X-Message-Number: 19996 From: Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 18:25:47 EDT Subject: Leonard Zubkoff message #19986 Leonard's death was announced to a stunned crowd at the Hugo Awards Ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California at the Civic Auditorium on the evening of Sept 1, 2002 by Master of Ceremonies and author Tad Williams. I did not know Leonard, although I might have recognized him, as he was a science fiction fan of some repute, and we both attended the Worldcon regularly. There was no mention of his being a cryonicist at the Worldcon. However, even though he was not recovered immediately, I find some solace in the fact that he hopefully will be cryopreserved. Of course there is no way now to know if any of his memories might survive, but I wonder what the members of the Worldcon would have thought if there had been an announcement that he had died, and he was undergoing cryopreservation. In a related Worldcon event, Ben Best held I think two parties for cryopreservation at the Worldcon, I attended the first. It was well received in general, there were a lot of looky-loos, as they say, but even the people who made disparaging jokes or comments, due to their unease, I think had a serious "explain to me how I can cheat death" interest underneath it all. Several friends of mine were there, and I spoke to them and discussed a few of their objections or questions in a nonconfrontational manner. I think they were surprised I took the matter as a serious option. There were also quite a few who came in and spoke to Ben, and took literature and said they had a serious interest in cryonics, and wanted more to read and think about. I would have to say this is a marked improvement over what I had seen at Loscons and other SF conventions in the past where cryonics parties were held. People were much friendlier, and less "creeped out" than they were in previous years. Perhaps the media coverage of Ted Williams and the other related media coverage in recent years is reaching a saturation point where, at least in the SF community, it no longer is considered lunatic, but merely a long shot alternate choice to traditional funerals. Congratulations to Ben for his efforts. Maybe, he made a real difference for some people. In the future, parties with a few more helping hands (and friendly people to talk to) I'm sure would be appreciated by Ben, although he did a wonderful job. I would recommend to any cryonics organization, if Leonard Zubkoff was cryopreserved, and the matter is public record, that they forward the information to the newsletter and publications people at conjose.org. They often publish and mail a "post convention" wrap up newsletter. Its possible the information about Leonard might help spur others to consider cryonics for themselves. best to all, Mike Donahue Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19996