Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
April 1, 2007
my student just got deployed
Lt Joe finished Officer Command School and is off as a platoon commander in "Task Force Commando", of the 10th Infantry (Light) Division.
Got e-mail from him in Kuwait over the weekend, he should be in-country by now.
Don't know his posting yet, probably Baghdad or…
April 1, 2007
I think I finally figured what is going on with Iran and the hostages and the nuclear fuel and the aircraft carriers...
it is a very elaborate google bomb.
You wouldn't believe the number of hits Ahmadinejad has been getting (he needs to break the technorati top 1000 to really be in money I think…
April 1, 2007
I don't know which is more annoying - seeing blue & maize clad athletes carrying another enormous trophy away from Penn State on the plane (well, two, actually, apparently, for men and women's gymnasts); or the fact that it even crossed my mind to care what team won a sports competition...…
March 30, 2007
So the USS Nimitz leaves San Diego on monday with its strike group, destination Arabian Sea
For those of us obsessively tracking these things, that is a bad sign - the Stennis and Eisenhower are already in the region, which makes three, the amateur minimum for a serious naval air campaign against…
March 30, 2007
In my field, mean success rates for grant proposals range from a surprisingly generous 30% or so for a rare few opportunities, to a more typical 6-10%
As the number of proposals submitted go to infinity, most all researchers must have near average success rate.
I was prodded by this in noting that…
March 30, 2007
STSCI just announced cycle 16 selections...
1/5 - can't grumble too much
oversubscription was in fact almost exactly 5:1
one other proposal was top quartile but didn't make the cut. Curses.
I like that one. Plus it'd have meant even more trips to Italy.
Both my theory proposals were bottom rated…
March 30, 2007
Apparently an FDA press conference this morning gave some bad news on pet food.
See PetConnection.com
The contamination may include dry food and other types of pet food than that originally reported. Initial reports were that only "savoury cuts" style wet food was at risk.
Almost 10,000 deaths have…
March 30, 2007
Oy vey, it is friday again.
On this season of passing over, we intrepidly approach the mighty iPod One, and ask humbly:
what about funding, oh Mighty Omnipotent iPod?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whooooooosh.
The Covering: Envy the Love - Various
The Crossing:Scholarship is The Enemy of Romance -…
March 28, 2007
USAir flight 1014 - New Orleans-Charlotte held on runway while man tested for smallpox
Update: He was the Director of the Navy Medical Service Corps? (kos diary)
That is weird.
Update: WBTV news story and in Reason Magazine
Admiral Brannman
Director of Naval Medical Center San Diego or he was until…
March 28, 2007
Ouch.
Julianne treads where few dare...
Know what she means though...
Bwa, ha, ha!
March 28, 2007
"...invisible clouds of something that seem to swaddle the galaxies, and to provide the scaffolding for the structure and evolution of the visible universe."
"It's about power, in a way."
NYT reports on the hot independent movie "Dark Matter".
Intrigue, back stabbing and murder.
Life is exciting…
March 28, 2007
There is a lot of speculation in the non-US press and in blogs about an imminent US strike on Iran,
what with two US carriers in the Persian Gulf (and two Marine amphibious groups), the incident with the UK and the fact that Iran and Russia seem to have made up on the deal for enriched uranium (…
March 28, 2007
The Incoherent Ponderer just submitted a paper to Science, and got an e-mail notifying him that he was listed as a co-author and asking him to do something if he did not accept this.
I had the same thing earlier this year, was a second author and immediately after submission got a verification e-…
March 23, 2007
wikisky?
Oh, Wiki Sky!
Cool. Not much there yet, and it is a bit buggy, but if you have, like real data, pile on and share.
(h/t Steve)
March 22, 2007
Oops, friday again already.
So, we ask the omniscient iPod - got any good ideas?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Sky
The Crossing: A Rush and A Push and The Land is Ours - Smiths
The Crown: Taktu Til Við að Tvista - Stuðmenn
The Root: Suedehead - Morrissey
The Past: Hevi…
March 20, 2007
As widely reported in the media, a number of cat and dog foods were recalled in the US after a common supplier decided there was a problem with their new wheat gluten supplier (a common additive).
10 animals (9 cats apparently) are known to have died, probably many more undiagnosed.
Cause of…
March 20, 2007
IF we grant the perception that researchers are being held back from doing some of the "really interesting research", then why do we do it, especially if people are aware of it as an issue?
Well, it is a problem that has many levels.
First of all, the committments I allude to are real: a lot of…
March 20, 2007
When, in the course of an academic career, should you work on your own ideas: you know, the stuff that deep down you think is really interesting, potentially breakthrough stuff.
Because, most scientists, most of the time, don't.
as Bee puts it:
every postdoc I know or have met and with whom I have…
March 20, 2007
seen in the back of a not-so-expensive model from an expensive car maker: "How to make money from foreclosures"
heard at a a slightly non-random brunch spot, couple of tables to the left: "no, you need to go to fourth order in the modified Lagrangian..."
told over lunch: "I heard Apple is out to…
March 19, 2007
Bee follows up the legendary Science and Democracy and Science and Democracy II: the Hierarchy Problem with
...Science and Democracy III in which we find that there are actually types Ia, and Ib and Ic which are really part of type II before natural selection is applied to the whole process for…
March 19, 2007
The Department of Justice has released 3000 paper documents in response to the House judiciary committee request investigating the dismissal of federal US attorneys.
The committee staff have started posting the documents in 50 page blocks of scanned PDF files!, but the interesting thing is...
Josh…
March 19, 2007
via NASAwatch we have the promised March 15 statement
on how the new budget request impact NASA actuals
read 'em and weep
Highlights: 15% cut in Research and Analysis continues
GLAST and Kepler launches slipped
SIM demoted to tech development for foreseeable future
Astrobio 50% cut continued…
March 19, 2007
I am counter to the old saying that you can't squeeze blood from stone, having been a proud member of the Red Cross "gallon club" and counting.
But I am now not permitted to give blood in the US, as I found out on the afternoon of September 11th, thinking myself re-eligible to donate, after a minor…
March 19, 2007
Chad has news of newbies at Crooked Timber
Béreubé is back!
More Dangeral Than Ever.
Cool.
As long as he doesn't start blathering on and on about hockey again.
As is well known, that is a game for girls, in skirts, on grass.
And I can say that since I am approximately 2600 miles from downtown…
March 18, 2007
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a billion++ $ experiment designed to look at cosmic rays (and to have the absolutely worst set of project web pages yet discovered).
In particular it will look at the anti-matter content of cosmic rays, and angle to see if it can detect some signature of dark…
March 17, 2007
Interesting article in Science on the challenge facing Dr Stern in taking over NASA's Science Mission Directorate
Bottom line is that he is stuck with a zero-sum game and that except for some innovative cost cutting it is a game of trade-offs. Something will be cut.
An accompanying article on…
March 15, 2007
It is friday, sunny friday, so we spontaneously ask the Mighty iPod: do we actually have Free Will?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Cry for Love - Iggy Pop
The Crossing: The Boy Done Good - Billy Bragg
The Crown: A Lover Sings - Billy Bragg
The Root: Ashes to Ashes - Bowie
The…
March 15, 2007
MC Hawking raps
How can you compete with that...
Hrynyshyn did it first, I figured some sciblogger had to have seen it, but I heard about it over coffee...
March 14, 2007
In the building where I usually work, there are four doors on the ground floor.
The main front door, that I usually exit during the day; a back door that I usually enter and leave at the ends of the day; and a left and right side door.
The door to the left leads to a parking lot, with no sidewalk…