X-Message-Number: 17565 Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 12:57:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: barking I read Dr. Lemler's post with interest. But there may be a misunderstanding here. Different media facilitate different modes of communication. CryoNet has always been a forum for very frank exchange of opinions. (It used to get quite nasty at times; see the archives.) We have people posting who disagree violently on the very emotional issue of how best to provide lifesaving treatment to patients who are hoping for future resuscitation. We even have people who believe that beyond a certain point, such treatment is unnecessary. A newsletter sponsored by one cryonics organization is a very different medium. While it may contain a letters column in which various views are expressed, they are likely to range over a narrower spectrum than those in an online discussion group, and the primary function of the newsletter will be to disseminate news, rather than arguments. Anyone who has read my various small-circulation cryonics print publications (such as CryoCare Report) knows that I prefer a very factual, somewhat dry, concise presentation which usually contains no controversial material whatsoever. If I am able to rejoin Alcor and publish, with Hugh Hixon, a monthly newsletter, that's how I would expect it to be, especially bearing in mind Hugh's preference for "just the facts." A four-page Q-and-A on cryonics, which I wrote many years ago and which Alcor still seems to be using in slightly modified form, certainly followed that model. So did the cryonics articles that I wrote for magazines ranging from Omni to Science Fiction Eye. In view of Dr. Lemler's recent post, my only concern now is that my style may turn out to be too dull for his liking. -- Re Doug Skrecky's list of pathological writers, I suppose I have to ask if Doug has any figures on the pathology of lone eccentrics who conduct very peculiar experiments with fruit flies. I also have to wonder about the pathology of those who advocate pre-emptive nuclear strikes. Indeed, I wonder about the pathology of people generally who believe you can defy death with a shot of heparin and a few liters of glycerol, even when the patient has been sitting in a room-temperature environment for hours, without pulse or respiration. I would guess that few people on CryoNet would fall near the center of any bell curve. --CP Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17565