X-Message-Number: 17551
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 14:55:50 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: making Alcor safer

Why Alcor should consider a new building in a new location?
By: David Pizer

Since my original post there have been several replies.  A lot of good
suggestions and reasons pro and con have been listed.  I would like to
respond, in general, to some of them.  I hope more ideas will follow.

1.	Alcor needs a new building, anyhow.   The existing building does not
have all of the safety items that could be built into a new building.  If
we were to construct a new building, I would suggest putting the patient
storage area underground.   That is the safest place for them to be.
Since we need a new building anyhow, why not construct it in a safer place?

2.	There are many other safety and convenience items that could be built
into a new building.
Fire suppression.  Early warning.  Stronger construction.  I'm sure you can
think of many others.
The biggest safety would be underground patient storage and being located
in an area away from potential danger.  It costs less to purchase a large
chunk of land in a more rural, and safer area, then it does in the more
risk-laden larger cities.  Rural does not mean remote.  Just getting an
hour's drive not of Phoenix/Scottsdale still leaves ease of access to
services and yet gets us out of the danger zone.

In a rural area we can purchase a 10 or 20 acre site for what a couple of
acres costs in the city.

3.	If history has any relevance, this terrorist situation is not going to
go away; it will probably escalate.  The people who caused this attack are
not afraid to die.  I predict that as time goes on, we will escalate in
what we do to them, and they will escalate in how they attack us.  As each
side escalates the other side feels pressure to retaliate with something
bigger.

4.	This tension causes additional danger to cryonicists because while this
is going on, Americans will be looking for scape goats.  

For instance, this morning I watched President Bush give a speech from the
pulpit of a church in Washington.  From this church he made his threats,
sort of in the name of his religion.  At the end of the "service" all our
leaders left in single file behind the banners of an American flag and a
shining silver cross held high.  The thought that came to my mind was the
Crusades are never going to be over.

5.	There have been some comments that relocating to a safer and more remote
area would cause hardships.  I think not.  The supply of liquid nitrogen
was mentioned.  It was mentioned that we might have to make our own.  Is
that a hardship???

A few years ago, Alcor, with the help of scientist director Mark Voelker,
investigated the costs of making our own liquid nitrogen.  We found that we
could make it cheaper than we could buy it, even allowing for the
amortization of the equipment needed to do so.  How can having our own
liquid nitrogen making capabilities, while saving money, be considered a
hardship?????

No matter where a storage facility is located, if there is great civil
disruption and even if the storage building is not hit directly, the
greatest danger is still the loss of supply of liquid nitrogen.  It was for
this reason, along with many others, that Alcor chose to move out of the
Los Angeles area.  The reasoning at the time was if there was a great
earthquake, with freeways and roads interrupted, the loss of the supply of
liquid nitrogen would be just as devastating as if the building had fallen.
 That danger still exist, only not so much from earthquake as from acts of
terrorism, especially against plants that make gasses where liquid nitrogen
is a by-product.

At the new site we could also have alternative forms of energy to keep the
liquid nitrogen making equipment going in times of power outage.  This
includes solar power, wind power, and buried propane tanks.

So here is a recap of why we should move:

A.	Get to a safer area less likely to be in a target zone.
B.	Construct a safer building.
C.	Construct a basement for patient storage.
D.	At the site, have our own supply of liquid nitrogen.
E.	At the site have our own back up energy sources to run the liquid
nitrogen making equipment in times of emergency.

Alcor has the resources to create a safe and self-sufficient home in the
form of equity in the present building and support from new and old members..

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