Creepy Tech: Ashes to Ink, Hit-Man Scam, and OBE

It's almost Halloween, and sometimes life is stranger than fiction so allow me to enlighten you with a few stories that'll make good watercooler fodder on Monday.

This week in tech, I found a creepy service that immortalizes the departed by mixing in their ashes with ink to create a beautiful photo memorial. Ink Afterlife claims to be able to do that for a small price and a vial of your loved ones' cremated remains. An 8 x 10 memorial photo is then printed with the special mixture in vivid colors or in Dorian Grayscale for under $100.

Not ready to face your death? Then pay up! The latest e-mail scam circulating the web comes from a "hit-man" who claims he's been paid a ransom in advance to terminate you. The only way to get off his list is by paying him anywhere between $8,000 to $80,000. According to an AP report the scammers have been at it for some time now, and to fool the recipient they include personal information they find online as a scare tactic. Over 115 complaints have been filed with the FBI since last year, but who knows how many others actually fell for the "hit-man" scam and paid up.

Could out-of-body experiences be real? European scientists have found a way to trigger out-of-body experiences using virtual reality. You can read about the experiment in detail over at BBC, but it all comes down to visual illusions plus the feeling of being touched that volunteers said made them feel they were having an OBE. Obviously, this should make video gamers very happy, but ultimately they suggest this technique could help surgeons perform operations using a robotic virtual self.

If that's not odd enough, how about the case of the out-of-body...er...leg? Two men are fighting for custody of an amputated leg that was bought at an auction (hopefully not eBay). John Wood lost his leg after a plane crash, and kept it so he could be buried a whole man. The limb was inside a smoker he kept at a storage facility, but when he failed to make his monthly payments, the smoker was auctioned off. When the new owner Shannon Whisnant discovered the limb, he decided to make a few bucks by charging people to see it before handing it over to the police. The battle between the men has intensified now that Halloween is around the corner. Whisnant tells USA Today. "It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner. The price will be going up if I get (a stake in) the leg." Lucky for parents with curious teens, the leg is going back to its rightful owner for good, I hope.