Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
August 29, 2009
Station Fire in La Canada down in SoCal looks to be getting a bit nasty.
Spectacular Evening Images from a Mt Wilson webcam - hope it is still there in the morning.
Fire/Evacuation map from LA Times
I hear JPL is closed over the weekend.
Better hope wind doesn't shift and pick up.
Oh, ok, grabbed…
August 27, 2009
The Photomixers are back, inspired by the Great Jupiter Impact of 2009 they reminisce in style.
August 27, 2009
Is it like standing unarmed in front of a column of tanks?
Or is it more like following someone blindly off a cliff into a pool whose depth you do not know?
Iceland knows.
Kaupþing was the largest of the Icelandic Investment Banks.
It grew by 500% in years, on paper at least.
They were inspired.…
August 21, 2009
Splendid Idea.
NYC cricket crawl.
Bring a bit of culture to the Big Apple.
I must say, though, I didn't think there'd be enough matches in NYC on a given day to make it worthwhile, even if you count limited over matches...
Make mine a Pimm's.
August 19, 2009
Interesting new paper coming out in Nature this week, presenting early scientific results from LIGO on the amplitude of stochastic gravitational radiation background of cosmological origin.
LIGO went into science operation a few years ago, achieving phase I design sensitivity at the end of that…
August 19, 2009
"...a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"
click to embiggen
with apologies to WB and PZ both.
The Great American Bubble Machine article is up on the Rolling Stone website.
Great rant.
August 17, 2009
" 1. Read a paper that has a mistake in it.
2. Write and submit a Comment, politely correcting the mistake...
3. Enjoy your Comment in print along with the author's equally polite Reply, basking in the joy of having participated in the glorious scientific process and of the new friends you've made…
August 13, 2009
never mind h'
it is the second derivative we like...
yes, I know it is pathetic, I got nothing
Unfortunately I know exactly what made me think of this.
Curse you C. Ford!
'though associating "Hair Cut 100" with the whole process is wholesome in a strange sort of way.
Ay ah ah ah ah ah
August 13, 2009
I don't know what made me think of this, but since it is on youtube...
Spizz Energi!
August 10, 2009
more occasional link fodder from the recent past
'cause y'know, linking is an inherent good
Jay Bookman reports on a editorial in the IBD which notes: "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K..."
"...where the National Health Service would say the life of this…
August 6, 2009
Google maps has a foreclosure map, of the entire United States.
h/t CR
map, which is apparently not entirely current, shows houses in foreclosure, owned by banks, or under notice of default.
It is awesome yet frightening.
View Larger Map
for example...
August 6, 2009
NASA's Kepler Planet Finding Mission makes its first discovery announcement.
Announcement on NASA TV, from www.nasa.gov at 2pm thursday 6th of August, 2009.
Now with figures and press release info.
UPDATE: Kepler Early Results Press Release.
And, they're off... the announcement, as rumoured is…
August 3, 2009
Interesting things happen when corrupt idiots wielding obsolete laws from colonial times meet modern technology and communication infrastructure...
As you know, Bob, Iceland has been having a bit of a "Banana Republic" moment.
In particular, we were shocked, shocked, to discover that when the…
August 2, 2009
A couple of years ago, during a cold snap in winter, I noticed my hands were getting acutely chapped, with cracking of the skin and bleeding.
I come from a cold climate, I had never had problems with cold weather before.
Ah well, thought I, getting old; too much time in California made me soft.
So…
July 30, 2009
As you may know, Landsbanki, one of the three former Icelandic commercial banks, left a few billion euros in uninsured deposits lying around, when it collapsed in ignomy.
Mostly in the UK and Netherlands.
The Dutch are getting irate about this...
For perspective, shortly after Landsbanki was…
July 29, 2009
apparently the 2010 department of defense appropriations bill is moving in congress, and someone wants to amend it, there should be a vote, I think.
Rep. Flake (R-Az) has offered 553 amendments to the bill
#1 Would prohibit funding for Enhanced Navy Shore Readiness Integration.
...
#556 Would…
July 28, 2009
The precise measurement of the microwave background fluctuations by COBE, followed by the tour de force "concordance cosmology" results of the WMAP mission combined with decades of data on large scale structure, clusters of galaxies and distance ladder calibrations, up to and including type Ia…
July 27, 2009
That is when a prominent psychic in Iceland predicts there'll be a major earthquake.
Specifically in the Krýsuvík area in the southwest.
This is an area where there have been some minor earthquakes recently.
Ok... we'll see in a few hours I guess.
Quantitative value of "major" is not specified.…
July 24, 2009
It is carnival time, and the hits just keep on coming...
40 years ago today, three astronauts in the command module Columbia, of the Apollo 11 mission, splashed down in the Pacific, having just come back from the Moon.
As one does.
Cheap Astronomy has the third in a series of Apollo 11 podcasts:…
July 23, 2009
Prof Henry Gates' account of his arrest
the police report
hm, lose a few billion from the endowment and all of a sudden there is no respect
the accounts are surprisingly consistent, but Prof Gates made one major mistake:
Skip, dood, you were in China and didn't stay for the eclipse!?!
what were…
July 22, 2009
there's a persistent urban legend out there, that the three body problem can not be solved
this, of course, is not true:
so when XKCD promulgates the myth, the time comes when a stand must be taken
click to embiggen
sigh.
The classical problem of the solution of the motion of three bodies, moving…
July 21, 2009
So, Jupiter has now been impacted twice in 15 years: first by Shoemaker-Levy/9 in 1994 and now by the mystery Wesley's Object.
So what?
And, why didn't we see this coming?
impact 1994 - click to embiggen
SL9 was a respectably sized comet, probably a few km across, and it was spotted more than a…
July 20, 2009
JPL scientists confirm new impact by a comet or asteroid on Jupiter using NASA infrared telescope in Hawaii. Independent confirmation by UC scientists using Keck telescope.
NASA's InfraRed Telescope Facility on Hawaii got near-IR images of the new dark spot on Jupiter.
As I speculated, a recent…
July 20, 2009
"My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo And he says
"Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?"
B.B.
I had…
July 20, 2009
yup, I'm doing a lot of these,
moon, high school, hard sci-fi and california among others
some randomly interesting stuff out there,
some of which I mean to blog about meself,
but real life interceded
click to embiggen
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Photographs Apollo landing sites - this is all…