SG+Week+of+November+19

__**Monday, November 19th**__ - After a week of stagnant to practically zero production rates, today seems eerily the same with only one major difference: CN, MM, and myself have set //another// date to meet at Jordan Hall. We tried this same planning this past week, but our ND Graduate was busy with traveling so we couldn't meet on the planned day. However, we plan to meet next Wednesday which means MM and I will be putting into action our studies. I've also updated the MPC website annotations, but that was last week.

//Later that evening...//

So I was thinking about how I don't have much to account for what I did the previous week. However, I don't believe this time was poorly spent nor was it not spent on scientific matters. Thinking about this, I decided it was a legit attempt to show what I //was// doing the past week: visiting possibly my favourite and extremely pertinent website, TED.com. TED.com is a website that dedicates itself to spreading worthwhile ideas in the fields of __**T**__echnology, __**E**__ntertainment, and **__D__**esign. Experts in their own fields, whether it is what makes one happy or a new, revolutionary computer desktop, come to this conference lecture for about twenty minutes about what they're studying. I will review some of the lectures I watched:

[|Carolyn Porco: Fly me to the moons of Saturn] This is probably one of the most relevant lectures to our class. She spends nearly twenty minutes talking about the moons of Saturn, in particular, Titan, and the revolutionary moments such as the probes that "landed in the outer solar system for the first time in human history" by landing on Titan. Apparently that was a huge deal, and I was completely unaware of it. Also, she elaborates on possible environments that could potentially be suitable for living organisms. This is obviously a huge deal. I recommend giving it a watch if you're interested in space. It's definitely worth your time.

[|Jonathan Harris: The Web's secret stories] This may seem distantly related to our class, and I'm not going to lie, it is. However, toward the end of the lecture, I think there is an interesting correlation between the Universe and applying what it consists of to our modern, technology oriented world that I have never seen done before - ever. Check it out.

[|Thomas Barnett: The Pentagon's new map for war and peace] Okay, this one DEFINITELY is distantly related to anything we're learning in class. However, if you're interesed in war and peace and the military tactics that can achieve true peace, and are interested in laughing at an ex-Pentagon advisor and his jokes, give this one a look as well. I think it's very important information that should not go ignored.

Some other one's I've watched this past week that I won't delve into: [|Kenichi Ebina: Hip-hop dance and a little magic] [|Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind] [|Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness] [|Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha -- on the Web] [|John Maeda: Simplicity patterns]

Anyway, those are a few that I've watched. After hunting down these links of lectures that I've already seen, I of course came across some others that might be interesting, because, well, that's what usually happens, doesn't it? You go hunting for one thing and find something much more pleasant and intriguing. Being as this is, I came across one that I will watch probably on Wednesday since we will have a very short period, and it is //extremely// pertinent to MM and my own's project: Asteroids: [|Stephen Petranek: 10 ways the world could end] I also concluded from this process that if I am ever to watch another TED.com lecture in this class, I will only watch science-oriented lectures and nothing else. It's only fair, eh?

__**Tuesday, November 20th**__ - Today MM and myself talked with the head honchos about our project and how to proceed forward since research just isn't cutting it anymore. We talked about how to figure out the sizes, speeds, and distances from Earth to the actual asteroid. We concluded that the apparent speed and the real speed are separate entities; the further away the moving object is, the slower it is going and vice versa. We also concluded that the distance of the star is indeterminable, and that with the speed (v=d/t) and the transverse axis of the asteroid, we can determine the size and distance of the asteroid from Earth. We will first utilize this information by working with an already popularly studied asteroid such as Ceres, work with their calculations to figure out how we can calculate this ourselves when observing at Jordan Hall, and perhaps, found our own, ostracized asteroid. MM will be copying this verbatim since we both wrote this out together, so no plagiarism!
 * After getting together to write this, MM and I will diverge into two separate websites about Ceres, gather our separate information, and learn what we can in the last 15 minutes of class.
 * Also matter that must be managed: a more in-depth annotation of the MPC website.