Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
July 25, 2008
Hey you, out there in the cold
this is me
An unfortunate clash of CDs led to the following improvised mashup:
Hey you, out there in the cold
I've always been the kind of girl
Getting lonely, getting old
that hid my face
Can you feel me?
so afraid to tell the world
Hey you, standing in the aisles…
July 25, 2008
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a nice little group blog
Lots of pretty pictures.
h/t NASAwatch
July 25, 2008
YES!
Billy Bragg! in State College! Finally!
Oct 17 2008. Downtown.
Civilization comes to rural PA!
Y'all wait politely to get your tickets until after I get mine.
I missed him in DC and SF, I'm not missing this one.
July 25, 2008
The California "minumum wage" standoff moves closer to the edge.
Universities "requested to co-operate" and cut wages.
Next week, probably on monday, the California governor intends to use executive authority to "request" a cut in salary for state employees to the federal minimum wage, until the…
July 25, 2008
Warm, sunny, dry friday, and our thoughts turn to the West.
So, oh Mighty iPod: how fares California?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Billy Bragg Podcast #12 - William Bloke
The Crossing: Hey You - Pink Floyd
The Crown: Confessions - Violent Femmes
The Root: Precious Pain -…
July 24, 2008
PZ, you bastard!
Now you have gone too far.
Some of us do try to teach our children proper reverence, and what do you do?
You rip the pages of a perfectly good book.
This will not stand!
I haven't even read the God Delusion yet and PZ goes ripping up a perfectly good copy.
What. A. Waste!
Books…
July 24, 2008
so the governator "has prepared an order to cut the pay of about 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until a budget is signed"
"Administration officials said Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the order, a draft of which was obtained Wednesday by The Times, early…
July 24, 2008
inspired.
graduate students, I'm guessing
XKCD really is lovely
h/t Making Light, of course
July 23, 2008
A couple of Durham postgrads have set up The Graduate Junction - a career/social webforum for (post)graduates in all disciplines.
Looks like it has potential, glancing at it. Try it if you feel like it.
Physics/Astronomy seems underrepresented currently.
July 22, 2008
If a major bank goes bankrupt, are corporate accounts insured?
Like university payroll accounts?
The answer appears to be: yes, up to $100,000 per TAX ID number.
So... does the FDICs like for moving in on banks on friday afternoons include last friday of the month? And, if so, what happens to…
July 20, 2008
the folks on Calculated Risk pointed out an elegantly designed web site
as y'all know, IndyMac Bank in good old Pasadena failed the other day - third largest bank failure in the US.
Most individual depositors are of course uninsured, but there are always some careless with their balances, or…
July 18, 2008
two oldies that I randomly realised I didn't have digital copies of and had to acquisition immediately from iTunes in the interest of my sanity
My brother in law had to mention this upon seeing the senior family member f.Thor...
This one is all Colbert's fault - having them still doing the drum…
July 18, 2008
Steamy friday, again, and another science lite week goes by.
So, oh mighty iPod: "Sizzle" - will it sizzle or be a cool flop?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: It's Silly Time - Twin Sisters
The Crossing: Fantaisie de Concert: I. Moderato
The Crown: If Love Was a Train - Michelle…
July 17, 2008
91st Skeptic's Circle is up at Sorting Out Science.
Heavy on Crackers and Sizzles.
July 15, 2008
is the physics blogosphere a bit boring right now?
Angry Physicist says it is, and he's mostly right...
so, I got nothing - maybe I'll say something mean about Yarn Theory again later this week just to stir things up, or something...
actually, I lie, I have about two hundred items that I have…
July 14, 2008
A marine biologist, a gay couple and a polar bear walk into a studio...
Hey! That's not funny.
But Sizzle is.
It is not Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell goofy slapstick funny, which is just as well, because I mostly can't stand that kind of humour.
More Steve Carrell level.
Randy Olson, marine…
July 14, 2008
Fiddlesticks, boy.
Feed the birds, and what have you got?
Fat birds!
You can purchase first and second trust deeds
Think of the foreclosures!
Bonds! Chattels! Dividends! Shares!
Bankruptcies! Debtor sales!
...for kharmic balance.
July 11, 2008
Iraq denies reports Israeli Jets exercising deployment to Iraqi airfields in preparation for Iran strike...
PS rhetoric is heating up further
Jerusalem Post denial story
Phew, had me all worried there for a mo'
Former Spook dissects the rumours and starts some new speculation
Funny how these…
July 11, 2008
apropos Bush... I heard a curious third hand tale recently
At a recent international meeting, not the G8 summit as it happens, I was told by a reliable source, that Bush was very ebullient meeting with allied leaders, but acted mildly bizarrely.
As I heard it, Bush would actually undercut US…
July 11, 2008
Artsy fartsy family friday becoming scienceless saturday!
Yikes.
So, since we've gone all week without science, let us finish in style...
Oh, mighty iPod One, modulo the vagaries of fickle men, who will win the Presidency this autumn?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering:Tom the…
July 10, 2008
"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
[President Bush at the G8 summit] ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in…
July 10, 2008
Apparently Karl Rove just told a Congressional subcommittee that he would not bother to show up to an oversight hearing, despite a subpoena.
In justification his lawyer cited a letter allegedly sent by the President's lawyer, to Karl Rove, telling him not to appear, claiming Executive Privilege.…
July 8, 2008
so, this week is, yet again, decision time on the mystifying FISA Amendments Act
this is an abominable piece of legislation which simultaneously manages to gut parts of the US Constitution, set historically bad precedents and violate centuries of hard fought legal principles
It is not science, and…
July 4, 2008
My iPod Won't Let Me Be President
Huh! You can do that?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Fortunate Son - Creedance Clearwater Revival
The Crossing: I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got - Sinead O'Connor
The Crown: Santa Claus is Coming To Town
The Root:Life During Wartime - Talking…
July 3, 2008
Science fiction is one step closer to reality as an engineer works on a LED display integrated into a contact lens
Your life flashed before your eyes - from the Grauniad
Press release from Jan '08
Babak Parviz, asst prof of EE at U Washington, is working on integrating microLEDs plus processor…
July 2, 2008
Has Senator Obama actually read the text of FISA Amendments Act of 2008? aka H.R. 6304 (new pdf link)
Not one of his staffers, he himself?
I mean all of it.
Specifically Title II Section 802?
Specifically a) 4) B) ii)?
I would like a lawyer to explain to me how "determined to be lawful" is…
July 2, 2008
Christopher Hitchens does some field investigation for Vanity Fair, and experiences waterboarding for himself
video link here
it is not very dramatic, which is probably the most interesting thing about it, all over very quickly
h/t Ackerman on Firedoglake
July 2, 2008
1 47 48
22 1 58
3 0 842
I have remembered these numbers for 35 years.
They are phone numbers. Those I would need to call if I needed my family to get me, or if I was in trouble. (Yeah, Iceland is small, and five digits were enough back then - I didn't list the other numbers that are still good…
June 30, 2008
What would it take to capture our life, in full fidelity?
It may be less than you think.
I think.
The body has about 1028 or so atoms, but to reproduce our existence it is not necessary to record the 1029 or so bits, per dynamical time, necessary to keep track of them.
We lose, add and move a lot…