X-Message-Number: 17875
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2001 05:14:02 -0800
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Alcor horror

John Grigg wrore:
> ALCOR would have a difficult time living down the horror of its clients in 
> biostasis having been hacked to bits or burned beyond repair.  And it is 
> possible we could encounter a group of semi-competant criminals who 
> burglarize ALCOR and then "on a lark" decide to make the papers by putting 
> some effort into destroying the frozen bodies.  It could happen.

The _The First Immortal_ scenario of drilling a hole near the 
bottom of a dewar is really the only effort short of burning 
down the building that I imagine directly affecting patients.
Alcor uses (the equivalent of?) block and tackle to move 
patients into dewars; I don't see burglars or vandals braving
liquid nitrogen temperatures to get them out.  And if they 
started, I think a few broken tools and frozen digits would 
dissuade them.

So much for direct damage.  Now to what worries me:  What part 
of Alcor's data is backed up offsite?

Another point:
> ... I just
>  hope besides having a cell phone always on them, the one night-time 
> resident will also have a firearm they are trained and licensed for. 

Hear, hear!  Truth to tell, all Alcor employees should be so 
trained and equipped.  We're not on the Luddites' radar
screens yet, but that could change quickly.  And who knows
what attitudes towards people who are "strange" this War on
Terrorism, PATRIOT, Homeland Security, etc. could engender
in ignorant people?

How many people at Alcor have/want/resist such training?

> This way, even 
> if surprised, he/she will have some chance of holding them off, at least 
> till he/she can make a 911 call.

This brings up another point:  Cell phones don't say where you 
are when you call 911.  And I also hope that Alcor has some
non-cordless phones; in some emergencies, electricity (and 
thus a cordless phone) will fail, but a corded phone will 
still work.

There should also be more than one way to get on the Internet.
For example, My DSL line is down, so I'm using my normal phone 
line and the internal modem in my laptop to dial in.  An 
alternate ISP would also be good (which I had till Ricochet 
died :-( )....

BTW -- did that second ambulance just get scrapped, or was it 
gifted to somebody to donate to a "donate your car" charity for 
a tax writeoff?
-- 
May you live long and prosper,
Kennita
--
Kennita Watson          | Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
     |   None but ourselves can free our minds.
http://www.kennita.com  |           -- Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"

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