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By LeeAundra Temescu
Provided by Discover magazine
1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
2. There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a "Star Trek" favorite).
3. No American has died of old age since 1951.
4. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.
5. The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word "agon," meaning "contest."
6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.
7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid -- formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol -- into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air.
8. Alternatively, a Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in six to 12 months.
9. Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.
10. The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.
11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.
12. If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called "famadihana." The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.
13. Sometimes, under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, fatty tissue of a buried body will turn to a soap-like substance called adipocere, or grave wax. Adipocere formation relies on a cold, damp environment and an absence of oxygen; once begun, this saponification can continue for centuries.
14. Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.
15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.
16. In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.
17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.
18. Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.
19. More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.
20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.
“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the
spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude.”
– Denis W...
1 comment:
From Pete Chadwell:
1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
But only if the Earth is older than 350,000 years, which I have good reason to seriously doubt.
Also, not only does LeeAundra Temescu assume that science has correctly estimated the age of the Earth, but she also assumes, or so it would appear, that the evolutionary narrative with regard to the origin of humans is actually accurate, an idea which I reject completely. I have no GOOD reason to believe that these fossils represent any kind of predecessor to humans, and neither do the scientists. But they'd like us to think they do.
2. There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a "Star Trek" favorite).
And a couple of my favorites that Matt might remember:
"Taking a ride in a brass-handled sedan"
"Taking a test drive in a wooden Buick"
And this one from Rush's show that I love:
"Assumed room temperature"
6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.
I'm glad I know that now.
7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid -- formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol -- into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air.
And what about all the other non-biodegradable materials that coffins are made of!!
9. Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.
See, now THERE'S a truly "green" method of disposing with a dead human body.
11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.
I wonder what she plans to do with them?
13. Sometimes, under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, fatty tissue of a buried body will turn to a soap-like substance called adipocere, or grave wax. Adipocere formation relies on a cold, damp environment and an absence of oxygen; once begun, this saponification can continue for centuries.
And yet, God still intends to resurrect that body.
15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.
So I guess that means God knew what He was doing.
16. In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.
Matt mentioned this to me the other day… he had heard it somewhere before, I had not--although I still do not know it to be false. (I'm inclined to disbelieve it, but I'm not going to take Discovery Magazine's word for it) He was speculating, or perhaps relating to me that someone out there was speculating that this 21 grams might represent the person's soul.
19. More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.
I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die from NOT surprise. If I lived in NYC, I'd commit suicide too. Ugh.
20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.
Which is really an odd thing to say from an evolutionary perspective because if evolution (in the 'particles to people' sense of the word) is really true, then there can be no beginning to anything called "humans". In fact, there can really be no such thing as species. Every organism ever born is just one of zillions of tiny little evolutionary steps in a great, big gradation of beings. There would be no real "categories" of beings. This is, of course, one of many reasons we can be certain that evolution (in this sense) is absolutely false. The fact that we DO see bonafide categories of organisms which, time after time after time reproduce according to the same template as their parents itself disproves the Darwinist narrative.
Here's an example of what I mean… I can distinguish between an osprey, a bald eagle and a turkey vulture (in flight) and at a distance, even if I can only see a silhouette. How? Because each bird has its signature profile. While soaring, ospreys hold their wings in an arched fashion (and their wings appear thinner than an eagle's or a vulture's) while a bald eagle holds its wings flat while soaring. But a turkey vulture holds its wings in a broad V, and their tails are a bit longer and since they have no plumage on their heads, (kind of like me!) from a distance they often appear to have no head. Now if "particles to people" evolution were true, how would I be able to rely on these distinctions time after time after time? There would be no set "kinds" of birds that always could be counted on to exhibit a particular shape or behavior. You couldn't identify any bird as any particular species because everything would be in a constant state of flux.
So I don't know how we could ever say that humans "began" from an evolutionary perspective.
But of course, from a Biblical perspective, it would make an awful lot of sense to say that humans "began."
Pete Chadwell
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