Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
December 19, 2008
Oh, Mighty iPod! Tell us, if you will, as we contemplate the ice pellets plinking down on the impending solstice; what Change may we expect in the coming year?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Stereotype - Specials
The Crossing: I Don't Want To See You Again - Undertones
The Crown…
December 18, 2008
ScienceDebate2008 are reporting that John Holdren is going to be nominated as Presidential Science Adivsor, and Jane Lubchenco for head of NOAA.
This is good news.
John Holdren is a physicist (plasma/fusion physics) with expertise in energy policy, environmental issues and security.
Good combo, and…
December 18, 2008
The Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Objects Spectrograph on the Hubble has been resuscitated.
Damn, that means those 50 odd supplemental proposals are in the running as well as the almost three hundred WFPC2 proposals already in the queue...
"As of 1:20pm EST Tuesday 16 December 2008, the…
December 18, 2008
Skyrgámur is the most terrible of the Elfs.
He will steal your skyr!
We're down to our last tub... no steenkin' Elf is taking the last of our skyr.
December 18, 2008
Hurðaskellir - hear the door slam in the middle of the night?
It is the door slammer, and he is pissed.
Sleep is for the weak!
December 17, 2008
Askasleikir - catching up with the times.
This lad like to swipe your Askur...
We like to feed to leftovers to the cat, which also saves on dishwashing of course, but being able to compete with pets for food is useful, but desperate.
Then you have to compensate the cat of course, no win.
December 17, 2008
Pottasleikir - pot licker, gets the last scrape of food out of the pot, ahead of the children, natch.
Useful survival skill that.
December 17, 2008
Þvörusleikir - spoon licker - silver of course; he was late and lackadaisical - he inherited a majority stake in an investment bank and decided to semi-retire to Surrey
December 17, 2008
interesting discussion at infoproc and uncertain principles on teaching effectiveness at K-12 level
because... everybody!... linking is an intrinsic good!
December 14, 2008
Stúfur is the short stumpy one - he'll swipe your frying pan if you don't beware.
Rumour is he spends summers interning at Kaupþing.
December 13, 2008
Giljagaur is the second jólasveinn to come to town.
That is if he hasn't been rendered by Gordon Brown for terrorist activities.
December 12, 2008
Today is the 12th of december, and there are 13 days until christmas.
This means, of course, that the first of the yule elves came to town this morning.
As you know, Bob, there are thirteen of the Yule Lads, or jólasveinar, as we call them.
And they are not really elves, since their mother is a…
December 12, 2008
Look to your left.
Now look to your right.
No. Lower.
Ah, there. See it?
Science News from the New York Times.
And right back at ya.
Yes!
ScienceBlogs and The New York Times are now link buddies.
We link to them. They link to us.
On a "best of..." basis.
I'm not quite sure if this makes the NYT…
December 12, 2008
Brrrrrrr... another frosty friday, eh.
So, modulo the vagaries of The Powers That Be, what, Oh Mighty iPod One, is to be the Fate of the US Automobile Manufacturers?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Barnið Sefur (live) - Bubbi Morthens
The Crossing: Look At The Monkeys
The Crown:…
December 12, 2008
just heard on the radio this morning: it was a live riff on "12 days of christmas" by what sounded like a classically trained male choir.
They started mixing up the lines around the 4th verse, and then working in lyrics from other songs (eg "... two turtle doves/and a Rudolph the Red Nosed…
December 12, 2008
Report of EU delegation to Norway and Iceland on Deceptive Practises:
Prof. Kjetil Storesletten (econ. Univ. Oslo), has pointed out how Icelandic Banks circumvented the Basel standard for capital adequacy through deceptive practises.
Report of EU delegation to Norway and Iceland on Deceptive…
December 12, 2008
Klaatu barada nikto.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" is one of the great classics of '50s science fiction, and one of my favourite old movies.
It has, I gather, been remade, starring Keanu Reeves, and is coming out today.
Now, I don't usually do a lot of these third party press releases, but it is…
December 11, 2008
The next decadal survey of astronomy and astrophysics has been formed and the panel is about start meetings and townhalls.
Astronomy has a tradition of decadal surveys of research priorities, which have been enormously successful.
The surveys are a National Research Council run activity under the…
December 11, 2008
As you know, Bob, the Large Hadron Collider broke, after it was turned on and demonstrated to function, but before any full design energy collisions took place.
Before the LHC there was the SSC which also met its demise in strange ways.
Coincidence?
I think not...
Now these are large, complex,…
December 11, 2008
The Yorkshire Ranter poses an interesting take on the Mumbai attack
A couple of you who are reading this need to go read that, think and understand, if you haven't already.
You know who you are.
The starting point is a spoofed phone call made earlier to Pakistan, purporting to be from the Indian…
December 11, 2008
There is, apparently, some friction between the current NASA admin and the Obama transition team.
Could get interesting.
Interesting story at the Orlando Sentinel space blog
"NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, is obstructing its…
December 11, 2008
last class, and we got through 126 slides in the last two lectures...
twice a week, for the last three months, except for the "few" odd times I was on travel, I have walked into our freshman seminar with a small cup of black coffee, and, if the grad students hadn't eaten them all, a cookie - lemon…
December 9, 2008
US Treasury Bonds sold at -0.005% interest
h/t CR
Yes, to lend the US Treasury $1000 for three months, you would have to pay them.
About $0.01 for the term.
They sold $27 billion of these, which means financial institutions are paying the US government.
They are paying the US about a quarter of a…
December 9, 2008
So, I'm teaching a freshman seminar right now, and covering, among other things "summary of current research topics" - to kinda tease the students about what is out there that might be interesting.
Two of the topics covered are exoplanets and modern cosmology.
I found I could fit a nice summary of…
December 8, 2008
Tribune Co files bankruptcy
They are the parent company of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune.
They need to get out from under the debt they took on after a spree of mergers and acquisitions, apparently after being unable to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team...
Maybe they can also cut their…
December 8, 2008
Where is my air car?
Living in the future is good, certainly beats the alternative.
But I'm not sure I was expecting a choice between a Charlie Stross wild ride or a Ken MacLeod dystopia.
Could be worse, we could still fit in a R.A.H. theocracy timeline with some bad luck.
December 8, 2008
Yo yo yo.
Don't forget the Hubble Cycle 16 Supplemental is due at 11:59 pm sharp, and that is Eastern Standard Time, not some laid back later west coast time.
Rumour is that NICMOS did not come back from the warmup during restart, and that it will be WFPC2 and ACS Solar Blind Channel only.
Unless…
December 8, 2008
That someone is blogging the Nobel ceremony from the spot is cool, that it is one of the laureates is cooler.
Krugman needs a twitter now though, methinks.
One day a physicist will get there first.
December 5, 2008
An Icelandic Norn Curses the Head of the Central Bank.
With pictures.
From "Surviving Iceland" blog.
Yes, she is spanking the Head of the Central Bank, in effigy.
You worried yet Ben?
Click for full size at "Surviving Iceland"
Here is the back story:
"....So what was happening was that there was…
December 5, 2008
Brrrr, an icy friday, and we gently shiver to the Mighty iPod and we ask: those high energy gamma ray blips recently detected - signature of dark matter annihilation, or just a regular nearby pulsar?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Identify The Beat - Marc Smith vs Safe'n'Sound…