Selling what the dead leave behind

A interesting and somewhat sad story in the L.A. Times about what happens when you die without a will or heirs in L.A. county.Here is the link http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warehouse28-2009dec28,0,757874,full.story I was surprised at some of the names cited, especially Danny Federici,memeber of Springsteens E Street Band.You would have thought that someone that famous and who knew he had melanoma would have had a will.

Shaming the Dead-Facedown burial

Found this over on the National Geographic site.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090623-facedown-burials.html
Interesting that the lead study author Caroline Arcini states that"shaming of the dead is most likely a deep rooted behavior in humankind."It mentions the practice occurring up into the first World War.Most likely with prisoners I would imagine?Information of this sort fascinates me.The why we are and the way we are and how many things are the same all over the world.
Here is a link to the original article in Current Archaeology http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/buried-face-down-prone-burials.htm customs