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Now Something Totally Different

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23 March 2018

By Alex Khalil

We’ve found a Norwegian town where one of the only absolutes in life is illegal. No, we aren’t talking about your first hangover. In the town of Longyearbyen, you literally cannot die, as prohibited by law. Wait a minute.

A relatively small town with 2,000 residents in the northernmost settlement on the planet, Longyearbyen, has made it illegal to die in the town, due to a problem with bodies decomposing. I.e. they weren’t.

Due to the frankly horrible cold, the town is gripped by all year round, bodies do not decompose in the town’s graveyard, as discovered in the 1950s. So, a law was passed that meant it was illegal to do something as silly as die in the town. Terrified of decades-old diseases plaguing the town, when you’re near your last breath, all efforts will be made to get you back to the mainland.

Looks like something out of a Norwegian drama. Or a really cheaply made BBC horror series.

This isn’t necessarily an overreaction either. When scientists exhumed bodies of those who would have died in the 1910’s, they were able to retrieve live samples of the flu virus, from the pandemic at the time.

Not many people are born there either. The town has a small hospital, but expecting mothers are urged to fly to the mainland to give birth.

Well, there’s something we bet you didn’t know. If you’re looking for something else completely different, maybe have a look here?

This is almost a series at this point.

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