeral parlor, where Mastromarino would remove body parts, authorities said. Crucetta, a nurse, and Aldorasi allegedly helped Mastromarino.

Mastromarino made up to $7,000 a body by selling the tissue, authorities said, and the corpses were then returned to unsuspecting funeral directors for burial.

This is the kind of stuff you read about in the 1800s – so it’s terrifying to see that it’s happening now.

Source: LiveScience

Put pure carbon under enough heat and pressure – say, 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and 50,000 atmospheres – and it will crystallize into the hardest material known. Those were the conditions that first forged diamonds deep in Earth’s mantle 3.3 billion years ago. Replicating that environment in a lab isn’t easy, but that hasn’t kept dreamers from trying.

I’ve never been a fan of the diamond cartel and their marketing push since the 1950s to make people believe that diamonds are rare and retain their value. They aren’t rare (De Beers stockpiles diamonds and controls how many are released into the market each year) and if you ever try to sell a diamond, you’d know they don’t retain their value. As HowStuffWorks.com says

If De Beers were a U.S.-based company, it would be in violation of antitrust laws for fixing the prices of diamonds.

But I digress. So, what caught my attention on the LifeGem site was that they are creating 3 diamonds from Beethoven’s hair to be auctioned off for charity. They’re also looking to attract other celebs to donate a lock and help out other worldwide charities.

I can see this catching on in the memorial market, though. The Victorians were well known for making jewelry out of a lock of hair from a deceased loved one. If you’re even in the Philadelphia area, check out the Museum of Mourning Arts, where they have all kinds of mementos on display. They’ve even published a fantastic book on Mourning Art and Jewelry.

Ruth Carr, department chief of local history and genealogy at the New York Public Library, said researchers have had to work with “thousands of reels of microfilm.”

“With the digitization of the census, it is now possible for someone to type a name in the search box, and within seconds view the image of the actual census page,” she said.

The records revealed some quirks. For instance, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, reported growing only seven years older between the 1850 and the 1860 census.

Source: BizReport.com

After an investigation by Lebanon’s public prosecutor, Saeed Mirza, the mass grave was discovered to be an old cemetery, with bodies dating from 50 years ago to 350 years.

Source: “Mass grave” was 17th-century cemetery

“We have now got to make some decisions that have been put off and put off. They have been put off because people do not want to make the decision about whether you do what is described as ‘lift and deepen’.

“This is where you use space – I am phrasing this delicately – in a vertical as well as a horizontal way. It’s the big political taboo, isn’t it, and it has become quite complex with all the different cultural approaches to death.”

The process involves opening untended graves older than 75 years old, transferring their remains to a smaller container and burying it deeper, and then burying another coffin in its original space.

With digital life tributes, people can combine home movies, photographs, and music with personal stories and final messages to create a DVD or computer file for loved ones. Or, loved ones can create tribute movies to remember the deceased.
According to the Columbia Tribute, the cost of a professionally created, 10 minute tribute costs about $500.

“These are very personal remembrances,” said Randy Murray of Forever Funeral Homes and Cemeteries, owner of Mount Washington Forever Cemetery in Independence. “Anybody can sell grass and granite. We’re taking on the responsibility of being the caretaker of someone’s memories.”

As personal computing becomes more powerful – or as people switch to Macs which make video creation a piece of cake – I can only imagine the popularity of this kind of remembrance will continue to grow.

In regular burials, bodies are embalmed and preserved with chemicals. They are then placed in non-biodegradable coffins lined with cloth.

“This is more than just dig a hole in the woods and roll them in. We see it as a natural return to the Earth, becoming part of the circle of life, completing the circle of life,” said Mary Woodsen, a science writer, lifelong conservationist and the cemetery’s president.

“It’s a niche market. Not everyone will find this appealing,” she said. “But there are people who want that look and feel of nature.”

With green burials, such as those at the new Greensprings Cemetery in New York:

• Bodies can’t be embalmed or chemically preserved.
• Caskets must be biodegradable. No metal, concrete, plastic, or other synthetic materials are permitted.
• Only flat, natural grave markers are allowed – no standing monuments, statues, or upright tombstones. Shrubs or trees are preferred.
• only one person per 15ft by 15ft plot.

Green burials have become popular recently in the UK where they make up about 10% of all burials. They are a relatively new phenomenon in the US, but one that has economic benefits as well as environmental.

A plot at Greensprings costs $500 plus a $350 fee to dig the grave. A simple pine casket at casketfurniture.com will run you about $900. Contrast that with the average US funeral costs at about $6000, and you’re looking to save thousands of dollars.

Besides New York, there are green cemeteries in South Carolina, Florida, Texas, California and Washington state.

Source: Newsday.com