No, *I'm* Gwyneth Jones ...
Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthPicocon: last year I got up early for Geoff Ryman, and he couldn't make it. This year I got up early for Gwyneth Jones, and she was ill.
Half-asleep and tempted to find a corner to curl up in, I instead checked out the not-Gwyneth-Jones panel on the future of space flight. Gwyneth was fascinatingly impersonated by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
major_clanger and purplecthulhu (I may have been hallucinating) plus A N Other. Fascinating and non-sensational. My interest was caught by the prophetic elements of Baxter's Titan: 'keelhauling in space', an apt description of the only feasible method of inspecting the outside of a shuttle while not docked at the space station; and the blurry definition of the phrase 'a major flight anomaly every 100 missions'.
To the bar. Sunshine, cheap Guinness, and - a first! - cheap, edible food. Lulled into drowsy comfort, I waspressganged by evil flickgc asked to be on a panel. Impersonating Gwyneth Jones.
This was a discussion on "The past is another country. The future is alien." Topic suggested by Jack Cohen, who hotfooted it back just in time for me to tell me that he was wrong about something (though cannot now remember what). Other panellists: M J Simpson, impersonated by a large book about Douglas Adams which he wanted people to buy:coth: Cherith Baldry, being the other half of Gwyneth, and exhibiting delicacy and restraint in hardly-at-all promoting her new book, The Reliquary Ring. Highlights: erm. SF predicts - or is popularly seen to predict - technological change: but it's the social element - how technology is used - that is most interesting and most difficult to predict. The generation gap, or the increasing inflexibility of the human mind as we grow older. Much quibbling. Simo [pronounced to rhyme with 'Slime-o', at least by Prof. Cohen] outing himself as a sad fan who wanted to buy a cellphone modelled on a Star Trek communicator. (Oh, and I got a cheer for being able to flip my 'phone open. Like a sad fan. Bugger.)
With collective sighs of relief we escaped to the bar, briefly. Then to Prof. Cohen's GOH speech, in which he impersonated himself. Little new material but entertainingly presented: intelligence v extelligence, amoeba porn films, bad thinking, Escher's 'Filled Space', artifical insemination and natural selection.
To the bar again. And the bookroom. And themedia quiz, which featured a question about books. Books by some chap called Tolkien.
Bar.
Rugby fans.
Drunken rugby fans.
Home.
Damn, have hit that time of day where I think about how much I've accomplished already, and then time suddenly telescopes and I realise there is still much to do ...
Half-asleep and tempted to find a corner to curl up in, I instead checked out the not-Gwyneth-Jones panel on the future of space flight. Gwyneth was fascinatingly impersonated by
major_clanger and purplecthulhu (I may have been hallucinating) plus A N Other. Fascinating and non-sensational. My interest was caught by the prophetic elements of Baxter's Titan: 'keelhauling in space', an apt description of the only feasible method of inspecting the outside of a shuttle while not docked at the space station; and the blurry definition of the phrase 'a major flight anomaly every 100 missions'.To the bar. Sunshine, cheap Guinness, and - a first! - cheap, edible food. Lulled into drowsy comfort, I was
flickgcThis was a discussion on "The past is another country. The future is alien." Topic suggested by Jack Cohen, who hotfooted it back just in time for me to tell me that he was wrong about something (though cannot now remember what). Other panellists: M J Simpson, impersonated by a large book about Douglas Adams which he wanted people to buy:
coth: Cherith Baldry, being the other half of Gwyneth, and exhibiting delicacy and restraint in hardly-at-all promoting her new book, The Reliquary Ring. Highlights: erm. SF predicts - or is popularly seen to predict - technological change: but it's the social element - how technology is used - that is most interesting and most difficult to predict. The generation gap, or the increasing inflexibility of the human mind as we grow older. Much quibbling. Simo [pronounced to rhyme with 'Slime-o', at least by Prof. Cohen] outing himself as a sad fan who wanted to buy a cellphone modelled on a Star Trek communicator. (Oh, and I got a cheer for being able to flip my 'phone open. Like a sad fan. Bugger.)With collective sighs of relief we escaped to the bar, briefly. Then to Prof. Cohen's GOH speech, in which he impersonated himself. Little new material but entertainingly presented: intelligence v extelligence, amoeba porn films, bad thinking, Escher's 'Filled Space', artifical insemination and natural selection.
To the bar again. And the bookroom. And the
Bar.
Rugby fans.
Drunken rugby fans.
Home.
Damn, have hit that time of day where I think about how much I've accomplished already, and then time suddenly telescopes and I realise there is still much to do ...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 09:46 am (UTC)Blimey that was only a year ago and I wasn't even on LJ!! (It also lead directly to the fabulous Languedoc meal described recently here (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=green_amber&itemid=53824).)
no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 03:16 pm (UTC)'keelhauling in space', an apt description of the only feasible method of inspecting the outside of a shuttle while not docked at the space station
The description of this (http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_s6.html#why_no_spacewalk) is at the Columbia Loss FAQ (http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html), which I think I mentioned as the source of a lot of my spurious authority on the subject.
major flight anomaly
It's one of those bits of jargon that everyone within a field uses in a way that sounds strange to anyone else. Anything that goes wrong with a satellite or spacecraft is always termed an 'anomaly', from the sticky thruster valve on one of the satellites I used to control right up to Apollo 13. Granted, in the latter sort of case it can sound like a bit of an understatement...
I seem to recall that the quiz had some questions about books by some chap called Herbert as well. But that doesn't mean I forgive them for the rest of the quiz. We just ended up writing 'Captain Zep, Space Detective' for every answer.
Anyway, you're just sulking because after being asked for the names of all the actors playing the Fellowship of the Ring, you didn't get nine points for writing "Viggo Mortensen" nine times.
MC
no subject
Date: Friday, February 28th, 2003 01:00 am (UTC)Why, was there someone else in it?
no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 25th, 2003 09:31 pm (UTC)I want your life!! So I can have fun and find ways to enjoy the smaller pleasures in life.... darn, now I have to go find a "flip phone" so I can play too.
On a serious note.... I so love how you use language, I am in awe... "time suddenly telescopes"... beautiful.
Have another fun day for me!