Random
catdynamics | April 14, 2014It goes like this...
The Kingswoods
Best Punkabilly ever finally on youtube!
The Original "Pretty Vacant" for reference,
for you young 'uns...
catdynamics | April 11, 2014Notes on Academic Blogging - Crooked Timber pines for the Good Old days
Old School Blogging - seeing a pattern here...
Want an Academic job? Hold your tongue
Is it Journalism or just a prepackage press release - Sunlight Foundation's Churnalism tool.
catdynamics | April 3, 2014In the great tradition of tracking Amazing Norwegian Meteorite Stories, we bring you:
Meteorite almost hits Norwegian skydiver
h/t Stjörnufræðivefurinn
Short Norwegian version...
catdynamics | January 24, 2014Sparkling, stinging, cold
Fine microcrystals of snow
Dance of the sunrise
catdynamics | December 11, 2013Tonight it begins:
Stekkjastaur is headed for town.
Be good.
Believe!
catdynamics | December 11, 2013This is awesome!
I am reliably informed that this was one of the all time great concerts.
Skálmöld and the Icelandic Symphony in concert at Harpa.
catdynamics | October 10, 2013 When it is darkest, men see the stars.
This afternoon I needed to check something urgently, and as is my habit in this day and age, I jumped to a website where I knew the information was available.
A few seconds later, with some irritation I went to hit "refresh" as the request failed to go through, and then realized that it was a *.nasa.gov address, at Ames, as it happens, and I was not going to be getting that bit of data this afternoon, not without some old fashioned legwork.
A bit later I realized with increasing dismay that a signficant fraction of the illustrations for my class…
catdynamics | August 8, 2013More random goodness from the intertoobz including a special topical PSU section for my colleagues
John McCarthy interview - wrote LISP - an old friend.
Galactic Center Orbital Models - new animation from Ghez' group.
Humans of New York - fascinating photo blog h/t poic at CR
Simons Foundation sponsored article on Complexity and Biology's First Law
No More Ripples - Telescoper pines for when he were but a wee cosmologist - read the comments!
Talking Back to Your Elders - Sean gets nostalgic in turn
Building Blocks and Blueprints in Cosmology - Telescoper redux
Future of High Energy…
catdynamics | July 22, 2013This is a public service announcement:
the EU is running a FameLab like Science Slam
EURAXESS Researcher in Motion Science Slam, sponsored by the European Commission.
"If you are a researcher currently based in North America (US and Canada), enter the competition by posting a video featuring your science slam on our LinkedIn site, or upload it on YouTube or DropBox and send the link directly to northamerica@euraxess.net before 10 September 2013.
Up to 7 entries will be invited to join the EURAXESS Science Slam North America 2013 finals to be held on the campus of the American University in…
catdynamics | July 18, 2013Ok, straight from cosmology to cybersecurity: the Aspen Institute is running an "Aspen Security Forum" with several days of events.
Tonight General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA is doing a forum with NBC's Pete Williams.
I got a ticket and got here early, as the heavens opened up and the lightning flashed. Despite the weather a lot of people are trickling in.
The Homeland Security folks are discretely tucked away behind the pavilion under the trees - seem to be trying to stay out of the rain.
Don't expect much news stuff, more here for curiousity and to hear the tone.
Aspen Institute…
catdynamics | July 17, 2013Playing catch-up here:
Science is Hard - Chad's take
Waiting for the Revolution - David Gross's take
Why Open Access Makes No Sense - I think Robin Osborne is actually saying something other than social network reactions thought he was saying, but I am not saying he is right.
The End of Kepler - Chris Tinney's take.
This is the week they try to jostle the Kepler reaction wheels back to life.
Long shot. Worth trying.
Build a Better Solar System
Something Seems Wrong With This Tenure Math
MOOA! Ahahahahahahaha.
No. Seriously. Why not?
Why pre-School Shouldn't Be Like School
Better Conference…
catdynamics | May 3, 2013Knock. Knock.
Hello?
Is this thing still working?
Anyone there?
Ok, it is end of semester and I am out of excuses.
Time to clear out some backlog of stuff to read.
Am I Wrong? - Bruce Alberts, Editor in Chief of Science, worries about the future.
He is rarely wrong.
Time Crystals - interesting article from the increasingly pro-active Simons Foundation on Frank Wilczek's provocative idea on multi-stable ground state configurations that may cycle through different but energetically equivalent configurations. Berkeley group is trying an experimental test of the concept. Won't be definitive,…
catdynamics | March 31, 2013The department of Astronomy & Astrophysics is proud to announce a special colloquium by a distinguished visitor:
TITLE: Emission Lines Accompanying Gamma-Ray Flares from the Tidal Disruption of Dyson Spheres by Binary Intermediate-Mass Black Holes at z ~ 10.
Special Lunch Talk, Monday, April 1, 2013
by Professor Rajesh Koothrappali, Circumference Institute
[Host: Hofstadter]
ABSTRACT: "I will begin this talk in medias res by assuming that Dyson spheres can exist as early as z~10. I will describe general relativistic electromagenetohydrodynamic simulations of the disruption of a Dyson…
kbonham | March 22, 2013My blogging has been slacking, but I'm still reading a bunch that I just don't have time to comment on. So I'm going to experiment with a link dump at the end of the week. This first one features a couple week's worth of posts - feel free to start a discussion in the comments
Science
- Keith Kloor has a couple of posts in the past few weeks about GMO scaremongering. I waded into the comments there, with varying levels of coherance. I'm working on an analogy about GMOs and rockets... more on that later maybe.
- Maryn McKenna continues in her tradition of being terrifying on the antibiotic…
catdynamics | March 21, 2013this is not a Planck post...
Visalization of the Gödel Universe
WMAP-9
Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays? - Astrophysicist lets you pick the priors and decide...
Harvard did WHAT?
"Detection of Carbon Monoxide and Water Absorption Lines in an Exoplanet Atmosphere" - Konopacky et al Science (sub) - HR8799 good S/N spectra
"Direct imaging discovery of 12-14 Jupiter mass object orbiting a young binary system of very low-mass stars" - Delorme et al (arXiv) - substellar circumbinary companion to an M dwarf binary
why, yes, I am procrastinating...
and there is Moore:
Moore's Law in Astronomy and UFOs…
catdynamics | March 9, 2013My quasi-periodic dump of interestingee thingees off the intertoobz
"The Most Precise Extra-Galactic Black-Hole Mass Measurement" A. Gould (ApJ submitted) aka the most talked about paper in astronomy this week...
How to kill your audience - apparently fake Wolverine claws are essential...
Time to Rethink Cosmic Inflation? - and you thought CDM vs MOND was getting out of control ;-)
Will Climate Change Ever Have Its Sandy Hook Moment: Why, Yes, Yes It Will.
Jolly Unpleasant It Will Be Too.
Why don't more girls study physics
Ten Lessons I wish I had been Taught: 1,2,3,4,6,8,9
There's More to…
catdynamics | February 27, 2013Sequestration begins on Friday, and this time for real... it is, ironically, Hubble Space Telescope Proposal Deadline Day, but then everyday is a Proposal Day.
I'm guessing that this year the "Hubble Constant" will decrease.
The Agencies are now revealing their plans to deal with sequester.
As you recall the amount is $83 billion from the current fiscal year's budget.
We are almost half way through the current fiscal year.
There is not actually a budget yet for the current fiscal year, the US is operating on a Continuing Resolution through to late March, and if a budget is actually approved,…
catdynamics | February 27, 2013"Not one penny..."!!!
My Precious vanished...
My Precious!
and then...
Kidnapped! Thieves!
desperate times indeed.
But the ass. made one critical mistake..
while they were distracted by some science bits, it being proposal season, you know, they left their lair unguarded, and our superbly NASA-trained team of astro ninjas carried out a successful extraction!
They'll now just have to take their chances in the NSF and ROSES lottery like everyone else.