Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
February 19, 2010
The Aspen Center for Physics is holding its annual series of winter workshops, with the final, double sized workshop being on the astrophysical topic of Black Holes.
Aspen Center for Physics
Yes, I am there, organizering, Daniel Holz from CV is also here, along with 100+ other luminaries, and,…
February 7, 2010
There was a truly weird advert or contributed op-ed on the radio a couple of days ago.
Some conservative anti-tax guy, and a left-wing editor had joined in calling for a US "Question Time", a la the UK "Question Time" in Parliament.
ie the President doing questions and answers with Congress,…
February 7, 2010
Why do the gods keep interfering in football championships?
And which gods?
I'd think Loki, by default.
But Manning's throw away really smells of Ãðinn - he always had a macabre sense of humour about bringing down established fighters through mischance or misjudgement.
'cause, y'know, when…
February 7, 2010
The Yorkshire Ranter analyses the Climate Research Unity coverage in your friendly neighbourhood grauniad.
Robert P. points us to an analysis of the crack itself - kinda blah. Basically trawling through a misconfigured server by a script kiddie.
February 5, 2010
Newish super trendy band out of Iceland.
Jazzy math music with touch of heavy rock.
Or so I was told.
Album is "Lightbulb Universe"
Eyes of a Cloud Catcher at the Weird Girls Project
Above These City Lights
live - yup, they also rock
You can fan them on facebook
February 4, 2010
Penn State has released the preliminary conclusions of its inquiry into the purloined e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
Dr Free-Ride provides an excellent discussion
PSU story on the internal inquiry
Full report (pdf)
In the meantime, the Grauniad reports…
February 2, 2010
Ok, peeps, time to 'fess up - pseudonymously
what are people doing with grad admissions?
I'm hearing contradictory stories: some places claim to be doing normal admissions, but some of those same places have also lost TA slots, I hear; I know some places are cutting admissions, by factors of 2…
February 1, 2010
been a while since l looked to see what is out there, but here is a smattering of recent blog stuff that caught my attention
'cause linking is good
The Spirit of XKCD - admit it, you cried!
Systemic looks at the Kepler planets announced at AAS
Milky Way mapped in the style of the London…
February 1, 2010
NASA 2011 budget is out, and with it the new 5 year plan.
It is drastic, bit more so than I expected.
Short version: Constellation is dead, Dead, DEAD!
Ares I, Ares V and Orion are shut down. ~ $10 billion thrown away, again, with nothing to show for it, again.
More money,
I'll backfill the…
January 28, 2010
Another loss to cosmology, as Geoff Burbidge dies at 84.
Geoff Burbidge was a major figure in the early days of cosmology.
Best known for his B2FH paper on stellar nucleosynthesis, he later became an advocate of Steady State Cosmology with Fred Hoyle, and aggressively skeptical of the…
January 23, 2010
Andrew Lange RIP.
Andrew Lange - story at Cosmic Variance
Lange's "How DId the Universe Begin" Segre Distinguished Lecture at Berkeley Nov 2009.
Lange's 2004 KITP talk on "Future Directions in Cosmic Microwave Background Observations"
Audio/Web Cam
January 22, 2010
The buzz is on - the New Apple Mega Must-Have is to be announced next friday,
and we exclusively reveal:
the iSlap!
The App that gives instant feedback to your blog commenters.
Developed after desperate physics sciencebloggers triggered their highly trained social networks as the Two Culture…
January 20, 2010
why are there no cats in Middle Earth?
No, the nine cats of Queen Berúthiel don't count
why are there no household or companion cats in the primary texts?
Hrmph.
January 17, 2010
signs of the times at the MLA
There are, currently, 73 faculty level positions gossiped about on the Astrophysics Jobs Rumour Mill - this seems a bit low, even considering we are mid-season and not all jobs will be wiki'd yet.
As a non-random sample, I looked at the 2006-7 season and there were…
January 17, 2010
hey y'all - where have the Hubble Fellowships gone?
Einstein has announced (congratulations to the winners)
- the Hubble committee met, I'm told
so where are the offers?
Inquiring minds gots to know.
the rumour mill is grinding and needs some grist
January 12, 2010
Apple offers a "login picture", and on many of my accounts I have a selection of astronomical pictures to choose from, rather than the default set.
Mostly HST images, natch.
So... one evening, sitting on the sofa cuddled up with the laptop, the Dynamic Wife leans over and says: "what's that then…
January 7, 2010
The primary reason to go to the big annual society meetings is, of course
the hot science results
networking for jobs
schmoozing with your peeps
The Swag!
Yes, that is why we go.
The NASA Space Calendars, the Hubble Mission buttons, the institutional logo USB sticks, the 3-D bookmarks, and, of…
January 6, 2010
more invaluable science nuggets and pretty pictures
The Galileoscope is a very cheap but functional 50mm astronomical refractor kit for introducing kids to optical observing; NB PRICE GOES UP NEXT WEEK!
They can also be donated - through an online click.
But, now Ric and Jean Edelman of Edelman…
January 6, 2010
Infrared sky survey spacecraft WISE releases first light image
few square degrees in Carina
it is gorgeous
full res here
Ned's WISE
NASA WISE
I'll put up a copy of the image soon as I can - only have a printed copy right now in the mean time click through.
January 6, 2010
more assorted science results from AAS
Jimmy Irwin et al (UoM) has a Chandra x-ray source in an extragalactic globular - and they have Magellan spectra.
Surprise! No H lines.
There is O and N - WTF is N emission doing there?
Suggestion is that it is a white dwarf tidally disrupted by an…
January 6, 2010
Random snippets from the AAS.
My apologies - a lot of this is press release fodder you can find on any random science aggregator or pop-sci blog.
I usually prefer to find my own topics and news to write about, but I was busier than usual with real life and crap, so I will channel the highlights,…
January 5, 2010
helvítis fokking fokk!
this is why you should never go with the 2.0 - always wait for 2.1
so, er, funny thing happened...
the Icelandic President vetoed the law passed by Alþingi right at the end of 2009. The one that acceded to all UK and Dutch demands in the IceSave fiasco.
This is a first.
As…
January 5, 2010
time to check in on the Sun, eh?
hey, there is a little black spot on the sun today (click to embiggen)
but it is very little.
We are now in a somewhat unusual protracted and low solar minimum - the Sun has cycled, the few small spots seen have reversed from the previous cycle - but this is…
January 5, 2010
Prof. Sion and collaborators at Villanova think they have found a genuine progenitor system for type Ia supernova, in our neighbourhood, in the Milky Way.
Type Ia supernovae are thermonuclear detonations of white dwarfs which acquire more mass, somehow, and go over the Chandrasekhar limit (about 1…
January 5, 2010
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden addressed a packed room filled with anxious astronomers at lunch today.
It was interesting, both in what he said and in what was omitted.
I'll get to actual science at the AAS Real Soon Now , so more politics in the meantime.
Bolden's talk was primarily a scripted…
January 4, 2010
The annual AAS meeting opened up with the award of the van Biesbroeck Prize of the society to Father Dr George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory.
The van Biesbroeck Prize is for extraordinary service to astronomy, in particular his role organizing the Vatican Observatory Summer…
January 4, 2010
liveblogging the AAS...
It is freezing in DC, but at the Marriott hotel across from the National Zoo the action is hot and heavy as 3000+ astronomers swarm to the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
This is for the 7 astronomers who phoned it in, literally in one case, you know…
January 3, 2010
PSU Prof. Mike Gooseff liveblogs from the Antarctic...
Gooseff on the Ice
liveblog from an antarctic expedition, primary audience is a Kindegarten and 2nd grade class in State College.
It is very cool...
Apparently the McMurdo station just held "Icestock", with headline funk band "Porn Spill"…
January 2, 2010
European Commission has produced a gorgeous map of global accessibility to cities.
gem: Global Map of Accessibility
Click to embiggen
Here is map with legend (click to embiggen)