Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
May 24, 2010
I am visiting the lovely Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, again.
Last thursday we had an unusual occurrence, the ocean farted.
I am staying at the new visitors' cottages at Coal Point
- by the way, if you're the type to visit KITP, and a lot of you are, you know who you are... then I…
May 23, 2010
there are rumours that the well head at the seafloor at deepwater horizons blew out late sunday night and oil leakage increased significantly
see discussion at the Oil Drum
this is rather bad, if true
BP video link from remote operated sub
see also Monkeyfister blog - with lots of image screen grabs
May 23, 2010
The eruption in Eyjafjallajökull has abated and latest reports sunday show the vent closed and no ash or lava flow.
Míla camera shows small steam plume monday morning
The mountain is quiet, no earthquakes right now, nor any in Katla.
There have been many small earthquakes around Iceland, some in…
May 23, 2010
song by Tim Miller, for middle America
h/t < HREF="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/">CR
May 19, 2010
Graduate student at the University of California at Santa Barbara finds edge on transiting binary white dwarf system, with self-microlensing!
Ok, this is just way too cool...
artist conception - click for full res version
The modestly named NLTT 11748 is a dim helium white dwarf about 500 light…
May 18, 2010
It is not true that, after the failure to put a specially made "top hat" on top of Eyjafjallajökull to stem the ash plume, there will be an attempt to put a hose on top of the mountain to capture the ash;
rather an attempt will be made to inject a lot of golf balls (used, collected from Akureyri…
May 18, 2010
The KISS is running a mini-workshop at KITP on doing Exoplanet Science Measurements from Solar System probes.
There are a bunch of spacecraft up there, with a lot of instruments.
Many of them, especially the solar system probes, spend a fair amount of time in a quiet cruise phase, where…
May 17, 2010
you know how sometimes a bank will just decide that it didn't like how the original term of its loan worked out and it will just change the deal to something better?
They can do that, it is all in the fine print.
Now they've done it again
and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
See, in…
May 15, 2010
no more pencils
no more rules
congratulations!
sorry I can't be there...
May 12, 2010
Útrásar Víkingar - that is what we called them, the new Masters of the Universe who set forth from Iceland in the last decade to conquer the new world of finance.
As with their predecessors, once off-shore, their enrichment schemes ended up involving more looting and raping than maybe was really…
May 11, 2010
As you may recall, over 18 months ago Iceland lead the world into a minor financial crisis, with the rest of y'all toddling along later.
Now Iceland takes the lead again, as a Special Prosecutor issues some indictments and the perps start walking...
In the autumn of 2008 all three Icelandic…
May 6, 2010
Couple of new webcams checking on the volcano
it is stirring again.
click to embiggen
Hi Res vodafone.is webcam
New IR camera from mila.is
The ash cloud is getting back up into the atmosphere, so the jet stream can sweep it east, Europe can expect more airspace disruption.
In the meantime you can…
May 5, 2010
The verdict is out, the 2010 Senior Review Committee recommendation on the NASA Astrophysics old active missions; who will keep going, and who is recommended to get the chop.
It is an interesting list, with some interesting recommendations.
And the winners are...:
1. Planck - level funding for 30…
May 5, 2010
the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico is making a mess, but a lot of the numbers being bandied about make little sense
partly the problem is units, with news media freely exchanging barrels per day with gallons per minute and rates with integrals
I am but a…
May 4, 2010
There's a lot of kerfuffle about Steve Jobs recent screed on why Flash is bad and must be blocked from our iApples
The screed on Flash
I actually sorta kinda agree with Steve here.
Crap flash is definitely the thing most likely to hang the computer or crash a browser on Apple lines, and it is…
April 29, 2010
What Chuck Norris can never do.
The question whose answer is 42
Who the jams are and why we must kick them out
The axioms of physics
Whether Hissing Sid was guilty
Whether P=NP
How 7/3 arises in Navier-Stokes theory
The bin you can never choose from
Whether to be or not to be
W'
Our place in the…
April 29, 2010
NASA loses a balloon in the outback
The Nuclear Compton Telescope (PI Boggs at UCB's SSL), a soft γ-ray telescope designed for balloon launch, observations in the stratosphere, and recovery, crashed because of a wind gust during an attempted launch in Australia earlier today.
ABC News (Oz) on…
April 26, 2010
Beware the pig-like Kanamit.
It's a cookbook!
The real problem is that nobody reads the literature anymore.
There are many Solutions out there, no matter how screwy
Next thing someone will come up with the clever solution to the Fermi Paradox that they have become too introspective and just play…
April 22, 2010
Well, Eyjafjallajökull is bubbling along nicely, there is still some ash coming out, but not high enough to carry as far, and less of it.
And the wind is turning, so tomorrow Icelandic airports will close as the ash comes back west across the country.
There is also a curiousity on the ice cap above…
April 20, 2010
Cal Sate Budgetpocalypse - Dr Free-Ride blogs on CSU San Jose State near term situation.
Shocking Fraud From Financial Scum - MarkCC rips into the Squid.
See, it is like this: Goldman Sachs organized a league, they then talked to a gambler and expedited a bribe to the ref to arrange for a game to…
April 20, 2010
Comedy Channel went wild on Iceland last night.
For those who could not stay up late...
Kevin? Kevin!?
No, call him "Tim", Mighty Tim
If you must.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Volcanolypse 2010
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor…
April 18, 2010
Pretty pictures galore this weekend
facebook video from Norðurflug - helivideo upwind from the volcano
NASA's Aqua MODIS
Between Heaven and Hell - fb - extraordinary images from Náttúra Íslands
Cool ITN footage from April 19th
Don't forget to head for Eruptions for all things volcanic - good…
April 18, 2010
Icelandic radio is reporting that the eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has shifted gear this morning, possibly down a notch, in a good way.
For now.
The explosive ash eruption from the volcano seems to have abated - there is still ash but right now not being flung up into the stratosphere where the…
April 16, 2010
The Finnish Air Force got some F-18s into an ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull.
Far, far from the source, somewhere over Europe.
They then checked the engines with a boroscope.
This is why you don't fly turbojets through volcanic ash plumes.
Glassy pumice flakes meet metal turbine at 900 km/h.
From…
April 16, 2010
You are not superstitious, are you?
Eyjafjallajökull - from the air is it clear that there are three craters in the caldera.
click to enlarge
The mind does some great interpolative associative processing ;-)
Image is radar, from an Icelandic coastguard plane.
The craters are 200-500m across. For…
April 15, 2010
There is a webcam from vodafone at the northwest side of the volcano - it caught the onset of the major flooding this evening
Popup images - click to enlarge.
Before:
14:02 local
During:
19:04 local
After:
19:19
after that there appears to be some haze obscuring the view...
PS: aftermath
13:…
April 15, 2010
Flash flood alert at Markárfljót and Fljótshlíð in Iceland.
The real flood is finally here...
Almannavarnir (Civil Defence Authority) in Iceland has issued a general urgent evacuation alert for Fljótshlíð - a scenic farming area southwest of Eyjafjallajökull due to major flooding.
Gígsjöull…
April 14, 2010
After a brief hiatus during which the first two fissuers at Fimmvörðuháls closed, the main caldera at Eyjafjallajökull let rip early in the morning of April 14th.
ash plume through the clouds - from visir.is - click to embiggen
There was a jökulhlaup - wish I could have been there with…
April 14, 2010
Calculated Risk takes on Iceland's Black Report
read the comments.