Dragon*Con 2011: A n00b's Tale, Part III

English: People in Star Trek costumes, at DragonCon Parade in Atlanta in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

[In the wake of Thursday and Friday awesomeness, the Saturday infodump continuous apace.]

SATURDAY

I awoke slightly later than usual, which is to say 9:00 am, as I had burned the midnight oil at the Star Trek Reboot Review on Friday. My original plan was to attend the 10:00am "Give Me The Bottom Line" writers panel with Mike Resnick and Peter David, but after the Friday disappointments with the Writer's Track, I decided to bow to convention and take in the legendary Dragon*Con Parade. After a quick foodcourt "breakfast" (scare quotes intentional) I staked out a spot betwixt the Hyatt and Marriott along the main parade route.

Now, the parade doesn't start until ten, and when I arrived at 9:30 the crowd was already three-deep along the street. I snagged a view behind a group of parents, as it's easy to see over kids. By the time 10:00am rolled around, the crowd was 8-10 deep on every side. Despite not being in costume, I got compliments on my Diesel Sweeties t-shirt, to the point someone snapped a photo of me. (I tweeted said event, and R. Stevens himself acknowledged my nano-infamy.)

And then, the parade.

What were the 'controversial' call signs for the Apollo 10 spacecraft - The ones that got astronauts' naming rights taken away?

Image via WikipediaLittle known fact: Apollo 10 was the last NASA mission in which astronauts were allowed to assign call signs to their spacecraft. Since then, NASA public relations has had final say on naming rights, in no small part because the Apollo 10 crew chose "controversial" names for their command module and lunar lander.

So, what were those rights-robbing call signs? There are two places to find out:

• Techtalk Podcast #237: Apollo 10 astronauts gave what unconventional call signs to their lunar and command modules, marking the last time astronauts were allowed to provide the names? 
• Geek Trivia: What were the 'controversial' call signs for the Apollo 10 spacecraft? 

Old-school comics fans will get a kick out of this one. Promise.

What English township is the official technical namesake of broken profanity filters?

Image via WikipediaOf the various and sundry reasons we're all anxiously awaiting the semantic web, perhaps the most overlooked motivator is a desire for smarter profanity filters. This is especially true of two groups: Residents of certain English township which is the namesake of semantically dumb text filters, and a medieval aficionados who suffered rather comically at the hands of a rather famously stupid online profanity blocker.

Here's where you can learn about both:

• TechTalk Podcast #239: What is the synonym for the word “medieval” that exists only because of a malfunctioning profanity filter? 
• Geek Trivia: What English town is infamous for its role in testing early profanity filters? 

Both items answer both questions, but from opposite ends. I encourage you to consume both and decide which is better, and not just because I like farming page views to my friends and sidejob employers. (OK, mostly that, but not entirely.)

Which Manhattan Project scientist won the betting pool to determine the explosive yield of the first atomic bomb?

Image via WikipediaRemember when those wacky Los Alamos boys inaugurated the nuclear arms race by detonating the world's first atomic explosive?

Well, as humans are wont to do, those Manhattan Projectors laid out a little wagering action as to exactly how explosive said atomic gadget would turn out to be. So the question becomes: Who won the Trinity Test betting pool? 

You can find out one of two ways:

• Audio, via one of my appearances on TechTalk radio in Chicago (which includes some additional content about Chip Bell and John Patterson's new book Wired and Dangerous)
• Text, via a recent Geek Trivia column (which includes pithy commentary from my Geekend readership)

Hint: The guy who won the pool is probably more famous in medical circles than he is in the halls of physics. Maybe.

Dragon*Con 2011: A n00b's Tale, Part II

Image by Cayusa via Flickr[Be forewarned, this more a memory core-dump than structured narrative. It's gonna get rough.]

FRIDAY

Despite the rather exhaustive and enthralling nature of the preceding day, Dragon*Con doesn't actually begin until the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Being the early riser (*cough* non-drinker *cough*) amongst my roommates, I awoke about 8:00 am, quietly showered and dressed, then descended the only slightly overcrowded elevators in search of food, and the location of my first panel.