Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
February 2, 2007
Two posts on the Presidential signing statement on HR5631 - the 2007 Department of Defence appropriations bill:
Original post noticing it
and second post speculating on the implications.
Any lawyers out there?
I seriously would like someone who speaks legalese to tell me this is ok and that I am…
February 2, 2007
Oh, mighty iPod one, whose wisdom is as varied as the flakes of snow on my window: what is the story on the second stars?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Little Man, What Now - Morrissey
The Crossing: Vinkonur - Andrea
The Crown: Poppstjarnan - Utangarðsmenn
The Root: Can't Cry…
February 1, 2007
Last month I pondered what was involved in actually sending in those extra combat brigades.
Apparently I am not the only one
Congressional Budget Office plays scale games too
To reflect some of the uncertainty about the number of support troops, CBO
developed its estimates on the basis of two…
February 1, 2007
in case anyone was wondering, the USS Truman is in the Atlantic, doing fligh deck certification;
the USS Roosevelt is apparently due to deploy in March. Presumably to the Med?
The USS Nimitz is in the Pacific - just normal exercising, so they don't go rusty.
No signs of submarines moving out in…
February 1, 2007
Effect Measure has a good post on economics of war and casualties
which comes from this research
sometimes it is intrinsically good to link...
February 1, 2007
I've been worrying about the peculiar signing statement for HR 5631, the 2007 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.
Andy Foland asks why the executive needs emergency exception for research
To cut a long story short, and I Am Not A Lawyer, I read the signing statement as a claim that the…
January 31, 2007
Congress today takes on an omnibus continuing resolution spending bill for 9 out of the 11 appropriations for the current fiscal year.
The bill proposes to continue funding for agencies at the 2006 level, with all earmarks stripped out.
PS: I was wrong, House used earmark funding to bump a few…
January 31, 2007
There is absolutely no truth to the rumour circulated at coffee this morning that the failure of Hubble's Advanced Camera power supply was due to impact from pieces of a Chinese satellite
I have, however, not been able to refute rumour that a golf ball sized object may have been responsible...…
January 31, 2007
Big Boom.
Just like the Good Old Days!
Sea Launch has a bad day
Via NASAwatch
January 30, 2007
Neil de Grasse Tyson on The Daily Show now.
He is very good. Jon is on form also.
January 29, 2007
If you haven't been reading you e-mails, the Hubble call for proposals that expired last friday has been retroactively extended until Feb 9th so people can try to revise their ACS proposals to use WFPC2, or to edit out use of ACS parallels, or to submit new science, including additional proposals…
January 29, 2007
Ok, it is really official Space Telescope news on ACS (dynamic web page)
Spare power electronics popped, not recoverable, may not be repairable.
They're looking to see if they can run the ACS SBC only off the A-side electronics (which failed last year, which is why the ACS is running on the spare…
January 29, 2007
News item at NASA HQ website:
The B-side power supply on the ACS has crapped out
Not good, since they switched to it when the A-side went flakey.
May be fixable. Or not.
PS: there was a 3pm telecon on the status of HST today
if anyone was on it, let me know what they said. If there was anything new…
January 26, 2007
Ok, so it is five proposals, not four...
Three are in, one should be heading off any minute now, eh?
And the last seemed to be in good shape. Could actually be done an hour or two early.
Must resist temptation to go back and "fix" any of the "done" proposals... it just causes trouble.
Hey, who got…
January 26, 2007
Freezin' Friday, and we ask, most humbly, knowing that the answer is subject to the all too human vagaries of the Dreaded TAC: oh, Mighty iPod, what will the outcome of Cycle 16 HST call for proposals be?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Price I Pay - Billy Bragg
The Crossing…
January 26, 2007
FireDogLake has been transcribing the "Scooter Libby trial" with lawyerly comments and snark.
Worth glancing through, if you didn't know of it.
And links are an intrinsic good, dontcha know.
January 26, 2007
John Conway joins the CosmicVariance crowd and starts with a cliffhanger on The Hunting of the Higgs
That is a very nice little bump at 148GeV
Bit of a cliffhanger, but that is good, leave 'em begging for more.
So is the Higgs at 115GeV or 148GeV or is it all delusion and there is no Higgs?
Stay…
January 25, 2007
An astonishing Saturn composite image (warning: Very Large JPG)
See CICLOPS for more
January 25, 2007
the 26th of January, 2007 at 8pm EST
is when Cycle 16(!) Hubble Space Telescope proposals are due
Hope you remembered to update your Astronomer Proposal Tools vs 16,
and you will want your new latex science justification templates
and remember to actually check what they say in the call for…
January 25, 2007
The USS Reagan Carrier Strike Group is surging - it will forward deploy to the western pacific next week.
That makes three.
Caveat...
...this is to backstop the Kitty Hawk which is going in for maintenance in harbour in Japan.
The Stennis was supposed to cover the Kitty Hawk, but was deployed…
January 24, 2007
Jake still doesn't get it, I'll give Mike some credit and say he gets it, but he's been lucky.
Taking children on planes is a problem; young children have short attention spans, are impatient and throw tantrums. Having taken my pair transcontinental a few times I know the issues, I've had a couple…
January 23, 2007
Afarensis goes sappy
Avoiding the obvious counter, I go with Tender Comrade.
"My Youngest Son Came Home Today" seems to be lost in MyTubes for now, regrettably.
January 23, 2007
Darren Barefoot wants people to Get a First Life.
First life has kid pirates, these may occasionally try to travel on planes, much to the horror of people who are rapidly incurring bad kharmic debt.
It is interesting in many other ways: good 3-D graphics; bad dungeonmasters; use of dangly bits; and…
January 23, 2007
To recap: There is a claim that penzim, an enzyme extracted from cod intestines, has strong antiviral properties, and in particular is effective in killing the H5N1 virus in vitro
The Times has a decent article on it
So, what is the big deal?
Well, probably nothing, there are no clinical trials or…
January 23, 2007
Afarensis strikes back in the YouTube lazyblog war, with Black Sabbath's War Pigs
Band Played Waltzing Matilda: starts at 13m40s to the end
sung by some drunk punk at a 1985 live gig.
But all 18m59s are worth sitting through!
January 19, 2007
An Icelandic Company, Ensímatækni hf., is claiming that penzim - an enzyme isolated from cod intestines - has strong antiviral properties and kills H5N1 influenze viruses in vitro
Well, fancy that. It would, since it is a protease, but it is a start, I guess.
My amma would approve, she always said…
January 19, 2007
It is strange but true: when writing position papers for federal agencies, listening to a lot of old Icelandic punk is immensely useful for concentrating the mind...
Anyway, 06.06.06. is clearly the best album of 2006, by far.
Bubbi, if you must ask - think "the Iggy Pop of Iceland".
Memo to self…