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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June 30, 2007
Category: science
a question in one of the comments to the "Extreme Solar System" threads, was to the effect of - "when will the embargoed/unpublished stuff come out and the rest of us know"? well, depends......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:08 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Extreme Solar Systems conference wrapup
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:45 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2007
Category: random
We venture into the future to ask the Mighty iPod One - what IS going on with OJ287? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:39 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Still catching up on the Extreme Solar Systems conference......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:37 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Did I mention that I have been here a week and not got to the beach yet... One of the penalties of being an organiser. Of course I slept that one free afternoon, but that was after trying to...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:24 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Still at the Extreme Solar Systems conference in Santorini where it has cooled off a bit. One of the locals assures me this is the worst since the great heat wave of 1916 and that I should come back...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:58 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2007
Category: astro
I'm still working my way through my notes from day 1 of the conference... did I mention I have a lots of notes. Actually, by my count, half-way through day 3, I've seen four very interesting announcements that are embargoed,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:28 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Philosophia Naturalis 11 is up at Highly Allochthonous Good stuff....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
More planet news from the Extreme Solar Systems conference...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:04 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Lots of new and fun extrasolar planets
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 8:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Petros M. Nomikos conference center in Fira, Santorini is a very nice medium capacity facility (~ 200 for the main room, which we are filling) Well worth a visit, if you're planning a small meeting....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 27, 2007
Category: random
Iranian news agency is reporting that the Bushehr nuclear power station is going online in October 2007...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 7:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
the long rumoured planet candiate around a nearby white dwarf has finally been made public...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:17 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2007
Category: astro
The Extreme Solar System conference at Santorini is off with a bang! Number of announcements already in the first session, I'll catch up on the highlights later, and just give the, in my opinion, most interesting. The California-Carnegie-AAT group has...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:07 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
Ok, Santorini has broadband and WiFi We're on. I'll intermittently live blog the meeting as I can and if and when anything on particular interest comes up. And we're off, on time......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 25, 2007
Category: astro
ok, I confess, I am now lounging on a small mediterranean island...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:48 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 23, 2007
Category: random
Oldie but goodie from xkcd...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 4:01 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2007
Category: random
So, it will be friday, and we will ask: oh mighty iPod One - will we have robust detection of candiates for genuinely habitable extrasolar planets around nearby main sequence stars by 2010? And, if so, can you tell...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
The incoherent ponderer ponders the joys of doing physics as a professor at a research university......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:30 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2007
Category: random
Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:31 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
VPs office should not receive its funding if it is not part of executive branch
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2007
Category: astro
We expect to start finding habitable extrasolar planets any time now
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 19, 2007
Category: random
We could make anything legal which would be permissible to show on television.
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:50 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
Depends......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:43 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 15, 2007
Category: random
It is a lazy sunny friday, and we ask humbly, what excitement lies ahead, oh mighty iPod one? Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:54 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 14, 2007
Category: random
Note to self: when submitting NSF proposals through Fastlane - if you do a last minute revision then run LaTeX twice before generating the new PDF file, or the bibtex cross-cites break... ugly. Apparently the panel really hates that. Really,...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:33 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
EADS Astrium, the European conglomerate that builds the Ariane rockets has come up with a concept vehicle for suborbital flights...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 9:23 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 13, 2007
Category: science
House subcommittee on Science and Related Agencies has marked up its appropriations bill Looking good......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:51 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: astro
My earlier rumouring was false, I hear third hand that the NRC committee on Beyond Einstein has not consolidated their reporting and sent it to the NRC, they are having one more meeting right about nowish. Interesting. Still due...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:07 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 12, 2007
Category: random
There is a claim that the Russians have delivered the fuel for Iran's Bushehr reactor....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:44 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 11, 2007
Category: random
Joe P. is a busy boy. This is where he is living......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 2:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 8, 2007
Category: random
Stormy friday, which is weird, ought it not to be thursday... We approach the mighty iPod and ask, oh Mighty iPod One: is there a characteristic accretion signature of late stages of binary supermassive black hole mergers?, and is...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:27 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 7, 2007
Category: random
Good news is that the east coast Whole Foods are now carrying plain skyr...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:29 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 5, 2007
Category: random
The first ever tropical cyclone in history is about to hit the Gulf of Oman after which it makes landfall in Iran...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 11:21 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 4, 2007
Category: academia
The Incoherent Ponderer does a quick'n'dirty analysis of physics department rankings and how their graduates place. Shit scary stuff. Don't just look at the absolute numbers, look at the percentages......
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 1:25 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: academia
Prof Frank Douglas is resigning from MIT over the James Sherley tenure case...! Something tells me this story is not over yet....
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:44 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 2, 2007
Category: random
Joe P. is ok For PSU & xPSU: heard from him today, they're still out in hostile country and took some more casualties. He appreciates hearing from people, just casual chat stuff. More care packages wouldn't hurt either, he...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
Steve the News Blog Guy Gilliard has died He was one of the early and more passionate bloggers, he wrote well and often and provided interesting perspective and insight on many issues, in particular the war in Iraq. He...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 10:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 1, 2007
Category: science
It is ok to piss in the forest. It is natural, the bear behind you does it too, the plants need the water, and you're even recycling some valuable nitrogen and salt compounds. It is not ok for 8...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:55 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: random
It is a blue friday, somewhere, and we precognitively ask the Mighty iPod One as topical question of stellar importance, remembering that we have the reduced traveling set... So, oh mighty iPod One: what is the deal with pulsars...
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson at 12:16 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
