Library of Dust depicts individual copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of patient from a state-run psychiatric hospital. The patients died at the hospital between 1883 (the year the facility opened, when it was called the Oregon State Insane Asylum) and the 1970’s; their bodies have remained unclaimed by their families.
posted by oneirodynia on Aug 4, 2008 - 17 comments

For 60 years the skeletal remains of more than 200 people, discovered in 1942 in a remote Himalaya region, have puzzled historians, scientists and archaeologists. Now they think they know what killed them around AD 840. "The only plausible explanation for so many people sustaining such similar injuries at the same time is something that fell from the sky".
posted by stbalbach on Nov 14, 2004 - 13 comments

Are you a diamond in the rough?
For as little as $4,000, LifeGem Memorials will turn your cremains into a diamond, allowing your loved ones to cherish you forever while admiring your sparkling brilliance.
According to the Cremation Association of North America, about 26 percent of the 2.3 million U.S. residents are cremated, and they predict that rate will jump to nearly 40 percent by 2010. Perhaps we've found an alternative to those other blood diamonds?
posted by me3dia on Aug 21, 2002 - 27 comments

Rapper Found with Human Remains in Stomach Do you think he's already been referenced in a rap song for this? Talk about street cred. Horrifying.
posted by agregoli on Aug 2, 2002 - 84 comments

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! -- never mind, it's just cremated human remains.
posted by nathan_teske on Jan 15, 2002 - 6 comments

"Sitting on a shelf for years and years" — While what happened may sound unsettling...funeral directors say WV legislators have not passed any laws that tell funeral homes what to do with unclaimed remains like the ones found here in Charleston. Think I'll stay out of the basement.
posted by netbros on Mar 22, 2001 - 0 comments