ETERNAL LIFE - ON EARTH

Man pays $50k to go in deep-freeze when he dies

By Greg Ansley New Zealand Herald

5:30 AM Thursday Jul 12, 2012

Deck Hazen, time traveler

Mr Hazen, a retired IT specialist living in Kerikeri, is one of 10 start-up investors in an Australian cryogenics facility expected to open within two years to store bodies in the expectation that science will eventually bring them back to life.

"It's a crap shoot," said American-born Mr Hazen, who moved to New Zealand in 1986 after meeting his wife, Marion, during the installation of a computer system for the former BCNZ.

"There are no guarantees, but I think that the technology and the people and our world have interesting prospects ahead, and I'm very keen to see that."

Mr Hazen has invested A$50,000 (NZ$60,900) in Stasis Systems, a not-for-profit company that intends building a facility in regional Australia to preserve bodies at cryogenic temperatures of -196C.

The facility, only the second to be built outside the United States, will initially provide storage for 60 bodies but is designed to expand with demand.

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More than 250 people have been cryogenically preserved in the US and Russia, with about 2000 more signing contracts for the future storage of their bodies.

Mr Hazen has been following the technology of cryogenics since the early 1970s and heard about Stasis Systems through the fledgling NZ Cryogenics Group and its Australian counterpart.

He was sufficiently impressed to sign up, even though he will know it worked only if he is revived at some point in the future when scientists have worked out how to rejuvenate whole bodies rather than single cells - as at present - as well as cures for whatever finally ended his life.

"People who are inclined to want to see the future have to be optimists," Mr Hazen said.

"You have to believe the future is going to be better and we have to believe that technology is going to play a part in that betterment."

Mr Hazen said there were creatures that could withstand the effects of freezing, such as frogs that could be frozen rock-hard in nitrogen, then revived with working memories.

Their ability to learn their way through mazes had been demonstrated in experiments.

People who had drowned in cold water could also be revived.

"These sorts of things, combined with a blind faith or hopeless optimism about how things will work in the future - an understanding of nanotechnology, for example, and the potential that holds - suggests to me that it's possible," Mr Hazen said.

"The other side of that is that if you don't undergo that sort of operation, you're surely not going to see the future.

"If you undergo the operation now, there's a slim chance you could come out the other side and see what the future looks like."

Nor is he overly concerned that a future world may not want to bring the cryogenic survivors of our time back to life.

"If you had the opportunity of talking to somebody that had actually lived in the 18th century, wouldn't you be curious about a personal, first-hand explanation of what life was like back in that period?"

And Mr Hazen believes he could handle the shock of an entirely new world. He said he would miss loved ones, as he missed the relatives he had already lost in this life.

"But by focusing on the tasks of the day, making new friends, exploring the wonders that are sure to be available when one emerges into the future, I think you would go through the grieving process and come out the other end, hopefully strong enough to carry on."

His wife will not be with him. Mr Hazen said she was not optimistic about the future and thought that "all this stuff is nonsense".

But Mr Hazen reckons it's worth the shot, long as it may be: "I want to stand on the bridge of the Enterprise from Star Trek, exploring new worlds with Captain Kirk."

Peter’s Comment

Old style morgues everywhere will be abandoned

Cryopreservation has been around for fifty years or more with limited use and selling freezer-plots to super optimists has been around just as long.

It is known that tissue frozen to a temperature of  -196°C can be preserved with zero biological activity for possibly 1,000 years (no problem with that) but the tissue, if not damaged while the temperature is being lowered, will likely be damaged during the process of raising it again to room temperature.

However, the real problem that I see with this eternal life sales pitch has to be getting your money back if it doesn’t work.

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Murder at Wairere

by

Peter Blakeborough

Published on October 10, 2011. New Zealand historical fiction. 127310 words.

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Chapter 1

Sydney, Australia, 1902

The Elingamite made an impressive sight with her long slender black hull, twin masts and huge steam funnel with three large lifeboats lining each side of the superstructure.

Newlyweds, Cedric and Doris Asker, approached some crewmen at the ship end of the gangway. An older man spoke first.

‘Mr. Asker?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘I’m First Officer Coombes. Is this your missus?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘I believe she’s going to be a maid to Mrs. Jessop-Prior. I will show her to their cabin. You will accompany Mr. Hardwick to the engine room. He has a mountain of coal awaiting your strength and stamina. And if you have notions of turning the voyage into a honeymoon, best forget it. On this ship there is no fraternizing between passengers and crew. Understood?’

‘Yes, sir.’

The Askers turned to face each other with bleak expressions. It would be five days before they would meet again to start their married life in a new country. But they knew they could not afford the trip any other way. The value of the passage was more than they had between them and they were eager to start their life in New Zealand. To be able to travel free of charge, he as a crewman and she as maid to a wealthy passenger, was a marvelous opportunity, even if it meant they could not see each other during the voyage.

‘Apart from that,’ Coombes continued with a twinkle in his eye. ‘If you’re going to earn a free passage to the land of milk and honey, you’re going to need all your strength for the shovel. Take him below, Mr. Hardwick.’

After three days and nights, three hours on and three hours off, Cedric was almost done for. The heat in the engine room was unbearable. He was caked in a thick layer of coal dust and sweat. He coughed continuously and his spittle was as black as the Ace of Spades. On the morning of the fourth day at sea the crew expected to sight the northern-most part of New Zealand. But just after sunrise a thick fog descended and Captain Atwood ordered the engines to half speed. Asker welcomed the lower speed. It meant he could shovel the coal at a more leisurely pace. It was still hard work though and he stopped for a moment and took a swig from a water flask hanging from his belt. He took a bite from an apple and placed it back in the pocket of his dungarees. Even at half speed the engines made enough noise to drown out the frantic cry from the bow.

‘Land ahead! Go astern!’

The Elingamite held its course and speed.

Atwood had expected that the Three Kings Islands would be one and a half miles away to the north of the ship’s track. Another shout came from the bow.

‘Rocks ahead, sir! God save us, sir. Full astern! Christ Almighty!’

In the depths of the ship Cedric Asker added some more coal to the inferno. Suddenly the ship lurched violently and he was flung towards the companionway. The sound of rocks ripping open the hull could be heard above the noise of the engines. Even more terrifying for Asker was the immediate invasion into the engine room of powerful jets of water. Asker ran for the steps.

‘Let’s get the hell outta here before we’re done for, Mr. Hardwick,’ he shouted at the sleeping crewman.

Hardwick sat up as though waking from a nightmare. The water was already thigh deep and rising rapidly. Cedric reached the deck and saw lifeboats being prepared for lowering over the side. It was no dream. The Elingamite and its compliment were in mortal danger. The sea was calm, the fog still thick. She was going down fast. He saw Doris with the Jessop-Prior’s on the other side of the ship.

‘Go with them!’ he shouted to his bride of five days. ‘I’m going back down for Mr. Hardwick. He’s still in the engine room.’

The Elingamite was groaning loudly, listing precariously, and still impacting violently against the rocks. Near the bottom of the stairs Cedric met the water coming up, surging, gurgling, foaming and slapping against cold, hard steel. Desperately he tried to force his way down against the rushing internal tide. He had to rescue Henry Hardwick before he went down with the stricken ship. He shouted to Hardwick but could only hear the tormented sounds of the dying ship. The force of the water lifted him like a cork on the ocean, flung him through the hatch and dropped him with a bruising thud onto the deck. Reluctantly, Cedric accepted he had no chance of getting to Hardwick and hoped the older man had already found his way out.

Cedric must have been below the deck longer than he thought because when he looked around he realized that the lifeboats had vanished into the fog. A raft near the ship was moving away, crowded with passengers and crew. Another smaller raft, apparently overlooked in the confusion, lay on the sloping deck. With it were a paddle and a canvas cover. He reached the raft and grasped hold of it just as another lurch of the ship sent him sliding and tumbling into the sea. Under the water he was disorientated, not knowing which way was up or down. He had hit the water holding his breath in terror rather than taking a deep breath to sustain him under water. When he opened his eyes he saw the underside of the raft against the sky and struck out for the surface.

Chapter 2

As his head broke the surface of the water, Cedric Asker heard a great crash and the sound of splintering timber and ripping steel somewhere close in the fog. He scrambled aboard the raft and tried to paddle toward some voices calling frantically for help. A massive explosion very close by was followed by a deathly silence.

He never heard the voices again.

As he sat alone in the silent fog, clinging to the small raft, he shivered and prayed for a miracle.

‘Please, God? If there really is a God, take me to dry land, anywhere.’

Time lost all relevance as he sat alone, cold, wet and afraid, on the raft, unable to see anything but the thick blanket of fog around him. A long time later, when the fog finally lifted, he saw a raft and lifeboat in the distance. He called at the top of his voice, waved the paddle, then the canvas, trying to get their attention. It was useless. They were too far off. The Elingamite was nowhere to be seen. She must have gone down with the explosion. After a few minutes the fog drifted in again and Cedric drifted aimlessly in the whiteout for what seemed like hours. It had been unbearably hot in the engine room. But on the sea it was unbearably cold. He started to shiver again and he put the canvas around his shoulders to ease the chill.

He wondered about Doris; was she alive and warm, or was she dead beneath the waves. He wished he had stayed with her instead of trying to rescue the old man.

He would never see her again.

He thought about his mother. His earliest memories were of a beautiful young woman who adored him. They had some wonderful times together and he missed her terribly when he left Carrathool to go to school in Sydney. After that he only saw his mother once a year and gradually they grew apart. In a way Granny Ruby, really his great-grandmother became more like a mother to him. He spent most weekends with her at Ruby’s Boarding House in Caraher’s Lane. She was the grand old lady of the Rocks, widely admired and respected, in Sydney’s oldest housing area.

He thought about the father he had never known. He had died a long time ago and his mother had promised to tell him about his father when he was old enough to understand. But in later years the subject of his father was never raised.

With the Elingamite gone and seemingly the passengers and crew too, he was now alone on the sea and he wondered if he too was about to die. . . .

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GETTING PUBLISHED

 

HOW I GOT MY AGENT: OKSANA MARAFIOTI

July 10, 2012 

       

Oksana Marafioti is the author of AMERICAN GYPSY: A MEMOIR 
(FSG Originals, July 2012). She moved from the Soviet Union when 
she was 15 years old. Trained as a classical pianist, she has also 
worked as a cinematographer. Currently, Oksana is a Black 
Mountain Institute-Kluge Center Fellow at the Library of 
Congress. See her website here.

ALL I NEEDED WAS A LITTLE PUSH

When people ask what made me first decide to write American Gypsy: A Memoir, I jokingly reply, “My agent.” In reality, this is kind of true. Though my family story was always something I wanted to explore, I never had the guts to dive in. Not until I met someone who gave me a push.

A few years back I attended the Las Vegas Writers Conference. I had a finished book in the genre of paranormal urban fantasy which I pitched to professionals until my lips felt like they were going to fall off my face. After giving away dozens of pages with the story synopsis and a short personal bio, I got a few leads and a request for a full manuscript, which was amazing.

At the end of the day I noticed a woman who looked so young that at first I was certain she couldn’t be an agent. I remember asking someone that perhaps she was a student here for the student writers contest. When I was assured that Brandi Bowles was indeed and agent with Howard Morhaim, a very reputable New York literary agency, I decided to pitch to her, too.

Brandi liked the story, but she very politely said that she wasn’t taking urban fantasies. I was ready to convince her to reconsider when she asked something really odd. “Have you ever thought about writing a memoir?” I remember looking at her as if she’d spoken Mandarin. I didn’t know people could sell books about their families unless they were Madonna, and I said as much. But she insisted there was a story worth telling, and I promised I’d write a few sample chapters. . . .

Peter’s Comment

For fledgling authors finding a literary agent to represent them to publishers can be harder than finding a publisher. It’s just a fact that there are more publishers than agents, but many publishers will only deal with agents. It can be a Catch 22 situation and many good works don’t find their way through this literary barrier.

But Oksana Marafioti highlighted a common beginning writer’s mistake without realizing it. The agent knew something that Oksana perhaps didn’t quite appreciate; the genre should be chosen to suit the market rather than what the writer wants to write.

The publishing world is currently undergoing its greatest upheaval since the introduction of the printing press. It is now possible to write, edit, submit, publish, distribute, sell, deliver and read books without a single scrap of paper being involved at any step of the way.

That makes me wonder why some dinosaur publishers still demand that manuscripts shall be typed, double spaced on one side of A4 paper with wide margins. And I further wonder what they are thinking about when you offer to do business with them and they insist that you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

In the new publishing world everyone can get published without an agent or publisher. But there are pitfalls and manuscripts still need professional appraising and editing. Formatting and cover design need a professional touch too.

When your new book is finally published, whether on paper or electronic, it will be a proud day for you. But it will be at that point that you will face the biggest hurdle – selling it. Remember as an indie publisher you will take on all the responsibilities of a traditional publisher.

You are still keen to write your novel, autobiography, or technical books? Good. Give it your best shot.

BIBLES AND GUNS

If Bibles were shot full of holes and holes were filled full of guns the world would be a more peaceful place. 

Agree/disagree, add your comments below.

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

DNA evidence frees US man after 32
years in prison

5:30 AM Sunday Jul 8, 2012 NZ Herald

Andre Davis makes a phone call after 32 years locked away

 A Chicago man who spent 32 years behind bars before DNA evidence helped overturn his conviction in the rape and killing of a 3-year-old girl was released from prison yesterday, just hours after prosecutors dropped the case against him.

An Illinois appeals court in March had ordered a new trial for 50-year-old Andre Davis after tests found that DNA taken from the scene of the 1980 killing of Brianna Stickle wasn't his. The girl was attacked in Rantoul, about 32km north of Champaign.

Davis was released from the super-maximum security prison in Tamms in far southern Illinois around 7.30pm local time, said Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kayce Ataiyero.

Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz had decided earlier in the day not to pursue charges against him.

Judy Royal of the Centre on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University, which represented Davis, said he was the longest-serving of the 42 people exonerated by DNA evidence in Illinois.

"Mr Davis served 32 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn't commit," said Royal. "Tamms is a difficult place to do time. He is hoping to rebuild his life, with the support of his family."

Reitz said that while she didn't doubt the results of the DNA tests, she decided not to retry Davis because of the difficulty in taking a 32-year-old case to trial.
Continued below . . . .

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"After 30 years, witnesses are either deceased, missing or no longer credible to testify," said Rietz. She noted that Davis was twice convicted by juries. His first conviction was overturned because of a mistake made by a bailiff during jury deliberations.

Rietz said any further steps in the investigation of Brianna's death will be up to police.

Davis was arrested shortly after Briana was found on August 8, 1980, in a house on the street where she lived with her mother and stepfather in Rantoul.

According to trial testimony, Davis - who was 19 at the time - was visiting his father in Rantoul. He spent the day the girl died drinking at the home where she was eventually found with the two brothers who lived there. At some point the brothers left, leaving Davis there alone.

Briana's stepfather, Rand Spragg, said he left the girl playing in the family's front yard and last saw her sitting under a tree.

The family later searched for her. She was found in the brothers' home, naked and under bed clothes in a utility room. She died that night at a local hospital.

An acquaintance told police that Davis said he had killed "a woman" at the home.

DNA testing wasn't available in 1980. But in 2004, Davis requested that evidence gathered at the scene of Briana's death be DNA tested.

According to the tests, blood and semen found at the scene weren't from Davis. That led to the March appellate court decision.

Royal wasn't sure what plans Davis had, but she said that after so many years he was fortunate that family members were still alive to greet him and help him acclimate to life outside prison.

"A lot of times when people are incarcerated for lengthy periods of time, family members die," Royal said. "That is one good thing, that he will have their support.

"I think it's difficult for him to know exactly what to do," she added, noting that the Centre on Wrongful Convictions works with the people it helps free to aid in their adjustment.

"I know that he's very intelligent and he has been assisting in the preparation of his appeal for years and giving some good suggestions in that regard."

Peter’s Comment

There was a time when ninety-something per cent of people everywhere had total faith in police, judges, witnesses and juries. Not anymore.

DNA testing has played a major part in the turnaround in public thinking. DNA testing over the last few years has exonerated many wrongfully convicted people and given credence to claims that wrongful convictions have always been a large, but officially unrecognized, part of criminal justice systems.

In addition to DNA testing, another factor has helped highlight this pernicious flaw in the system; individuals and organized groups prepared to stand up be counted and to campaign on behalf of the wrongfully convicted, often in the face of overwhelming and sometimes intimidating public opinion.

The campaigners appear to understand that it is not possible to alleviate the suffering of victims by creating more victims. They understand that it is not good enough to convict a man or woman on the basis that a crime has been committed and someone must have been responsible and therefore the arrested one will do.

The Center on Wrongful Convictions should be praised for their excellent work. In New Zealand and Australia the pattern of wrongful convictions is similar to elsewhere in the western world and there is a need for a Center on Wrongful Convictions or similar organization.

I recently appeared in court, pleading not guilty to a minor traffic infringement, listened to a vindictive police officer commit perjury, and faced two justices of the peace, who were too timid to rock the judicial boat. I found the experience very frustrating, but I can't even begin to imagine how Andre Davis must have felt, locked away for 32 years.

A WORTHLESS CONFESSION

Expert: Confession was utterly flawed

By Phil Taylor

5:30 AM Saturday Jul 7, 2012 NZ Herald

Murder victim Susan Burdett

The world's leading expert on false confessions says statements that resulted in a 17-year-old (New Zealand) boy being twice convicted of a notorious rape and murder "are fundamentally flawed and unsafe".

Teina Pora's self-incriminating statements in the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett came about due to Pora's intellectual impairment and desire to claim a $20,000 reward, Gisli Gudjonsson, professor of forensic psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, has said in a report seen by the Weekend Herald.

Dr Gudjonsson recently examined nine hours of police video interviews with Pora and visited him in Paremoremo Prison.

His report comes soon after two former senior detectives who worked on the Burdett case came forward with their concerns, prompting the Police Commissioner's office to take an interest in the case.

In 1996, the semen in Ms Burdett's body was linked to Malcolm Rewa, who at the time had a conviction for attempted rape. Rewa was later convicted of sex attacks on 24 women, all committed alone.

Pora has applied for the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, under which the Governor-General can order a new trial.

Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess yesterday told the Weekend Herald that police did not have a view on Dr Gudjonsson's "opinion evidence".

"If the defence elect to present it as part of their application it will no doubt be assessed and considered with all other evidence," Mr Burgess said.

"In due course a decision will be made by others on the merits of the application."

Applications are considered by Justice Ministry officials, sometimes with the help of an independent lawyer.

A Government website says cases "will normally be reopened when new information becomes available that raises serious doubts about a conviction".

Dr Gudjonsson said Pora had psychological vulnerabilities which had been confirmed by recent psychometric tests. This constituted new evidence as that type of assessment was not available at Pora's trials.

"Having evaluated Mr Pora and studied his [police] interviews very carefully, I have no confidence in the self-incriminating admissions he made about his alleged witnessing and participation in the rape and murder of Ms Burdett," Dr Gudjonsson said in the 80-page report.

"I am in no doubt that Mr Pora's self-incriminating admissions are, beyond reasonable doubt, unreliable."

Dr Gudjonsson pioneered research into how people might make false confessions to crimes they hadn't committed during which he identified a range of emotional and psychological factors, such as compliance, suggestibility and personality disorders.

This led him to produce the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales which are now used throughout the world when issues of false confessions arise.

Dr Gudjonsson's testimony is credited with overturning the convictions of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four - groups of people wrongly accused of terror bombings in Britain.

Ms Burdett, a 39-year-old accounts clerk who lived alone, was bashed repeatedly on the head with a softball bat she kept in the bedroom of her Papatoetoe home for her own protection.

The case horrified the public and baffled police who had no firm leads until Pora voluntarily made his inconsistent confessions.

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But in 1996, DNA testing showed the semen belonged to Rewa.

Rewa was 39 when Ms Burdett was murdered and had been a senior member of a rival gang to that with which Pora was associated.

Rewa was eventually convicted of raping Ms Burdett but two juries could not reach a decision on the murder charge.

Pora was convicted again in 2000 after a retrial was ordered.

In May, Dave Henwood, a multi-award winning criminal profiler whose expert testimony convicted Rewa of sex attacks on the 24 other women, told the Weekend Herald he has no doubt that Pora is innocent and that Rewa alone attacked Ms Burdett.

He based his view on Rewa's criminal signature, elements of which were present at the Burdett crime scene.

Dr Gudjonsson said his impression from watching the videoed police interviews was that Pora did not know the crime scene and was trying hard to pretend that he did.

The prospect of receiving the reward money and his impaired mental function resulted in Pora becoming entangled in a web of lies, he said.

He was repeatedly caught lying but could not tell the truth if he was to maintain the story of having witnessed the crimes that he hoped would gain him the reward money, Dr Gudjonsson said.

"The longer he lied, the harder it became to own up to having no useful knowledge about the crime whatsoever and to having completely wasted the time of the officers who had been kind to him."

Dr Gudjonsson said the fundamental flaws in Pora's story should have "alerted the police, prosecution, defence and trial judges to their apparent inherent unreliability".

Pora is in his 19th year in prison on a life sentence.

Peter’s Comment

How many more years will it take before this unfortunate young (now middle-aged) man is pardoned, freed and compensated?

Footnote: Teina Pora was granted parole on April 14, 2014 and is still awaiting a review of his case by the Privy Council which is scheduled for November 2014. Meanwhile his conviction stands.

SMELL THE CARBON RISING

Carbon price talks 'reveal tax chaos'

BY: BEN PACKHAM  From: The Australian  July 05, 2012 12:14PM

Australian Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott

TONY Abbott (Australian Leader of the Opposition) has seized on revelations the government is considering cutting its carbon floor price, as Wayne Swan (Federal Treasurer) refused to rule out changes to the scheme.

The Opposition Leader said talks between Labor and the Greens on dropping the $15 floor price, to apply when the carbon tax reverts to an emissions trading scheme, showed the policy was flawed and the government in disarray.

“It just shows this is a government which is in chaos five days into the carbon tax,” Mr Abbott said.

“Five days into the carbon tax, they're already trying to change it.

“You can't fix this carbon tax, you've just got to get rid of it, and the only way to bin the tax is to change the government.”

The Australian has confirmed talks between Climate Change Minister Greg Combet and the Greens on the final shape of the floor price.

According to sources, Mr Combet last week put to the Greens that the $15 floor price, which will underpin the scheme for its first three years after it becomes a floating ETS in 2015, be dropped.

The Australian has also been told that Mr Combet raised moving to a cap-and-trade system earlier.

The Treasurer today refused to comment on the talks but played down their significance.

“I think there will be discussions at all levels, from time to time, in the community, from the business community, from others, about matters to do with the carbon price,” Mr Swan said.

“But it doesn't change the fact that there is a fixed price for three years.”

Pressed on what floor price should apply when the carbon tax reverted to an emissions trading scheme, Mr Swan said: “I'm not getting into the hypotheticals of that. We've got a fixed price for three years.”

The Australian understands discussions have centred on how to more closely align the Australian scheme to the European Union's scheme - the biggest carbon trading market in the world.

The Gillard government hopes to link the Australian emissions trading scheme to the EU market, where carbon is currently trading at about $9.80 a tonne compared to the fixed starting price in Australia of $23 and the floor price from 2015 of $15.

Earlier this week, New Zealand said it would soften the impact of its ETS, delaying plans to increase its low carbon price.

A farming scene near
Queenstown, New Zealand

Mr Abbott said New Zealand's move was the latest evidence of a trend in which nations across the world were rejecting carbon taxes.

Peter’s Comment

You can smell the carbon rising from their collective breaths in Canberra, the Australian Capital.

Carbon taxes have always been a speak good, feel good, fraud on ordinary people who will pay the price of inflation and unemployment for no good purpose.

In 2003 the New Zealand government raised a stink when it proposed a tax on dairy farmers because rich pasture produces stomach gases in dairy cows. Farmers overwhelming rejected the ‘Fart’ Tax.

Only wet-behind-the-ears countries will impose carbon taxes and when they wake up to reality the tax will die a silent, obscure death.