Alcor is pleased to announce that the 4th Quarter 2011 Cryonics Magazine is now available for viewing, purchasing and downloading. Just because we no longer mail out physical copies of Cryonics magazine (except by special arrangement), you shouldn’t miss out on what’s going on at Alcor and in cryonics.

The 2011 4th quarter issue of Cryonics magazine is dedicated to the “father of cryonics,” Robert Ettinger, who was cryopreserved on July 23, 2011. Alcor staff member Mike Perry contributes an historical piece on Ettinger.

Mark Plus and Charles Platt write about Ettinger’s influence on contemporary cryonics, futurism, and the cryobiology community. Cryonics editor Aschwin de Wolf compiled Robert Ettinger’s mature thoughts on the feasibility of ‘mind uploading’ and situates his outlook in a broader philosophical context.

This issue also features a detailed article by the Alcor Board of Directors and Management about member underfunding and its associated challenges for Alcor’s long-term financial health. “We urge all members to read this and tell us their thoughts on the proposals in the article.” Alcor member, and prolific science fiction writer, Gregory Benford is featured in this issue’s member profile.

Cryonics magazine is also available as a paper magazine. Individual issues cost $9.95 plus shipping.  They can be ordered at MagCloud.  A subscription to the paper edition of Cryonics magazine is also available. If you live in the United States, a subscription for one year costs $39, two years $69, three years $99 (including shipping). If you live in another country, a subscription for one year costs $99, two years $179, three years $239 (including shipping). Start your subscriptions to the paper edition TODAY!

MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

A new position called the Member Communications Director (MCD) has opened at Alcor.

The Member Communications Director’s job will be to communicate with Alcor’s members by email, by telephone, and in person for multiple purposes, among which are:

1. To find out more about the member, including such information as the member’s health condition, occupation, work background, interests, family, and aspirations.

2. To determine whether the member wishes to engage in volunteer activities on behalf of Alcor and, if the member wishes to do so, to provide the member with a variety of ways in which the member can volunteer.

3. To answer the member’s questions about Alcor.

4. To determine whether the member has left assets to be distributed to Alcor after death via a will, trust, or other document. If the member has done so, the MCD will offer to evaluate, in cooperation with attorneys of Alcor’s choosing, whether the legal documents in which the bequest has been made have been executed in a manner that will do the job effectively and, if not, to help correct them.

5. To determine the member’s general degree of wealth and whether the member has any interest in donating money (or other assets) or in leaving a bequest to Alcor. If the member is interested in making a donation, the MCD will provide the member with a variety of projects that need funding via tax-exempt donations.  If the member is interested in making a bequest, the MCD will offer, in cooperation with attorneys of Alcor’s choosing, to help the member in executing a will, trust, or other legal document to accomplish the bequest with attorneys of Alcor’s choosing if it is appropriate to do so.

Qualifications:

The MCD should be an Alcor member who is (or becomes) knowledgeable about Alcor and issues in cryonics, is articulate in talking to members, and is sensitive enough to know when to push forward when members make it clear that they want to help Alcor or want help from Alcor. The MCD should also be able, in cooperation with others of Alcor’s choosing, to prepare written information to help answer questions asked by members.

Compensation:

The salary for the MCD is $60K plus benefits per year. This salary plus relocation expenses has been guaranteed for one year by the Life Extension Foundation (LEF). After one year, the Member Communication Director’s continued employment at Alcor will be dependent upon his or her job performance.

Applications for the Member Communications Director should be mailed to D’Bora Tarrant at Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 7895 Acoma Drive, Suite 110, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 or (b) be sent by email to D’Bora Tarrant at: dbora@alcor.org.

In the conference room, the walls and door to the Patient Care Bay have been painted. Max More observed that the walls were becoming crowded with the ever-growing number of photographs of patients and suggested that they should be replaced with an electronic display.

Steve Graber ran with that idea and designed and built a multi‐display digital picture frame with 5 monitors fitted in an artistic aluminum frame assembly. The monitors are set to randomly display images with a time interval between 1 and 15 minutes. These monitors can also display videos should that ever become part of our display rotation.

New O.R. Table: Cooldown-Stage Blanket
One of the more interesting features of our new computer controlled perfusion system is the ability to transition from perfusion table to intermediate cooldown system without moving the patient off the table. In other words, after the patient has been cryoprotected, the table is designed to be sealed and for the patient’s temperature to be dropped to ‐ 80C (or thereabout), at which point a transfer to the cooldown crackphone system could be performed much more easily.

The original prototype table did not have enough insulation which made it very inefficient to cool. Rather than re‐build the table Steve Graber had an idea to build a reflective mylar thermal blanket which would increase the insulation factor and also serve to isolate the exterior surface of the table from frost-forming humidity. The thermal blanket took the form of 3 layers of reflective mylar, each sandwiched by two sheets of cotton cloth for a blanket with a total of 5 layers. The entire blanket was custom fitted to the table and held in place with velcro and magnets. Numerous tests were run on the table both with and without the blanket and although we have not officially concluded the testing our initial calculations indicate a significant reduction in LN2 usage, and an almost complete elimination of frost buildup across the table.