Dynamics of Cats

three-peat

Category: astro

Neil de Grasse Tyson on the Colbert Report tonight. Third time. Talking Gliese 581 and "Night at the Planetarium" - the sequel. Excellent....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:40 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

fair cop

Category: astro

What is a fair non-science criterion for changing proposal funding priorities?...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:51 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

is it just me, or is it becoming genuinely hard to find a finite priced trans-atlantic flight this summer? to anywhere over the pond. I've done a fair bit of travel on these routes over the years and I...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:47 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Don't look directly at Margaret

Category: astro

This is what happens when astronamers mix up the paperwork.

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:35 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

elegance in foreign policy

Category: random

Russia has suspended its compliance with the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe over the issue of US forward based missile defence systems...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:48 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

World Bank Science Diluted

Category: science

Finanicial Times story on Wolfowitz aide trying to take out references to climate change in World Bank report via Brad deLong...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:28 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

iPod iChing - Wazzup with COROT Bro?

Category: random

Early stormy friday, and we ask the Omniscient iPod to prognosticate What will we hear from the early COROT discovery announcement due any day now? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:34 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Philosophia Naturalis #9

Category: astro

Philosophia Naturalis #9 is up at Science and Reason Lots of good stuff....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

NASA and political vulnerabilities

Category: science

Was NASA science funding redirected for party political purposes leading up to the 2004 or 2006 elections?...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:10 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

not fair?

Category: science

Shelley at Retrospectacle ran into a corporate tangle of moronicity to cut a long story short, she used a figure from a paper in discussing the article, which seems to be clear "fair use", and got a lawyer letter from...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:19 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

perspective

Category: academia

In 2005, Jon Stewart, who, may I say, is a comic genius and one of the top two or three deliverers of media news to the US populace, was paid $1.5 million for his work. In 2006, Mather and...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:49 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

systemic planet finding

Category: astro

if you want to help find planets, in the comfort of your home (as opposed to staying up all night on cold clear winter evenings), there is a place that you can go......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:56 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

told you so

Category: astro

we predicted Gliese 581 might have a planet in the habitable zone?!

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:51 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Golden Dragons

Category: astro

2nd Battalion, 14th Regiment, 10th (Light) Infantry Division Busy folks....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Planet in the Zone (Breaks Embargo)

Category: astro

The Swiss-French planet hunter team have a new interesting discovery. A low mass "super Earth" in a potential habitable zone. Nature news story UPDATE: Details are up on the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia and Udry's web page and here is the...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:51 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

spin

Category: random

do minor errors ruin good books?...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:58 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

100,000,000,000

Category: science

One hundred billion. One hundred thousand million. That is a lot, in most contexts. Astronomical even. Apparently, if you ask nicely, know the right people, you can have it, in cash. US dollars. Off budget, no questions asked, no supervision,...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:11 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

in search of the perfect hotel

Category: academia

it may be immodest, but there are a small number of things a hotel should do to achieve perfection......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:52 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

AGILE launch

Category: astro

AGILE - Italian gamma ray observatory, like a faster, lighter GLAST - launched successfully...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

pet food gone bad

Category: science

The toxic pet food problem is not going away...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:38 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

NASA: we hear that...

Category: astro

The Astrophysics division at the Science Mission Directorate has been renamed and has a new director....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:07 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

iPod iChing - what is the harm?

Category: random

Oh, mighty iPod, it is a sunny, scary friday, and we ask hubmly: is dark energy really bad for astronomy? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

unintended consequences pt 2

Category: random

The humble 35mm film is rapidly vanishing, vanquished by ever improving digital cameras. But, in the process we're losing an invaluable resource:...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:19 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

la, la, la

Category: astro

Well, I got out of DC ahead of the latest Weather Channel paroxysm. Since I am now apparently a minor agent of chaos with deistic powers, I confidently predict snow in Happy Valley tonight. Pasadena is as lovely as...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:24 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Well, knock me over with a feather...

Category: astro

Gravity Probe B reports its first results at the APS meeting......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:16 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Reagan is going home

Category: random

USS Reagan is headed home...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:29 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

iPod iChing - early prognostications

Category: random

In view of the weather, we ask the iPod: wazzup iPod? Anything exciting coming our way? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Murphy's Supernova

Category: astro

I confidently predict when the next galactic supernova will take place......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:06 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Vonnegut RIP

Category: random

Kurt Vonnegut RIP Dratt....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:56 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

arXiv mining: day 100

Category: astro

More than one paper per day is being submitted on dark energy

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:04 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Sun Kings

Category: astro

In the autumn of 1859, the Earth was hit by a massive coronal ejection from the Sun. Aurora flared worldwide, compasses went wild and the telegraph system crashed....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:09 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

she's baaack

Category: random

Björk held an outdoor concert monday night to introduce her new album, Volta...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:07 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

"And the sun came up this morning"

Category: random

An ode to Princeton Professors: Don't try this at home......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A modest offer

Category: random

Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton makes a bold suggestion in the Daily Princetonian:...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:22 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

where to now?

Category: random

The aircraft carrier USS Reagan and its Carrier Strike Group have concluded 7th fleet operations...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:56 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

do they know what they like?

Category: science

'cause it is not art? The WaPo did something interesting:...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:43 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

an imminent crisis in astronomy

Category: astro

über, duper; hyper, super!...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 6:52 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Baghdad, Indiana

Category: random

"like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime"...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 3:28 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

iPod iChing - to infinity and beyond

Category: random

Oh Good, Friday it is then. By special request, here in the urban area in which the true scientific miracle of the oracular omniscience of the iPod was first revealed, we ask a burning question: which of the Beyond...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:52 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Beyond Einstein IV: Showdown in Chicago

Category: astro

The National Research Council's Assessment Committee for the Beyond Einstein program had a townhall meeting here in the Windy City. Much to my surprise, I was there also....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:53 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

planning

Category: academia

bloomin' heck, it is snowing!...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:46 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Bushehr Installed

Category: random

Iran claims Bushehr nuclear power station is "logistically complete"...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:48 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A Chief Scientist

Category: astro

John Mather is head of the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Pet Food, Gluten and Food

Category:

The poisoned pet food story keeps getting bigger and more worrying. Pretty clear that some food grade (as opposed to feed grade) wheat gluten was in the contaminated batch and that the FDA is worried it got into the human...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:03 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Bee CCD

Category: science

Apparently Bee hives are suffering massive die offs in parts of the US...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:45 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

arrogant astronomers

Category: astro

It seems likely astronomers are the most arrogant of academia!...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:37 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

High School Sex Networks

Category: academia

Bee at Backreaction points to a use for graph theory...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:19 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Spinning Yarns

Category: astro

In honour of the occasion, Sean decided to poke the string theory pile It is an interesting thread, including the comments....

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:08 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

playing in the sandbox

Category: academia

My student just got deployed to Iraq.

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:14 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

now they just have to figure a way to monetize it...

Category: random

I think I finally figured what is going on with Iran and the hostages and the nuclear fuel and the aircraft carriers......

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:45 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

life in a small town

Category: random

I don't know which is more annoying - seeing blue & maize clad athletes carrying another enormous trophy away from Penn State on the plane (well, two, actually, apparently, for men and women's gymnasts); or the fact that it even...

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Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

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