M.J. Rose

This does not see morbid to us at all, but rather a beautiful way to preserve a loved one’s memory: Create from their very own carbon a gem stone to be passed down through generations. What do you think Dear Readers?

Meet the Man Who Transforms Corpses into Diamonds

By Gian Volpicelli

Vice.com

“Rinaldo Willy’s job is to transform dead people into precious stones.

Willy, 33, is the founder and CEO of Algordanza, a peculiar funeral home based in the lovely town of Domat/Ems in western Switzerland. Algordanza—which in the local Romansch language means “remembrance”—is one of the leaders in the production of so called “memorial diamonds.” If you fancy a blinged-out eternal sleep, Algordanza will put the latest technologies at your service to convert your ashes into a synthetic diamond.

The price for this transfiguration ranges between 4,500 and 20,000 Swiss francs ($5,000-$22,000), depending on how big a diamond you want to become. That includes the packaging of your shiny remains into what the firm’s website describes as a “noble wooden box.” But it will then be up to your loved ones to decide whether to leave you in your noble box or put you on a ring or pendant so they can carry you around with them.

Every year, 850 former-people enter Algordanza’s laboratory to emerge some years later as a precious gem. While shortage of land and increasing population are calling the traditional cemetery model into question, perhaps the future of corpse management could lie in this unusual blend of mortuary science and jewelry.

To further investigate, I caught up with the man himself, Rinaldo Willy.

Motherboard: So, can you tell us how you got the idea of making diamonds from corpses?

The idea first struck me ten years ago, when I was a student of economics. One of my teachers gave me an article by a Russian scientist to read; it was about the production of synthetic diamonds to be used in the semiconductor industry. The article explained how such diamonds could be made from ashes, and I misinterpreted it, thinking it was referring to human ashes–while in fact it was talking about vegetable ashes…”

For the complete post click here.

We hope that you are having a wonderful start to the new year. Please enjoy a little summary of our universe – perhaps it will help you put things into perspective as you endeavor to wrangle 2014!

“The Story of Everything: In two mind-blowing hours, Hawking reveals the wonders of the cosmos to a new generation. Delve into the mind of the world’s most famous living scientist and reveal the splendor and majesty of the universe as never seen before. See how the universe began, how it creates stars, black holes and life — and how everything will end….”

(From Knowledgeoftheday.org)

Stephen Hawking’s Universe – The Story of Everything (2010) from Luis Ribeiro on Vimeo.

As we’ve been saying for a while now, it seems that humans or our human-like ancestors have been around doing civilized things for a lot longer than mainstream science has lead us to believe. The proof may soon be irrefutable –

Who Was Throwing Spears Before Humans?

by Jennifer Viegas

“Remains of the oldest known stone-tipped throwing spears, described in a new paper, are so ancient that they actually predate the earliest known fossils for our species by 85,000 years.

There are a couple possible implications, and both are mind-blowing. The first is that our species could be much older than previously thought, which would forever change the existing human family tree.

The second, and more likely at this point, is that a predecessor species to ours was extremely crafty and clever, making sophisticated tools long before Homo sapiens emerged.

Homo heidelbergensis, aka Heidelberg Man, lived in Africa, Europe and western Asia from at least 600,000 years ago. He clearly got around, and many think this species was the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens in Africa and Neanderthals in Europe and Asia.

The new paper, published in the latest PLoS ONE, focuses on the newly identified stone-tipped spears, which date to 280,000 years ago. They were found at an Ethiopian Stone Age site known as Gademotta…”

For the rest, click here to go to Discovery News.