A link from blog reader Mike to the patent for the “Easy inter burial container,” basically a fat auger with a dead guy in it:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=TdGjAAAAEBAJ

There is some sense to it in that it would probably be easier to install than digging a six foot long, six foot deep hole in the ground for a regular casket. But this would seem to me to be a continuation of the dreadful practice of turning caskets into friggen time capsules with gooey centers. Anything more elaborate, expensive or permanent than a plywood box is going much to far in terms of gift wrapping the dead. I’ve already given warning that, with one exception, if anything more complex or expensive than a cardboard box is used to hold my dead ass while it’s being lowered into the ground, I’m gonna come back and haunt the hell out of whoever decided to waste all that money.
The exception, of course, is procuring a cheap rowboat and a few hundred gallons of fuel, and setting my carcass on fire out at sea. Throw in some fireworks, at least make it entertaining.