Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
October 25, 2007
Schools around here get a lot of parent volunteers and rely heavily on them.
Some of the kids have an interesting attitude about this.
I was talking to a friend recently. As with many of the volunteers she has no training in education and no experience with actual teaching of groups. She is a…
October 25, 2007
Accuweather is now forecasting return of Santa Ana conditions late saturday persisting for sunday and monday - though not predicted to be as strong as this week's winds.
This is bad news for the wildfire situation in southern california, as the bigger fires are unlikely to be fully contained by…
October 24, 2007
In the short story "A Pail of Air" by Leiber, the Earth is ejected into interstellar space.
The story describes the one family's struggle for survival as the atmosphere freezes out.
A few years ago, David Stevenson noted that such free floaters could sustain liquid water on the surface through…
October 24, 2007
San Diego Tribune is reporting the reservation fire has reached South Grade road on Palomar mountain.
Am I correct in thinking this is the switchback road that goes straight up to the observatory? So the fire is 5-10 miles away and below the observatory?
Anyone know observatory status?
PS:…
October 23, 2007
One of the minor joys in life is to pick a sporty-ish car out of the executive-elite-super-premium-platinum line at the car rental at LAX and hit the three-level exchange in downtown LA with KROQ on heading for Pasadena, as long as it is not the rush hour or two
so, how many years did it take for…
October 22, 2007
The Yorkshire Ranter avoids the topic of rugby, but does summarises the current strategic situation - the US carrier groups are refurbishing (well, the Kitty Hawk just left harbour for fall deployment and exercises in the west pacific, and the Enterprise is "on station" but not listed in the…
October 22, 2007
I have family (in-laws) and lots of old friends in SoCal, so I checked in on the fires on-line this morning - looks bad.
But, really, it is a local disaster, right?
At lunch the e-mail came in - the San Diego Supercomputer Center is erratic and heading for going down later today. Don't expect it…
October 22, 2007
Some time ago I was asked to nominate candidates for an honorary degree from Penn State.
For the record, I nominated V. Wilson (née Plame), Penn State alumnae, for services to the nation.
I was thanked, most politely, for my suggestion.
October 19, 2007
in a rational US the '08 election would be
Dodd vs Huckabee
in practise Huckabee's name is not presidential enough, I am told
and Dodd's hair is not presidential enough, or so I am told - not that presidential hair may be too pretty either... if you're a democrat
y'all have a real funny way to do…
October 19, 2007
Stormy, angry friday.
So, we ask the Mighty iPod - anything big going to break in early/mid January?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
Hm, that was weird, a new random selection flashed up and then popped back to the old list. Then had to re-randomize.
Some major change of plans at the last…
October 18, 2007
and apparently he is afraid of Geysir...
As I reported, Iceland withdrew its Iraq contingent, Major Herdís Sigurgrímsdóttir earlier this month.
Rock in Reykjavík
America's leading Real News show will be covering this end of an era in detail, having just finished shooting in depth interviews…
October 17, 2007
I regularly get "special offers" inviting me to take up a, usually, 3 month special introductory rate for a wireless or cable or internet service.
What these offers never state is what the base rate is that you default to at the end of the introductory period. When done by phone, the salesperson…
October 17, 2007
Sometimes a blog provides time critical sanity preserving information.
Unqualified Offerings meets the dark side of academic life.
The Uncertain Committee and its Vague Quantitative Assignments.
Fortunately Chad has figured this out, analyzed the context, and generously provides a survival…
October 16, 2007
Nine years ago, in what seemed like a good move at the time, I bought a BIG box of "overhead transparencies"
These are intermediate technology presentation tools; sort of like a keynote slide on transparent paper, "projected" through an analog display system. Post-blackboard tech, barely.…
October 15, 2007
The deadline for registering for the next annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society is coming up on wednesday...
It is in Austin, Texas, second week of january.
The annual meeting is mostly a schmoozefest, job market for junior faculty, some random "townhalls" and other communiques from…
October 15, 2007
random thoughts on the discovery that black hole outflows contain rubies and sapphires
Corundum grains are always nice, even a micron at a time.
Spitzer press release
Hear the podcast
October 15, 2007
out walking on a beautiful autumn day, when the munchkin asks me "why are these boys being bad guys"?
a couple of pre-teen boys are clambering around a white SUV. The boy I see first has a "realistic" toy M-16, black t-shirt and wrap around sunglasses, the other, pushed into the back of the SUV,…
October 12, 2007
The NSF is doing a time audit (Nature 4 Oct p 512 - sub) to check that grant recipients are actually spending the promised time on their research.
Apparently they (and the NIH, and DoE, and DoD) just noticed that "top researchers" tend to have grants totalling to more than 100% time committment.…
October 12, 2007
A Most Noble Autumnal friday.
So we ask the Mighty and Omnipotent iPod: what now for Al Gore?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Laura - Scissor Sisters
The Crossing: Refavísur - Bessi Bjarnason
The Crown: The Firebird: Lullaby - Stravinsky
The Root: Sigurjón Digri - Stuðmenn
The…
October 12, 2007
Congratulations to the IPCC and Al Gore for the Nobel Peace Prize
So, Attenborough Award, Oscar, Emmy and Nobel in one year.
Not bad for a Harvard grad.
Wonder what he will do next?
PS: hey I got one right...
I suppose there is no hope now of the US joining the rest of the world in making Nobel…
October 11, 2007
This year Nobel prizes, to date, are a sweep for Europe.
Is this a trend, or a fluke?
Before world war 2, Europe dominated Nobel prize winnings, in the sciences and medicine, after the second world war, the US rapdily developed dominance, partly by virtue of having brought over a lot of the…
October 10, 2007
I have once more ventured within one of the strange spiky toroidal concrete circles that envelope US centers of power,
and I emerge with unverified anecdotal speculative rumours
NASA HQ people (science, natch) are amazingly cheerful.
Hadn't seen them so cheerful, overall, for a long time.
More…
October 9, 2007
do you lead, or trail?
I was reminded of this beauty for obscure social reasons...
In theory, spiral galaxies may have either "leading" or "trailing" spirals.
In practise almost all that we can measure have trailing spirals.
In trailing spirals the spiral arms flow back with the rotation, as…
October 9, 2007
There's this thing, where you can donate money to a good cause - funding for K-12 teachers looking for specific items, mostly in rural areas.
There's matching funds from SEED!
This has been bouncing around the sciblogs for a week, and I'm afraid I have not been keeping up with the details:
so....…
October 9, 2007
CollegeScholarships.org is offering $10,000 to the student blogger who
Gets the most votes
I don't know who is the best, go browse the blogs, or just take the easy way out and vote for Shelley!
October 9, 2007
2007 Nobel Prize in physics goes to Fert and Grünberg for Giant Magnetoresistance
Fert is at the University of Paris (sud) and Grünberg is at the Jülich research center.
This is a classic Nobel prize, since it is for relatively recent research that lead to immediate major practical application -…
October 7, 2007
It is the season for the Swedish Academy to ponder, and we ask the Mighty iPod, what is your prediction for who will win the Nobel Prize this year?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Heroes and Villains - Beach Boys
The…
October 5, 2007
Army's most deployed brigade coming home
2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is packing up and headed home.
Finally.
October 5, 2007
Hillary Clinton gave a science policy speech at the Carnegie Institute
Now with new improved policy list...
Text is here
Doesn't say if she took questions.
Predictable kick offs on stem cells and climate change.
Wonkish, very solid.
Restore science advisor, OTA, depoliticize agencies and advisory…