Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
July 19, 2009
is it similar to the ones from yesteryear?
Could Jupiter have just been hit by a sizable comet?
Again?
Anthony Wesley at 15:54 UT from Australia.
Notes new dark spot near Jupiter's south pole.
Morphologically similar, in visible, to chain of spots seen after the Shoemaker-Levy/9 impacts
from…
July 14, 2009
Congratulations to SpaceX
Falcon 1 from SpaceX launched successfully on July 13th.
Launch placed Razaksat (Malaysian reconsat in near equatorial orbit) in orbit.
If the Falcon 9 maiden flight is successful later this year, or soon thereafter, well then we are really talking.
July 14, 2009
Frabjous day.
Marchons, marchons!
A major financial institution announces, at last, it has become profitable again
This is rather good since Goldman Sachs allegedly had their proprietary high frequency trading code stolen.
This was very serious, since, according to the prosecutor, the code could…
July 10, 2009
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had…
July 7, 2009
``The King with half the East at heel is marched from land of morning;
Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air,
And he that stands will die for nought, and home there's no returning.
The Spartans on the sea-wet rock sat down and combed their hair.''
Full text of letter…
June 29, 2009
This is going to hurt...
Not a lot of people know it, but the Pennsylvania State University is not the State University of Pennsylvania - along with Pitt, Temple and Lincoln, we have long existed in a mixed state, oscillating gently between the private and state eigenstates, maximizing uncertainty…
June 26, 2009
Did I mention I am catching up on some stuff?
I came across some interesting bits in Science recently:
Icelandic sheep really are special - we always knew this, nice to see it confirmed by modern science... (free abs)
Nice article on horse colour selection in same issue
Decent discussion on NASA…
June 26, 2009
I'm kinda behind on this blogging thing, but here's some stuff other people have done to amuse y'all
Abtruse Goose - like xkcd good
Lord of the Finances - a First Draft - like this good
More simplified finanical truths - it is ok, really, it is not like Goldman Sachs would destroy the US economy…
June 25, 2009
Icelander responds to housing and car loan crisis in classical style
for a berserker
from IceNews
and he did it on independence day.
I keep telling you, Iceland is just way ahead of everyone else!
RUV news item
Article in visir.is
ok, here it is in english from icenews
with video
60 something,…
June 25, 2009
does this thing still work?
some mood music
foreshadowing....
tomorrow will be fun
June 21, 2009
Prof. Steinn, now that you have spent six months as a member of KITP, what will you do next?
Me?
I'm going to Disneyland!!!
Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
June 19, 2009
NASA has announced the selection of the Small Explorer Missions for the current round of competition.
And the winners are...
The Small Explorer class missions are small (under $105 million including MODA but excluding launcher) fast science missions, there was a competition for two slots, with six…
June 17, 2009
As I was strolling through town a few weeks ago, I saw a flyer advertising a talk on campus by Prof. Barbara Oakley, talking about her book "Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend"
I couldn't go to the talk, due to a conflicting engagement,…
June 15, 2009
The Order Of The Science Scouts Of Exemplary Repute And Above Average Physique has new mo' better badges
since I am a long standing member of ootssoeraaap, I need to update:
I get it all right... ok, some might argue, but you gotta call it as you see it
I need to get to LEVEL III here…
June 12, 2009
if research universities moved to a 4 day week, and cut salaries 20%,
would this be acceptable?
IF, faculty were permitted to get an extra 2 months "summer salary" from research grants in compensation?
This would have to be for real: no classes or committee meetings or other service duties on…
June 12, 2009
Japan to secretly join CERN?
Two travelers with $134 billion in US Treasury and Federal Reserve bonds hidden in a suitcase, seized at the Italian-Swiss border.
Seriously
This is just fascinating:
who tipped the Italians off, and why?
will the Italians really take their 40% fine for failing to…
June 12, 2009
Solving UC's problems: move to 4 day work week...
hey, the student's would like it!
$120 million per 5% furlough
total shortfall right now is about $480 million per year - just under $billion over two years
Hey, they could all go to a 4 day work week!
Brilliant.
June 9, 2009
there is a strange thing on the arXiv today
Julianne ponder the metaness of the papers which must not be mentioned
You should read this
and this
It is a most interesting result.
But I may not comment, yet.
You can though.
June 8, 2009
Congratulations to Wendy, Rob and Jeremy.
Recipients of the 2009 Gruber Cosmology Prize
For calibrating the Hubble constant, using Cepheid pulsations and the Hubble Space Telescope to find that the current value of the Hubble is 72 km/sec/Mpc
$500,00 to Prof. Wendy Freedman (Carnegie), Robert…
June 5, 2009
are the odds of a meteorite downing an aircraft reasonable?
John at CV asks whether a meteorite could have downed fligh 447?
he concludes it is possible, but not very likely.
As he notes the meteorite hypothesis was also suggested for flight 800 from JFK back in 1996, but careful forensics showed…
June 5, 2009
We hear that Kepler scientists looking at commissioning data are rather pleased...
Kepler scientists after first look photometry...
Here is the official word.
Note "...data are of very high quality and the scientists are very pleased with the precision of the data..."
This is, I gather, what we…
June 1, 2009
had to stop at a large bank today and saw some signs of the time
no, no that one, another of the Too Big Too Fail banks
it was very busy, and the staff looked a bit frazzled, it being the first of the month and all, and a manager came to ask me if I didn't want to do my transaction through one of…
June 1, 2009
Members of the Augustine Commission on Human Space Flight Plans announced.
h/t NASAwatch
and the winners are...
- Norman Augustine (chair), retired chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corp., and former member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under Presidents Bill…
June 1, 2009
Now do we have our spots back?
With bonus pretty pictures.
You'd think after my last debacle of prematurely pronouncing the reappearance of sunspots I'd have learned...
but, is it, could it be...?
click to embiggen
looks like a small complex of spots in the upper left quadrant...
there are…
May 31, 2009
in the short run
remake the Blues Brother's movie
creative destruction...
not, of course, that they can ever replace Belushi
this is business, not art
May 30, 2009
US Navy is on the move again.
We like to keep an eye on what the US Navy's strike forces are up to, it is a habit I got into many years ago when I knew a couple of people likely to be on them, this became a more intense interest for a few years over the last half decade
anyway, the USS Reagan…