X-Message-Number: 20832
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 03:39:11 -0800
From: James Swayze <>
Subject: Pace of progress, Chances, Aspertame brain damage?
References: <>

> Message #20829
> From: 
> Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 12:44:47 EST
> Subject: Re: Blind faith
>
> TV, VCR, Computers, solid state electronics, cars, air planes including jets,
> satellite launchers, concrete, plastics, antibiotics, sulfamids, vaccines,
> nature of DNA structure, all that predate your 30 - 40 time frame. Yes, today
> computers are smaller, more powerfull, air travel more common and cheaper,...
> This is quantitative technological adjustments, not fundamental progress.
>
> Look at 40 years back and see what was seen then as progress for the comming
> 40 years:
>
> Electric cars, transonic magnetic floating trains, flying cars, manned
> Jupiter moons exploration, Mars base and Moon colony, universal cancer
> cure,...


Not to take sides in this discussion but I have a visual statistic straight from
Invention & Technology magazine that may be relevant. A graph timeline of US
patents goes like this.

Measured in million patents granted at year date.

1st
M
2nd M              3rd M


1802--------------//-------------109yr--------------//------------->1911----24yr----1935----26yr--

   4th M            5th M            6th M
--1961---15yr---1976---15yr---1991--12yr--2003


Any speculation on when the 7 millionth patent will be granted... 10yr, 9yr, 
8yr,
5yr?


>
> Message #20831
> From: "Tolen May" <>
> Subject: What are the chances?
> Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 17:31:30 -0500
>
> Just an informal survey.C
> Could everyone weigh-in on this question:
> What percentage chance do you think someone who is cryonically preserved
> has of being revived in the future?

O% or 100% take your pick.

---------------------
On another note I found the following after my brother insisted my occasional
diet mountain dew was destroying my brain.

[begin quote]
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., a board certified neurosurgeon, says in his book
The Taste That Kills that exposure to excitoxins such as aspartame,
hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and MSG will damage nerve cells in the brain.

Here are a few excerpts from his book:

So what are "excitotoxins"? Basically, they are a group of compounds that
can cause special neurons within the nervous system to become overexcited to
the point that these cells will die. That's right, they are excited to
death. Excitotoxins include such things as monosodium glutamate (MSG),
aspartate (a main ingredient in NutraSweet), L-cysteine (found in hydrolyzed
vegetable protein) and related compounds.

What makes this all the more intriguing is that "excitotoxins" appear to
play a key role in degenerative nervous system diseases such as Parkinson's
disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and
many others.

But the story doesn't stop there. It appears that an imbalance of these
excitotoxins during critical periods of brain development can result in an
abnormal formation of brain pathways; that is, a "miswiring of the brain."
This may lead to serious disorders such as behavioral problems
(hyperactivity, aggression, attention deficit disorders, learning disorders,
poor learning ability, and ADD)-and a lifetime of endocrine problems such as
menstrual difficulties, infertility, and premature puberty.[end quote]

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is this really true? Sure blames a lot on
this stuff. Could explain the rise in ADD/ADHD except that  kids usually don't
drink diet. There's a lot of MSG in oriental foods has there been corroboration
of increases in these diseases in the Asian populations?

James
--
Cryonics Institute of Michigan Member!
The Immortalist Society Member!
The Society for Venturism Member!


MY WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/swayze/ While there follow the
links to photos of me and some of my artwork and a radio interview on Dr.  J's
ChangeSurfer Radio program with me and the father of cryonics Prof.  Robert
Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality".
A RELIGION I actually recommend: http://www.venturist.org
A FAVORITE quote: Last lines of the first Star Trek the Next Generation movie.
Capt.  Picard: "What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived,
after all Number One, we're only mortal."
Will Ryker: "Speak for yourself captain, I intend to live forever!"

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