Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
September 15, 2008
it is accountancy that makes the world go round
"the cold antiseptic sting of the Swiss Frank..."
September 15, 2008
The Milky Way has a roughly 3 million solar mass black hole at its center.
The nearby M87 galaxy in the Virgo cluster has a roughly 3 billion solar mass black hole at its center.
How much more massive do black holes get?
Prof Priya Natarajan at Yale thinks she knows the answer: and that is that…
September 14, 2008
"...Chávez last night ordered the US ambassador to leave Venezuela within 72 hours and accused Washington of fomenting a coup attempt..."
Grauniad has more
"...Chávez also ordered Venezuela's ambassador to Washington to return home and threatened to cut oil supplies, plunging relations between…
September 14, 2008
is, apparently, over 1000 visitors at Calculated Risk late on a weekend night
apparently there are some financial news, or something, everyone seems terribly excited about monday morning
I don't understand, don't think I have a head for big numbers
but I know linking is good
September 12, 2008
Randy Olson is at PSU today and tomorrow
Sizzle is on tonight at 7 pm and he gives a talk on science framing tomorrow morning.
All events in 100 Thomas.
Flock of Dodos was on last night, if you weren't there, you missed it.
September 12, 2008
NASA 3D view of Hurricane Ike
click to embiggen
ISS images of Ike friday
click for large hi-res animation
wunderground reports convection has closed around the eye region and an intensification cycle is starting, race against time whether landfall disrupts it before the inner winds go up a…
September 12, 2008
you may have noticed ScienceBloggers pushing hard on the meme about the Large Hadron Collider destroying the Earth, Not!
I now reveal the true reason.
We went so far as to put
"Has the LHC Destroyed The Earth?" on the banner ad position.
Well, there's a reason for this. It was a test, a warmup…
September 12, 2008
It is friday, it is raining, and I can't find my umbrella.
There ain't no justice.
So, we squelch over to the Mighty iPod, and ask: do black hole masses in the current universe really top out at 1010 solar masses?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
ul>
The Covering: The Passenger - Iggy Pop…
September 12, 2008
The Mortgage Pig strikes back
click to embiggen
Tanta at Calculated Risk is finally pushed over the edge
We sometimes link because linking is an intrinsic good.
September 11, 2008
The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
Charles Bowen
"As soon as Dawkins stepped out from the portico, there was an enormous clap of thunder and it started to rain.
Heavily.
One might even say the heavens…
September 9, 2008
Chad, some time ago, did the parlor game of "what google phrase is uniquely associated with you(r blog)."
Just by virtue of sheer repetition, "Whoosh goes the randomizer" is definitely one of my most strongly google-linked phrases.
However, now I have "Aes Sedai of Orange County" inextricably…
September 9, 2008
John Scalzi at Whatever rants on the current political situation.
It is a rant of beauty.
Sometimes we link because linking is an intrinsic good.
September 8, 2008
Russia is sending a navy squadron into the US"s backyard pool.
The nuclear Kirov class cruiser "Peter the Great" with associated escort vessels.
They will conduct naval exercises with Venezuela.
Kirov class cruiser Pyotr Velikiy
Partly in response to the USS Mount Whitney's little visit to the…
September 8, 2008
What would Joe say...?
It is Nihtattatanniieeee
or something like that.
Please.
September 8, 2008
NASAwatch has a series on interesting posts on Mike Griffin, the Shuttle, its successor and a recent leaked e-mail.
Read if you deeply care about NASA funding and medium term policies and funding issues.
It started with an e-mail from Griffin leaked to the Orlando Sentinel. The e-mail only had 8…
September 5, 2008
Sultry friday, and there is a storm on the horizon.
So, oh Mighty iPod. We bring the classical question: will Ares blaze forth and unleash Deimos and Phobos in the near future?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees
The Crossing:…
September 4, 2008
Epicycles can be thought of as correlated 2-D Fourier sums.
As such, they are complete.
Any connected, delimited, periodic curve in the plane can be reconstructed to arbitary precision with high enough order epicycles and requisite deferents.
Below is an illustration of this. It is impressive.
Doh…
September 3, 2008
There are three tropical storms in the Atlantic right now, Hanna, Ike and Josephine.
We are coming up on peak hurricane season.
Flow off Africa suggests there may be 2-3 more disturbances coming up behind those, which could develop into tropical storms.
Long range forecasts are generally poor, too…
September 3, 2008
Hrmph.
The real issue is the exact proper motion, not the dispersion about the mean.
Although I suppose outliers can be interesting, even in small N groups.
This is very clever.
I award it a clear: "damn, I wish I had thought of that...!"
"Velocity dispersions in a cluster of stars: How fast could…
August 30, 2008
Tom asks - what do I think about the role of professional societies in education?
In particular the American Astronomical Society, which has in recent times had a mission to "optimize the contributions of both the AAS and its members to enhanced science literacy for all, provide encouragement and…
August 30, 2008
Obama campaign has answered the ScienceDebate 2008 14 questions on science policy
Hm:
7.5% increase per year for basic research.
Teacher training, more graduate fellowships.
CO2 cap-and-trade.
Try lots of things on climate change.
Broad, fairly sensible energy policy. Includes nuclear.
Broad good…
August 29, 2008
Sarah Palin, republican VP candidate, is, apparently a "teach the controversy" christian...
This could get interesting:
from the wiki entry
"...Palin supported the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in schools,[31] however, she noted she would not use "religion as a litmus test, or anybody…
August 29, 2008
American Institute of Physics through Physics Today has bloggers at the DNC and RNC conventions as part of their Politics08 forum
Good discussion on the conventions here - everything from details of science policies, to what is in the goodie bags
Including the "coal stress reliever" if things get…
August 29, 2008
Rainy Fay Friday and we ponder near future happenings in the south eastern corners of the US.
Oh, mighty iPod One: whence Gustav and Hanna?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
iPod divination for newbies - believe it!
The Covering: Le Pantalon - Henri Dés
The Crossing: The Sorcerer's Apprentice…
August 29, 2008
The current generation of reality shows are getting tired, a round of new concepts is needed:
Big Brother: USS Enterprise
The Aes Sedai of Orange County
Pern Idol
Survivor: Illearth
Apprentice: Jedi
Anarres' Next Top Model
The Amazing Race: Middle Earth
Fear Factor: X
The Real World:…
August 28, 2008
strange objects found lying around
In an effort to preserve the sanity of my colleagues and students, and in honour of late night reruns of "Clean House", I am currently recycling or throwing out something every time I exit the office.
This leads to interesting and amusing and gratifying…
August 28, 2008
Cpt. J.S. McCain III has come under a lot of unwarranted criticism recently.
May I say, first of all, that I respect and honour McCain's service to the USA, its air force, and the Douglas Aircraft Company.
Two of McCain's recent responses to questions have come under extensive criticism,…
August 27, 2008
Every now and then I get a message which informs.
"If your jobs are unfortunately killed by the hurricane..."
"...simulation runs, please let us know and we will refund you the used SUs.
Sorry for the inconvenience."
LONI - the Lousiana Optical Network Initiative - is flushing its computing queue…