Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Bloggerel

Blogworld is enriched by (almost) every new e-scribbler with opinions to air, especially those with the skill and the intellect to put words to things we’ve often thought about. There aren’t that many bloggers in the death zone. I wish there were more funeral directors (like Pat McNally) with something to say and the urge to say it. Celebrants are slightly more numerous. We recently welcomed the luxuriantly monikered GloriaMundi, and I hope you check in there regularly. Really good stuff.

There’s a new kid on the block. Welcome, Green Energy Globe. Here are some extracts. First, a description of cremation:

Cremation occurs inside of a crematorium finish with an industrial sort furnace. Typically, by fixation a physique in the repartee or cover of the furnace, it is incinerated and roughly utterly used up by fire. The blazing of propane or healthy gas provides temperatures of 1,598-1,796 ° F and the feverishness turn ensures the physique is marked down to bone fragments with all alternative soft hankie vaporized or oxidized as vented gas.

He or she has this take on resomation:

...there is a brand new child on the retard which offers a opposite arrange of immature “cremation” and nonetheless an additional pick resolution to normal funeral practices. You might instruct to cruise a routine called “Alkaline Hydrolysis” or “Bio-chemical Cremation”. Already used in physique ordering of investigate animals, roadkill, or culled, infirm herds of cattle and deer, it is a quick, safe, and spotless routine of violation down proteins, pathogens, and viruses. During this routine of containing alkali hydrolysis, a tellurian physique is placed in to a steel blood vessel or drum-like container, lonesome with H2O which is exhilarated to 350 degrees, along with the further of a clever containing alkali piece called potassium hydroxide (lye). Potassium hydroxide, ordinarily used to have soap and glass, breaks down the body’s tissues and not as big bones.

GEG’s mind wanders over all green issues. Here, for the living, is a description of how you can use recycled materials to create stunning collages:

Onion or Potato BagOnion or potato bags which have been done up of a cosmetic filigree have been a lot of fun for adding hardness to collage crafts. You can have have have have have have have have make make make use of of of of of of of of of of of them similar to a consume and dab them in paint to emanate a singular hardness and pattern when pulpy simply on paper. You can additionally have have have have have have have have make make make use of of of of of of of of of of of this recycled element over or underneath alternative collage equipment for hardness and interest.

There’s a satisfying touch of Sam Beckett, there. And a great new phrase: to cruise a routine.

Read more, if you haven’t gone cross-eyed, here.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Kathryn Edwards said...

I really do recognise that the GFG needs the odd holiday. But (my) life's always much better when you're back.

Cruise that routine! Awesome.

KE

23 February 2010 at 19:39  
Anonymous Jonathan said...

Oh but for havehavehaveing the literaly skills of authorship have this writer be i'gd in clowver

24 February 2010 at 08:03  
Anonymous Thomas Friese said...

Sounds like a bad fusion of second-language skills and computer translation!

But, if I may be a little catty, it is not dissimilar to the mental processes of SOME (certainly not all) natural burial enthusiasts, who mix up their environmental and human issues into an equally confusing cocktail. Their motto : "Green is good - at any cost".

Resomation might be a practical solution, but the way it is presented all I hear is "Oh Brave New World that has such people in it!"

24 February 2010 at 10:31  
Blogger Rupert Callender said...

Resomation and Cyromation are merely processes. How we frame them is everything.

24 February 2010 at 10:52  
Anonymous Kathryn Edwards said...

Oh, well said, Rupert!
They're no madder than cremation.

Ritual is all.

KE

24 February 2010 at 12:04  
Anonymous james showers said...

Great to have you back, GFG.
I was remembering how it was to use a dictionary for translation - remembering French essay-writing and all..

But you couldn't have made this up.
I loved it. Like menu's in Prague.

KE and Rupert really on to the fact that it is the ritual that goes deep - not the practicalities of breaking down the body for disposal.
I like that the end product of water resomation can be useful in planting, or spread on the garden as a mulch. A small step on - or at least different from - scattering ashes.

24 February 2010 at 12:50  
Blogger gloriamundi said...

Charles, thanks for the link. You are an invaluable hub for us all, and we may in future need to ask you to submit leave requests in plenty of time so we can rework our daily computer-use schedules. Jonathan wittily mentions literary skills - your excellently thought-provoking yet relaxed style is one reason why your blog rewards regular reading. My posts, I fear, are lengthier ("scribble, scribble, scribble, Mr Gibbon...)and may sometimes be dryer, but I seem to need to work through many a thought at some length. If anyone stays with me, I'm pleased. Anyway, welcome back from what I hope was a spiffing holiday.
yours
Gloria Luxuriosa Mundi(half-hardy perennial)

24 February 2010 at 13:51  
Anonymous Jonathan said...

Thank you, Thomas, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm sure I'll be widely misunderstood for this remark, as I suspect you have been for yours, but I'll make it anyway.

I came away from the Green Funeral Exhibition last year feeling rather sad, and thinking; this is nice and all that, but in its heady enthusiasm for itself it's missing the point. I'd rather bury someone MEANINGFULLY in an acre of purposely concreted virgin rainforest (if that were imaginable - think Jerermy Clarkson and you'll catch my drift) than overlook him across his grave to make a statement about environmental problems, however valid that statement may be (and indeed is).

It's not just the ritual that counts, nor the means and accessories of disposal, though these are obviously important; it's the person who inspires it, and gives the occasion a purpose at all.

24 February 2010 at 19:07  

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