[Noisebridge-discuss] SETIcon - $35+, August 13, Santa Clara

[Sai Emrys]

Again, not an endorsement and nothing to do with me, just forwarding
as likely to be of interest.

FWIW if you haven't seen it, the SETI podcast is consistently quite
good IMO: http://podcast.seti.org

- Sai

http://www.seticon.com/

"The SETI Institute is very fortunate to have so many people world
wide supporting our mission to explore, understand and explain the
origin, nature and prevalence of life in the Universe.  It is through
this support that the SETI Institute is able to succeed.

To show our appreciation and to create an opportunity for the public
to interact with our team, we decided to host an event that would be
both educational and fun.  SETIcon will be a family friendly event
that will appeal to everyone from the hard core scientist or
enthusiast who wants to know the nitty-gritty of how science really
works, to the 5th grader interested in the wonders of space.

To accommodate this, we will have four simultaneous sets of programs:

* main programming panels that will include scientists, astronauts, and actors,
* hard core science talks and panels similar to paper or poster
presentations at a scientific conference,
* an education panel/talk track interspersed with hands-on activities
for young people and
* a series of individual speakers in Q&A sessions, with no set talk
but fielding questions from their audience.

It is an exciting time.  This year brings the 50th anniversary of SETI
research, the 80th birthday of SETI Pioneer Frank Drake, the 25th
anniversary of the SETI Institute, and much growing momentum in the
scientific community about the likelihood of life beyond Earth.  The
public excitement is building as NASA's Kepler mission brings the
world a greater understanding of planets circling other stars.  Dr.
Simon "Pete" Worden, astronomer and Director of NASA Ames Research
Center, was recently quoted in the press: "The fundamental question
is: Are we alone? For the first time, there's an optimism that
sometime in our lifetimes we're going to get to the bottom of that.
If I were a betting man, which I am, I would bet we're not alone —
there is a lot of life."

There will be a party and a banquet and a few surprises that will make
this event entertaining for people of all ages.

SETIcon blasts off August 13, 2010 and we hope to see you there!"