Day 11 - Madam President

Today was another great day at the conference. With my presentation far behind me and very well received, I am able to fully relax, enjoy the sessions, and meet really interesting new people - who all seem to have really interesting lives, but who all seem to find mine more interesting.

Today was about deflecting and disrupting asteroids, and there was a subtle shift of presenters from scientists to engineers at the podium, and from NASA/academia to DOE and DOD. Many of the presentations were about disrupting with nuclear devices, and since you cannot do experiments, the presentations were results from modeling and simulation. There were presentations on other exotic techniques too - gravity tugs, laser ablation, kinetic impactors, among others - but they all seem to be much

farther behind on the development cycle. Bottomline - if there is a asteroid coming our way in the near future, we are sending a nuke! Wait, I am a nuclear engineer. This is good!

We also entered the third day of the asteroid impact exercise. It is now 2 years since the asteroid was discovered, and the probability of an earth hit is 100%, Unfortunately, we still can't pinpoint either the size (remains between 100-400 m) or the location (still most of the eastern hemisphere). As a world leader, my job is to make decisions and ask experts questions to help make more technically competent decisions. This kind of role playing is so much fun!

As a leader from India, I had deep concerns about the western world's plans for mitigation. They picked 7 different options to deflect the asteroid rather than to break it up. The problem is that if the deflection fails, the point of impact may change from the Pacific Ocean (a tsunami) to northern India/Pakistan. Which will not only kill hundreds of millions of more people but also kick up dust that would

destroy agriculture in the region for decades if not for hundreds of years. So, as India, I made the unilateral decision, to take a nuclear device to the asteroid. Believe it or not, I thought the decision would be received with surprise and dismay, but it was overwhelmingly approved. Not only did the community agree with the decision to send up a nuclear device to disrupt (rather than deflect) they also agreed that India was in its right to do that. I got a lot of kudos for a decision well made. And lots of people are now calling me Madam President, and tipping their invisible hats when I pass by.

In the evening, we went to the Italian Space Agency (Agencia Spaziales Italia, pictures) and participated in a podcast about asteroid defense. The podcast was led by the Planetary Society. It was a lot of fun. We returned late at night, had dinner,

and went to sleep.

My food intake is better than last week, but not ideal yet. I am still too tempted by croissants and tiramisus. Breakfast options are so limited (mainly cakes and cookies), I was almost tempted to eat an egg. But didnt. I haven't had eggs in 5 years, and Italy will hardly break my resolve. It's been a bit harder to stay away from diet coke and splenda, but so far so good. I have had none. I am also drinking more water this week than last. But all in all, there is a diet program waiting for me when I get back home.

Number of miles walked - around 3.