catdynamics | May 9, 2012prescience
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 unbreakable one time pads and go wild on the arbitrage as you trade your Ningi for Cold Pressed Latinum Bars!
but we knew this...
"...The most interesting applications of this would of course be for signaling; however there private enterprise is way ahead of us, and clearly some very clever hedge fund…
catdynamics | May 1, 2012this 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
catdynamics | April 25, 2012assorted 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-Library of Congress Chair
JJ on grad admissions on astrobites
Planetary Resources is looking for a few good asteroid miners - more on this later, methinks.
Talking of which ~ 5kT fireball over the Sierras
Gender Issues - Chad rant
catdynamics | April 17, 2012The 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 generation x-ray observatory, and, NGO, aka eLISA - the descoped version of the much beloved LISA, the long proposed space based gravitational wave observatory.
Some residual funding for x-ray optics, and laser systems will be provided to provide technological readiness for future mission opportunities.…
catdynamics | April 4, 2012we 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 morning...)
instead we have 8 (I counted) sorting bins in the hallways, most of which are for recycling, of course
this is a good thing, and the goal is to get to zero waste (not possible, too much stuff is wrapped in that unrecyclable soft plastic that ends up in landfills)
so now I pile garbage on…
catdynamics | April 2, 2012Every 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
Hubble
Kepler
Planck
Suzaku
Swift
Warm Spitzer
XMM-Newton
Kepler and Fermi are being reviewed for the first time, as is Hubble , as effectively it goes into a "new mission ops" mode after refurbishments.
Hubble and Chandra are large missions with large operations costs; Kepler, Fermi and Spitzer…
catdynamics | April 2, 2012snippets 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 physics and makes theism a testable hypothesis. Theological implications are profound since the theorem gives us new insights in the topological structure of heavens and hells. Recent astronomical observations can not reject theism, but data are slightly in favor of atheism."
Close a hole. Kill a god!
"…
catdynamics | March 27, 2012Many 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 had pulled up several dozen sets of images of selected patches of the sky and browsed them, and found seriously cool pics within about 20 minutes.
Cut out of Pal 1 - unprocessed 2 colour - found from random browse and made in about 20 mins
So here is the deal: the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a…
catdynamics | March 26, 2012This 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 activity is a blog death sentence, but I have not been short of material, just time.
Life has also been complicated by impending changes in layout, and the fact that I backed myself into a situation where I have assumed or been given Real Life Obligations that sharply limit my ability to…
catdynamics | March 12, 2012Seems 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.
see also Fireball over Norway - at VG
catdynamics | March 2, 2012stuff 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 Rutgers.
Looks like a good crew - now put up some content folks!
Walker reviews the origins of radial velocity searches for exoplanets
Xcode and fortran fix for OSX 10.7 Lion - yup, they broke it, again.
Iceland Goes Loonie - eh?
It is, actually, an interesting idea, thinking about it.
NASA Senior…
catdynamics | February 28, 2012Hey 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 not seeing the sort of chatter in the forums and cafes that I've seen in previous years.
Information wants to be fre...
catdynamics | February 24, 2012Is 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 Science Justification - now it is the deathmarch to the deadline o'doom - can you write your Descriptions of the Observations or Analysis and Management section before dinner (tea on the west coast)?!
Will you get your lucky 4 digit submission number at 7:59:53?
Or are you one of these very organized…
catdynamics | February 16, 2012Web 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!
catdynamics | February 15, 2012The 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 model with any plausible early Mars atmosphere.
Here is an interesting article on an old problem...
Astrobiology Magazine picked this up through the actual reporter finding it out by reading proposal abstracts. Which is impressive but scare:
Baby Fat on the Young Sun
The basic idea is to look at…
catdynamics | February 14, 2012for 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)
catdynamics | February 9, 2012There 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 rumour that Caltech hustled for some private money to extend MODA, but they may not be able to do it anyway, because of liability and ownership issues.
So it goes.
At the same time there is SenseOfImpendingDoom at NASA - lot of 2011-12 programs appear effectively suspended pending the 2012-13 budget, to…
catdynamics | February 8, 2012but now I hope to see one:
from io9
Purple Squirrel Found in Pennsylvania
again?
catdynamics | February 1, 2012The 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 Habitable Exoplanets Catalog tabulates potentially habitable exoplanets and exomoons from the known and candidate exoplanets in the literature.
They have a press release on some related new result thursday 2nd Feb.
Their Visible Paleo Earth project also looks very interesting, and I suspect I'll…