Learn about more eco-friendly, meaningful, less expensive and natural alternatives to a traditional graveyard burial.

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who became a national celebrity last year after a lecture he gave became a viral video sensation, died today of complications from pancreatic cancer, CMU reported. He was 47.

Nine days before TED2008, filmmaker David Hoffman lost almost everything he owned in a fire that destroyed his home, office, and 30 years of passionate collecting. He looks back at a life that's been wiped clean in an instant -- and looks forward.

THE honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about. I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes. We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.”

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla. He was 79.

When speaking of death and immortality though, it’s important to bring in the perspective of a school of thought called the Transhumanists. These thinkers believe that information technologies are growing exponentially and that this exponential growth will transform nearly every aspect of our lives, including our ability to extend life indefinitely, which is also known as radical life extension. I happen to agree with them, and am a big fan of these theories. One of my favorite Transhumanists, Ray Kurzweil, explains radical life extension this way

This series of posts, on death, was inspired by several years of contemplating the nature of death. Death is something that I consider daily, and not just as a philosophical concept, but as a continued experience and integral part of life. This series is an attempt to share the knowledge that I’ve gleaned from death, which has been a profound and omni-present teacher.

In China two and half thousand years ago one man, Kong Qui, and his followers, synthesised the traditions of the Chinese people to create what they believed were the fundamental principles of humanity. Of course what Westerners now call Confucianism has changed over the years, just like the other major philosophies that have flourished in the East: Buddhism and Taoism. But to have survived this long, these systems of thought must have at their cores a useful set of principles that help people live the 'good life'.

The actor Heath Ledger was found dead in a Manhattan apartment on Tuesday afternoon, the New York City police said.