X-Message-Number: 29928
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:53:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: un person <>
Subject: Philossifur, read your email, etc

Phil, please read your email.



Also, in a more cryonics oriented vein, 
from


http://www.mprize.org/index.php?ctype=news&pagename=blogdetaildisplay&BID=2007102-08043855&detaildisplay=Y


a summary of the 7th Alcor Conference, 

Friday Morning sessions:
Alcor policy specialist Barry Aarons gave an
introductory speech summarizing the recent progress of
Alcor's status as a research entitity in Arizona.
Indeed, within only four years, Alcor has progressed
from being existentially threatened by the state
government, to being perceived as an accepted research
and technology institute furthering the public good.
We are all grateful to Barry and the Alcor leadership
for their excellent public relations work that made
this possible. The next step should be to strengthen
Alcor's relations to other leading Biotech
institutions in Arizona, and begin collaborations with
efforts like the Biodesign Institute in Tempe, or the
Bio5 in Tucson. In the long term, this should
establish Alcor as an indispensible part of Arizona's
sprawling academic and Industrial Biotech network. 

7th Alcor Conference, Friday Afternoon Sessions:
The afternoon session featured several illustrious
speakers from the fields of molecular, cell and tissue
repair, which would seem indispensable for successful
resuscitation from cryonic suspension. We began with
an introduction to molecular nanotechnology from Ralph
Merkle, PhD, which may one day allow us to rebuild
damaged structures molecule by molecule. The next
higher level of repair, cell repair, was the topic of
Mike West, PhD. West's Advanced Stem Cell Technology
may one day allow us to reassemble lost human tissues
and organs cell by cell.

Sunday:
Sunday began with a bioethics panel discussion on the
ethics of life and death, and in particular
definitions of death, which have of course profound
implications for the cryonicist's legal situation. The
panelists were care physician David Crippen, Alcor COO
Tanya Jones and bioethicist Leslie Whetstine. Next,
Steven Harris, MD introduced his fluorocarbon-based
rapid body cooling system for resuscitation and
cryonics applications. Calvin Mercer, PhD continued to
address possible relations between people of religious
faith and cryonicists or more broadly
life-extensionists. Christine Petersen finally
provided a survey of allegedly existing life-extension
technologies.

On the spot conference converage can also be found at
the Frontier Channel - just keep scrolling.
Stephen Van Sickle, Ralph Merkle, Michael R. Seidl,
and Brian Wowk of the Alcor Board of Directors
answered questions from the audience for the last
session of the day. The Board addressed questions
about the current state of Alcor finances. Alcor is
financially stable, with the following sources of
income: 

1/3 membership dues 
1/3 bequests and estates 
1/3 grants and donations 

At the current number of members (approximately 800)
Alcor cannot support all the efforts it needs to
support. Employees must wear many hats to cover all
the administrative and technical tasks required.
Better fund-raising was a popular suggestion for
improvement by Board members.

 Alcor will aways muddle through,  said Van Sickle,
stressing that this was both a strength and a
weakness.

Maintenance costs are expected to remain stable over
the next few decades, but operations costs are
generally less stable. With more members, Alcor could
see economies of scale, but exactly how does Alcor
gain new membership?

////// 

more at the link given above.....


     


____________________________________________________________________________________
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. 
Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.
http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7




       


____________________________________________________________________________________

Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. 
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545469

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=29928