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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January 31, 2007
Category: astro
Congress today takes on an omnibus continuing resolution spending bill for 9 out of the 11 appropriations for the current fiscal year. The bill proposes to continue funding for agencies at the 2006 level, with all earmarks stripped out. PS:...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:10 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
There is absolutely no truth to the rumour circulated at coffee this morning that the failure of Hubble's Advanced Camera power supply was due to impact from pieces of a Chinese satellite I have, however, not been able to refute...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Big Boom....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:03 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 30, 2007
Category: astro
Neil de Grasse Tyson on The Daily Show now. He is very good. Jon is on form also....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:24 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2007
Category: astro
If you haven't been reading you e-mails, the Hubble call for proposals that expired last friday has been retroactively extended until Feb 9th so people can try to revise their ACS proposals to use WFPC2, or to edit out...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:27 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
HST ACS broken. This is not good. At all. May be an extended CfP to get some schedulable observations to complete the cycle.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 6:37 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Failure of the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. More soon.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:15 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 27, 2007
Category: random
Which science fiction author am I I am:Isaac AsimovOne of the most prolific writers in history, on any imaginable subject. Cared little for art but created lasting and memorable tales. Which science fiction writer are you? Uh oh. And here...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:30 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2007
Category: astro
Ok, so it is five proposals, not four... Three are in, one should be heading off any minute now, eh? And the last seemed to be in good shape. Could actually be done an hour or two early. Must resist...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 5:37 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Freezin' Friday, and we ask, most humbly, knowing that the answer is subject to the all too human vagaries of the Dreaded TAC: oh, Mighty iPod, what will the outcome of Cycle 16 HST call for proposals be? Whoosh...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
FireDogLake has been transcribing the "Scooter Libby trial" with lawyerly comments and snark. Worth glancing through, if you didn't know of it. And links are an intrinsic good, dontcha know....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:11 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
John Conway joins the CosmicVariance crowd and starts with a cliffhanger on The Hunting of the Higgs That is a very nice little bump at 148GeV Bit of a cliffhanger, but that is good, leave 'em begging for more. So...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:44 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2007
Category: astro
An astonishing Saturn composite image (warning: Very Large JPG) See CICLOPS for more...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:22 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
the 26th of January, 2007 at 8pm EST...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:50 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
The USS Reagan Carrier Strike Group is surging - it will forward deploy to the western pacific next week. That makes three. Caveat......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:50 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 24, 2007
Category: random
Jake still doesn't get it, I'll give Mike some credit and say he gets it, but he's been lucky. Taking children on planes is a problem; young children have short attention spans, are impatient and throw tantrums. Having taken...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:02 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2007
Category: random
Afarensis goes sappy...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:34 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Darren Barefoot wants people to Get a First Life. First life has kid pirates, these may occasionally try to travel on planes, much to the horror of people who are rapidly incurring bad kharmic debt. It is interesting in many...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:14 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
To recap: There is a claim that penzim, an enzyme extracted from cod intestines, has strong antiviral properties, and in particular is effective in killing the H5N1 virus in vitro The Times has a decent article on it...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:05 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Afarensis strikes back in the YouTube lazyblog war, with Black Sabbath's War Pigs...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:28 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2007
Category: random
oh dear...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Video flash forward...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:40 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
a flashback...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:29 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 20, 2007
Category: science
An Icelandic Company, Ensímatækni hf., is claiming that penzim - an enzyme isolated from cod intestines - has strong antiviral properties and kills H5N1 influenze viruses in vitro...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:36 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2007
Category: random
It is strange but true: when writing position papers for federal agencies, listening to a lot of old Icelandic punk is immensely useful for concentrating the mind... Anyway, 06.06.06. is clearly the best album of 2006, by far. Bubbi, if...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
There is a curious phenomenon in our general subject of study, which I have anecdotally noted over the years. Some sub-fields self-reinforce, people working in them are all very impressed with each other, they all think, or say, that...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
It is friday, already, in some time zones anyway, and I am entering my fourth day of being closely confined with rather too many of my dear colleagues for 10-12 contiguous hours at an undisclosed location... ...so, it must be...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:23 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 18, 2007
Category: astro
Ok, we did a press release at the AAS, it was basically rehash of the old Exotic Earth result from September, but with new improved simulations and a Real Paper (in press) to go with it this time. AAS press...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
First Hubble Fellowships awards are out, haven't heard how many were made. NSF Fellowships should be announced early/mid next week. I hear that Chandra selection cmt met and they hope to make offers next week. Rumour Wiki continues with...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:21 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 17, 2007
Category: random
President Bush did do a signing statement on HR 5631 - the 2007 defence appropriations bill Part of the President's Signing Statement: "Sections 8007, 8084, and 9005 of the Act prohibit the use of funds to initiate a special access...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:20 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
The Astrophysical Data System, sponsored by NASA, is hideously useful. It is, essentially, a searchable database of all the astronomical literature, of all time, with links to current and past papers (some current papers are behind subscription walls for fixed...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:19 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 16, 2007
Category: astro
GRBlog provides a handy live feed of the Gamma Ray Burst circulars - the GCN notices. Same bunch has the Texas Supernova Search online. Using ROTSE-III(b) to find optical supernovae, piggybacking on the gammar ray burst optical transient searches....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:42 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
The Astro Rumour Wiki page has gone hyperactive as rumours flood in. But, no word still of the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra Fellowships?! Getting late in the game. If you heard, comment, rumourmonger on the wiki, or e-mail me....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:30 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 14, 2007
Category: random
Global Security has a Iran "strike time line", including countdown clock to earliest possible time for strike, they think (seen on Gilliard's News Blog) So, er, what they say. They identify early Feb as the first opportunity, if Stennis moves...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:56 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 13, 2007
Category: science
I'm up anyway... Magnitude 8.1 +/- 0.2 earthquake off the Kurile islands in the north pacific. Tsunami warnings for east coast of Japan's northern island and for parts of Alaska. Parts of Russia and various islands also under a...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:37 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Watching Countdown rerun... I predict that the next budget passed by Congress affecting the armed forces, whether a continuing, supplemental or by agency, will have a very interesting, and possibly cryptic signing statement. Bush will use his signing statement...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:11 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 12, 2007
Category: random
Friday again? Too much. So, mighty iPod one, let us know is there bleached life on Mars? Whoosh goes the randomiser. Whoosh....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
I never knew Brian May wrote that... Via NASAwatch we find the following ..."We will find what we believe are the lowest priority half-billion dollars in content, and we'll extract it, across the agency," he says, stressing that does...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:40 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Prof Don Osterbrock, of the University of California at Santa Cruz former director of the Lick Observatory had a heart attack and passed away yesterday, Jan 11th 2007. There will be a shot remembrance at lunch today at UCSC, with...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:53 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 11, 2007
Category: random
The Baatan Expeditionary Strike Group (marines and amphibious assault ships) just formed up and is heading in the general direction of the mid-east; the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group is already in the Persian Gulf, routine rotation in theatre. The Eisenhower...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:40 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: academia
Astroprof stuck it out till the bitter end at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. Apparently it did not end well. The Convention Center staff took down everbodies' posters at lunch and piled belongings in the lobby. It...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:15 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 10, 2007
Category: astro
Jason Kalirai et al see stars within stars: a globular cluster system around a distant elliptical galaxy is seen in a Hubble image through the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397 Very cool....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:37 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Chandra data suggests Kepler's Supernova was actually a type Ia supernova...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
FASEB has put together a resource package to defend evolution and fight intelligent design. Seen in Science, Support Evolution Education is here...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:43 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: academia
Has any scientist managed 50 Nature papers?
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:21 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Life at the American Astronomical Society meeting, in Seattle, is interesting. In addition to the science and jobs and collaboration meetings, there is socialization and politicking. At some level, a fraction of the guiding input into multibillion dollar multiyear national...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:34 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Interesting American Astronomical Society meeting here in Seattle. The "big" result is undoubtedly the COSMOS collabortion release, although there were several other significant "big" results announced. Nothing earth shattering, so to speak, but that happens only every 2-3 years,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:19 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Does NASA really want to launch the Hubble servicing mission on 9/11? Maybe scheduling it then is the only way to guarantee it won't launch on that date...?...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:17 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: academia
Dr Alan Whiting writes some advice to young astronomers He also offers interesting commentary on doing astronomy. He can order marines around, navigate a cruiser through the straits of Hormuz, break Iranian crypotgraphy and do a PhD in theoretical...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
LISA had a booth at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle, handing out some very popular laser pointers - far superior to the competing Beyond Einstein mission concept team swag... In an idle moment, we built a GigaHertz...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:38 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 9, 2007
Category: astro
Ok, new Mac PhotoBooth works... This is the JWST full size mockup that Northrop brought to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. If things work out as promised I may get "JWST covered in snow" later today. Or not....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
From American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle: Keck has found three quasars near each other Normally we'd expect that this is the lensed image of a single quasar, but they have not been able to fit a lens model to...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:23 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Here at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seatthle, the very well organised Villanova crowd (who apparently just gave Sean a medal or something), have an intriguing paper on quiescence in α Cen A To cut a long story short,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Giant Star Burps: Story at 6 am Pretty thing go boom! soon....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 6:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
From American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle: Wheee... we have Hubble Press Release number 2 for 2007 ACS imaging of AU Microscopii showing 50-100 AU edge on debris disk....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Unexpectedly bright and visible in the west just after sunset, for a brief time....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:37 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Raja has discovered so many stars in Andromeda's halo, extending so far (half million light years, dood) that they had to give him an entire session. Yes, every talk in session 177 on tuesday has Raja Guhathakutra from UCSC as...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:24 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks