Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
March 21, 2008
Curious coincidences in the Obama passport scandal
The contractor involved in the poking into the "passport file" of presidential candidate Barack Obama has now been revealed to be Stanley Inc - they had a $160 million contract with the State Department to help with passport handling.
Files were…
March 21, 2008
Sunny happy friday, and the hordes have descended upon us.
So, oh Mighty iPod... modulo the vagaries of the fickle humans, we ask: will they come?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Atmosphere - Joy Division
The Crossing: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Flute, Piccolo (Presto…
March 20, 2008
I promised this to a colleague, after I made an unnecessarily cryptic reference to a potential solution to an academic issue that frequently comes up
I mean, how do you deal with some students?
March 20, 2008
happy vernal equinox!
In celebration of the season, and the imminent full moon preceding next sunday...
A classic
Anyone know of a clip of the "goolies" sketch?
I require it for pedagogical purposes... can't find it on YouTube.
PS: never mind, indexed under "soccer", of course.
March 20, 2008
NOAA provides a River Watch web site - it includes tentative estimates for future precipitation forecast in its estimates, so the long range forecast is uncertain
Right now, because of rains and melting snow, the Ohio and Missouri have bad localized flooding - as this water moves south, the lower…
March 19, 2008
Dark Matter is a movie.
It is about a brilliant young physics grad student, life at university, and the interaction between a student, his advisor and the academic hierarchy.
Should we be "concerned"?
The movie stars Meryl Streep, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. It is based on an article written by…
March 19, 2008
that Iran said, that Israel said, that Cheney said to Oman that the US might attack Iran...
unsourced, unsubstantiated, speculative
but do the Iranians believe it?
Press TV (Iran) also has an unscientific "quick poll" on that website
according to it, 2/3 of respondents think Fallon resigned from…
March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke, engineer, author and visionary has died.
He was good.
Another one gone.
March 17, 2008
Science Education and Society has a blog meme: name five women scientists in your field, not at your institution
Too easy.
Vera Rubin
Sandy Faber
Anneila Sargent
Margaret Geller
Neta Bahcall
that is just picking one name from each of five institutions, I could name several more, senior and junior…
March 17, 2008
Following the market?
Intrigued by the collapse of investment banks?
Huh! You wot?
The words of the month are:
Hoocoodanode?
and "privatize the profit, socialize the risk"
Blog finance nerds anticipation - look at the comments
Athenae's rant at First Draft is a thing of cathartic beauty
Steve…
March 15, 2008
it is no longer friday, but we blame the weather, and cheerfully ask the mighty iPod one: will the bears come out to play on monday?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Mathematically Safe - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Crossing: Teenage Kicks - Undertones
The Crown: Melbourne Mambo -…
March 13, 2008
I've lost count, but there is a new Carnival of Space over at Missy's place
March 12, 2008
apparently some people are stuck in a broken elevator at the top of the Green Bank Telescope
Up there.
For scale, the diameter of the telescope is almost precisely the length of a regulation football field.
And it moves.
Broken cable, possibly due to winds.
The elevator is apparently being cranked…
March 11, 2008
Admiral Fallon, head of US Central Command - ie Iraq and Afghanistan has resigned.
Why?
news just coming out.
PS: WaPo has some interesting statements by the people involved:
"...I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of…
March 7, 2008
we did it, astronomy has reached carrying capacity
how wrong I was.
I had confidently predicted that with the bright new instruments and refurbishment of old favourites promised, the cycle 17 proposals would hit 2000
as we neared the deadline the excitement was palpable and the comments flew,
as…
March 7, 2008
climate catastrophe, turbidity and academic angst on campus
Did I mention it is the deadline for Hubble cycle 17 observing proposals today.
On these days, the ghost of Major Murphy haunts astronomy departments everywhere.
So.. recently the northeast region of the USA has seen a chain of storms…
March 7, 2008
It is friday, but it is not snowing, here, yet.
So, we skip to the mighty iPod and we ask: modulo the vagaries of fickle panelists, how will our Hubble Proposals, cycle 17, fare?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Afmaælisvísur Bangsapabba - Thorbjorn Egner
The Crossing: Gartloney…
March 6, 2008
If you're a cosmologist, you need to rewrite your proposal. Now.
Well, 13,730 million if you have confidence in ground based data... looking through Apache Point apparently puts 40 million years on the universe.
Ok, WMAP-5 release is out, just in time for pedants on panels to quibble about…
March 6, 2008
Hubble proposal deadline tomorrow, lest you forget.
How many proposals do you think we will get?
I think I know. You wanna bet?
The Hubble Space Telescope is a fine telescope.
Currently it has very limited capabilities due to instrument failures, but it is, hopefully, getting one more servicing…
March 5, 2008
Press rumour that Bush may fire Admiral Fallon, head of Central Command
specifically the rumour is that Adm Fallon may be relieved of command by this summer, 9-12 months before normal rotation would be considered, and that this is because of Fallon's "no war with Iran on my watch" stance
White…
March 4, 2008
UK astro staggers back to life...
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
STFC announces UK participation in…
March 3, 2008
GLAST has shipped
The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope is NASA's next big mission.
The telescope has passed review and has been shipped to Florida where pieces of a Delta-II launcher are being assembled, for, er, launch, May 16th sometime later this year.
GLAST, if successfully launched and…
March 3, 2008
must.not.blog
HST proposal deadline on friday... argh.
Hey, how did my mailbox get to have over 5000 messages in it?
Again.
March 1, 2008
curious case in Las Vegas with a middle aged man in a coma and ricin found in an extended stay hotel room
lots of new stories and blog posts on this, but very little information
some blogs are claiming an ID for the man hospitalized, and reports say guns and a "anarchist type" book was found, with…
February 29, 2008
It is friday, yet it is not snowing, yet.
So, we skip to the Mighty iPod and ask, most sincerely: Oh, Mighty iPod One, is it the case that the high redshift IMF was significantly influenced by CMB flooring and chemothermoinstabilities, as indicated by our poor and feeble efforts?
Whoosh goes the…
February 25, 2008
a physicist, an engineer and a lawyer were chatting at a social event, when the Big Question came up
Peter Parker vs Luke Skywalker - who would win?
this is a tricky one, even if I tend to subscribe to the theory that spidey is a major underachiever who rarely lives up to his full potential, as if…
February 25, 2008
remind me, don't the redshirts always die first?
Comedian Lee Camp will never be invited back on Fox television... - click through and wait till the end for the "galactic love"
but I expect he feels it was worth it.
Especially since they promptly prove his point so elegantly.
Especially since he…