Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
December 14, 2011
Stúfur is the littlest jólasveinn, and, I am told, much beloved of the girls.
He is not so much a (half)troll as your very own Home Gnome.
Very stubborn, loyal, somewhat fierce and generous to a fault.
He rowed to our distant shores last night, bringing wee little treats, received with much joy…
December 13, 2011
and the jólasveinar march on and on across the floor...
Giljagaur came this morning.
He likes to hide in the folds in the landscape, crawling towards your barn, where he will sneak up to the cows in the morning and skim the significance off your double blinded data set, leaving but a suggestion…
December 11, 2011
Yes, 'tis the season, and jólasveinarnir are headed for town:
Stekkjastaur - Lock up your sheep!
Icelandic media cautioned children last week that the jólasveinar were having a hard time this year, and to expect more socks and and underwear, and less overpriced plastic imported crap in their…
December 8, 2011
Do not bring the University into Disrepute or through Inaction Allow the University to be Dissed
Bring Funding to the University and do not let the Funding stop through Inaction, Except where such Funding would Conflict with the First Law
Protect your Own Existence as long as Such Protection…
December 5, 2011
So, what are the hot, must have Astro Apps?
Here are my current micropayment and (guilt) free astro related Apps, what other spontaneous little thrills ought we be hoping for Santa to bring us?
Strictly professional applications, of course, well, that and pretty pics:
Here is what I got right now…
December 2, 2011
This is an old favourite. re-presented here to lay the ground for the great return to the phys ed education debate...
Several years ago, a major organ of our professional society raised a troubling issue: namely whether the three major subfields were being taught in the proper order at the high…
November 27, 2011
I've been a naughty blogger, I went off to the Mars Surveyor launch, and didn't blog about it, yet.
In no small part because I forgot to bring a USB cable.
But, honestly, mpostly because I wanted to just revel in the moment.
(Ok, I tweeted and fb'd a bit).
I'll get back to MSL, in the meantime I…
November 22, 2011
Matthew Bailes has another excellent entry in the "State of Science" series of public conversations on science:
Selling Science: The Lure of the Dark Side
November 16, 2011
For many years now, NASA has run a Graduate Student Researcher Program, offering a number of fellowships each year, typically lasting for three year terms.
These are the Future Rocket Scientists of America.
They are now, apparently, cut.
The GSRP takes a number of students per year in astronomy,…
November 15, 2011
Congress is moving on 2012 appropriations, and the Science agency "minibus" bill has reported out of conference...
So, fiscal 2012 started last month, and funding is currently under a short term "continuing resolution" through friday.
Three of the appropriation bills the House and Senate had…
November 10, 2011
Imagine, hypothetically, that a junior co-worker comes to you, distraught, to tell you they witnessed a horrendously evil act by a senior colleague.
After you overcome the cognitive dissonance,
because it is hard to believe that your friend of several decades could do such thing,
what do you do?…
November 9, 2011
I live just around the corner from Joe Paterno.
This morning there was a little horde of reporters and cameras across the street, hoping to get that little 15 second glimpse of the man, for the early evening news shot.
Last night, several hundred students gathered outside to voice support for the…
November 4, 2011
It is a beautiful sunny day in the neighbourhood,
so we skip joyfully to the iPod and ask:
Oh, Mighty iPod One, what will the grim fates bring us as the appropriations for Science (and Commerce and Justice) go to the mysteries of the Conference Committee?
Whoosh goes the iPod.
Whoosh.
The…
October 28, 2011
As you know, Bob, the NSF Portfolio Review is under way.
The NSF is urgently requesting community input for the process.
AST Portfolio Review
Community Input Invited
This is important.
It is highly desirable that a significant number of people provide concise and explicit input to the committee…
October 25, 2011
Computer Science has had a hard few days:
First Steve Jobs of Apple died
then Dennis Ritchie co-developer of Unix and C dies
and now John McCarthy has died
John was the author of LISP and is credited with coining the concept of Artifiicial Intelligence.
He also turned his attention to a number of…
October 25, 2011
Dmitri Veras at the IoA, Cambridge, has created an interactive set of maps of astronomy institutions around much of the world,
take a look, especially if you are on the market... very nice.
h/t AstroBetter
current home of the Astro Rumour Mill
October 25, 2011
Less than a losing football coach, apparently:
DaveInTokyo investigates using UC public data
"UC Berkeley top 10 earners
Jeff Tedford HEAD COACH 5 $2,338,409.39
Michael J. Montgomery HEAD COACH 5 $1,606,588.82
Joanne Boyle HEAD COACH 5 $658,691.22
Teck Hua Ho PROFESSOR-ACAD YR-BUS/ECON/ENG $556,…
October 25, 2011
The Signposts of Planets meeting was held at Goddard Space Flight Center last week
I didn't make it to that one, between pre-commitment to be at the NESC catalysis workshop, and other real life constraints I couldn't get down to Goddard, but, fortunately, they put some of the highlights on the…
October 19, 2011
The following is brutal, do not watch if sensitive
Small child hit by car, twice.
Apparently footage from security camera.
Same story on TV news, with followup reporting.
Child survived, obviously severely injured.
This appears to be something that actually happened.
Graunaid cover of story
October 19, 2011
The NSF Astronomy division is commencing a Portfolio Review process...
"Based on the FY2011 budget appropriation and the FY2012 budget request, the optimistic budget assumed in the Astro2010 recommendations is unlikely to materialize. Therefore, NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) is…
October 18, 2011
From Grauniad, via A.
Research on Cat Physics
Improbable, but true.
Followed by: "Extreme Medicine: Reconstructing Physicists After Feline Fury", Nature Medicine
October 13, 2011
NESCent is offering a travel award for the best blog post on current or emerging evolutionary research.
Award is $750 for travel support to attend ScienceOnline2012
There will be 2 winners, chosen by 15th Dec 2011
Blog entries must mention NESCent contest, and are nominated or self-nominated by…
October 11, 2011
Our big questions, at least.
And the winners are...
How would we recognise evolution on other substrates? How would we detect life on another planet?
Are there genetic grammars common to all of life?
What do we need to know about law in biology to explore questions in astrobiology?
Can we…
October 11, 2011
"Defining the Common Foundations"
is a "catalysis workshop" now underway at NESC , the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.
I will not be liveblogging the workshop, schedule looks too intense, but I'll hopefully take random notes of assorted highlights.
The intent of the workshop is to bring…
October 5, 2011
"About twenty years ago Jobs and Wozniak, the founders of Apple, came up with the very strange idea of selling information processing machines for use in the home. The business took off, and its founders made a lot of money and received the credit they deserved for being daring visionaries...."…
October 4, 2011
Series of substantial earthquakes in the Katla caldera,
could be nothing could be sign of an impending eruption
there are multiple, relatively shallow earthquakes taking place now,
several with magnitude of 3+
earthquake map at 4:10 am (from vedur.is)
it is dark, no other evidence yet, eg no…
October 4, 2011
Congratulations to Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt for the Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 for the observations of the acceleration of the Universe.
The prize is specifically for a series of papers, beginning in 1998, measuring the redshift and luminosity distance of a sample of type Ia…
October 4, 2011
To do something interesting, you must have one of two conditions fulfilled:
either, know that it is possible to do it;
or,
not know that it is impossible.