X-Message-Number: 20627
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 16:16:25 -0800
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #20593 - #20603
References: <>

?Thomas Donaldson wrote in Cryonet #20593 in part:
Quote
I won't claim that the proposed solution I'm about to describe will
win out, but it looks good. There is a company called Millenium Cell
which has a method to store hydrogen in a liquid and release it
as gas when needed. Basically they use a boron compound to do this;
the boron is reusable after the hydrogen is released. There's also
another company, Ballard Power Systems, which is developing and
even now installing fuel cells into various cars and buses. The
fuel cells aren't limited to using hydrogen, but can use it
happily. Ballard has bought shares in Millenium Cell. With hydrogen
as fuel, our vehicles will happily run without producing CO2
at all. (They will produce water, of course. If we get the hydrogen
from water then there will be a balance). I own shares in both.
Unquote

This may well be a large part of the solution. I have for some
time now asserted, that the energy situation could be helped to
some degree, if we could store electrical energy created by wind
or hydro generation effectively. I had the idea, that it might be
used to separate hydrogen out of water and then generate power
(electric as well as engine) from it. So I searched the web and
came upon:

http://www.hydrogenappliances.com/index.html

Those fellows, Thermodyne Systems, are located in...
44447 Valley Central Way #222
Lancaster, CA 93536

...and have not only the technology, but also market the equipment
for the whole process at least for smaller scale application.
Since I have personally no use for it, I have not looked into the
cost effectiveness of it all, but I assume, that it is at this
time primarily applicable to remote locations, where the
installation of transmission lines have to be factored into the
costs. They do not have the Problem that the Ballard fuel cell
system faces, that they have to cram maximum power into minimum
space to make it feasible for use in cars. Buses are running on
it for some years and now it appears to be small enough to be used
in cars also.

This is probably too late to consider now, but maybe there is some
application in Ventureville? It would certainly make it popular
with environmentalists, if the costs allow it.

Yvan Bozzonetti wrote in Message #20598 in part:
Quote:

In France wa have the so called Societe Civile Immobiliere, a way to buy a
real estate properties with shares. Usually you can't sell them back as
swiftly than a stock market share, but that could be solved with a special
fund.
Unquote

You can have the same thing in North America by buying Shares in
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) The return is excellent, at
least for now.. I have small positions in 4 of them:

Company Symbol Present Yield

NYSE:
Annaly Mgtge Mgmt NLY 14.4%
Anthracite M.E. AHR 12.7%
Toronto SE:
Morguard RE Inv.Tr. MRT.UN 10.6%
Royal Host RE Inv. Tr. RYL.UN 12.2%

Problem: How secure are those things? I have very little
experience with REITs. How do they perform, when the real estate
market turns sour? If I was confident, I would load up on them.

Dave Pizer wrote in Message #20599 in part:
Quote:
These trusts are complicated to set up because of the laws dealing
with dead people (are frozen people dead - try to cover all bases),
how long can a trust last, can your relatives bust your trust, what if
the cryonics company that stores you goes bust, can the money be
used to protect your suspension and get your frozen body moved,
will taxes eat up your trust, and tons of other problems. I think my
trust handles most, maybe all, of them.
Unquote

The big problem I see with all this is one of identifcation, when
you want to collect. Even if you show up in a body cloned from
the original, will your prints and your retinal pattern still be
the same? Are they the same in identical twins? What, if you
show up as a construct of some kind? --- Passwords; will you
remember? Write it down? --- Just let me know, what it is, and I
will collect your fortune for you. :^ A good incentive to
mess up your revival :(

Best,
Olaf

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