SXSWho have we got here?

SXSW sounds off with celebrity-filled 2019 keynote and speaker lineup

Musician, rapper, and activist Wyclef Jean is among the SXSW 2019 featured speakers.

A few short weeks after SXSW dropped the first details of its 2019 programming, the homegrown festival made its second keynote announcement and added even more notable names to the featured speaker lineup.

On October 9, SXSW revealed Joseph Lubin will join SXSW Interactive as a keynote speaker. According to a release, Lubin is the founder of ConsenSys and "co-founder of blockchain platform Ethereum, a decentralized application platform incorporating a virtual machine that executes peer-to-peer contracts based on cryptocurrency micropayments." (Got that? Sure. We did, too.)

"Lubin is one of the foremost visionaries shaping the rapidly developing blockchain industry, and as such we're excited to have him as the first-ever Keynote complementing the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency track in the second half of SXSWeek," said Hugh Forrest, SXSW's chief programming officer.

Lubin joins the previously announced Chrvches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry; writer, producer, and director Marti Noxon; Garbage singer Shirley Manson; and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom as next year's keynote speakers.

Leading this round of featured speakers is comedian and actor Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project, Suicide Squad); VP of Amazon Web Services Sandy Carter; musician Wyclef Jean; and famed French chef Dominque Crenn.

Additional speakers include:

Cannabis rights activist Steve DeAngelo
Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and author Valerie Jarrett
Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab Neha Narula
Author and entrepreneur Neil Pasricha
Former Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz
Actress and entrepreneur Zoe Saldana
Award-winning journalist and author Maria Shriver
EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager
Author Frank Warren
Author and Kiip co-founder and CEO Brian Wong
Actress and comedian Sasheer Zamata
CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker

"The speakers announced today run the gamut of conference content," continued Forrest, "exemplifying our standing as the foremost destination for creative people to gain the skills, knowledge, and inspiration to achieve their goals."

SXSW returns to Austin March 8-17, 2019. Badges for all portions, including Interactive, Music, and Film, are available now.

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Meteor News

Best time to see the Draconid meteor shower in Dallas this week

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Meteor shower

A meteor shower will be visible from most of North America, including Dallas, during the week of October 6-10.

The Draconid meteor shower – also called the Giacobinids – is predicted to produce the most meteor activity on the night of October 7 and through the early hours of October 8. The peak is expected to occur at 12 am on Monday night/Tuesday morning.

But there will still be sightings on subsequent nights, stargazing experts say, with the overall duration of the shower extending from October 6-10.

According to EarthSky, a cool website devoted to all things starry, the Draconids will be visible right after it gets dark, rather than the more common early morning hours most meteor showers are visible.

The best time will be just after sunset, until around midnight. Viewers won't have to stay up until the crack of dawn.

Helping to make the meteor even more visible is a waxing moon, barely a crack — only 27 percent illuminated — which will cast less light and keep the sky darker overall.

EarthSky says that the meteors are radiating from two stars known as the Dragon’s Eyes, called Eltanin and Rastaban, found in the constellation Draco. Which is located in between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.

However, the meteor shower will be visible across the sky.

The shower is dubbed a "sleeper" in that it produces only a handful of meteors — 10 per hour. But they move slower, so the duration of each streak of light sometimes lasts longer — one to two seconds, rather than a rapid flash.

Meteor showers consist of debris left behind by comets and asteroids, which throw off bits of rock and ice as they orbit the sun. The Draconids are the result of Earth passing through this trail from the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. The comet completes an orbit of the sun about every seven years, and according to CNN, the last time got this close to Earth was in September 2018.

The best way to see it is to find a place that's far from artificial light, then lie on your back and look up at the sky with a wide view. No special equipment is needed.

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SXSWho have we got here?

SXSW sounds off with celebrity-filled 2019 keynote and speaker lineup

Meteor News

Best time to see the Draconid meteor shower in Dallas this week

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