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Sep. 9th, 2012 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderplanetOriginally posted at Livejournal.
More Worldcon Pictures!
Where were we? Saturday, I suppose.
After delicious Tapas, we invited the Knibleys back to the hotel for a drink. We were going to drink in the bar, and then it seemed like a good idea to show them around the parties.
Here is my disclaimer: At each party entrance, I explained that they weren't members, they were friends visiting from out of town, and we promised to tip generously if they were okay with us coming in. Everyone was fine as soon as the word "tip" was uttered, but I didn't want to do anything sneaky so we didn't.
kniblet got stickered!
Because there were so many people visiting from the U.K. to help promote London in 2014,dibsy started up a great game of "What neighborhood are you from?" I'm sure it wasn't called that, and it was probably spelled with a "u," but it was fun to watch.
It is truly awkward to explain to people who don't regularly attend SF conventions that there are people in this world who believe themselves to be an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT science fiction fan.
We talked about lots of stuff and things, but sadly I remember very little of the conversation. There was alcohol involved.
Sunday morning! Breakfast!
We were waiting in line for the hotel restaurant, when a passing someone said that there was a buffet breakfast at a restaurant less than a block away.
I love orange juice.
I saw two panels. Here's the first one.
Here is an awesome shirt that sat in front of me.
The first panel was:
NASA and the Future of Space Exploration
NASA and the future of space exploration
Catherine Asaro (M), Ben Bova, David Brin, Geoffrey A. Landis, Mary
Turzillo
It's gotta be good when the title is the same as the description. All in all, this was a pretty good panel. All of the panelists were resigned to the understanding that the fickleness of politics prevents NASA from being able to complete major projects. All of the panelists said that they were looking forward to private enterprise in the field of space exploration, with varying degrees of excuses why such things can't be publicly owned anymore.
No one even hinted that the political process needs fixing, because that's just how it is, and isn't giving tax money to private enterprise great?
I was happy to hear about upcoming projects, and the continuing efforts to engage young people in an interest in space exploration.
During the questions at the end, I said that I was very skeptical of private corporations. I wondered if any of the panelists could tell me what sorts of controls will prevent private enterprise from building great new technology with tax money and then hoarding the publicly paid for technology, and trying to monopolize on space exploration contracts to keep other corporations from competing.
Ben Bova is a swell guy who writes lots of nifty books. He is wrong when he says that corporate greed and the desire to make money from their technology is enough of a control.
The next panel was about pseudo-science, and had a traffic accident for a moderator. The report willbe rather long probably not be very long, but will be emotionally taxing, and I hope to be asleep in two hours. I'm going to save the report for later.
More Worldcon Pictures!
Where were we? Saturday, I suppose.
After delicious Tapas, we invited the Knibleys back to the hotel for a drink. We were going to drink in the bar, and then it seemed like a good idea to show them around the parties.
Here is my disclaimer: At each party entrance, I explained that they weren't members, they were friends visiting from out of town, and we promised to tip generously if they were okay with us coming in. Everyone was fine as soon as the word "tip" was uttered, but I didn't want to do anything sneaky so we didn't.
kniblet got stickered!Because there were so many people visiting from the U.K. to help promote London in 2014,
dibsy started up a great game of "What neighborhood are you from?" I'm sure it wasn't called that, and it was probably spelled with a "u," but it was fun to watch. It is truly awkward to explain to people who don't regularly attend SF conventions that there are people in this world who believe themselves to be an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT science fiction fan.
We talked about lots of stuff and things, but sadly I remember very little of the conversation. There was alcohol involved.
Sunday morning! Breakfast!
We were waiting in line for the hotel restaurant, when a passing someone said that there was a buffet breakfast at a restaurant less than a block away.
I love orange juice.
I saw two panels. Here's the first one.
Here is an awesome shirt that sat in front of me.
The first panel was:
NASA and the Future of Space Exploration
NASA and the future of space exploration
Catherine Asaro (M), Ben Bova, David Brin, Geoffrey A. Landis, Mary
Turzillo
It's gotta be good when the title is the same as the description. All in all, this was a pretty good panel. All of the panelists were resigned to the understanding that the fickleness of politics prevents NASA from being able to complete major projects. All of the panelists said that they were looking forward to private enterprise in the field of space exploration, with varying degrees of excuses why such things can't be publicly owned anymore.
No one even hinted that the political process needs fixing, because that's just how it is, and isn't giving tax money to private enterprise great?
I was happy to hear about upcoming projects, and the continuing efforts to engage young people in an interest in space exploration.
During the questions at the end, I said that I was very skeptical of private corporations. I wondered if any of the panelists could tell me what sorts of controls will prevent private enterprise from building great new technology with tax money and then hoarding the publicly paid for technology, and trying to monopolize on space exploration contracts to keep other corporations from competing.
Ben Bova is a swell guy who writes lots of nifty books. He is wrong when he says that corporate greed and the desire to make money from their technology is enough of a control.
The next panel was about pseudo-science, and had a traffic accident for a moderator. The report will
