A blue mineral that grows on buried bodies and confuses archaeologists (2016)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vivianite-blue-human-remains

by mmastrac • 2 years ago

121 65 2 years ago

gilleain3• 2 years ago

So 'vivianite', or hydrated iron (II) phosphate - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivianite - which apparently undergoes 'internal oxidation' interestingly.

somedude895• 2 years ago

Funny, I figured the name would be derived from the Latin word for "life", but it's named after a person with the last name Vivian (which itself has roots in said Latin word).

1-more• 2 years ago

https://notes.rolandcrosby.com/posts/unexpectedly-eponymous/

Schattenbaer• 2 years ago

And vivianite can sometimes be found together with another phosphate and iron mineral called childrenite... named after a John George Children.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childrenite

msrenee2• 2 years ago

It's a pretty cool mineral. I've got a chunk (not from a grave) that's such a dark green it looks black until you shine a light through it.

Suppafly2• 2 years ago

Finally, I came to the comments so I didn't have to read the article and all the comments are just about tracking cookies.

mkl• 2 years ago

Neat, but I wouldn't call that "vivid".

gilleain3• 2 years ago

I suspect it's a pun on the mineral name ...

(Incorrectly, I assumed that the name related to 'vital' - as in 'living' - but apparently not :

"It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1817, the year of his death, after either John Henry Vivian (1785–1855), a Welsh-Cornish politician, mine owner and mineralogist living in Truro, Cornwall, England, or after Jeffrey G. Vivian, an English mineralogist."

AlecSchueler• 2 years ago

That said the name Vivian does derive from the Latin name Vivianus, which comes from the Latin word vivus, meaning "alive"

est• 2 years ago

IIRC there's a theory that blue paint is incredibly expensive in the past.

gilleain3• 2 years ago

So ultramarine blue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarine) is made from lapis lazuli which is a semi-precious stone. That was presumably quite expensive.

giantg2• 2 years ago

It gets darker with increased oxidation/time. It likely was very vivid at one point.

admissionsguy• 2 years ago

Soul crystals?

deadbabe• 2 years ago

Would be a great alternative to cremation.

sangnoir• 2 years ago

I think a company that makes diamonds from remains-based carbon already exist

aargh_aargh• 2 years ago

Wow, I got two different cookie consent overlays on android chrome on top of each other. That's a first. They must REALLY care about my privacy.

larodi• 2 years ago

Happily reader mode works just fine with this page.

Traubenfuchs• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/l68pV

muffles• 2 years ago

As each year goes by, I get more and more annoyed by the cookie consent pop-ups.

Does U.S. law really require cookie pop-ups? And don't most websites store the cookies before consent is given anyways?

https://olivergrimsley.com/2022/03/04/please-stop-putting-co...

texuf• 2 years ago

100%. This also bugs me: Why can’t websites set a cookie that stores whether I’ve consented to the cookie pop up? On some sites I have to keep consenting over and over (IKEA comes to mind).

dv_dt• 2 years ago

IMHO it’s because they can try to apply a dark pattern to have users accidentally consent to more tracking than they might normally agree to.

staticautomatic• 2 years ago

Having a pop up for only cookies is silly, but at least as often they’re used for data processing consent and that makes more sense than putting the consent form on a splash screen or in the body of the page I guess.

BoxOfRain• 2 years ago

I know this is a pretty unoriginal point, but I wish cookie consent could be a browser setting you set once and never have to deal with again unless you need to change it for a specific site. The nag screens have got to be the worst possible implementation, it's like none of the people who decided this was the way it ought to be done ever heard of alarm fatigue.

fukusa• 2 years ago

Isn't this the Do Not Track (DNT) header? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track

genter• 2 years ago

It's malicious compliance. Websites are free to simply not track you.

chronogram• 2 years ago

If it was a browser setting, which already exists but gets ignored, it would get ignored and would throw up a popup anyway. You can use Consent-O-Matic[0] though, you can even select the types of tracking you do want.

0: https://github.com/cavi-au/Consent-O-Matic

thwarted• 2 years ago

P3P looked so hopeful, but died long before the legal requirements were there.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P3P

razakel• 2 years ago

That's exactly the point: it's to make people angry at the "stupid politicians" instead of the data thieves.

Suppafly2• 2 years ago

No sites want that though because everyone would either check 'no cookies' or 'only necessary cookies' which would ruin their ability to make money off the vast majority of visitors to their sites.

gumby• 2 years ago

They are being super-solicitous: you need to allow the cookie consent dialogue to record your preferences, using a cookie.

kingspact• 2 years ago

What is it? Cloudflare's "protection" has blocked me from being able to see half the Internet lately.

nkotov• 2 years ago

Vivianite

Delumine• 2 years ago

I know this isn't in the best taste, but a ring made from this material would definitely give mystical vibes.

oooyay• 2 years ago

Of course, Etsy has a market for this: https://www.etsy.com/market/vivianite_jewelry

hinkley2• 2 years ago

Okay, but those aren't made of people, right?

...

They're not made of people, right?

sour-taste• 2 years ago

Don't believe the inners, it's clearly protomolecule:

https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Protomolecule

prox• 2 years ago

Ha my first response when I read the title!

corysama• 2 years ago

I was thinking https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Bluegleam

devsda2• 2 years ago

It's a magicule ore. Probably magisteel.

https://tensura.fandom.com/wiki/Magicule

hinkley2• 2 years ago

Can't take the Razorback

bjt12345• 2 years ago

The protomolecule is such a haunting idea in hard science fiction, even the way that it disassembles and re-assembles human bodies makes perfect sense under assembly theory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_theory

nailer• 2 years ago

Flashbacks to Upsteam Color (if anyone hasn’t seen it, it’s the other film from the creator of Primer).

tleilaxu• 2 years ago

I adore that film. It is nuts, but has a dreamy metaphysical quality to it that I love.

hn72774• 2 years ago

There's a "blue babe" mammoth specimen at the UAF museum. It was preserved in permafrost. Same chemistry.

https://www.uaf.edu/museum/press/spotlight/blue-babe/

dabluecaboose• 2 years ago

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-fisk-mum...

AO article on the briefly mentioned cast-iron coffin with face window, in case anyone else was curious as I was

accrual• 2 years ago

Tangentially related - the low-poly retro horror game Cave Crawler (2023) touches on this concept (minerals growing on bodies). It's currently $1.99 USD and I thoroughly enjoyed a playthrough.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2282480/Cave_Crawler

beretguy• 2 years ago

Protomolecule?

A blue mineral that grows on buried bodies and confuses archaeologists (2016)

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