catdynamics | November 10, 2011Imagine, 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?
This is a "nice guy", you have known him since he was the hotshot young colleague, you are friend with his wife, know his kids; he is charming, affable, rich, powerful, generous.
He is prominent at The Club, he founded a multi-million dollar charity; half the lawyers in town are on the Board, they…
catdynamics | November 9, 2011I 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 Paternos, who were clearly moved and grateful for the demonstration, which also provided some scenic shots for the news.
I can't comment on the case.
I also have no first hand knowledge, just what I read in the news.
The last few days have been an interesting ongoing lesson, not just in the evil…
catdynamics | November 4, 2011It 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 Covering: Móðir - Ego
The Crossing: Scherzo a la Russe (Firebird) - Stravinsky
The Crown: Let it Snow - Dean Martin
The Root: Buckeye Jim - Burl Ives
The Past: Estampe - Pagodes - Claudio Arrau
The Future: Pull the Wires From the Walls - the Delgados
The Questioner: Don't Try This at Home - Billy Bragg…
catdynamics | October 28, 2011As 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 before christmas, in order to give the members a sense of the priorities of the community.
This is the only formal input process.
WHERE TO SEND INPUT
Send your comments to astportfolio@nsf.gov. Please do not contact committee members individually.
The input window will be open from October 26, 2011,…
catdynamics | October 25, 2011Computer 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 other issues
I first came across John when he was nominated for a Distinguished Alumni Award at Caltech, shortly afterwards I moved to NoCal and met John, he was starting thinking long term and I put him in touch with Greg Laughlin who had done some work on a similar project.
I exchanged occasional…
catdynamics | October 25, 2011Dmitri 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
catdynamics | October 25, 2011Less 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 $556,764.38
Anne Saunders Barbour ATHLETICS MANAGER 4 $470,017.06
Robert J. Birgeneau CHANCELLOR $428,712.84
Andrew M Isaacs ADJ PROF-ACAD YR-BUS/ECON/ENG $399,582.00"
From above:
George Akerlof, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2001. 2007 salary (higher than 2009 so I used that):$266,359 - Salary rank at…
catdynamics | October 25, 2011The 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 Geeked on Goddard blog...
4 highligts of Signposts on Planets conference:
Spiral structure in protoplanetary disk of SAO 206462
click to embiggen
Could be a sign on (two) embedded planets in the disk.
Imaging of possible protoplanet in formation around LkCa15
click to embiggen
Cool Planet…
catdynamics | October 19, 2011The 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
catdynamics | 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 commencing a Portfolio Review process. Unlike the 2006 Senior Review, which considered the future only of AST-supported facilities, this review will encompass the entire portfolio of AST-supported facilities, programs, and other activities. The goal of the review is to recommend to AST how support for…
catdynamics | October 18, 2011From Grauniad, via A.
Research on Cat Physics
Improbable, but true.
Followed by: "Extreme Medicine: Reconstructing Physicists After Feline Fury", Nature Medicine
catdynamics | October 13, 2011NESCent 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 emailing travel.award@nescent.org like this - but for 2012, obviously
catdynamics | October 11, 2011Our 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 conceive of evolution beginning with an excess of complexity? Evolution by reduction?
How to build a minimal living thing?
...and we breakout into working groups, and get to work.
catdynamics | 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 together people from assorted related fields, some more distantly related than others, and brainstorm possible synergies and future directions.
Should be interesting.
So far, so good; just the breakfast conversation this morning has "made the trip worthwhile"...
So, Who Am I,
and What Am I Doing Here…
catdynamics | 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...."
Thus begins one of the most important essays of modern times:
"In the beginning was the command line" by Neal Stephenson
Neal has now written another timely essay:
"Innovation Starvation" by Neal Stephenson at World Policy Institute
"...Today's belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-…
catdynamics | October 4, 2011Series 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 spike in water flow or conductivity in the glacial rivers
webcam at http://ruv.is/katla is down overnight
if the earthquakes continue and get larger, it is a robust sign of impending onset of eruption
Jón Frímann is on it
PS: still going strong, though the rate of earthquakes has tapered off
GeoLurking…
catdynamics | October 4, 2011Congratulations 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 supernovae, independently by two teams, and showing that, combined with other known constraints, the result was consistent with a Hubble constant that was increasing in the recent past, and therefore an accelerating universe.
ΩΛ from SCP>
"Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift…
catdynamics | October 4, 2011To 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.