"Virtually Everywhere and Free To All!"

I've been following Explore Mars for a couple of years now - like The Planetary Society, they're a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy in the area of space exploration - specifically, sending sustainable human missions to Mars beginning in the 2030s.

One of the things that initially attracted my attention was their Humans To Mars Summit, held annually in Washington, DC. The conference has always been ridiculously affordable at something like $75 USD a day, and I’ve seriously considered attending in person – in fact, I had gone as far as looking at AirBnB options in Washington – but the pandemic put that idea to rest, along with a lot of other travel plans. 

This year's conference will be held virtually, and, in keeping with the organization's non-profit mandate, it's free to attend.  It's taking place on September 13th through 15th - if anyone out there is interested in attending, you can sign up here.  I booked a ticket, but to be honest, I can't really attend, not even virtually.  I'll try to keep a window open both while working at home and at the office, but it's not the kind of thing that I can really justify taking three days off work for.*

The event features an impressive array of speakers from the scientific and aerospace communities, and will explore (no pun intended) a wide range of topics, including how space exploration improves life on earth, designing living space on Mars,** building a sustainable path to Mars using the Moon as a stepping stone, and, perhaps most importantly, how to maintain momentum for the next decade in order to ensure that the manned Mars missions actual take place. 

I'm hoping that my virtual booking will give me access to recordings of the sessions, although somehow it's not quite the same as hearing people speaking in the moment.  But, at least I should be able to catch some of the meetings live, and it's certainly an improvement on not being to go at all.  And, as we’ve all learned during the last couple of years, attending in person is not necessarily better than being a virtual audience member - after all, on Zoom™, every seat is in the front row.

- Sid

* Please pardon my dangling participle.

** I've already weighed in on this one.

"The retina of the mind's eye."

“That's why I never appear on television, except when I'm on television.” 

Professor Brian O'Blivion, Videodrome

At this week’s departmental Zoom ™ meeting, I paid deliberate tribute to the character of Brian O’Blivion from David Cronenberg’s 1983 cult classic Videodrome, a movie far before its time in terms of existence in media versus real life.

Professor O’Blivion, inspired by Marshall McLuhan, is never seen in public, only in video appearances and on cassette – as above, his only physical presence is as a talking head on a television monitor. It’s eventually revealed during the course of the film that he has been dead for quite some time, but his apparent ongoing existence is maintained through a carefully curated library of pre-recorded video clips – although he may also have a new life inside the television broadcasts themselves, within the videodrome of the title. 

In a similar spirit, at today's virtual session I informed my manager that I haven’t actually attended the meetings in weeks, I just record a random description of what I did on the weekend, followed by a five minute loop of nodding and blinking that runs during the entire session.

My announcement was greeted with laughter from the manager and the other members of the department, but to be honest, I’m not completely sure that everyone thought I was joking…

- Sid

Little Conversations: "I just want better stories."

The little conversations
On me are very rough.
They leave me all in pieces
You know there's never time enough.

Concrete Blonde, Little Conversations

 It DOES seem like a small thing to ask, though, doesn't it.

- Sid