One of the hazards of being so far behind on LJ is that I missed your posting of your panel topics until after Arisia, and I'm really regretting that -- frankly, they all sound more interesting than the panels I wound up on. The Shape of the Universe panel would have been damned interesting: while I'm slowly catching up on current cosmology, I still have a lot to grok yet. The 2525 panel sounds like a neat counterpoint to the version that I did a couple of years ago (which I think was a smidgeon less focused on tech and a little more on politics, but similar otherwise).

And I know what you mean about the Staying Local panel -- reminds me of one I wound up moderating a couple of years ago on New Trends in Technology, sandwiched in between two science writers who knew *far* more than I did. I mostly spent my time managing audience questions on that one...