Things to do while waiting for Death ... 2004

[Typhoid Harry 23]

You know, I'm so naive sometimes, I never even considered a hoax. If you go into the page a bit they are pretty serious in their explanations...

Oh, well, maybe I put to much faith in people.

[The Yeti 14]

Well he's actually a she.

But yes, she seems remarkable well preserved for being in the ground a year and a bit. Maybe they buried her in the Arctic ?

[The Four Horsemen 26]

If she hasn't started decomposing, does that make her still very composed? With no signs of nerves, I dare say

[Death Watch Beatle 41]

My observations of the seemerot corpse are much the same as Stayin. I looked in coffin some months ago, and I can't make out any noticeable changes at all. Last year a body of a women was found by hikers in woods near me, and the papers said although she may not have been there that long, it was hard to identify her, to the point where they were asking if anyone knew of anybody missing that may fit her description. Perhaps the local wildlife had left their mark, but decomposition must play a part. Very curious.

 

DWB

[Teddy 21]

Don't know if this helps - some info from Wiki on decomposition. I have only posted the more relevant parts - the article goes into greater detail.

 

 

The rate and the manner in which a human or animal body decomposes is strongly affected by a number of factors. In a roughly descending degree of importance, those factors include:

 

Temperature

Access by insects

Burial, and depth of burial

Access by carnivores or rodents

Trauma, including wounds and crushing blows

Humidity, or dryness

Rainfall

Body size and weight

Prior embalming

Clothing

The surface the body rests on

 

Embalming affects the process, slowing it somewhat, but does not forestall it indefinitely. Embalmers typically pay the greatest attention to the parts of the body seen by mourners, such as the face and hands.

 

The time for the reduction of an embalmed body to be reduced to a skeleton varies greatly. An unembalmed adult body buried six feet deep in ordinary soil without a coffin normally takes ten to twelve years to decompose fully to a skeleton, given a temperate climate.

[Death Watch Beatle 41]

Using Teddy's table of factors, I was wondering how our cat that got squashed on the road 3 years ago is doing. He's buried in the boggiest corner of the garden, wrapped in one of my old tee-shirts, in a shoe box at a depth of about 9 inches. My wife (who instructed me to bury the wretched thing in the first place, as opposed to my idea of slinging it in the back of the car and whizzing down the local municipal tip) is now suggesting that if we move, she would like to take him with us! Me thinks there isn't a lot left to worry about.

 

DWB

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Hey DWB,

 

If you do exhume the rascal, don't forget your camera!

[The Four Horsemen 26]

I think it will also depend on soil type - if I remember correctly acid soil preserves bones much better than alkaline soil (although it might be the other way round - and me with an archaeology degree as well!). If you find out the answer then l'd be interested - we have a cat under the crab apple tree, been there almost 2 years so if I ever have to perform an exhumation (or exfelination?) I'd like to know what I might be faced with!

[Stayin Alive 26]

I could exhume my first goldfish. Must be at least 20 years dead at least. In my parents garden, at the back, near the conifers.

 

DWB - Was that girls name Daisy Harris perhaps? (monkey dust joke - i hope i got the right name! Probably doesn't matter anyway. Nobody watches Monkey Dust)

[Typhoid Harry 23]

If she hasn't started decomposing, does that make her still very composed? With no signs of nerves, I dare say

Does anyone remember the old joke about the couple walking through the cemetery in Germany (Austria?) and hearing some eerie music? The bloke comments that it sounds like "Grosse Fuge" played backwards, and the gravedigger comes along and says, "Oh, that's just Beethoven, he's decomposing."

[The Four Horsemen 26]

I was careful to avoid that one, but thanks for digging it out again....

[Death Watch Beatle 41]

4H - Here is the missing piece of bone preservation info you required:

 

If soil acidity, as measured on the pH scale, is the main determinant in bone deterioration, bone preservation should be at its best where pH is highest and acidity is lowest.

 

It would also seem that flesh doesn't survive in boggy conditions, but bone does, so the old Moggy's skeleton would have been OK, if only I didn't live in a low pH area.

 

Shame!

 

DWB

[Our Sole 5]

Here is a slant on an old favourite of this thread and it somehow seems more appropriate........

 

http://www.starbase01.com/modules.php?name...article&artid=5

 

enjoy

 

[Typhoid Harry 23]

http://www.plur.net/thisland.html

 

Funny.

[Teddy 21]

Here's another variation on the theme, which will hopefully go down well with fellow Jocks out there

 

Bash The Haggis

 

My high score is 763, but then I give up easily. If only some on the list would do the same

[The Four Horsemen 26]

824 - do I win anything?

[The Yeti 14]

Tonights TV ... BBC2 10pm

Yes, Minister

Episode .... The Death List

 

 

Talking of which, how's Derek Fowlds getting on (as he's the last one left) ...

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Um, with the weatherkid gone, I'm going to assume we're all adults here... Strangely enough, a mouse works much better than a touch pad. Oh, the irony of it all.

 

Adults Only

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/180106

[The Four Horsemen 26]

And how did you "stumble" across this, dare we ask?

 

Some of us don't need computers to have this effect, of course

[Typhoid Harry 23]

"Stumble" is the right word. Was sent an email that connected me to the base site and was just "looking around".

[The Four Horsemen 26]

Honest, Officer.........

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Something like that. But fun, eh?

[Teddy 21]

Um, with the weatherkid gone....

And to think, that it probably the closest weatherman90 would get to a real woman

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Off Topic, But Interesting, Nonetheless...

 

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,6...tw=wn_tophead_9

[The Yeti 14]

If you think you're gonna die ...

(This has more relevance if you live in the UK, and so know what its all about ...)

 

http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/