Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
June 7, 2012
"Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write." H.G.Wells
Today! I swung by the penultimate session of the VIIIth Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers, just to catch a couple of old friends who were at the school, chat a bit at…
June 5, 2012
there is a curious result in behavioural economics, which shows that paying people to do what they like to do, sometimes provides a disincentive for them to do it, and people correspondingly lower their effort to do the task.
The example I recently came across, from the 7 Rules of Behavioural…
June 4, 2012
In which NASA gets presented with two Hubble class wide field space telescopes...
Oh my. So some of the mysterious maneuverings at NASA's Astrophysics division can now be better understood.
The National Reconnaissance Office was sitting on a couple of spare space telescopes they are willing to…
May 25, 2012
It is friday!
On fridays, we have an occasional tradition to invoke the ever omniscient iPod One, Mighty is the iPod One, and do our own divination, a musical haruspicy if you like, where the diverse and assorted cards of our harmonies are cast upon the net to reveal our destinies, or permit us to…
May 24, 2012
The word came out last night that the GEMS Small Explorer Class Mission has been cancelled.
GEMS is an x-ray polarimetry mission, using new detector technology, and the rumours (from the "Astronomers" group on fb) are that an Independent Cost Estimate showed the mission blowing its budget.
The…
May 23, 2012
Just a quick heads-up for those who don't know yet: there is closed group "Astronomers" on facebook. It is by invitation only, ie some existing member must add any new member. You must have an fb account to be added.
The group has about 4,000 members, most all professional astronomers from around…
May 22, 2012
Interesting new look, could do with a coat of paint, some decor and maybe a pic on the wall, eh?
Lets take this for a spin and see how it works.
To dos:
Blogroll
Favourite posts
Pic
Hm, does ð html coding work?
Awesome.
May 14, 2012
From The Rock
Recently I've spent far more time than I care to pondering this concept...
May 14, 2012
Nah, not as serious as it sounds - the National Geographic Overlords are transitioning the Sb collective to newer blog platform:Transitional Technical Difficulties - Chad explains.
It is why the Scienceblogs have been a bit subdued recently
I promise I'll clean house after the move, including…
May 9, 2012
prescience
Neutrinos to Give High-Frequency Traders the Millisecond Edge
Bruce Dorminey writes about the real edge the big boys have...
30 millisec trading advantage on the NY/Tokyo spread is nothing to sneeze about, just get some pulsed collimated neutrino burst generators, swap your low bit…
May 1, 2012
this dates me, but here are the best songs, like, ever
why, yes, I am in the final stretch of grading!
how can you tell?
Stál og Hnífur
White Man in Hammersmith Palais
Love Will Tear Us Apart
New England
April 25, 2012
assorted linkedy links for your amusement
Geoff Marcy to do optical SETI?
How to tell if you live in a simulation
The REAL Reason for the Uncertainty Principle!
Sabine's take on hologram tests using baby laser interferometers
Astrophysicist's Phrasebook
David Grinspoon awarded Baruch Blumberg NASA-…
April 17, 2012
The European Space Agency has made its selection for the next Large Mission to be flown by ESA, with a launch window in about 2022
and the winner is... JUICE
Jupiter moons orbiter.
Formerly known as Laplace.
The losers were ATHENA - a descoped version of IXO, the third version of the next…
April 4, 2012
we just switched to a "no can" policy
in practise, what this means is that rubbish bins in our offices are no longer emptied (though they are still there, and I helpfully pointed out that most of the bins had not been emptied that one last time when we switched this month - they were emptied this…
April 2, 2012
Every other year NASA conducts a Senior Review of its astrophysics missions that have completed their nominal mission and are requesting an extension of their mission.
The 2012 review panel just reported.
The panel had an interesting task - to rank in priority the operating missions:
Chandra
Fermi…
April 2, 2012
snippets to ponder:
"Gods as Topological Invariants" - D. Schoch
"We show that the number of gods in a universe must equal the Euler characteristics of its underlying manifold. By incorporating the classical cosmological argument for creation, this result builds a bridge between theology and…
March 27, 2012
Many of the Hubble Space Telescope images have never been looked at.
You can now browse the archives and win valuable prizes for finding cool new pics.
This is a cool, fun thing, and it is easy enough for a theorist to do.
Hubble Hidden Treasures - How To
With an iThing and the Dynamic Kids, we…
March 26, 2012
This here blog has not ceased to be,
appearances to the contrary not withstanding.
It is not elevating the asteraceae,
it is just resting.
Seriously.
The lack of activity this month is deplorable, and all my fault, as real life has made a forceful appearance.
Normally this sort of tapering off in…
March 12, 2012
Seems like all the action is in Norway these last few years...
Meteorite crashes through roof in Oslo
from Verdens Gang
Fist size meteorite smashes through roof in Oslo suburb
Nice looking chunk - be worth a pretty penny, as one of the few meteorites with confirmed provenance of hitting a structure…
March 2, 2012
stuff I need to contemplate and therefore you probably should do:
"So Forget Jesus, Stars Died So You Could Live" - Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana gets death threats for quoting Lawrence Krauss on twitter...
Philocosmology - Our Blog - Templeton foundation sponsors a Cosmology/Philosophy blog at…
February 28, 2012
Hey peeps
Anyone care to comment on what is going on with their prospies?
Either outoging μgrads or incoming?
I'm worried the statistics on prospies are wonky this year.
Are people holding back on apps?
Using waiting lists more?
Students continuing to apply to more schools than before?
I'm also…
February 24, 2012
Is approaching 1 per minute and accelerating.
Proposals of course!
Yes, it is Happy, Happy Hubble Proposal Deadline Day!
You've downloaded yer new and improved APT20 (Astronomers Proposal Tool); installed the updated Java; bookmarked the subtly changed Proposal Guidelines, and even written some…
February 16, 2012
Web Astrophysical Calculator - I don't know how I missed this for 16 years...
I'd so totally pay $0.99 cents for this if someone wants to make it into an App
How to Optimize Your Caffeine Intake - PSU provides a genuine service to society - and it is an App!
February 15, 2012
The standard solar model predicts a young Sun which was too faint to sustain liquid water on the Earth, unless there was an extreme greenhouse effect at the time, which seems to contradict the geochemical record. It seems to be almost impossible to get liquid water on Mars under the standard solar…
February 14, 2012
for astronomers:
Discovery and Depth
"...the current situation calls for bold leadership and tough decisions and not merely the proverbial rearrangement of the chairs in the dining hall of the Costa Concordia as it approached the Isola del Giglio."14 Kulkarni (2011)
February 9, 2012
There are several signs o'doom for NASA bubbling up out there
GALEX is going into standby mode in preparation for shut down.
It is working fine, but past its design lifetime, as so many NASA satellites do nowadays, and there is no more money for mission operation and data analysis.
There is a…
February 8, 2012
but now I hope to see one:
from io9
Purple Squirrel Found in Pennsylvania
again?
February 1, 2012
The University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has a very interesting facility that has put out some fun stuff
The Planetary Habitability Laboratory led by Prof Abel Mendez, who gave a most excellent presentation on their tools and resources at the "Planet around Stellar Remnants" workshop last week.
The…