h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Much has been said about the danger of total reliance on electronic media for historical storage.
Millions of tons of granite are queried and installed for Ozymandian purposes.
Cemeteries are undoubtedly places where future archaeologist will be digging.
Donate the surface area on the
back of monuments to preserve critical information.
Whole books can be preserved by etching microfilm photographs onto the stone, if necessary, crossing multiple stones. Language can be used directly (as opposed to photographs) as well.
CD Rot
http://www.cnn.com/...c.rot.ap/index.html [theircompetitor, Oct 04 2004]
Georgia Monumental Stones
http://www.cnn.com/...monument/index.html [theircompetitor, Mar 23 2010]
QR code on monument
http://mashable.com.../qr-code-tombstone/ [theircompetitor, Jul 19 2011]
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Annotation:
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Like a 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second? |
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I wouldn't necessarily limit it to that -- in fact, see ammendment |
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Isn't this baked by words of lifetime-gained wisdom generally placed on headstones? |
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Disappointed you're not using the stone to show the same information in different languages. |
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Worldgineer -- I think I went wrong in description above, posting wording changes. |
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DrCurry -- that originated the idea, but I decided against it. The idea as stated does not preclude it, of course. |
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30662 - The statements on gravestone #119334 are false.
119334 - The statements on gravestone #30662 are true. |
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The stone you mark upon will weather at some rate related to the type of stone and the climate. I'll bet that microfilm cannot be deeply etched, and that the light etching will remain legible for a few years, decades at best. Or did you mean bottom, not back? |
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(Laughs Last) - the back of yours can say hahahaha. |
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LaughsLast -- Acid rain is definitely a concern, but I haven't noticed any appreciable weathering, over a period of 10 years or so, on several graves that I vist a couple of times a year. The stones are granite, and the photographs are as lifelike today as initially. |
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Having said that, we'd probably use diamond coating as it becomes more available. |
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I really like your idea - it's one of the few true originals
that I have seen on this site, but can it please include the
works of Edward Gorey |
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//Millions of tons of granite are queried // Quarried? |
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i have no quarrel with that |
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I like the idea of historical facts etched that pertain to the deceased, or that he deems important. It would be both a reflection of his life and the times in which he lived and a peek into his values. I would prefer this be written out, not in some storage code or micro chip. the whole history of the world is already available in many forms. |
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Have to agree that micro etching is a bad idea unless it's going to be sandwiched between two layers and sealed. Weathering may not show in 10 years, but look at a century old graveyard and it is obvious, and I assume that you're looking at timescales at least in that range. |
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Centimeter high lettering, cut 5mm or so deep (machined, not chiselled) should last for a good long period of time, especially if it were filled with a gasket material that kept it from spalling. The data storage rate wouldn't be all that high, but it would add up. |
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Expand it to include building foundations and similar applications and you would get a decent amount of information saved. |
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Why limit it this way? Use the backs of domestic ceramic
tiles. Each tilery could be paid to incorporate a sort of
glorified printing press, which would emboss blocks of text or
images onto the backs of tiles as they were made. Far
cheaper than carving stone. |
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Each block of text would appear on many tiles. Tiles are
often the last things to survive demolition, collapse, fire or
flood, and can easily be stripped from their wall or floor,
revealing the information. |
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In fact, why not go with bottle caps, to replace those zany New England facts :) |
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The fronts of tiles would be fun too, imagine a literary bathroom |
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No, we just have folksy wisdom and down-home
anecdotes. And up here in Northern New England we also
have gun-toting lunatics like [Alterother]. |
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What a future archaeologist would probably prefer would be more biographical / background information about the person in the grave. |
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