While washing the floors just now (Saturday home chores), and turning over in my head all the gardening ideas I want to choose among for various projects outside, I heard a clip on the radio that made me stop in my tracks.
This might be old news to some, but did you know that you can get the remains of your loved ones turned into a diamond?! The point is a matter of simple physics. After cremation, you have a decent amount of ash left over, which is carbon-rich. All you need is to extract that carbon, and turn it into diamond… a matter of changing the crystal structure from one form into another under high temperature and pressure.
There is a company (or companies, e.g Life Gem) that does this for you, and sends you a nice piece of jewelry made out of your dearly departed. There are slight variations in colour of the finished product…. depending upon the non-carbon “impurities” (if you pardon the term) associated with the source material. So it is very personalised indeed.
-cvj
May 6th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Creepy, isn’t it? I had already heard about this and … no thanks. Scatter me wherever you like, but don’t dangle me around your neck. Please!
May 6th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Those images on the webpage of cut diamonds….Did they obtain the permission of the families of those people to display their remains for all to see?
Can they do pets?
Say I grill a really good steak, so good that it is life changing. Are they limited to human remains, or can I have one made out of charcoal as well?
May 6th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Please. No doubt this sort of thing will cost you lots of money. Don’t waste it, but give it to a charity or something.
May 6th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I would have thought this was an April Fool’s, except that it isn’t.
So… are all colours possible – or only blue and yellowish? Why would that be? Residual copper? Iron?
May 6th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Perhaps some folks have the strange desire to be like the celebrated LUCY – the crystallized white dwarf in the constellation Centaurus.
May 6th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
First of all, what quality assurance is there? I understand that it’s unthinkable, but how does someone know this company has legitimately converted their loved one into a diamond?
Can you imagine people inserting into their wills “And I would like Honey to make me into a diamond to show her friends”?
One last remark: if you refresh the page, different comments come up on the right-hand side. What’s creepy is this cult-like remark:
“We want to thank you for giving us this gift just before the one year anniversary of Hannah’s birthday into Heaven.”
I don’t think any service should make people really that happy about death.
May 6th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Awesome, I hope I become a vanity piece to show of to people! I wonder what shade I would come out as….
May 6th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
As a real fan of the Space Elevator, I’m leaving instructions that I want to be made into carbon nanotubes and used in the section at 100,000 km. Then, if it breaks or wears out, I’m off for Jupiter!
May 7th, 2006 at 6:17 am
This is old news for me, I have to say. I remember seeing a news items on this ages ago. It’s kind of similar to this.
To be honest I don’t think turning a corpse into diamonds and wearing them is inherently any stranger than burying it in a hole and putting a stone on top of it.
May 7th, 2006 at 8:28 am
I like to remember loved ones in their flesh and blood human form – their presence and actions, the wisdom and thoughts they shared with me. Somehow that imagery doesn’t translate into cold, hard diamonds.
May 7th, 2006 at 8:48 am
What concerns me is not the conversion of the corpse into a diamond per se, but I do kinda worry about people who have that much money and can’t think of a better way of using it. I mean, get a life!
–IP
May 7th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Their price chart ranges from $3500 to $20,000 dollars. I agree with Pacian that it isn’t really that much stranger than people stuffing your corpse in a $6,000 box that gets buried. At least you can use the diamond to freak people out; we’re all rather desensitized to that whole coffin thing.
Also note the awesome “two or more” discount for star-crossed lovers/mass suicides.
Bleh. I’m getting cremated. Although I do find those bone rings cool.
May 7th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
or can I have one made out of charcoal as well? Or even can i be made into charcoal upon which a special sacred rack of ribs can be roasted?
I can see all sorts of future possibilities. Add some silica and become a special abrasive carborundum compound that one can form into a rasp to clear up a loved one’s corns and calluses–hehehe. Or maybe have those precious gems stuck in expensive grills for rappers and hip/hop artists and wannabees. Watchmakers could have a field day with them too.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Right, have your mother-in-law made into a carborundum file- as she was in life.
May 7th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Is carborandum abrasive?
May 7th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
I couldn’t find any patents for their “proprietary” technology, at least not assigned to LifeGem. Maybe it’s kept as a trade secret. I can only wonder why DeBeer hasn’t taken it over yet.
I agree with Pacian. There are lots of ways to separate grieving poeple from their money, so we shouldn’t judge them differently. At least these folks let you order in advance and get 20% off.
But, still, I find it gross. I prefer blood diamonds, smuggled out of central African countries in exchange for black market arms to fund civil wars. Relax, I’m kidding.
May 8th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
aye citrine, it is: Carborundum is a trademark for silicon carbide, a leading commercial grinding substance.. It works wonders on etching and colograph plates for printmaking, as well as cleaning lithoblocks. Not the best stuff to let out in the atmosphere though–”always wear a mask when using.”
May 9th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Hmm – I think I’d like to be applied in chips to a masonry blade so I can help cut ceramic tile for floors and showers. What, too ambitious?
May 13th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Just an update: today’s LA Times reports that John Reznikoff, who has the world’s largest and most valuable collection of celebrity hair [you can't make this stuff up], has donated a strand of Beethoven’s hair to LifeGem to publize the fact that they can now make diamonds from a strand of hair. The diamond will be on show in a worldwide tour of museums and opera houses.
While we can all now breathe a sigh of relief that you no longer need a body for this process, I can’t help wondering whether Beethoven will make a blue or a yellow diamond.
May 13th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Blue…I’m hoping for blue.
-cvj