2009.06.20 07:00 - On Asteroids and Meteorites

The Guardian for this meeting was Pema Pera, taking over from Wol, who had taken over from Lia. The comments are by Pema Pera.

For quite a while, none of us could log in, but eventually Second Life started to behave again.  We had planned a theme session on "The One and the Many", with Sophia Placebo and Wol Euler as moderators, but we decided to postpone that session until a week later.

Mickorod Renard: Hi Pema
Mickorod Renard: had trouble loggin on
Mickorod Renard: I did
Pema Pera: we all had :)
Pema Pera: Hi Adams!
Mickorod Renard: Hi Adams
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Mick and Pema :)
Mickorod Renard: just going to get a sandwich
Pema Pera: logins still seem to be unstable:
Pema Pera: I saw Sophia log in at 7:06 and then drop out again at 7:08
Pema Pera: without making it to here
Pema Pera: I guess we'll just have to wait a while
Adams Dubrovna: Rough morning in SL. When I was in earlier hard to tp anywhere
Adams Dubrovna: I talked about our visit at the 7 pm session last night
Pema Pera: ah, I look forward to read it!
Adams Dubrovna: Well, actually my sister avatar did :)
Pema Pera: :)
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Nymf :)
Pema Pera: hi Nymf!
Nymf Hathaway: Good day everyone :) thanks Pema :)
Mickorod Renard: Hi Nymf
Pema Pera: I just sent the following email to the group:
Pema Pera: There are now four of us: Adams, Mick, Nymf and me. I saw Sophia succeeding in logging in but then dropping out again, without making it to the PaB pavilion. Perhaps we should postpone the theme session a week. Of course, we can still chat, those who make it in, but let's start afresh next week, June 27, with the same theme.
Adams Dubrovna: sounds like a good idea
Mickorod Renard: seems like a good idea Pema
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Sophia :)
Nymf Hathaway: Hello Sophia :)
Adams Dubrovna: :) Mick
sophia Placebo: hi :) all happy to see you today :)
Pema Pera: Hi Sophia!
Mickorod Renard: hiya sophia
Pema Pera: glad you made it
Adams Dubrovna: Very happy to see you too Sophia under such adverse conditions :)
sophia Placebo: hehe
sophia Placebo: wol couldnt log in too
Pema Pera: I just sent a note suggesting we postpone the theme meeting a week
Nymf Hathaway: Persistence and patience
Pema Pera: but of course we can still chat here :)
sophia Placebo: thats better

Adams Dubrovna: and you all can come to the Art History Workshop tomorrow which will be about twwo mosques
Adams Dubrovna: (me gets in a plug)
Mickorod Renard: are you ok with the log Pema,,I was just about to offer to take it if nobody had voluntered?
Pema Pera: yes, I'm happy to put it up, Mick -- thanks for the offer
Pema Pera: Adams is taking over for me this evening, so the least I can do is take over for Wol who is taking over for Lia :-)
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Pema Pera: PaB is full of friendly takeovers it seems
Mickorod Renard: grin
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Wol :)
Pema Pera: Welcome Wol!
Nymf Hathaway: I would be interested in that Adams, could you give me a landmark and other information for it?
Mickorod Renard: Hiya Wol
Nymf Hathaway: Hello Wol :)
sophia Placebo: hi wol
Wol Euler: hello everyone, sorry I'm late.
Pema Pera: glad you made it!

Adams Dubrovna: It will be at 12 noon starrting at the Kira Cafe
Nymf Hathaway: Oke :)
Pema Pera: we decided to postpone our theme meeting by a week, Wol
Wol Euler: yeah, SL wouldn't let me in :(
Wol Euler: good, ty ;)
Pema Pera: great, Adams -- this is part of a regular series, right?
Adams Dubrovna: Don;t take it too personally Wol. It was after us all
Nymf Hathaway: :)
Wol Euler grins and nods
Adams Dubrovna: Well, it is a bit of a continuation of last month, an exercise in reconstructions and looking
Adams Dubrovna: July will be something completely different :)
Adams Dubrovna: Art and the Zodiac
Pema Pera: so it's once a month, right?
Adams Dubrovna: yes, for now
Adams Dubrovna: still in the start up stage
Nymf Hathaway: Sounds very interesting, I will be there :)
Mickorod Renard: is it a discussion or a talk?
Wol Euler nods
Pema Pera: http://www.kira.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=181
Adams Dubrovna: It will start with a talk and then tp to two sites for doscussion Mick
Pema Pera: is what a real plug looks like, Adams, URL and all :-)
Adams Dubrovna: hehe
Mickorod Renard: wow,,sounds good Adams,,ty
Pema Pera: but it says 12 noon ????
Adams Dubrovna: thanks Pema :)
Pema Pera: not 11 am as you just said
Adams Dubrovna: whoops it IS 12 noon (aaaaaaah)
Mickorod Renard: he he
Adams Dubrovna: I am getting mixed up with July
Pema Pera: Adams just wanted to have us mediatate for an hour to get into the mood
Wol Euler: :)
Adams Dubrovna: we'll have a special Friday session with a speaker in July
Adams Dubrovna: more on that later :)
Adams Dubrovna: hehe Pema
Nymf Hathaway: Was reading the page :)

Adams Dubrovna: Storm did a nice job on it
Pema Pera: yes, he has been great in sprucing up the web site, and making it both pretty and functional -- like his 3D buildings here
Adams Dubrovna nods
Mickorod Renard: I think its so wonderful to have this oportunity (SL) to meet with so many gifted and interesting people and their interests
sophia Placebo: hi hana
Pema Pera: Hi Hana!
Nymf Hathaway: Hello Hana :)
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Hana :)
Mickorod Renard: Hi Hana
Hana Furlough: hi everyone!
Wol Euler: hello hana
Wol Euler: yes, mick, that is a great thing about SL
Pema Pera: Great to see you here, Hana, in SL, for a change!
Pema Pera: Have you been here before already?
Hana Furlough: hi pema, yeah this is my third or fourth time
Hana Furlough: how is everyone?
Pema Pera: ah, sorry to have missed you before -- have been very busy with my Europe trip -- back in NYC now

Mickorod Renard: its nice to see that there is renewed interest in visiting the moon again
Wol Euler boggles.
Nymf Hathaway: agrees :)
Pema Pera: visiting an asteroid would be most interesting, more so than visiting the Moon I think
Mickorod Renard: is there one passing b soon
Pema Pera: zillions of them :-)
Mickorod Renard: passing close
Mickorod Renard: lol
Pema Pera: just pick one that comes within 10 million miles
Mickorod Renard: is that close enough?
Pema Pera: hop on it before it comes close, camp for a while, and then return to Earth
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Wester :)
Mickorod Renard: he he he
sophia Placebo: hi wester
Mickorod Renard: Hi Wester
Pema Pera: it will take a few months, much easiert than going to Mars, which will take years
Wol Euler: hello wester
Nymf Hathaway: Hello Wester :)
Pema Pera: more fun than the Moon
Pema Pera: hi Wester!
Adams Dubrovna: Why more fun Pema?
Mickorod Renard: I have a house that was owned by the exupery family Pema
Wol Euler: I can't quite believe in sending a live-human mission to Mars. Surely the crew would be clinically insane by the time they got there?
Pema Pera: wow, Mick, what a place to live!
Mickorod Renard: selling it now
Pema Pera: perhaps they can use SL on the way, Wol :-)
Nymf Hathaway: :))
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Wol Euler: they'd need to do something to get their minds out of the capsule ...
Mickorod Renard: I was hit by what I guess was a piece of space rock once

Pema Pera: Actually, Adams and Fefonz and I talked about just that, Wol, in RL during lunch on Thursday -- we met with someone from Northrop, a specialist in Human/System integration, who had done a detailed study of how much space per person any spacecraft has used so far
Wol Euler: wb wester
Adams Dubrovna: He was trained as an architect Wol
Wol Euler: (sorry wester, I saw the glow and your nametag together ...)
Wol Euler: wow.
Pema Pera: Marc Cohen is his name, Wol
Adams Dubrovna: Approached the capsule as living space
Wol Euler: what fraction is it of the space that a prisoner in solitary confinement must have?
Wol Euler: (sorry, being contentious again)
Pema Pera: it's a wide open question, Wol
Pema Pera: very little systematic study has been done, it turns out
Adams Dubrovna: Sometimes people are addressing the difficult questions head on Wol :)
Mickorod Renard: I suppose being a wieghtless environment,,the ground area is 4 times what we usually get
Pema Pera: interestingly, nuclear submarines that stay submerged for three months have been an interesting lab so far
Pema Pera: hehehe, Mick
Wol Euler: mhmm, I was thinking of them
Adams Dubrovna: and deep sea caapsules
Pema Pera thinking of Dilbert and his cubicles
Wol Euler: heh
Adams Dubrovna: hehe
Wester Kiranov: :)
Mickorod Renard: I guess the use of virtual space through a head set and goggles,,would facilitate a large virtual world for an astronaugt, a matrix existence

Pema Pera: what did you say about being hit by a space rock, Mick?
Wol Euler: I'm being so more-than-just-skeptical about this because being confined in small spaces pushes my buttons. I had difficulty going into some of the deeper Underground stations, when I lived in London. To be in a capsule for - how many years?
Mickorod Renard: erm,,were u really interested,,or wondering whether it hit me on the head?
Wol Euler: no, I too am curious.
Mickorod Renard: grin
Pema Pera: :)
Mickorod Renard: I was driving, in england 2 years ago,,and out of the corner of my eye,,was drawn to an ever increasing black spot in the sky,,then it was quickly hitting the ground,,it broke up and one piece,,looking like wud hit my screen,,richocheted of my car front
sophia Placebo cant imagine hours in capsule , years!!
Hana Furlough: wow
Wol Euler: amazing, mick.
Adams Dubrovna: yes, wow Mick
Mickorod Renard: I can remember seeing it in slow motion,,and can remember the appearance as like that of coke
Pema Pera: did you collect any piece?
Mickorod Renard: no,,too much trafic to stop
Mickorod Renard: my only concern was how much damage was done to the hire car,,and what excuse I cud give
Pema Pera: :-)
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Mickorod Renard: a lame excuse
Wol Euler: heheheh
Mickorod Renard: was hit by an asteroid
sophia Placebo: :))
Wol Euler: "pull the other one!"
Mickorod Renard: I have witnesses..he he

Nymf Hathaway: Read about a 14 year old German boy who got hit by a meteorite last week... hit his hand and than the ground, he collected it :) it is investigated and a meteorite :) his hand is fine :)
Hana Furlough: did you take any pictures?
Pema Pera: that German boy story is a hoax
Pema Pera: can't be true on at least half a dozen counts
Mickorod Renard: I didnt..I kept driving for fear of causing a multi pile up
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Nymf Hathaway: really? umph taken it back, didn't know that :)
Wol Euler: tell us why?
Wol Euler: because there were things I wondered about, like why i didn't burn a hole in him
Nymf Hathaway: thought the same Wol :)
Mickorod Renard: what hit my car didnt look hot
Pema Pera: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/
Pema Pera: it shouldn't be hot
Pema Pera: that was a direct give-away that the story was made up
Pema Pera: meteorites cool during descent, and come down cold
Wol Euler frowns. Why did the Apollo capsules and space shuttle need heat shields?
Pema Pera: because they were much bigger, and they did mind being fragmented in small pieces :-)
Pema Pera: each fragmented piece then cools quickly by air motion
Wol Euler: ah :)
Pema Pera: well before coming down
Adams Dubrovna laughs that it made a crator after hitting the boy
Nymf Hathaway: Thanks for the link, Pema
Pema Pera: no matter how hot, a few miles of fast travel through cold air will chill ya
Pema Pera: quite a tough boy, yes!
Wol Euler: hmmmmm
Nymf Hathaway: would appreciate journalists who make an effort of writing a real story without wanting to score
Pema Pera: ah, but fantastic stories tend to sell much better . . . .
Mickorod Renard: whether what got me was from space or whatever,,what facinated me was how my eyes were drawn to a speck in the sky,,at first i had thought it was a bird,,but its trajectory was not fitting a bird
Wol Euler likes comment #19: "The real question is what super powers did the boy get after being hit?"
Mickorod Renard: it was like some precognition
sophia Placebo: im amazed how many thoughts you generated at that moment mick , diverse and many for a short moment
Mickorod Renard: I think the risk of incidents due to the amount of possible events re accidents in every day life,,suggest to me that there must be some precognitive capability we possess
Mickorod Renard: subconciously
Mickorod Renard: on seeing the speck in the sky, i let off the acelerator a lil,,otherwise,unknown to me,,it wud have hit me in the screen
Wol Euler: is that precognition or sound common sense, though? "that should not be there" is a very sensible response
Nymf Hathaway: Understands what you are saying and remembers some moments in life she has thought the same, to Mickorod
Mickorod Renard: but i had no idea what it was,,and it was over in a flash of a second or two
Pema Pera: it's a fascinating story, Mick
Pema Pera: would have been nice to check what it was, but I understand that that was not possible in that situation
Mickorod Renard: I kick myself for not turning around to get a sample
Mickorod Renard: it was on the Srewsbury bypass
Mickorod Renard: shrewsbury
Pema Pera: love those English names :-)
Mickorod Renard: was the book 'the petit prince' influential in your life Pema?
Mickorod Renard: re astrophysics
Pema Pera: not directly, but I enjoyed reading it
Pema Pera: I read it after I got my first telescope
Mickorod Renard: when was that?
Pema Pera: that was at age 12
Mickorod Renard: nice

Pema Pera: btw, I have to meet a colleague in fifteen minutes, talking about that :-)
Pema Pera: great seeing you all again!
Adams Dubrovna: bye Pema :)
Nymf Hathaway: Have a nice day Pema :)
Mickorod Renard: bye Pema,,ty
Wol Euler: bye pema, take care.
sophia Placebo: bye pema
Wester Kiranov: bye pema
Hana Furlough: bye pema
Mickorod Renard: I have to go too,,thanks for the chat
Mickorod Renard: nice seeing you all
Adams Dubrovna: bye Mick, thanks for the story :)
sophia Placebo: bye mick thanks for the story
Wol Euler: bye mick, enjoy the weekend
Hana Furlough: bye mick
Nymf Hathaway: Bye Mickorod, thanks for the thoughts
Nymf Hathaway: Will leave her avi here but will be coocking in rl, wishing everyone who leaves meanwhile... a beautiful day, see you soon
Adams Dubrovna: take care Nymf :)
Wol Euler grins
sophia Placebo: bye nymf :)
Wol Euler: if only RL were like that...
Nymf Hathaway: :)))
Wol Euler: I have longed to leave my body in meetings and go elsewhere
Adams Dubrovna: hehe
Nymf Hathaway: smiles at Wol
Wester Kiranov: I have to do some cooking as well - bye all
Adams Dubrovna: bye Wester :)
sophia Placebo: it would be fun if meetings where vertual
Wol Euler: bye wester, enjoy the day
sophia Placebo: bye wester
Adams Dubrovna: I am going too. Nice session this morning even though we missed the planned topic
Wol Euler nods.
Adams Dubrovna: Have good days everyone and a nice weekend :)
Adams Dubrovna: bye
Wol Euler: bye adams, see you tomorrow
Wol Euler: at noon
Wol Euler: not eleven
sophia Placebo: bye adams :) hope to see you tommorrow
Adams Dubrovna: yes NOON :)
Wol Euler grins
Wol Euler: well, hana, it seems to be just you and me :)
Wol Euler: well, it seems to be me on my own.