Throwing Down the Gauntlet

(Snip)
>
> These are just off the top of my head, but I think pretty much any of
> them is more likely to be successful, and far more closely tied to what
> progress we make toward space colonization, than setting up
> "sustainable villages" on Earth.
(Snip)
> Best,
> - Joe

Onemore quick comment.
Joe, I believe you are overlooking a possible source of support for getting into space.
I started in the seventies as a member of Space Studies Institute, was a First Millennial Foundation member in the nineties, and even purchased the book on space settlements offered by PERMANENT, Mark Prado's initiative.
Through all of this I have been taking the path less traveled. This started with J.J.'s BLUFF or THE THEORY OF BUSINESS RELATIVITY a book I wrote in 1980 available for free download from the Files of the Yahoo Group above. I have been more or less promoting this approach since then.
I am now 67 years old and on the verge of retirement. Based on the longevity of my family (dad 84 at his death, mother 90 at her death, and my oldest sibling 83 and still going strong) I could well have 20 more good years and, given the progress of aging technology, maybe even 30 or 40. As my retirement project, I am taking a slightly different approach. If you look at it closely, I believe many will perhaps come to the same conclusion that I have a whole host of people on this planet are much, much more interested in creating sustainable communities on Earth than in space. I am trying to get the interest of this crowd but keeping space in the forefront by modeling the communities with reference to the ultimate sustainable community a space settlement.
Another reason I am promoting the particular method of sustainable villages is that it gives me a chance to set up Local Chapters that I can use to test Relativistic Organizational Design, the title of the final paper (also in the Files under ROD of the Yahoo Group I mentioned above) I wrote for my final MBA course. This paper expresses The Theory of Business Relativity in a quantitative manner and includes ideas from the professional business and management journals current in the 1980-1983 time frame.
I cordially invite each and every member of this group to also join mine (there is no conflict of interest we are both trying to get the human race into space) and watch from the sidelines to see if I succeed or fall on my face.
I should mention, Joe, that I appreciate your private comment that I should perhaps investigate the cryonics movement of which Ted Williams, the former baseball player, is a participant, and stick around for the 1,000 years I projected to see if the project meets with success. This is an interesting proposition and if Charles Howell III, the golfer, would join I would be sorely tempted. You have to be a sports fanatic, which I am, to understand this but I would consider it an honor to be resurrected along with the Splendid Splinter and the One Iron.
I will end this post by saying that I have decided to emulate the electron and follow the path of least resistance. I maintain that the easiest road to the stars is through sustainable communities on Earth. The related business network that would be created would tithe earnings to a nonprofit organization, which would start by directing five per cent towards space colonization with the Space Studies Institute being one obvious recipient of this funding. This five per cent would eventually grow to at least fifty per cent, and perhaps even more if so determined by the voting membership of the nonprofit organization.
Best regards,
Leon Neihouse