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from Photographers Blog:
Ashes to ashes; dust to dust
Gainesville, Florida
By Steve Johnson
“Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.”
Its origins come from Genesis 3:19 (King James Verison): “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
We celebrate death in so many different ways. From sky burials in Tibet, to hanging coffins in ancient China, how we honor the dead is varied and changing.
In the United States and Canada, vault burials have grown in popularity since the early 1900s. With more than 19,000 funeral homes and 8,000 embalmers in the U.S. alone according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
So when Reuters contacted me about a conservation cemetery, one of four in the country, I was intrigued with the very niche market.
from Photographers Blog:
Dark side of the festival
Bangkok, Thailand
By Damir Sagolj
Totally unconcerned with incoming traffic, Khun Tuey powers the ambulance van through Bangkok’s narrow streets as fast as its engine can push it. Soon after the chase started, the pointer on the speedometer kisses the 120 mark and for a short moment I take my eyes off the road to look around. Next to the driver sits his beautiful, four month pregnant wife Amarin, ignoring what passes by the windshield as if she is watching a session of Bulgarian parliament on TV. To the left is Somat, a medic with 110 hours of training – the team’s expert for injuries. His eyes are closed and it looks like he is sleeping. I hope he is praying. Tonight, we all need prayers to come true.
It is the crazy wet Songkran, as the week-long Thai New Year is known. Earlier in the day, we all enjoyed the festival - I sprayed water, wore powder on my face, drank beer and played fool with friends.
from Photographers Blog:
Faced with the hand of death
Guatemala City, Guatemala
By Jorge Dan Lopez
Lately, I've begun to think about death in a different way. Maybe it has something to do with taking photographs at the central cemetery every day for the last four months. It has become part of my daily routine, like getting up in the morning and brushing my teeth. Sometimes when I go, I don’t even take a picture, I just listen to the workers or enjoy the cemetery’s own sounds.
The other day it became quite cold during the night, temperatures dropped more than ten degrees Celsius and continued to descend. It was the coldest night of the year so far and while I was sitting at the cemetery, I thought I should take some photos about the cold weather. It was a frivolous thought, especially when I heard a little later that a person had died of hypothermia. I received the tip from a firefighter about the first dead person to have died due to the cold weather.
from Photographers Blog:
To die in peace
Yangon, Myanmar
By Minzayar
"There are about thirty patients in our hospice and the number’s always about the same. New patients arrive regularly and as old patients die. About ten die every month here.”
When the nurse showing me around the hospice said that, I was kind of shocked. If ten patients die a month, that means one every three days. To be honest, I have very rarely seen someone die near me. When I do, it is very sad and scary. I cannot imagine how the people here live with it.
from Photographers Blog:
Coffin therapy
By Sheng Li
After many days trying to set-up an interview at the Ruoshui Mental Health Clinic, which resides within a commercial apartment building in Shenyang, China, I finally received a call from the owner on December 12 who granted me the access and opportunity to photograph one of their “death experience therapy” patients.
An hour later, I found myself in the so-called “death experience room”, a 10-square-metre room with nothing but a coffin on the floor. On the wall there was a poster of Jesus holding a newborn baby illuminated with gloomy blue lights. My first impression? Quite intimidating.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Step right up for the Creep Show Hall of Fame!
Blog Guy, I know it's only November, but I'm wondering how you're coming along in your search for the blog's coveted Creep Show of the Year Award.
Oh, don't worry about that, it's a done deal. It's a Creep-o-Rama, Creep-a-Palooza...
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Playing Pachelbel’s Cannon at my funeral?
Blog Guy, not to bring up a depressing topic, but have you made plans for what will be done with your body when you die?
I'm arranging that now, thanks to several readers who sent me info about a company called Holy Smoke. They put your cremated ashes into shotgun shells or rifle cartridges, so your friends can shoot you off. Even in death, you can be helping to kill some poor creature.
from Full Focus:
Afghan war: Iconic images
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Ten years ago, U.S. forces began bombing Afghanistan in retaliation against its Taliban rulers who refused to hand over the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Within weeks, the air strikes had helped Afghan opponents topple the Taliban, but in the decade since, the deposed Islamist fighters have returned to mount an ever more aggressive insurgency against an Afghan government backed by the United States and NATO. Since U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the U.S. force has tripled in size, but Washington and NATO now plan to begin withdrawing and to hand over responsibility for Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces by 2014.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Creepy gets a whole lot creepier
Okay, this story is so disturbing I'm not sure where to begin.
A city in Turkey has equipped the local morgue with the latest gadgetry in case any of the bodies stored there have been declared dead by mistake.
It seems alarms and motion detectors in the mortuary will detect the slightest movement if one of the bodies emerges from a coma or unconsciousness.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Let’s do something spontaneous, Baby!
Hey Blog Guy, how come you're sitting in that huge tub of ice cubes up to your neck?
That's my new "home." I eat, sleep and blog here, under constant monitoring.
Um, that's a little strange, Blog Guy. You want to explain what's going on?
Sure. A coroner in Ireland has officially ruled that a man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion. The coroner said it's the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he has recorded such a verdict.
