I am glad Kentucky Law Review posted about the upcoming IdeaFestival. (Thanks, Mike, for the nice words.) While 9/25-9/27/08 has long been on my calendar, I didn't realize the agenda was now available: From the Lexingon Herald-Leader:
Scott Jones, the man who invented voicemail, will be there. So will J. Richard Gott, a Princeton University astrophysicist.
Richard Kogan, a psychiatrist and world-class concert pianist, will perform and lecture on the genius of Mozart. Immaculee Llibagiza, the international peace activist, will talk about what it was like to survive genocide in Rwanda.
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky will discuss her book The Physics of NASCAR, which examines how race cars can go so fast. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a risk-management expert and derivatives trader, will discuss his book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the top-selling non-fiction title of 2007. Will Shortz, the crossword editor of The New York Times, will talk about puzzles.
The European architect Emiliano Gandolfi will launch the Curry Stone Design Prize, a new $100,000 award for innovation in architecture, to be administered by the University of Kentucky's College of Design.
Vova Galchenko, a world-champion juggler, will demonstrate his skill and discuss the thinking behind it. Amy Chua, who analyzes global politics and economics, will discuss the rise and fall of hyperpowers.
They are among more than 30 presenters recruited for this year's festival, said founder Kris Kimel, president of the Lexington-based Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. Program details were announced Tuesday.
"They're all either doing something or thinking about something that's really cutting-edge," Kimel said.
Event pass info is here. Tickets for individual events will be available July 15. Not as many events are free this year, but if the festival is half as good as it was last year, it will be worth every penny and all the time out of the office.
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