TV Show Seeks Terminally Ill Volunteer for Mummification 262
Terminal illness got you down? Does your future seems bleak? Channel 4 and production company Fulcrum TV would like to brighten your day by making you the star of an upcoming documentary. They would like to offer you the chance to be mummified on TV and maybe even displayed in a museum afterward. An advertisement for the project reads: "We are currently keen to talk to some one who, faced with the knowledge of their own terminal illness and all that it entails, would nonetheless consider undergoing the process of an ancient Egyptian embalming."
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good. (Score:5, Interesting)
So it's not just me that sees shows like Mythbusters as an intellectual version of Jackass.
I'm pretty sure that was their intent, so no, you're definitely not the only one.
Or, as Teller once put it when asked about their greatest achievement on "Bullshit":
"Our greatest achievement is presenting skepticism to people with the assistance of obscenity and naked breasts and genitals."
I'm sure Adam Savage would give a similar answer; just replace "obscenity and naked breasts and genitals" with "explosions and goofy antics".
Re:why terminal? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not a bad idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good. (Score:3, Interesting)
I take it you didn't watch their most excellent deconstruction of just about every "we didn't land on the moon" myths? Or the recent one where they achieved an 10% fuel efficiency increase by adding golf ball-like dimples to the body of a car?
Science isn't just theory, science is also getting out there, getting your hands dirty, and seeing what actually happens.
I used to agree with you, then I actually watched more of the show.
As usual, XKCD: http://xkcd.com/397/ [xkcd.com] At the time, I disagreed with this comic. Now, especially in the recent seasons, I completely agree.
Re:Creepy (Score:4, Interesting)
Because having you blood drained and replaced with embalming fluid and you body covered in makeup and posed like we do today commonly is perfectly rational.
It is rational. It gives people time to travel (sometimes long distances) to consol one another on the passing of a friend. The makeup, the embalming fluid, it's all there for the purposes of the viewing. The funeral is for the living.
Irrational is leaving a body to decompose and make the gathering uncomfortable for the sake of being the 'thoroughly modern nihilist' who doesn't follow those lame and old-fashioned traditions because they are soooo much cooler than that.
Re:Is there anyone not terminal? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there's a big difference between "knowing" that you're going to die and "understanding" that you're going to die. Every one of us knows that our time is ticking down and that we will, some day, die. Most of us have had no reason to really grapple with our own mortality, and as such, don't really "believe" that we're going to die.
I think this is part of the reason that funerals are so hard on so many people. They come that much closer to the understanding how fragile life is and to the fact that their life can be taken at any time.
Sorry for the misuse of quotes above. I wanted it to be known that the concepts that I was leaning on weren't exactly the definition of those words, but my limited vocabulary couldn't allow me to find anything better.