X-Message-Number: 756
Subject: CRYONICS American Cryonics News 1/2
From: (Edgar W. Swank)
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 92 19:39:47 PDT
AMERICAN CRYONICS NEWS
(Reprinted from The Immortalist, March, 1992)
TRANS TIME TRANSPORTABLE COOLER
by Art Quaife, Ph.D.
It is most important to begin cooling patients as rapidly as
possible after clinical death. We normally do this by surrounding
the patient with an ice slush or ice bags. TRANS TIME recently
acquired a portable ice bath, manufactured for us by our colleagues
at BioTime, Inc.
The inner dimensions of the cooler are 78"L x 26"W x 24"H. The
frame is constructed of 1.5" square aluminum tube. The walls are
made of Lexan (clear polycarbonate). It is lined with a thick
drape made of Kevlar. In actual use we would employ an additional
plastic liner. It contains a pump with the high capacity of six
gallons/minute to force convection of the slush water. The whole
unit rolls on 5" casters. It has a top to prevent splashing while
rolling.
The frame disassembles into two parts for shipping to a remote
suspension location. We can reassemble it using only four bolts.
In recent suspensions we have used a local mortuary removal service
to obtain patients from Bay Area nursing homes. We keep a stock of
ice at our laboratory. In future local pickups we could dispatch
the mortuary van with our cooler loaded with ice.
Eventually we intend to have our own ambulance, but right now
obtaining a new facility is a more urgent priority.
Building Purchase Update
Last month we reported on the purchase of a 37,000 square foot
building on 2.2 acres in an industrial park near AMES research center
in Sunnyvale. The building is being bought by an investment group
headed up by Carmen Brewer and will be the headquarters of the
American Cryonics Society and also possibly Trans Time.
Carmen reports that all inspections needed to close escrow are now
complete. If all goes as planed the investment syndicate, known as
Alavie limited partnership, will take possession of the building about
April 1.
Get a Cryostat with a View
Trygve Bauge has completed excavation for his home and cryonic
long-term storage facility located high in the Rockies not far from
Boulder, Colorado. We should put John Day to work to design a cryonic
storage capsule (cryostat) complete with windows so our frozen friends
can enjoy this magnificent view!
For more information on Trygve's Rockie Mountain facility contact:
Trygve Bauge
4800 Osage #16
Boulder, CO 80303
303 499-7771
ACS New Volunteer
By Maria Santana
The American Cryonics Society (ACS) has had a new person volunteering
his time working in the Cupertino office since the beginning of the
year.
Dan Migliore, 21, from Buffalo, New York, and a student at De Anza
College, is majoring in Physical Therapy. He hopes to receive his
degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant in about two years. He also
works for McWhorter's Stationery and Office Supply in Sunnyvale.
He had planned to volunteer at a Physical Therapy office, but when not
receiving reply to his phone call he decided to do so at ACS. He
first heard about ACS in the Palo Alto Times Tribune and found
cryonics very interesting. He called and spoke with Jim Yount and
agreed to volunteer two or three days a week.
Dan is certified with the Red Cross to give CPR and hopes to be able
to apply his knowledge participating in a cryonic suspension.
He thanks Jim for helping him familiarize himself with the office and
the people.
He is interested in visiting the Trans Time facility and is looking
forward to a future in cryonics.
Musings of a Bemused Model
by Carmen Brewer
I was recently asked to model Trans Time's new Transportable Cooler
(see story and picture elsewhere in this issue). While I was lying in
this new cooler I thought of how fortunate I was to be there.
It was only two years ago that I had the good fortune of reading an
article in a supplement of the Sunday paper regarding cryonics. I
immediately called Trans Time to ask if this was really happening.
Were there really frozen people at Trans Time awaiting future
resuscitation? When I was told it was so, I knew immediately that
this was for me.
I am so thankful to all the people who are tirelessly and steadfastly
forging ahead for all of us to have a second chance at life. After
all, what do we have if we don't have life? Death is forever with no
chance to change your mind along the way.
Cryonics will give me more time to enjoy living, loving, and
(forevermore!) helping others to achieve the ultimate goal of
cryonics. Here is a toast to life! As the French say: "A lavie!"
After we drink our toast we must then work together to find practical
ways to achieve our dream. In this, and last months, issue of The
Immortalist there is a discussion of a new cryonics project: the
establishment of a cryonics center and long-term storage facility. We
call the partnership which will make the purchase Alavie. We welcome
the interest and support of all cryonicists in this endeavor. We need
your help. After all, this may well be your new home,too. If you are
interested please call or write:
Carmen Brewer
15045 Herring Ave.
San Jose, CA 95124
(408)559-3596
Introduction to "Yoga Aphorisms of Dick Marsh"
by Jim Yount
The "Yoga Aphorisms of Dick Marsh" which follow were prepared as part
of a hand-out to participants in an introductory yoga class Dick
recently taught. After reading the paper, I thought it appropriate
for The Immortalist readers, and asked Dick for permission to publish
it. Something of Dick's outlook on yoga and his coming to terms with
a discipline which has a spiritual as well as physical aspect, are
contained in this brief introduction.
It also illustrates the interest in life and the striving to improve
oneself which Dick applies to his every endeavor.
For some time I have urged Dick, who recently celebrated his 79th
birthday, to write a book entitled How to Be an Old Man. The secret
to being an old man, it seems to me, is simply to continue being a
young man. Every time I have suggested this title to Dick, he has
offered to either race me around the block or to throw me down the
stairs!
Yoga Aphorisms of Dick Marsh
1. If it hurts, it's not yoga. If it almost hurts, it might be yoga.
2. Accept or acknowledge? The "spiritual" seeker is often told to
accept his/her limits. This can be liberating. It tends also to
be pessimistic and Eastern. The student may instead be told
merely to acknowledge his limits. This tends to be optimistic and
Western. What is acknowledged is also accepted, but only
temporarily. Other possibilities remain.
3. Yoga is not a contest. Self-display is not its purpose. The
purpose of yoga (or of any other activity) is to make you feel
good, either now or later. Yoga will make you feel good in at least
two ways: by improving your health and by lifting your spirits. The
same is true of many other exercise systems, including race walking
and weight training, but each in its unique way.
4. Age limits for yoga: You must have been born (or at least
conceived). You must not have died.
5. Working (or playing) the edge. Go to the point just before pain.
Acknowledge (or accept) this as your limit. See what happens.
6. Visualize. Whatever is vividly imagined tends to actualize.
Before attempting a difficult posture (pose, asana), see it clearly
in our mind's eye. Achieving it will then be much easier.
7. Allow rather than force.
8. Take advantage of gravity. As much as possible, let it pull you
into place. All superior athletes and dancers have learned to
enter into a graceful relationship with gravity.
9. Yoga cannot be hurried.
10. Trust the floor. Yield your full weight to
it.
11. Efficiency is an engineering term that applies to yoga. It means
maximum output for minimum input. Continuously scan your body
for muscles not needed to maintain the asana. Let them go.
12. My first major yoga guru opposed mixing yoga and weight training.
My most recent major yoga guru said, "Do whatever makes you feel
good." I honor both teachers but hold with the second on the
issue of crosstraining.
A New Market for Cryonics?
Gentlemen:
I'll tell you who might benefit greatly from life extension. Perhaps
tremendously! Jugglers! They'd have more time to work on their acts
and routines and higher numbers!
I'm a juggler as well as a futurist and life extension Guru!
Regards,
Keith W. Allison
SCIENCE REPORT
NEW HORMONE DISCOVERED
Researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego announced in the
prestigious journal Cell that they have found a new hormone in the
human body, 9-cisretinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A, that
according to Cell, shows promise in influencing the development of the
human embryo, regulation of cholesterol and treatment of cancer.
"It's rare to discover new hormonal systems, historically, they
represent major discoveries...so we are extremely excited" says Ron
Evans, head of the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute.
"It's terribly important." says Michael Sporn, chief of laboratory
chemoprevention at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. "It
tells us there are more substances in this whole family of ...
molecules that will be useful in manipulating how cells behave...."
FIRST DESIGNER MOLECULE
Scientists have designed a molecule on a computer, QM212, and then
synthesized it in thelaboratory.
Next on researchers computer drawing boards are compounds that can
reproduce themselves, conduct electricity, detect pollution, stop
tumors, counter the effect of cocaine and block the progress of AIDs.
Reporting the breakthrough, the magazine Popular Science pointed out
"because many diseases can be reduced in the end to a single molecular
threat, early efforts like QM212 could lead to drugs that are designed
to find dangerous molecules and destroy them. Someday, in essence,
scientists designing molecules on computers may be able to enter the
fray of disease at the atomic level and fight molecule to molecule
chemical war."
AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO DIE
The Associated Press reported recently that pathologists, coroners and
medical examiners all over the country are concerned about the
declining rate of autopsies currently being performed. Twenty years
ago the U.S. autopsy rate was 60%, today it is 13%. According to Dr.
George Lundberg, pathologist and editor of The Journal of The American
Medical Association, "The pathologist ...has traditionally served as a
quality control for the practice of medicine and one ofthe ways in
which this role has been traditionally played is by the autopsy, which
has, as a single purpose, the finding and telling of the truth."
Dr.Lundberg complains that "...many hospital administrators think
...they should use themoney for living patients" and Dr. William
Eckert, Editor of The American Journal of Forensic Science complains
that "few politicians press for more autopsies for fear of being
accused of spending "too much money on dead people."
THE HIGH COST OF GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS
According to Thomas Hopkins, an economist at the Rochester Institute
of Technology, government regulation now costs every U.S. household
between $4,100 and $ 5,400 a year, totaling between $395 billion and
$510 billion annually. Kenneth Chilton, deputy director of the Center
for the Study of American Business at Washington University in
St.Louis reports that just the federal government alone this year will
employ 122,400 regulators at 52 different regulatory agencies.
Approximately 40% of the federal regulatory budget is in the
environmental area.
Meanwhile, while President Bush has ordered a 90 day delay in the
imposition of regulations proposed by his administration; in Russia,
President Boris Yeltsin has lifted virtually all restrictions on
retail and wholesale trade giving individuals and organizations in
Russia the right to buy and sell goods almost anywhere, including on
most street corners, without a government permit.
[continued]
--
(Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005 Silicon Valley, Ca
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