New body ‘liquefaction’ unit unveiled in Florida funeral home

A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial “alkaline hydrolysis” unit at a Florida funeral home.

The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.

The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.

The makers claim the process produces a third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses a seventh of the energy, and allows for the complete separation of dental amalgam for safe disposal.

The system works by submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide which is pressurised to 10 atmospheres and heated to 180C for between two-and-a-half and three hours.

Body tissue is dissolved and the liquid poured into the municipal water system.

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Bag of Randomness

  • Yup, yesterday was my birthday.  I thought no one in my tiny office new, but while walking back from a restroom break I noticed a card in one of the girls’ hands, who tried to hide it.  I could have pretended to have not seen it, but hey, that wouldn’t be any fun, so I asked if I could also sign the card.  Her response, “Why don’t you get out of my grill!”  Surprising, since this Indian coworker is a timid as a mouse.
  • For lunch yesterday I thought I treat myself to McDonald’s with a hot fudge sundae.  When I got back to the office, my desk was decorated and I had cupcakes to eat.
  • Who makes more, a member of the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives?  The answer may surprise you, it did me, and I’m surprised it’s a piece of information that wasn’t tucked away long ago.
  • The latest Texas Faith question: Is America a “Christian Nation” and what does that mean?
  • A slingshot cannon
  • Gawker and Fox News have been going at each other, apparently over this O’Reilly piece.
  • I had more ‘back in the day’ discussions yesterday, mainly on fashion.  Items discussed were Zodiac shoes, Marithé and François Girbaud jeans and overalls (and how you wore those overalls, and for the record, I never had a pair of overalls), and Generra Hypercolor shirts.
  • New Texas state laws that go into effect on Thursday.
  • A very unreserved Troy Aikman was on The TICKET yesterday.  He spoke about the opportunity he had to come out of retirement a few times, and even stated that if he ran into Skip Bayless, he’s not sure how he would react, and that would possible involve bodily harm.  For those of you that don’t know, Bayless was a scumbag of a local sports personality that wrote a book which stated that Aikman was a homosexual.  That scumbag is now working as an on air personality for ESPN.
  • Biggest surprise in that interview, “I’m not so sure Skip isn’t gay.”  I’ll be surprised if this item doesn’t get some traction, you can hear the interview here.
  • In that interview, I heard the term “Irish twins” for the first time in my life.
  • There are some crazy wildfires near my hometown again, I think 8,000 acres burned yesterday.  What a shame.
Posted in Goofy, Personal | 2 Comments

Brother and Sister Try to Sue Mom

Last week, an Illinois appeals court judge disagreed with that assessment, dismissing the two-year-old lawsuit in which Steven Miner II, now 23, and his sister, Kathryn, 20, sought more than $50,000 from their mother, Kimberly Garrity, for “emotional distress’’ from “bad mothering.’’

While growing up in a luxurious home in Barrington Hills, Ill., their alleged hardships at the hands of their mother included Steven receiving a birthday card that didn’t include cash or a check and did not have a sentiment that he liked, accusations that Garrity did not send him care packages or birthday cards while he was in college, Garrity telling her then-7-year-old son to buckle his seat belt or she would call the police, and Kathryn getting a phone call from her mother at midnight to tell her to return home from her homecoming celebration.

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