Alcor News #51

Alcor News, May 2006
Your source for insider’s info May 2006, #51

Barbara Walters Visits Alcor
Barbara Walters interviewed Tanya Jones in Alcor’s conference room on April 29.

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Subscribe/unsubscribe information is at the end of this newsletter. Contents are copyright 2006 by Alcor Foundation. Authors This Issue: Jennifer Chapman [JC], Diane Cremeens [DC], Tanya Jones [TJ], Mike Perry [MP], Steve Van Sickle [SVS].

REGISTER TODAY for the 6th Alcor Conference: An Inside Look at the Science and Medicine of Tomorrow. Registration is now open for the 6th Alcor Conference being held at the Scottsdale Marriott in Arizona from October 6-8. The early rate of $295 is in effect until August 1. Visit www.alcor.org to register. Check the website regularly for full conference details and updates. [JC]

Alcor Attends Singularity Institute Conference
Tanya Jones and Steve Van Sickle attended the Singularity Institute conference at Stanford on May 13 as representatives from Alcor. The conference featured such well-known futurists as Ray Kurzweil, Douglas Hofstadter, K. Eric Drexler, and Nick Bostrom. Alcor used this opportunity to interact with many Bay area cryonicists and to promote its own conference coming up in October. [JC, MP]

Media
CNN, Anderson Cooper 360: We do not yet know when this broadcast will take place. It had been given a preliminary slot for late April but was removed to make room for “the news of the day”. The producers have agreed to inform us of the air date in advance.

ABC News, Barbara Walters Special: The biggest media event for Alcor in quite some time happened Saturday, April 29, when Barbara Walters visited Alcor and interviewed Tanya Jones and several Alcor members. Intensive media training was held–both for Alcor and the members being interviewed–and we expedited several facility upgrade projects (including new frames for the patient photos and setup of our new Patient Care Bay and operating room). This program will air in March 2007 and looks at ways to pursue life extension to age 150 or beyond.

In consultation with WalshCOMM, Alcor is now being much more selective in the media requests it accommodates. Several requests have been turned down, largely because they are from remote parts of the world. [JC]

Outreach: Entrepreneur’s Organization
Alcor has accepted an invitation to speak about cryonics for the Arizona chapter of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (http://www.eonetwork.org) on May 30th. A panel will introduce the audience to the cryonics process, the future technologies required for revival, and the challenges faced. This is our first speaking engagement this year. Tanya Jones will also be speaking at the Idea City in Ontario June 21-23 (http://www.ideacityonline.com/). [JC]

Facility Changes
During the past month many changes took place at the facility. We expanded into a new suite, moved our patients into the new Patient Care Bay and relocated most of the operating room to its new location.

We moved Dr. Sheleg’s lab and set up an equipment testing station for the perfusion automation project. The perfusion automation project, recently approved by the Research and Development Committee, is an extension and rebuild of our whole body perfusion system. It is based on the lessons we learned after a year of doing whole body cases using the new M22 cryoprotectant.

A new lathe and mill was installed in our workshop. This unit will be used for developing equipment prototypes. Bulk fabrication will continue to be done by contractors, but Alcor can now provide working prototypes for replication.

We also installed a new multi-purpose network printer/copier/scanner, which is connected to our network. This will reduce our reliance on individual desktop units and limit our printing expenses.

The broken air conditioner over the old patient care bay was replaced. We’ve also taken the opportunity to repair much of the old, under-sized air conditioning ducting above unit #110.

Overall, the facility has a much-improved appearance, if for no other reason than we have more room. The entire staff worked to make this happen, and everyone has done a great job. [TJ]

Patient Photos
Most of the photos of Alcor’s patients which hang on the walls have been reframed and relabeled. The previous name plates referred to the “First Life Cycle”, which had garnered so many odd looks from visitors. Replacing it is a simple date of birth and date of cryopreservation. The pictures are now in standard matching frames, matted in archival quality material. [SVS]

Patient Care Changes
The vacuum problems with the bulk tank identified last month were fixed after we discovered a leaky valve. To replace it we drained the tank over the course of a couple of weeks, using the liquid nitrogen to fill smaller vessels during regular patient maintenance.

For several years, oxygen sensors have been installed in the Patient Care Bay as a safety precaution in the event of a liquid nitrogen spill. These sensors have been moved to the new Patient Care Bay, along with the connecting fan system. The system used to control the fill of our dewars was redesigned and a preliminary prototype has been built.

Alcor has two new Bigfoot dewars, bringing our total of these large patient containers to 12. [TJ]

Northern California Training
Bill Voice held a training session in northern California April 22-23. It went well, with 4 local team members attending. Training included our biohazard lecture, which is the first lecture each year for any group to ensure our team members remain up-to-date on safety protocols. We covered patient handling, sternal intraosseous vascular access, cardiopulmonary support, use of a new respiratory impedance device, and a mechanical ventilator. A full walk-through of the stabilization was then performed. [TJ]

Membership Statistics
On April 30, 2006, Alcor had 793 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. Six memberships were approved during this month, no memberships were reinstated, two memberships were cancelled and no members were cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net gain of four members this month. [DC]

Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 3, 2006, at 11:00 AM (MST). Board meetings are typically held on the first Saturday of the month at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.

Employment Opportunities
Have you ever thought about joining the Alcor team? We have opportunities for licensed Paramedics, Emergency Medical Technicians, Registered Nurses, Lab Technicians and more to join our nationwide Transport Team. Participation is on a contractual basis. You’ll be given cryonics training enabling you to participate in our patient rescue and transport cases. Licensed professionals do not have to be Alcor members to join our team. We welcome your expertise and interest. Send your resume to:

Alcor United
Alcor members have a new forum where they can meet and chat with other members. Get to know other cryonics supporters in your area and around the world by visiting Alcor United (www.alcorunited.org).