Duckworth_Luas wrote: » QI
Candie wrote: » Six feet under is widely recognized as the depth of a grave, but it's not actually a requirement in most cases. Graves can be as little as two feet deep in the right terrain, but usually they are dug to greater depths so they can be reused for the burial of other family members, and if the burial ground is in particularly wet land it also requires burial to a greater depth, often deeper than the proverbial six feet. Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building. Some of these (not the monsters) were factors in one of the lesser known consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Because much of New Orleans is technically below sea level, the breaking of the levee and the pressure of subsequent flooding caused coffins and caskets to literally bob to the surface and take sail in the floodwaters like macabre flotillas, and many waterlogged coffins and caskets even popped their lids from the pressure, parting the occupant from the coffin and making identification a more complex operation if found. For years afterwards occupied and empty caskets were being discovered in swamplands and other unlikely locations miles from their original resting places, and skeletal remains were fetched from treetops and dislodged from between tombstones in the immediate aftermath. A special taskforce was formed to identify and rehome the more difficult cases, and that work continued for ten years after the event. No small task when there were already so many newly dead to identify, about fifty of which remain anonymous to this day. The much wealthier (and above sea level) uptown area was spared most of this trauma, since above-ground mausoleums were constructed to house the remains of those who could afford it, and the famous Lafayette Cemetery in the St Charles district was barely touched by the worst of Katrina. Even when dead, it was the poorest residents of the city that paid the highest price for the disaster.
Realt Dearg Sec wrote: » Never studied as hard in my life as I did the following year.
Candie wrote: » Cross Bones Cemetery beside Guys Hospital in London famously had 'exploding' graves because of a combination of overcrowding, flooding, and of course the rampant trade in graverobbing to supply the hospital with fresh cadavers for education and monster-building. .
sbsquarepants wrote: » Sorry, what now?:eek:
Chancer3001 wrote: » Differ female cuckoos lay different colour eggs . And therefore specialise on different speices of birds as they need to lay a similar colour egg to the other bird for better success
New Home wrote: » I always thought females cuckoo were able to change the colour of their eggs as needed.
Chancer3001 wrote: » no. that would be a bit exceptional if the cuckoo could look in a nest, think sexy thoughts about that colour and have its egg change to that colour each individual cuckoo can only lay one colour
runawaybishop wrote: » Back then an Italian scientist Galvani discovered dead flesh would move if a current went through it - he thought at the time though it was bioelectrical energy. Galvanism as it was called spawned experiments with cadavars and lead to Shelley's book. Sean bean is in a tv series based (loosely) on it. Freak shows used to create 'monsters' from cadavars for their shows.
Graces7 wrote: » Burial customs are fascinating.
New Home wrote: » And in some villages high up in Tibet, since they cannot dig graves into rock and wood is so scarce cremation isn't an option, they rely on the rather gruesome practice of a Sky Burial, where the corpses of their deceased are dissected and fed to the vultures.