Wacky World: Ashes To Ashes

This week it has been announced that you or I, should we require such a service (fingers crossed not, eh?), could be packed off to the moon after we have died. Well, bits of us. Yes, that's right, the people who have been responsible for blasting some of James 'Scotty from Star Trek' Doohan's ashes into orbit are now advertising that they can send people's loved ones where only a few living people have ever gone by landing them on the surface of the moon. Whatever next?

The cremated human remains will attached to a lunar landing pod in capsules that will stay on the moon forever (well, at least until the Earth packs in and we all have to go and live there and eat the moon cheese), which is presumably the perfect way to commemorate someone who was a big fan of space or sci-fi or Wallace And Gromit. Dr Eugene Shoemaker, a prominent astronomer and planetary geologist has been up there (in a manner of speaking) since July 1999, and you could join him.

Clearly death is a big money-spinner these days, so it is no surprise that football clubs have been cashing in from it long before these scientists realised the potential of being lunar undertakers. Even in the last week, news came from Austria that a leading funeral company has caught onto the trend by creating a special new urn just in time for that country co-hosting Euro 2008. Yes, Viennese football fans can now have their cremated remains stored in a football-shaped urn.

Bestattung Wien is the company responsible for the urns, which cost around £280 and have been available for two weeks, though no-one has actually ordered one yet.