Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka
We have been debating what to do with the one discounted Zero G ticket
provided to us by a SAB member. We now believe we have found the
perfect solution.
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka — whose bio is at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.wole.soyinka — would like to use the Zero G
ticket.
Wole has a compelling life story. From his bio:
"Wole has played an active role in Nigeria's political history. In 1967,
during the Nigerian Civil War he was arrested by the Federal Government
and put in solitary confinement for his attempts at brokering a peace
between the warring parties. While in prison he wrote poetry which was
published in a collection titled 'Poems from Prison'. He was released 22
months later after international attention was drawn to his
imprisonment. His experiences in prison are recounted in his book 'The
Man Died: Prison Notes'."
Wole is a 74-year old in above average shape. And as he says: "Is ready
to give up on one or two indulgences to pass physicals if required."
For $4,000 we could make this happen. Pledges so far are: Sergio M.L.
Tarrero: $400, Ed Begley Jr.: $200, Michael L. Anderson: $100, Rob
Enderle: $100, Danny Belkin: $75, Rudi Hoffman: $75, and Andrew Hessel:
$50. Would you like to help out?
If you would like to help Wole Soyinka, email the amount of your pledge
to
P.S. Wole is currently the Elias Ghanem Professor of Creative Writing
at the English department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las
Vegas is one of the two locations that Zero G usually operates out of. As we said, Wole is the PERFECT CHOICE for this prize.
IAA Planetary Defense Conference
The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from
Asteroids will be held April 27-30, 2009 in Granada, Spain.
Our Colin McInnes, Gianmarco Radice, and Frans von der Dunk will be
participating.
Learn more at http://www.congrex.nl/09c04/
Global Catastrophic Risks Essays
Read our Global Catastrophic Risks Essays at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/global.catastrop...s.essays
They were created for GLOBAL CATASTROPHIC RISKS: Building a Resilient
Civilization which we cosponsored on November 14, 2008 at the Computer
History Museum, Mountain View, California.
Nick Sagan
Nick Sagan, author of "Idlewild", "Edenborn", and "Everfree", and
coauthor of "You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi
Imagined and Science Promised" joins our Futurists Board.
Nick is the son of Carl Sagan and Linda Salzman. At age six, his
greeting, "Hello from the children of planet Earth" was recorded and
placed aboard the NASA Voyager Interstellar Record. Launched with a
selection of terrestrial greetings, sights, sounds, and music, the
Voyager I and Voyager II spacecraft have since left the solar system;
they are now the most distant human-made objects in the universe.
Learn about Nick at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.nick.sagan
Growing Membership
Robert T. Liimatainen dedicates his donation to "Alexis Armstrong and
her comment on 9/12/08. But for your comment, I would not have donated.
Hope to have the pleasure of a daughter like you one day. Hope the
donation helps out!"
Read the comment by Alexis at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/donor.date.list#...rmstrong
David J. Xanatos donates to us and says "Individual resources are
limited; collective resources are not. This is both the power and the
threat of what our ever advancing future possibilities bring nearer to
us every day. Likewise, my individual financial resources may not seem
like much, but as more of us begin to recognize the value of what's
being done here, and cast our lot in with this growing effort, we can
multiply our individual intent beyond imagination, and I hope others
reading this can recognize this fact, and join us. You will have the
satisfaction of looking back and knowing you helped humankind survive
our quantum leap in evolution."
Here are some of the recent donations/pledges we have received since
the last newsletter:
Robert Citron: $300,
Chris Haley: $285,
Humberto Castaneda: $200,
Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $170,
Robert T. Liimatainen: $101,
Michael Anissimov: $85,
Eric Bauswell: $85,
Michael Dickey: $85,
Jason Gaverick Matheny: $85,
Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85,
Kenneth P. Weiss: $85,
C M Anderson: $25,
Adam Dobrin: $25,
Matt Duing: $25,
Rick Hubbard: $25,
Matthew L. McGuirl: $25,
Adrian-Bodgan Morut (Adi): $25,
Peter Murray: $25,
David J. Xanatos: $25,
Anonymous: $20,
Ronald Amos: $10,
Alexander Braitberg: $10,
Stephen Fleming: $10,
Christopher Dilkus: $10,
Sylvia Engdahl: $10,
George Garrett: $10,
Joseph P. Jackson III: $10,
Sheridan Layman: $10,
Glenn A. Miller: $10,
John N. Philipps (Jack): $10,
and Kaj Sotala: $10.
Our Join Us page at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us now allows you to
pay for your membership anywhere from monthly to every ten years.
