Slashdot Mirror
Cremation? Burial? How about Diamonds?
travisbecker writes "From Reuters via Yahoo! comes this story. "A Chicago company (Lifegem) says it has developed a process for turning cremated human remains into diamonds that can be worn as jewelry." As for the quality... "If it's done slowly and with a great deal of care, one could have a reasonably high-quality diamond," according to a quote in the story." This should not be confused with our earlier diamond discussion.
Now I know what my wife will have done with me after she has me bumped off!
Is there a market for this product? We've seen companies' rosy estimates of their product's market potential ... who, really, would want to wear their dad in a ring? And would want to pay for the privlege?
Remove the caps and hold to a mirror.
I can just dig up bodies and make diamonds out of them? Now I can actually make MONEY from my hobby!
Are these diamonds still a girl's best friend?
Oh, this? It was my grandmother.
You mean it was your grandmother's ring?
No. It is my grandmother.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
So then I guess its theogists of the world can debate wheither one's soul stays inside.
... probably a little like looking through an ice cube.
:)
I wonder what the world looks like from inside a diamond?
Okay I'll quit rambling now
The Anti-Blog
Now saying "You're a real gem" is a deaththreat, then?
... I could finally sell my uncle's body on EBay...
...is the fact that in the future they will be able to reconstruct your entire body from the diamond.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
Can 21st century women expect to hear:
?Finding God in a Dog
Remember the general guide of two months worth of bodies for an engagement ring.
Most all of the options sound really terrible. A friend of mine has researched this a lot, as he wants to have his remains treated naturally. There appears to be one option. There's a group in the central Atlantic states that was doing something with conservation land where you could be naturally buried (that is, no enbalmning, no concrete, no plastic in the casket, etc).
I'll have to look up the info, but if I find it, I'll post it here.
From the episode where they travel to Africa and meet Dr. Jane Bushwell:
*picture of Dr. Bushwell with handfuls of diamonds*
"Everybody wants diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds!"
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
One last thought, who else thinks that this will be Anna Nicole Smith's next move with the ashes of that old guy?
I will not be trained.
How many of us have friends who are wearing their grandmother's ring as their wedding band? I know a few. And how many of us keep their ancestors in urns on a shelf in their house? I know a few. This company is just taking it to the next level.
If it weren't for the outrageous prices (which are bound to come down), and the fact that I'm only 23, I'd be interested myself. Look for this company to be big as the synthetic-diamond industry becomes mainstream.
-- Hamster
That's absolutely disgusting. Course, I've been diagnosed with a serious case of tact.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
and if you thought some diamonds carried curses before!
I thought we wernt sposed to give into the tradition. now not only do you want us to get diamonds for our fiance's to be - you want us to turn our loved ones into engagement rings!
at least these people arent using slave labor and children. just dead family members.
I for one would not wear any of these... spooky.
At $22,000 per carat, you could just go out and buy a 1 ct diamond for $7000 and say it's your dearly departed, and make an instant $15,000. Since you can't do DNA analysis to determine if the diamond is actually the person, what's to stop them from just doing that???
We have a new meaning for the term "Family Jewels".
>
Maybe it only happens in the movies, but I can't imagine the horror of spilling someone's ashes. This seems to me to be a very clean way to avoid that potential problem.
I would imagine that most people would put them in extremely nice display cases, rather than having them put into rings and pendants.
A nice thought, but it would instantly make your house a target for theft. I predict the rebirth of the cat burglar.
And on a only loosely related note, how much would this service cost for a pet?
best web host ever
It will take money (most likely large quantities of it) to turn that person into a diamond. Therefore, you wouldn't be able to become extremely rich by, say, digging up graves and turning the bodies into jewlery.
This is great. Do you think if I collect enough of my body tissue and hair and stuff that I can get one of these made while I'm alive?
Remember to look for Cut, Clarity, Color, Carat and Corpse.
You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
Didn't Apple include some form of carbonization in Mac OS X ??
Diamonds are crystalline carbon; to turn a human body into a diamond, you'd have to get rid of all the other elements present in the ashes (calcium, sodium, iron etc.) otherwise any crystal that might be obtained is likely to be more glass than diamond.
The other point worth mentioning is that human bodies contain a large amount of water. A lot of the carbon left in the ash is from the wooden coffin, not grandma...
So if someone steals your diamond who is a cremated someone or another... could you file for robbery as well as a kidnapping?
And would it be logical to file it as murder if they attempt to destroy the gem?
And is this putting a cost to human life, that they are only worth as much as a diamond?
And damn... this is a pretty good way of hiding the body.
Real diamonds are thermodynamically unstable at ambient temperature and pressure. (Shhhh! Don't tell Zales or DeBeers!) I can't imagine having a diamond-corpse go through a second, but slow, death. Kind of gruesome if you ask me.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Actually, it was chrisd's final statement that spoked me:
This should not be confused with our earlier diamond discussion.
You remember, don't you? The one that went like so:
Would you buy one for the love of your life? I know my girlfriend would love a diamond, but ethically I have my doubts. Diseased-miners, child slave labour, cartel inflated prices...
I guess we have to add murders and grave robbing to that list now! Those evil diamond traders will do anything to get more raw materials for their diabolical schemes!
GMD
watch this
How about making yourself into a frisbee for your family and friends. :)
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
"Hey nice diamonds! They look really nice!"
"Yeeeessssss. They are made of all of my victims! MUaaaaahhhhhHHHaaahhahhhahaa!"
"But [EGL] said it is impossible to distinguish LifeGem synthetic diamonds from other synthetic diamonds."
The real question, which I imagine DeBeers makes sure never gets answered, is: Can the EGL distinguish "synthetic" diamonds from the "real thing." I'm guessing they can't, other than from the tatoo DeBeers puts on theirs.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Why did the article make it a point not to associate itself with a related article posted a few days ago when they are both specifically about the same topic and are obviously related in so far as being about obtaining diamonds not sold by the diamond mafia can be considered "related"? (yes that was a run-on question) I cant be the only one irked by this ridiculous *hint* *hint* look at the other one too *hint* *hint* plug.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Soylent Diamonds is PEOPLE!
So my family jewels really can become the family jewels?
How do you turn creamated remains into diamonds? All the carbon has been driven off as CO2. Or are the collecting the remains before that point?
Most life insurance (at least the ones I've seen advertisements for, that's the only way I'd know anything about them, much too young to seriously think about it) pays cash to the family when someone dies... but are there life insurance plans that simply cover the costs of the funeral and other ceremonies connected with the death, up to the point where the person needs it, kind of like car insurance or other damage insurance? If so, would it ever cover this? ;)
Geez, if you just camped the morgue and snapped up all the indigent corpses... why, you could build a house out of them.
A house.
Made out of dead people.
How evil-genius is that?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
has a picture of a kid with his grandpa - they are smiling. happy..... for now. little does that kid know. poor, poor kid. time is running out.
lifegem.... how about deathjewel
Considering that the United States has more fat people than anywhere else in the world, that still makes us the richest country, even if you compact us all into diamonds (meaning quantity of diamond per person).
Put the dog in the fuckin' basket!
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Does that mean that everyone who dies in a factory accident, such as falling into a smelter or getting forged into a pipe by a rolling machine, loses their ticket to the Rapture?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I particularly enjoy the idea that after the departed one's cremains have been converted to diamonds, the diamonds will be graded. One has to wonder:
--Will the obese deceased yield a higher number of carats?
--Will the chaste deceased score higher on clarity?
--Will the intelligent deceased get a "brilliant" cut?
And, of course...
--What affect will the race of the deceased have on the color?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
hehe.
This feels like it's straight from a Final Fantasy game. I can be a piece of Materia someday! Now all they need to do is figure out how to summon people back out of the diamonds for a whopping good time.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
So she said to me: "I'm getting a diamond from you, one way or another."
--
$tar -xvf
Perhaps they just mix your Grandpa up with a bunch of other folks and dump them into a big old compressor for a while, and then chop up what comes out and sell it to you.
That would be my guess, right off the bat. Isn't there not a whole lot of carbon left in ashes, anyway?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Syd Barrett may someday literally shine on.
From "Wish you were Here"
Remember when you were young,
You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes,
Like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire
Of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon,
You cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night,
And exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome
With random percision,
Rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.
...talk about your "high-pressure" tactics...
(oh c'mon! all the other funny-but-obvious comments are said already!!)
lets hear it for fat grandparents...
bigger diamonds!
ill take grandma earrings, grandpa inlayed into my cane, and if possible i'd like sparky my dog as a necklace.
my aunt loved music, perhaps she can focus the lazer on my cd player or something to that effect.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
"Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of Cameron up his own ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond."
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
So this is no use to a super villain who wishes to convert a body to diamonds.
A cynical person would say this was just another grab by the death industry to separate grieving family from their money. What is it that this company does for the $4K. A 1/4-caret cubic zirconia can be had for fifty dollars or so. The only thing that Lifegem does is to extract the base carbon from the body remains, apparently using a simple furnace. Assuming that they contract out the actual diamond production, their risk and capital equipment expense should be relatively small. I admit that the purification process is probably innovative, and development costs must be recovered, but a nearly 100 times markup. Ridiculous.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Monday or tuesdays chicago tribune had this story as well.. very interesting.. They featured a poor guy who was going to pay $4000 to have his cremains pressurized into an artificial diamond so his family would have a keepsake to remember him by.
What's the purpose of being free of the cycle of life and death if you're still bound to your mortal remains? And if you are still bound to your mortal remains, how come you're not experiencing life from the fossilized remains of a 30,000 year old proto-lemur corpse or something?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
I love how they call them diamonds when they make them out of your loved ones ashes, but they call them cz's and sell them dirt cheap when they are made out of normal cheap carbon.
Had to be said.
Read the Walt Whitman poem.
-- Terry
I would expect post-cremation ashes to contain very little carbon - the ash is what won't burn*, and carbon burns - so it is perhaps unrealistic to use ashes as a starting point.
There's also a potential trust problem - how do you know your diamond is Grandma's carbon, not chimney sweepings? (One could say something similar of ordinary cremation ashes, of course.)
* More technically, the ash is what was didn't a gas when chemically combined with air. Unless some other atom is holding onto it very tightly, the carbon will form CO or CO2.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
And I got this fabulous tennis bracelet.
Instead of proposing with that passed down family diamond ring with "This was my grandmother's ring..." it would now become... "This is my grandmother..."
Since a diamond is the world hardest substance, you're guaranteed immortality. At least until the sun supernova.
When I die, I'm going to have my body cremated, and the ashes dumped, little by little, into pepper containers, everywhere.
It's just my final message to everyone in the world: "Eat Me"
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
...they learn to construct a perfect copy of the universe from a slice of cake.
So it turns out that Ted Williams didn't want to be frozen by cryonics. After seeing the LifeGem website, he actually said "I'd like to be a piece of ice when I die".
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Now I know the answer to:
a) whether to get an expensive engagement ring or not, and
b) How to get rid of my mother in law
all in one!
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
A friend's father wants his ashes to put into a coffee can and given to his children so that when their cars get stuck in the snow, they can put some ashes under the tires so that he can help them out one more time. Personally, just put me in a garbage bag on garbage day :-)
I disagree with this. Sure, there are some things that are exchanged with the environment on a constant basis (namely water and salt), but I imagine most of the carbon in your body has been there for a very long time. For instance, bone cells don't die and get replaced very quickly, so all the carbon in those probably stays locked up for most of your life. And even though other cells do die (though this is mostly blood cells; neurons and muscle cells stay static throughout your adult life), they're simply recycled by the body, not ejected as waste. Your body isn't as dynamic as you think.
Evidently, everyone wants to be a comedian tonight.
Diamonds, non-gem grade, can be produced from the vapor phase from several carbon-based molecules. Obviously not suitable for corpse transformation.
Diamonds, of any grade, can be produced from elemental (or, perhaps, from suitably doped) elemental carbon by application of extremely high pressures and temperatures.
There is no extant process for reducing a human body so that only the carbon atoms are left.
Therefore, the very suggestion of converting a human body to diamond seems to be pure bullshit.
Anyone want to invest in the venture?
Disgusting thought, but you could also make a diamond from any carbon source after incineration. For example, blood, or for those not easily disgusted, fecal matter.
Yes, for the one you love, give the gift of yourself in an engagement ring.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
I'll be arranging cremation, headstone, and a small plot, ahead of time, to save my family the trouble at a time when they don't need any extra agravation. I'll be DEAD and I won't care what happens to my ashes, but it is nice to visit a departed relative, so I will arrange for the burial of my cremated remains. I'll be DEAD, but I'll want what is left of my estate to go to my living relatives, not useless ornamation.
Its a bit off topic, but make sure you have a will if you have any dependants!
Anarchists never rule
The highly reduced (in the chemical, redox sense) organic carbon will be oxidised to CO2 and disappear up the chimney. But remember that bones contain already oxidised inorganic carbon as carbonate (effectively, limestone), which will remain, and which can be reduced by heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen, to pure atomic carbon. Get the conditions right and voila, diamonds. That said, wouldn't it be cooler to be turned into buckyballs?
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
Mod parent up, very good point...
Looking for the finest print:
under How can you ensure the families that the LifeGem is indeed their loved one?
(Although it is certainly not necessary, an additional "elemental" tracking procedure can be initiated if you desire. Please call for more information.)
Call them at 1-866-lifegem.
I surely want to be sure it is not the pet from the next customer.
--Do You want to be buried, cremated or made into a diamond? No, i want to die first.
Excellent, now I can just wear a braclet or elegent neclace instead of walking around with the shrunken heads of my enemies tied on a string.
One can't fault the convenience factor, but
I don't know, I don't think it will have quite the same, er, impact.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
In a related related story, All three of the major pawn shop chains in Chicago are announcing a liquidation sale on diaomnd rings and pendants.
Prices are at an all-time low, and selection is at an all-time high.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
they also said that it makes blue diamonds... so your discoloration is there. Tada!
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
A CowboyNeal Diamond?
doh!
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Even worse news: It used to be a child who mined for diamonds.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Hey, if God can resurrect the Apostle Peter (et al.), whose body is loooong gone, he wouldn't have any problem with ashes or diamonds.
I predict that we're going to see cases of husbands giving their unfaithful wives beautiful jewelry, shortly after their lovers disappear. And crimelords giving their wives and hookers jewelry made from their enemies.
And some stupid, greedy son of a famous sports player is going to be sued by his sister to stop him from turning his hall-of-famer dad into a "baseball diamond."
One baseball diamond, of course, already appears in a muppet movie.
Get off my launchpad!
Talk about the family jewels.
--What, you ain't know about them country fried sessions?
Great, now DeBeers will have a monopoly on corpses too!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning