Powder Day
Category: astro
Aaaaarrrrrgghhhh! Powder Day declared with 24 inches of fresh powder!...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:02 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Dynamics of Cats
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.
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Working for an analytic exactapproximate solution to the herding problem
Recent Posts
- Senior Review
- NAS Assessment of NAI
- iPod iChing - magna ras
- Joe Pa under weather
- wandering anagram stars
- Carnival of Space #54
- special comment
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Blogroll
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Scientists:
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Other Information
So you want to be an astrophysicist?
Random info.
The Old Dynamics of Cats blog
Old Favourites:
- Global warming on Mars? (or here, here, or here)
- WMAP for Dummies
- Fractal Dust, LEDs and Cracks in the Cosmos
- On The Proper Subject Order in High School
- Iranian Nukes: Plain Language version
- Imminence of the Eschaton
- Chasing the wrong variable
- Triumph of Evil
- Getting cold gets you colds
- What to do...
- Hæstaréttarmálaflutningslögmannsvinnukonuútidyralyklakippuhringurinn
- Bird 'flu for theorists
- The More You Write, The More You Write...
- King of Tambora
- Goethe's Revenge
- Food for Fighting - in praise of Skyr
- Is this going to be on the test?
November 29, 2006
Predicting Meme Speed
Category: academia
Acephalous is trying to measure meme speeds, but we are theorists, dammit, a model prediction is needed! So what is the asymptotic speed of a free small meme in the wild web?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:58 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Astrobiology: Student Primer
Category: astro
Astrobiology journal is making available for free the recently compiled Student Primer for Astrobiology Aimed at graduate students or advanced undergrads. It is good. Full text (79 pages) PDF link...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:17 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Astronomy from the Moon
Category: astro
The Astrophysics Enabled By the Return to the Moon Workshop is on right now at the Space Telescope Science Institute. It is webcast (link above)....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Hall of Haraldr Hárfagri
Category: academia
Archeologists think they have found the ruins of the Great Hall of King Harald I Fairhair (Haraldr Hárfagri) at Avaldsnes in west Norway. It was the site of the halls of local chieftans and then the Kings of Norway...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:43 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Huh?
Category: science
What's the funniest lab accident you've ever had?......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:49 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 28, 2006
Who Wins
Category: random
For some strange reason the book I grabbed for the latest travel is a paperback of "Who Dares Wins", Geraghty's anecdotal account of Special Air Service (UK) history from 1950 (Malaya) to 1982 (Falklands) and the regiment's involvement in...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:41 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
the cost of doing business
Category: random
The US consumes about 385 million gallons of motor gasoline per day...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:29 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
NCAA athletic moves
Category: academia
In US college sports half the teams lose each time a game is played. This is recipe for frustration for supporters who expect teams to win.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 5:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
this is a test
Category: random
Chad spreads contagious concepts. if this were a real meme you would now be getting ideas Acephalus wants data on meme propagation speeds through blogs for the MLA. Read, link and accelerate. Don't want to be a deadender, now...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:04 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 27, 2006
science, death and existential string theory
Category: science
The physical sciences enable killing. That is their core realism, that scientific knowledge is real in so far as it can be applied to kill.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:44 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 25, 2006
A physics murder
Category: science
As widely reported, Polonium 210 was used to murder former russian spy Litvinenko...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:39 PM • 11 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
November 24, 2006
iPod iChing - LHC
Category: random
Yikes, thank Thor it is friday! We stay on topic, and ask the mighty iPod: oh Mighty iPod, will the LHC find anything interesting beyond the Standard Model, like a nice Higgs particle or two? Whoosh goes the randomizer....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:47 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 23, 2006
Cold Pizza
Category: random
Something to be thankful for this thanksgiving......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:12 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 22, 2006
Winter is coming
Category: random
Winter will be here soon, I hear rumours it has already come to parts of the south and west, and it definitely arrived in Iceland. Iceland in winter requires some effort, but we have come up with some useful...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:55 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Billy Bragg podcast 5
Category: random
5th Billy Bragg podcast is up, the Miners' Strike...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
complex waveforms and heterotic tubes
Category: astro
YouTube offers another classic physics demo, the Rubens Tube...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:35 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 20, 2006
on the proper use of tasers
Category: random
State College is a small town, it is also a university town. Not exactly your high crime area. So, statistically, the scum who took the Munchkins' slide from our front yard after the game on saturday night were probably...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
scarlet fever?
Category: science
I'm hearing anecdotal reports of incidents of scarlet fever locally. Anyone know of cases around US or Europe, some place other than North Korea?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:15 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Dark Energy Models
Category: astro
"Dark Energy" is a parametric phenomenological model within the framework of General Relativity. It is used because it is testable, quantitative and has some minimal physical motivation, not because it is acknowledged to be The Right Model or Philosophically Superior.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:56 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 17, 2006
Higher Educationalism
Category: academia
That reminds me... Rob Weir tells us to mind our manners. I actually blew a conf proceedings deadline, and the extension, for a review paper for the first time this year. I had a good excuse, but still... Freedom! Apparently...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:47 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Dangers of Blogging
Category: astro
Congratulations Sean! Best of luck Jennifer!...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:02 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
iPod iChing - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark
Category: astro
Friday again, and we approach the Mighty iPod with a serious astronomical question: Oh, Mighty iPod - to the extent that the universe is well represented by an FRW like model, homogenous and isotropic and currently dominated by a...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:27 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 15, 2006
Spectrophotometricbolometricpolarimitry
Category: astro
Rob is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tramline 3 smells of pee
Category: random
Dedicated to those doing their NSF proposals today...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:56 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Walking on Water
Category: science
Non-Newtonian Fluids are a wondrous thing. Excellent YouTube entry...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Good use of the passive voice
Category: random
Cohen of the Washington Post find it refreshing that Stephanopoulos was shocked by Bush's direct lie about Rumsfeld before the election. It is shocking how rarelyoften, and how selectively, the Washington political establishment and leading media figures casually accept blatant...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:34 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
two of the 'Rs ain't bad
Category: academia
Emily Yoffe at Slate worries she is a Math Moron, as she takes a Kumon course to stay ahead of her daughter in primary school (via Thorsett). This is a good article that highlights some of the issues and...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:29 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 14, 2006
Dark Energy
Category: astro
The following are the competing mission concepts for the JDEM (Joint Dark Energy Mission) launch slot:...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:06 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
homegrown terror
Category: random
Making Light incisively dissects the link between homegrown terrorists and bad science fiction Read it. For fair and balanced coverage, remember that aQ allegedly can be translated as "foundation"......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:40 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Advice to my friends
Category: astro
Over the next few months, the future of astrophysics in space for the next decade may be set. It ought to be a rational process (hah!), and it ought to be based on fully symmetric information... Most of all,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:28 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
bite
Category: random
Fresh, local grown sweet organic apples from the Farmer's Market: $2.75 Grabbing one this morning for lunch, to find the Munchkin has taken exactly one small bite from every single apple: Priceless...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:30 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Don't PANIC!
Category: random
According to a Grauniad headline, of all papers, al Qaeda is determined to nuke Britain. They just need a bomb, and a way to get it there, and someone who actually knows how to set it off. And a pony....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:05 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 13, 2006
Keep watching NASA
Category: astro
Two not unrelated pieces on NASAwatch...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:33 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Beyond Einstein Review
Category: astro
Science and Reason has a good summary on the ongoing Beyond Einstein review at NASA...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:23 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Philosophia Naturalis #3
Category: science
Philosophia Naturalis #3 went up at Geek Counterpoint last week. Good stuff....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:21 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 10, 2006
A Song for Sci Blogs
Category: random
Things you learn at 37,000 feet. Muse has a song titled "Supermassive Black Hole"....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
iPod iChing - guidance
Category: random
Oh boy, a jet lagged friday. So we ask the migthy one an easy one. Wazzup? Tell us, oh Great iPod - whence now, scientifically and generally? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 7, 2006
Such talent should not be wasted
Category: random
So, today is election day, in the USA. In case you hadn't noticed. Unusually enough, polls predict some actual incumbents may be voted out, which I must say is rather unusual, if not outright undemocratic. Question is: if this comes...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:49 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 6, 2006
seatbelts on buses
Category: random
Study says seat belts would make buses safer...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:27 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lost PALs
Category: science
Claim USB sticks stolen from Los Alamos may have contained arming codes for nukes.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:50 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Most effective use of new funding?
Category: science
which science fields could rapidly produce more science results if given a sudden increase in funding?
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Orderly Withdrawal: NSF Astronomy Senior Review is Out
Category: astro
The National Science Foundation Senior Review of Astronomy is out, now Read 'em and weep....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:47 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 5, 2006
Remember, remember
Category: random
the 5th of November The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:33 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
science underfunding
Category: science
Ok, seriously, what are the most underfunded fields in science?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:33 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
End of Medicine
Category: random
Andy Kessler is a techie. Engineer, financial analyst and fund manager. He is rich, successful and semi-retired, by the looks of it. He also ran into the US health care system, a fairly gentle bump I must say, and...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:56 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 4, 2006
End of whaling in Iceland
Category: random
On tuesday Hvalur HF announced that the whaling ship Hvalur 9 was back in harbour and that the fin whaling season is over for the year. Seven fin whales were struck and landed, out of a quota of nine...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:42 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
War on Science
Category: science
SciBling Chris Mooney has written an interesting book: The Republican War on Science. I finally got around to reading it, just in time, as it were....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 3, 2006
iPod iChing - vote for we
Category: random
Just in case, we do our weekly iPod iChing early with a schedule friday publication... a sort of prescient omniscience. We will also see how we do with a sharply restricted library selection, this might stretch the iPod's powers...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:18 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
November 2, 2006
Computing Issues
Category: science
Nice article by MarkCC on why C sucksis not efficient for numerically intensive applications - looks like that's an even better way to get comments and readers than the old "dis String Theory" trick. Chad has a pointer to...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Mac RIP
Category: random
Wah. My poor li'l ol' laptop has a 15 degree bend in it. Right between the battery slot and the DVD drive. We were setting up for a talk, of course, and to connect the speakers I moved the...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:04 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
