X-Message-Number: 2539
Subject: High Temp CRYONICS wrap-up
From:	 (Ben Best)
Date:	Wed, 12 Jan 1994 05:42:00 -0500


    I must congratulate Mike Darwin for the speed, defness and
brilliance of his reply to my last posting. "Congratulate" understates
my response, because I am actually somewhat in awe.

   Although I am pleased with the consequences of having posted
Douglas Skrecky's article, I want to stress that the ONLY reason I
did it was because Steve Bridge asked me to. But then Steve adroitly
stepped aside, and I became the one with egg in my face. I'd almost
think that Steve asked me to send Skrecky's article to Greg Fahy so
as to affirm Greg's impression that I am an irresponsible dolt, but
I know that is not the case.

  Steve requested posting of Skrecky's article so that the ideas could
be discussed. Such posting is appropriate for a *forum*, not a *formal
journal*. I regard CryoNet and CANADIAN CRYONICS NEWS as forums --
places for discussion. It is not irresponsible to present half-baked
ideas in a forum -- we must have a place to thrash things out. Saying
that an idea is wrong is quite different from charging that it is
irresponsible to express that idea. I recognize the problems and
paradoxes presented when a forum becomes so large as to become a
public platform. I acknowledge that we, as cryonicists, must be
especially careful to be and appear scientists, rather than cranks.
There are no "easy answers".

    Still, Douglas Skrecky is not such an idiot as you think. Douglas
is very aware of the superiority of trehalose to sucrose, but he chose
sucrose for reasons of economy. He was not aware of the nephrotoxicity
of sucrose -- which is, after all, a very recent discovery by
Biopreservation.

    To Thomas Donaldson I want to say that the survival of a city and
the survival of a business are very different things. MOST businesses
fail within a few years.

                -- Ben Best (ben.best%)

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