While I doubt Kevin Brown shut down Cryonet, to
"avoid giving (me) a direct line to the cryonics community," I do believe there has been a lobbying effort to either shut down, or heavily moderate, cryonics discussion forums. When a group of people cannot defend themselves against legitimate criticisms, and cannot manage to discredit their critics with lies and personal attacks, I suppose their next alternative might be to attempt to restrict their critics' opportunities to exercise free speech, in venues that might be comprised of their clients and/or potential clients. Without censorship, certain people cannot continue to perpetuate the many myths they have distributed, in regard to their cryonics activitities.
As an example of the deception that takes place, quite some time ago, I had accused Mike Darwin, (Michael Federowicz), of falsely stating he had once been a "board-eligible perfusionist." Just before Cryonet was shut down, Mr. Darwin was caught in another lie, while attempting to cover up the previous one. In
Cryonet Message 33441, Mr. Darwin states:
"Here is what I actually said: "If all I had was perfusion experience in cryonics; I'd have had essentially no experience at all. At one time I was told I was a Board eligible perfusionist (1970s), but I never sat for the Boards and quite honestly, I did very little clinical perfusion." (Emphasis added.)
What Mr. Darwin
ACTUALLY wrote, on the Cold Filter Forum and in his
Cryonet Message 33381, was:
"At one time I was a Board eligible perfusionist, but I never sat for the Boards and quite honestly, I did very comparatively little clinical perfusion." As everyone can see, the first statement is not what Mr. Darwin
"actually said," at all. He is simply compounding his false statements.
Here is what Robert Ettinger, (the "Father of Cryonics"), has to say, about Mike Darwin:
"(Mike Darwin) admits to a history of mental problems. He admits to being so backward in math ability that he had to abandon a college degree in biology. He has bragged about his deceit and ruthlessness, once writing that on a visit to Africa he sought out Arabs and told them he hated Israel and the Jews, apparently just for the fun of it. In any case he said openly that he would try to deceive anyone at any time if he thought it furthered his interests." Robert Ettinger on Mike Darwin's CharacterSadly, Mike Darwin has been one of cryonics "superstars," and the cryonics industry is rife with people who will "deceive anyone at any time" if they think it furthers their interests. Even more sadly, the "interests" of many of those individuals appears to be feeding their own wallets and/or egos, more than anything else. As I've written, many times, I believe people should have the right to be cryopreserved, but those performing the procedures have an obligation to behave ethically, and to accurately represent the quality of their procedures and personnel, to the public, in their attempts to market services for which they charge up to $200K+. (Note that they also encourage their clients to establish irrevokable trust funds, and bequests, naming cryonics organizations as the beneficiaries.)
This post is in response to the recent remarks, regarding the demise of Cryonet, which I doubt had anything to do with me, personally. Kevin Brown has always been civil, to me, and was instrumental in preventing some of the participants of his forum from abusing his ratings system, in order to censor me, and others. For the most part, I am trying to avoid posting on blogs and forums, and working with a handful of people in getting an informative new website up and running. To the participants of this forum, I encourage you to make your remarks in a civil manner, stick to the facts, and avoid wild speculation. It serves no purpose to "wallow in the mud," with these people. ("These people" not meant to include honest, sincere individuals, engaged in cryonics activities.)
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2011 11:43PM by melmax.