Who knew?

Who knew that 1) Michael Laine, President & Founder of Liftport, is a descendant of Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) and 2) LiftPort had an entry in the recently completed Space Elevator Games?  I’ll accept the ancestor item, but, unless it was a super-secret stealth entry, they did not have an entry in the games.

Both bits of info (along with note that Michael will be speaking tomorrow at the Bainbridge Performing Arts Playhouse) can be found in this article.

Click on the thumbnails for (slightly) larger versions…

6 thoughts on “Who knew?

  1. Michael Laine

    my grandmother has traced our family tree. lewis didnt have any kids, but his brother did, so he was a multi-generational uncle… 🙂 we are also related to danial boone. so the ‘pioneer’ thing is kinda hard-coded into my dna.

    and no, we didnt have an entry in the SE games.

    by the way, thats not the most flattering picture ever taken… i tend to try and keep a low profile publicly – there are few pictures of me on the net. was that taken from the e2010 site? i dont think you can tell from this photo, of lewis, but my double chin has also been passed down for generations…

    p.s. its also my birthday tomorrow, so i am expecting a cake… i am 39.

  2. Ted Semon Post author

    I’ll be happy to post a better photo of you if you send one to me – and yes, I did find this one on the net, but not from e2010 – it was with some Air Force academy people.

    Happy Birthday!

    Geez, I still wish I was 39…

  3. Brian

    Why?

    * Michael sits on the board. We want to avoid even the appearance of a sniff of favoritism.

    * We lack the capital to enter the games and generate revenue.

    Before the first SE game in 05 we had a choice – enter the games or concentrate on building HALE. We did not have the funds to do both. We were certain that we could succeed whichever we chose to do.

    Winning the games would mean we’d have a vehicle that would be very good at .. winning the game. Producing HALE would mean that we have a machine that is not capable of winning the game but _is_ capable of generating revenue.

    Revenue won. HALE isn’t going to be a linear ancestor of the machines that do ascend the ribbon but it will be a cousin, once or twice removed. It will give the Group practice building stuff in the real world. And provide revenue so we’re still around as a solvent company.

  4. Brian

    We lack the capital to enter the games and generate revenue.

    That should probably read

    * We lack the capital to enter the games and generate revenue at the same time.

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