thompson@arc.CDN (bradley thompson) (12/20/89)
Hi. I have been reading this net more or less steadily for some years now and have found it generally to be useful. It has proven to be a good place to listen to alternative ideas and concepts, to hear reasonably up to date gossip, and to find out who's out there. I have run into some people especially in Canada, that I would not have run into otherwise. The expansion of the number of participants has been also been gratifying. Some people have cut their teeth on this net and moved on to do work in the space R&D area. Having said the nice things, I want to air a concern. I have a good idea about where most of the participants come from on this net. I make it my business to find out one way or the other. Who is saying something is as important as what they are saying. I am not inviting or promoting elitism, but especially when comments about agency policy are made for example people need to know the source. What I would like to suggest is that for some of our more frequent contributors some consideration of a brief bio. being submitted be given. Emphasis being on relation to space programs, interests in this area etc. Immediate targets that come to mind are people like Dietz, Neff, Spencer, and Szabo. Others [ are you there Dani? ] who I have not seen as much of lately would be nice also. Merry whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. Brad Thompson Biotechnology Department
hkhenson@cup.portal.com (H Keith Henson) (12/21/89)
Why not? Long time SF/space fan, heavy influence by Heinlein. '74-"75 infected with the space colony meme of Dr. O'Neill, co-founder of L5 Society, first president. Co author of articles on space agriculture, vapor phase fabrication of large objects, and use of gas entrained solids for heat transfer. Chairman of the fundraising effort for the fight against the Moon Treaty in '79-80. Since then less active in space, more active in cryonics (membership # under 100 in Alcor). Several patents, BS electrical engineering from University of Arizona, many other publications, one of the few people writing on the topic of memes (replicating information patterns) H. Keith Henson