Florida funeral home offers eco-friendly cremations

ST. PETERSBURG, FlA Florida funeral home is offering a new alternative to traditional cremations and burials, selling what it bills as an environmentally friendly chemical process to dispose of dead bodies, machinery

The process involves pressurized water, potassium hydroxide and electric heat to generate an accelerated chemical reaction similar to what occurs to bodies when they are buried in the ground.

Under the new method, bodies are placed in a steel machine resembling an oversized washing machine called the Resomator. The bodies are then immersed in a chemical bath and the remains are broken down by a process known as alkaline hydrolysis using water at high temperatures.

The solution contains alkali, a substance found in cosmetics and liquid soaps. The whole process lasts about three to four hours, slightly longer than heat cremations.

But similar to traditional cremations, what is left are bones and ash, which are placed in an urn and given to family members. The used chemical solution is then poured down a drain.

Steve Schaal, the head of Matthews Cremation, the company distributing the Resomator machines in the United States, said market studies show a growing preference for cremations over burials, and the new process would likely appeal to the environmentally conscious.

Prices for the cremations run around $650 compared to traditional ones that cost some $500. Because the process is new. it is currently being offered at the lower price machine.

U.S. firms face mixed fate in Libya as workers strike

TRIWorkers protesting at the headquarters of Libya's National Oil Company on Sunday said they would strike until managers were replaced and possibly tried for fighting alongside Gaddafi.

Most of the crowd worked for Waha Oil, a joint venture with American firms ConocoPhillips, Marathon and Amerada Hess.

Documents proving managers had used the Waha Oil complex as a base for Gaddafi fighters had been presented to the NOC chairman that morning, protesters said.

The oil fields had been targeted by NATO because they were used to feed, shelter and equip loyalist fighters, according to the workers, who said it could take four to six months to restart flows.

In an interview last week, the NOC's chairman told Reuters that NATO airstrikes on Libyan oil fields had been executed with "surgical precision."

A source at NOC confirmed Nouri Berouin, the chairman, had met Waha Oil workers on Sunday, but added requests to remove directors had not been heeded.

Other North American firms in Libya are facing contrasting fortunes, with Occidental and Suncor both restarting production at fields in the eastern part of the Sirte basin this week.

European companies, including German, Italian and French oil firms, have also succeeded in pumping oil for the first time since war broke out, but they have met with mixed fates as well.

So far, oil has yet to flow from the West and parts of Libya's oil-rich basin remain too dangerous to inspect machinery.

Waha Oil pumped just under 400,000 barrels of oil per day before the war, but is now producing no crude and field workers say they will not return until managers were replaced.

Protesters said Libyans had been denied the opportunity to get a good job throughout Gaddafi's rule and wanted a better future.

Sunday's protest followed a similar demonstration last week at Waha Oil's headquarters. Engineers there reported damage was severe in parts of the complex, while some oil fields were still unsafe to visit.

Waha Oil workers were joined by employees at the Libyan Petroleum Institute, who also said their managers had actively supported Gaddafi's army.

Punishment was up to the Libyan court charged with processing Gaddafi loyalists, protesters said, but whatever the result, managers were unqualified for their jobs and should not be allowed to stay on.

German fashion designer makes clothes from milk

BEA young fashion designer from the German city of Hanover is revolutionizing high fashion by designing clothes with a staple she can find in her fridge -- milk.

Anke Domaske, 28, has developed a fabric called QMilch made from high concentrations of the milk protein casein -- the first man-made fiber produced entirely without chemicals.

Made from all natural materials, the QMilch fabric is ecological but also has many health benefits, said Domaske, who also said the amino acids in the protein are antibacterial, anti-aging and can help regulate both blood circulation and body temperature.

Domaske's fashion label Mademoiselle Chi Chi -- a favorite among the likes of Mischa Barton and Ashlee Simpson -- has now started weaving the milk fiber into its collection.

Currently the MCC clothes -- which feature flowing wrap dresses with edgy cuts and bright patterns -- are made from a combination of various fibers, including QMilch. But Domaske plans to design a collection made entirely from the milk fiber.

Milk fabric has been around since the 1930s but was always produced in unecological ways that used a lot of chemicals. Unlike earlier prototypes, QMilch is made almost entirely from casein.

The casein is extracted from dried milk powder and then heated up in a type of meat-mincing machine with other natural ingredients. The fiber comes out in strands and is then spun into yarn on a spinning machine.