Worldcon Wrap-up

I finally managed to get in a quick dash through the art show, about 20 minutes' worth, getting out about 10 minutes before the madness of closing. The 3-d section was extensive, and wonderful.

Compared to other filk-intensive cons, I've spent more time in the filk lounge and much less time in open circles. Before Friday that was a matter of trying to save my voice; Saturday it was mostly a matter of getting squeezed between the last concert and theme circle, and needing to get to bed so as not to be sleepy on the drive home.

We left about 12:15 after a very smooth load-out, and arrived in San Jose pretty close 8 hours later. Had dinner in an Applebee's in Camarillo.

Recording note: my recording equipment for my concert was a Griffin iMic and a Griffin stereo lapel mic plugged into my (actually Ricoh's) Macbook Pro. (added the mic was clipped on to a button that I pinned to the back of a front-row seat. The screen was visible from the stage, which was mildly distracting.) I used Audacity, of course. The Mac laptop by itself was totally inadequate as an editing platform, so I don't have it trimmed or split yet. Gave a couple of people a mostly-raw .wav file in exchange for a $5 donation to Interfilk. I'm still in the process of figuring out how I will eventually distribute concert recordings. Suggestions welcome.

That makes much more sense

According to this NY Times article, the liquid explosive planned in the British plot was HMTD.

A chemist involved in that part of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sworn to confidentiality, said HMTD, which can be prepared by combining hydrogen peroxide with other chemicals, "in theory is dangerous," but whether the suspects "had the brights to pull it off remains to be seen."

While officials and experts familiar with the case say the investigation points to a serious and determined group of plotters, they add that questions about the immediacy and difficulty of the suspected bombing plot cast doubt on the accuracy of some of the public statements made at the time.

"In retrospect," said Michael A. Sheehan, the former deputy commissioner of counterterrorism in the New York Police Department, "there may have been too much hyperventilating going on."

Some of the suspects came to the attention of Scotland Yard more than a year ago, shortly after four suicide bombers attacked three subwav trains and a double-decker bus in Londo~ on July 7, 2005, a coordinated attack that killed 56 people and wounded more than 700. The investigation was dubbed "Operation Overt."

(from cryptome)