Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
March 14, 2007
I feel slightly ambivalent about this, but New York Times "Select" content is now available free for students and faculty with valid university e-mail addresses
click here if your need to read Krugman hot off the presses exceeds your moral qualms about giving NYT the info and sustaining the silly…
March 14, 2007
note to self: check who else is giving talks in town that day before picking dates...
so my talk at Berkeley (LBL) was relatively lightly attended, turns out some other vaguely astro like person was speaking on campus later that day, some Brit called Stephen something, talking about cosmology, of…
March 12, 2007
The NASA ROSES-2007 is out.
This is the omnibus announcement of opportunity/request for proposals for most of th in-house activities for the science mission directorate - everything from evolutionary biolology through test of relativity via the moon and mars - but it doesn't include the great…
March 12, 2007
flicking across cnn.com, I see a propane train derailment and an oil well fire in Texas
is it heigtened awareness, broader reporting to fill cable news shows, or is there a higher incidence of petrochemical and industrial chemical accidents this year?
The EPA RMP*Info list of industrial accidents…
March 12, 2007
In my previous sunday night ramblings on world non-events I said there was no sign of a surge in submarine deployment
I was wrong.
Status of the Navy this morning shows a sharp increase in the number of attack submarines underway (30 now vs 18 before) and an increase in the number deployed (18 vs…
March 11, 2007
Bee asks: "when you write: but we missed on the deep guiding principle which tells us how to select the true theory (such as it is) and where the exact theory came from and leads to. Do you have anything specific in mind? "
Uh, yeah, sure...
er, well, I did, but the boxes of this 'ere blog were too…
March 11, 2007
Curious, the Iranian news agency say the Bushehr nuclear reactor is to be operational (but not fueled) on tuesday and that the fuel is to be delivered within two weeks!, but...
MEN claims Russia is co-ordinating with the US to delay startup of Bushehr (there's been this weird dispute where the…
March 11, 2007
I see the Sciblings are reading most significant science fiction and fantasy
I've read 46 of the 50 for what it is worth, never could finish "Little Big"...
I see most people are missing Cordwainer Smith, his work is mostly out of print, but the New England Science Fiction Association has a nice…
March 8, 2007
It is friday morning, and happy birthday PZ!
So, we approach the mighty iPod and we ask... what does the iPod have to say about PZ?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Wie? Wie? Wie? - Mozart (Magic Flute)
The Crossing: Frosty the Snowman - Cranberry Singers
The Crown: In the Bleak…
March 8, 2007
Nifty, nifty, nifty!
PZ now'll be fifty!
We all a poem must produce
Proper homages as we choose
Sean gets all astro logical on us so to compensate, and in honour of PZ hisself, we go to the true mystery:
what does "PZ" really mean?
And the number of the PZ is 6
And SIX shall be the number of the PZ…
March 7, 2007
Talking of which, last week I put together the whackiest research proposal I have ever done.
and also one of the most fun and intellectually stimulating.
This is actually saying something, I have co-authored proposals with the phrase "high risk" in the abstract (ooooo!), and got them funded!
It…
March 7, 2007
Chad has an interesting riff on tenure and academia and the "business model" for universities.
He touches some buttons.
Several things came together today for me, one was a website that required me to pick an occupation that "best fit" what I did. I reluctantly selected teacher, because I am not…
March 6, 2007
Yarn theory seems like a good way to go...
I have been plowing through the comments and thought I'd do a meta-response, especially since no one is likely to be reading that far down any more.
I should note that my comments on apples and physics hirings has in some ways been taken the wrong way, in…
March 5, 2007
California, again.
At least it is sunny this time.
Weird and very tiring trip. Tom still has that magic touch with parties though, and sunsets over the Pacific are as beautiful as ever.
March 2, 2007
New month, new iPod divinations...
So, oh mighty iPod, what is in store for us this month then?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Woosh.
The Covering: Going to California - Led Zeppelin
The Crossing: Jóla Jólasveinn - Ragga Gísla
The Crown: Now and Then - Arlo Guthrie
The Root: Day of the Lords - Joy…
March 1, 2007
unconfirmed AsiaTimes article claims "refueling assets" are being relocated to Diego Garcia
big US air base on Diego Garcia (leased from UK)
if one were to make active contingency plans involving large numbers of aircraft dropping stuff, then one step would be to quietly move air refueling…
February 27, 2007
I see SEED has sold ad space for the new Discovery Channel buzz episode, the purported discovery of the family grave of Yeshua bar Yosef, aka Jesus Christ, complete with his bones, along those of his wife Mary, mother Mary, son Judah and two of his four brothers...
I wonder who Judah was named…
February 27, 2007
Poetic lot those ancients.
There is a total lunar eclipse this weekend, saturday at midnight in western Europe, right at sunset on the east coast of the US.
Click for full size
From NASA Headline News Feb '07
To see it in the US, hope for clear skies, and find high ground with unobstructed view…
February 25, 2007
David Weintraub has written a really delightful little book on the Pluto controversy.
The book is written as a historical overview, starting with pre-historic observations running through classical astronomy to modern times, discussing the classification schemes and discoveries in chronological…
February 22, 2007
in which I triangulate on string theory and quantum gravity and ponder the "Trouble with Physics"...
which is that physicists are hired the same way we pick apples at the supermarket.
Look! Shiny! Big! Red!
Finally, I finished Smolin's "Trouble with Physics". Hopefully in time for the paperback…
February 22, 2007
Wow, friday again... we'll be delocally topical and ask: Oh mighty iPod, is the very space-time metric upon which we calculate our oh so effective theories really an emergent phenomenon of a more dynamic and fundamental planckian structure?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Michael…
February 22, 2007
Brutally blunt ScienceCareers article on this year's NASA funding
Article summarises the current situation well, focusing on a couple of hard hit fields like astrobio and Earth observations.
If you want to see the future, go admire the new ROSES call for proposals - as promised, Long Term Space…
February 22, 2007
WaPo has the IAEA report to the UN on Iran's compliance or lack thereof (PDF)
Good stuff on Verification blog
Interesting stuff.
IAEA full story is here (it helpfully explains they won't release the restricted distribution report that the WaPo printed...)
The Iranians have made a bunch (~ 100 tons…
February 22, 2007
Rob of Galactic Interactions has finally joined the SciBling collective
All shall be assimilated.
February 21, 2007
the US navy right now has two expeditionary strike groups and two carrier strike groups in the Arabian Sea.
PS: Armada vs Iran - curious set of stories in the Telegraph.
Something is being telegraphed.
that is a lot of ships... and there is another carrier group and elements of two more…
February 19, 2007
O frabjous day!
Billy Bragg Podcast #7 - walls come tumbling down and Internationale comes out.
Great stuff.
February 19, 2007
So, what are the intractable problems in science?
Which scientific open issues or problems are we limited in making further progress in, right now, because the problem is technically too hard?
Where we simply do not know what to do, or how to make further progress, through lack of technical…
February 19, 2007
I am not at the AAAS meeting in San Francisco, even though I am only about 30 minutes from where it is held...
So I was interested to see Larry Page addressed the meeting and admonished scientists for their failings
AAAS podcast here
Apparently science needs to be more entrepreneurial, needs better…
February 18, 2007
Finally; an mp3 version of Gaudeamus Igitur that doesn't quite sound like a damn hymn. (University of Stuttgart choir).
Pereat Diabolus!
February 18, 2007
emusic.com has Clint Eastwood and General Saint.
Specifically they have the classic "Stop that Train" including the all time favourite "Vote for We"
iTunes: you have let me down.
But who will have The Fall?
Oops, emusic has The Fall!
Theme from Sparta FC #2!
Live in Reykjavík!
Elves!
and they do…