Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy. I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. And, of course, cats.
Working for an analytic exactapproximate solution to the herding problem
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October 31, 2006
Category: academia
Scholarships-Ar-US have nominated 10 student bloggers for a nice little scholarship. Go vote (it is resistant to Chicago voting, must have a cookie and only lets you visit the voting page once, despite the stakes I imagine few people...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:07 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Toil and Trouble Griffin, Weiler and Mikulski are live on NASA TV right now to make the announcement on Hubble servicing mission number 4. And the winner is......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:58 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 30, 2006
Category: random
good old days......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 5:18 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Sean is on a roll Go read....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
DeLong explains why hexapodia is the key insight In a perfect world it'd be TeX on an Alpha, but a Mac will do. Fortunately Google Does No Evil....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:45 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
"...As the country drifts slowly to war" Update: Why do I keep hammering on the "paranoid Iran scenario"? Because I am worried that the decision to "take out" Iran has been made in DC, and that it is now merely...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:21 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Sweden. Denmark next. Not quite three Scandihoovian countries in three days, unless you count surface transits, but still... Sweden, though, is big. I had forgotten how big. And has changed in an interestingly subtle way....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:35 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 29, 2006
Category: random
Inaccurate in detail, and wishful. Cute, but real saints would have used C-17s and Chinooks, not B-2s(!?) and Apaches... Kinda gets your feet tapping....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 5:02 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 27, 2006
Category: science
What's the most underfunded scientific field that shouldn't be underfunded?......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:11 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
It is friday, but only the 20th of Oct - we anticipate our movements and ask the iPod now, the question that gots to be asked. Oh, mighty iPod - is there an "october surprise"? Whoosh goes the randomizer....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:52 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Apparently this trailer is too much for the delicate sensibilities of some of the main stream media, so I pass it along as a public service. It is funny, and sad. I'd go see the movie, if I ever...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 26, 2006
Category: academia
Interesting conversation at lunch today: topic was academic performance metrics and of course the dreaded citation index came up, with all its variants, flaws and systematics. However, my attention was drawn to a citation metric which, on brief analysis, and...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:54 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 24, 2006
Category: astro
We WILL Rock You Told you so. Brian May of Queen is a genuine rock star scientist Hm, I wonder if it is any good......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:15 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Here is the provisional membership list of the NRC review committee for the Beyond Einstein program Interesting bunch. Looks cosmology heavy to me....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:52 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
...in Iceland that is. Got in at about 6 am, the weather was lovely, a mild frost, and not too windy, just brisk. so I took the bus to town and walked to where I'm crashing. Very refreshing, just...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:20 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 20, 2006
Category: astro
Friday, rainy friday. We go back to the Fountain of All Wisdom, and ask the Mighty iPod a more refined question. Oh, Mighty iPod: are there gauge fields, hidden in the Standard Model, which show up as extra hair...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:40 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Thanks to iTunes "share inside the firewall" option, the graduate students can track my comings and going in real time. I guess I consider this a "feature" since I control sharing. The impact of the buttocks of a 12kg...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:34 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 19, 2006
Category: random
Prof Foland of nuclear mangos forward an interesting pointer. The US Navy's TACAMO ("Take Charge And Move Out") went active this week, with a little flurry of messages (scroll down to comment #71 if you want to see more detail)....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
There are a lot of news on the space science front: ranging from SETI's new "Sagan Center", through APL becoming a NASA field center to the "new improved National Space Policy, with Extra Classified Sections" I'm way behind, so go...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:34 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
I just realised that my House Band nominees (below) are all White Males. And that is even while forgetting to nominate Queen (for the astrophysics of course, and We Will Rock You). Zuska has a point... Er, AlphaBlondie anyone?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:53 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Apparently the SciBlings have determined that we need a House Band......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:37 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 17, 2006
Category: science
Iceland's Fisheries Minister has announced that commercial whaling will resume, with an initial quota of 30 minke whales and 9 fin whales. The minke page is somewhat inaccurate - the meat has been for sale for some years, and is...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:25 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 16, 2006
Category: academia
Astroprof ponders the imponderable. Semester is clearly in full swing out there... Read it and weep....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Magnitude 6.6 earthquake on Big Island. Sounds like Kona and Waikiki got the brunt of it. Anyone heard if there is damage on the mountain? All the telescopes ok? The Keck mountain web site seems to be down. UPDATE: sounds...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:02 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 13, 2006
Category: science
NY Times has article claiming US Air Force sources say they found radiological evidence for a nuclear explosion on overflights Tentative, but indicative. We may now find out whether Japan could literally build a nuke over a long weekend. They...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
The physical science carnival, Philosophia Naturalis Part Deux is out at Nonoscience See here for future carnivals...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Happy friday the 13th! We ask the Mighty iPod a more serious question for the occasion: Oh, Mighty iPod - are there gauge fields, hidden in the Standard Model, which show up as extra hair on astrophysical black holes,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:47 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 12, 2006
Category: random
Fourth Billy Bragg podcast is online here Ah, 1984, a Good Year. Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy segways to Brewing Up With Billy Bragg. He is also Live blogging his road tour.. Now I am really sorry...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: academia
From Dr B herself there is a wiki Academic Blog Portal Go browse, add yourselves, or Colbert the site, or something....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Interesting segment on Olbermann's show last night; another Bush Admin book expose is coming out on monday: "Tempting Faith" by David Kuo....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:40 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Who ordered that? A couple of years ago, Prof Buzasi at the US Air Force Academy, mentioned he had acquired a new toy......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:46 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 11, 2006
Category: astro
Had fun attending HEAD in San Fran last week. Came away with some impressions......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:49 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
Nuclear Mangos has a good summary and pointer set on North Korea and its nuke....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:22 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 10, 2006
Category: astro
As many of you know, the Beyond Einstein mission line is being sent to Thunderdome to see who survives a meeting of the Dreaded NRC Committee To Be Named At A Later Time. Apparently the mission teams may have...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
While in California, I went to the HEAD meeting (High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society) in San Francisco. Good fun, more on details later as I assimilate (even Phil couldn't properly live-blog the meeting - those...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:47 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 7, 2006
Category: science
It is almost midnight, and we seek guidance. Oh, mighty iPod one: is the Smith solution of the Navier-Stokes equations a true immortal solution of this legendary problem? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:29 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Short news in Nature says there is a claim for one of the Millennial Clay Problems Possible exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations by Penny Smith a Lehigh University. That would be a serious achievement if it holds up to...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:25 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
The SWEEPS survey of distant stars in the galactic bulge has finally announced their findings. They found 16 transiting "hot Jupiters" with the Advanced Camera for Surveys synoptic imaging of a field towards the center of the Milky Way....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Am at a meeting out west, with remarkably poor internet access given the location and sponsors. But good meeting nevertheless. But it keeps being interrupted by the Blue Angels, navy air show team, buzzing the hotel....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:39 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 3, 2006
Category: astro
The Academy has spoken, as expected the NASA COBE mission measurement of the cosmic microwave background won the Physics Nobel prize, with the award shared equally by John Mather at NASA Goddard and George Smoot at Berkeley...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:43 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
What is National Security Presidential Directive 31?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:42 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 2, 2006
Category: random
Earlier this year I was at a military ceremony. The keynote speaker was an active duty flag officer, in logistics. Good speech, humorous anecdote, solemn moment, look to the future... and in the middle he snuck in a somewhat...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 5:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
California. Again. It is raining. That is not right....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:22 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
