News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Nuclear-Powered Cardiac Pacemakers by cant_kant on Monday November 16, 2015 @10:05PM (#10578928)
Forms for undertakers have a section where one has to certify whether or not the deceased person has an implanted device.

Cremating a person with a plutonium powered pacemaker might be a bit of a health hazard.

Re:Nuclear-Powered Cardiac Pacemakers by efournie on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @02:43AM (#10579703)
Cremating a person with a big lithium battery encased in an airtight metallic casing is also a bit of a hazard. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators add also a few big capacitors to the mix. There have been quite a few crematoriums destroyed or damaged by pacemaker explosions in the last decades.
Re:Nuclear-Powered Cardiac Pacemakers by david-given on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @08:01AM (#10580739)
Iain Banks' _The Crow Road_ starts like this:

> It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.

Fantastic book, with possibly the best opening line ever, and yes, she does have a pacemaker.

http://www.tor.com/2009/06/22/a-funny-book-with-a-lot-of-dea...

Re:Nuclear-Powered Cardiac Pacemakers by Animats on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @03:48AM (#10579896)
They planned for that. Those devices were designed to survive cremation without leakage.