ARCATTACK IS BACK!!
Yes, freaks and geeks, you read that correctly; your favorite singing tesla coils will be back with the Space and Science Tracks at Dragon*Con 2008. The guys have given themselves a spiffy new name 'ArcAttack', added electronic drums and massively expanded their song list. They are now the ultimate in techno music and the Space and Science Tracks are taking advantage it!
Check out our ArcAttack page for information on purchasing their incredibly cool tee-shirts and new this year:
The 1st Annual Mad Scientist's Ball
The Phoenix Lander Has Smelled and Tasted Water on Mars!
Spirit and Opportunity assured the world 5 years ago that Mars had liquid water on it's surface at some time in its past. Almost every geologic indicator found by
the Rovers confirmed it again and again. Unfortunately, the Rovers haven't actually found water. Could Mars still have water, liquid or frozen, somewhere? The poles
sure look like they are covered in frozen water but how to prove it? Send a probe to land in the northern artic circle – so they did. And so the Phoenix Lander now
has proved that there is still water on Mars!
2008 Schedules are up!
Thanks to all of you, we will again be two tracks of programming. As in 2007, the tracks will be split into a Space track and a Science track. All of you with good muscle
memory are in luck – we will be back in the Hilton in the Henry (Science) and Forsythe (Space) rooms. Here is your 2008 Space Schedule
and here is your 2008 Science Schedule. Dragon*Con requires that we tell you that these schedules are 'tentative', but we don't foresee
any changes.
Remember the Live Astronomy sessions at DragonCon in 2007? Well, they're coming back in 2008! (Thank you Erik Benner and Dr. Keel) Erik will be back on the 3rd floor pool deck area of the Hilton, with his fabulous Solar Telescope and Dr. Keel will again run our late night viewing in the Space Track room. For those of you who didn't attend any of our late night astronomy sessions with the Kitt Peak telescope, let me give you a little idea of what you missed. We imaged planets, moons, galaxies, planetary nebulas, star clusters and Dr. Keel's favorite, gravitational lensing. Go to: Live Astronomy - Kitt Peak to see these images and their descriptions; once again, thanks to Dr. Keel. A big F.Y.I. to all you Dragon*Con Space Track fans. We all love our Dr. Keel, with his great astronomy presentations and those gorgeous pictures he gives away, but here's a little something many of you many NOT have known. Anyone who knows me (rain) knows that Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod) is my most favorite site anywhere on the web and our own Dr. Keel has had a number of pictures featured there. :-) Among those pictures were 4 that were choosen to be a part of the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th Launch Anniversary, this poster with 59 views of colliding galaxies constitute the largest collection of Hubble images ever released to the public. The 4 pictures from Dr. Keel are: NGC 6621/2; NGC 5754 & 5752; AM 1316-241; and AM 0500-620. CONGRATULATIONS DR. KEEL!!!!
In case any of you have been incommunicado in your evil lairds, we can confirm that Skeptics will have their own track this year. Of course, that means they've stolen all of our great skeptics guests from last year but since we spawned the track in the first place we can't complain too much. We also perfected our mind control machine and have coerced DragonCon PTB to move Comics from our 'private wing' of the Hilton and bring in Podcasting and Skeptics. Unfortunately, it seems to have been a 'one use only' so we've been foiled (for the time being) in further PTB coercion. But we achieved our main goal in having our wing of the Hilton completely reality based. That means the Space, Science, EFF, Skeptics, Podcasting and Robotics tracks will all be short drunken stumble from each other!
Dragon*Con has grown so much, that even with the Marriott back in full service this year with a new large ballroom, it is expanding into a 4th hotel!! The Sheraton Hotel will join Dragon*Con as a host hotel on a limited basis. There will be whole tracks being held at the Sheraton and a lot of large room events. None of the Space or Science track's programming will be held there.
The registration hours for Dragon*Con have been posted. For all you early birds, Thursday, August 28th at 4:00pm is your goal. Registration will run until 10:00pm that night and will again take place in the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt Hotel.
See you Soon!!
Countdown To Dragon*Con
