Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
October 28, 2008
giving a talk on blogging at Harvard tends to make one think,
in particular, what is the use of science blogging, and why are economists so good at blogging
it was a fun talk, for me at least,
decent turnout, considering I was squeezed in between the 12:30 seminar and the 4 o'clock talk, some good…
October 27, 2008
Apparently I am giving a talk tuesday in the Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Visualizing Astronomy at the Center for Astrophysics
Talk is at 2pm.
Lovely day in Boston this afternoon, I gather that is about to change, so come in from the cold and contemplate hierarchical social networks and viral…
October 26, 2008
WFPC2 is back on.
Status Report #7
"The current primary camera on the Hubble Space Telescope is now back in active operation and will resume science observations shortly.
Just before 9:30 a.m. EDT this morning on board Hubble, the telescope's science computer began to send commands to Wide Field…
October 26, 2008
the US is not positioned to launch any attacks in the Middle East this week before the election
for several years, one item worth pondering was whether Bush and Cheney would attempt to take out Iran's nuclear capability.
Time is running out, the next new moon is this week, and the election is…
October 24, 2008
frazzled autumnal friday
we stagger to the iPod and ask - capitulation coming?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Super Powers - Alpha Blondy
The Crossing: Brain Stew - Green Day
The Crown: Girl Trouble - Violent Femmes
The Root: Break Down the Door - Special AKA
The Past: It's…
October 22, 2008
XMM out of contact.
Observations suggest it is intact, signal from telescope has been detected,
attempts to recover control underway.
XMM loss of contact - ESA press release
"During the evening of Saturday 18 October, XMM-Newton was approaching the point of closest approach to our planet, or…
October 21, 2008
More news on the NASA conference ban for 2009, and the possible impacts.
The source of the conference amendment (sec 1121 of HR 6063) is Sen Coburn, apparently, as noted in comments in the previous post.
NASAwatch links to the NASA memos on this policy
Two things are unambiguous:
NASA direct…
October 20, 2008
US banks setting aside $70 billion for year end bonuses.
We conclude Bank of America is overgenerous and JP Morgan are cheap bastards.
from Grauniad:
"...Citigroup, [...], accrued $25.9bn for salaries and bonuses, an increase on the previous year of 4%. Earlier this week the bank accepted a $25bn…
October 20, 2008
Last wednesday engineers switched the data management system on the Hubble to the spare "B-side" and the instruments sprung back to life.
The old Wide Field/Planetary Camera (2) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrograph came back to life.
The someone decided to turn on the…
October 18, 2008
For a couple of hours on friday night, I got to feel like I was 18 again.
Billy Bragg was in town, playing the the State Theatre, before going on to Ithaca, where is playing the State Theatre tonight, strangely enough.
Billy was on form.
Mostly political Billy, not so much the romantic Billy, but…
October 18, 2008
Carnival of Space Time!
Again? Already?
Number 74, guess, at Lounge of the Lab Lemming.
October 16, 2008
Cool autumnal friday and I have to cross all of Ohio, chased by several thousand wolverines.
We ask the Mighty iPod One: wazzup with J092712? Recoil, binary or just crowded?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Woosh.
The Covering: Eyes on the Prize - Bruce Springsteen
The Crossing: The Pines of Rome I -…
October 15, 2008
Lobster market collapse!
Gordon Brown to blame.
Maine Lobster Crisis
"...Faced with high fuel and bait prices, fishermen were able to keep their heads above water with the price at $4 a pound, but the international financial crisis has sent shock waves that were felt in a fault line running from…
October 15, 2008
Joe the Plumber
h/t deLong
Wonder if the dood ever heard of slashdotting
October 15, 2008
NASA is powering HST control electronics up again, right about now
cf nasaspaceflight.com and spaceflight.com
short version: the telescope is communicating, diagnostics look good and the switch over was today.
Science operation expected to resume by friday.
Now, if I counted correctly, even if…
October 14, 2008
so what happened in Iceland, where are things headed, and is it a one-off microsystem gone off the rails, or a bellwether for the developed world
Iceland was a dirt poor fish+agriculture economy, under external Danish rule until 1944 when it unilaterally declared independence, the Danes being…
October 14, 2008
Brad deLong is 'causing me to lose sleep.
The problem is theoretical economists.
As a theorist, I know that almost all theory is wrong.
Economic theory, unlike physics, only kills people indirectly, but can impact oh so many people in each experiment.
Brad outlines the Theories of the Great…
October 14, 2008
A literal reading of the NASA Authorization Act implies a significant cutback of astronomy conferences in 2009.
Warning e-mail, pending clarification, has gone out, and people have already done some canceling of planned travel.
Something bad snuck into the H.R. 6063 NASA Authorization Act (2008) […
October 13, 2008
renowned blogger, Paul Krugman, won the Nobel Prize in Economics
for his excellent outreach effort
for being consistently mostly correct but ignored on US economic policy since 2000
for some theoretical modeling on international trade in Asia back in the '90s
Hm, I wonder if he has a permanent gig…
October 12, 2008
Conjure Report 1 - fixing LIBOR is out.
Something to ponder.
'cause linking is good.
October 10, 2008
Wild friday finally at an end.
What, oh Mighty iPod, for Iceland now?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: God Only Know - Beach Boys
The Crossing: Dead Souls- Joy Division
The Crown: Two Seconds - Laura Cantrell
The Root: Mathematically Safe - Half Man Half Bisctuit
The Past: The…
October 10, 2008
select links to ponder:
Krugman ponders lack of leadership and consensus at G7 meeting
Naked Capitalism ponders the Lehman Bros CDS auction
Steve Hsu at Information Processing has more on Lehman CDS auction - somebody is paying a couple of hundred billion or so to other people by Oct 21 - if they…