Random
catdynamics | May 30, 2009US Navy is on the move again.
We like to keep an eye on what the US Navy's strike forces are up to, it is a habit I got into many years ago when I knew a couple of people likely to be on them, this became a more intense interest for a few years over the last half decade
anyway, the USS Reagan just set to see, in a bit of a rush, to head for the west Pacific/Middle East. One of those.
Now the Eisenhower is in the Middle East, should be back late summer;
the USS Washington is stationed in Japan and is out on exercises, preparing for their summer cruise;
the USS Stennis was in the west Pacific…
catdynamics | May 29, 2009There has been a lot of blogospheric buzz about the nomination by President Obama of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
Her opponents, of course, try to find something about her they can attack, and there have been gratuitous and poorly sourced attacks on her temperament, intelligence and even financial sense.
A major indicator of Judge Sotomayor's intellectual abilities are that she was the co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize for the class of '76 at Princeton.
The Pyne Prize is the top academic prize awarded to Princeton undergraduates, and is undeniably a sign of major scholastic…
catdynamics | May 27, 2009it appears that my proposal page production rate is approximately constant at about one page per two cups of coffee
catdynamics | May 26, 2009Carnivalea and Culture Wars Galore
Carnival of Space 104
Carnival of Space 103 - at Chandra Blog
Chandra Blog also has a neat post on what is hidden in headers of astronomical images
Built on Facts considers the traffic jam problem - he considers the phase transition to jams as a statistical physics problem with growing correlation lengths - needs to show more work.
I personally prefer the continuum picture where traffic jams appear as breaking non-linear waves.
Advantage of that model is that it tells you how you ought to drive to minimize jams... if only it were safe...
Office of Special…
catdynamics | May 19, 2009Bob Rutledge and colleagues are blogging the:
Defining the Neutron Star Crust '09 workshop in Santa Fe.
Right now.
X-ray bursts, superbursts and giant flares. Oh my.
Some good stuff, interesting talk summaries.
catdynamics | May 18, 2009Atlas Hedged
Bankrupt Icelandic gazillionaires
and Woe Is Academia
Atlas Hedged
updating a classic for the modern age - recommended
Peek-a-boo - the Economist explains why Astronomers should have lots of new toys.
Check Out new SciBling "Confessions of A Science Librarian"
PhysioProf's Handy Dandy Guide to D00dly D00d's - how fuckin' not to fuck up in comments on some peoples' blogs
FSP explains why you should read the backlog of student e-mails before going to the last faculty meeting
- have to get into the right frame of mind.
Iceland:
Lára Hanna interviews Michael Hudson on where…
catdynamics | May 16, 2009why are The Jonas Brothers trying to become The Monkees of this decade
and how come I know this?
catdynamics | May 14, 2009first spacewalk extended - sounds like stiction on the bolts and nuts
now with bonus EVA video!
catdynamics | May 12, 2009Iceland made it to the Eurovision final round...
not bad
as Eurovision entries go
catdynamics | May 10, 2009it turns out that hot tubs and light ashfall are a bad mix
so we had a fairly major fire here in the mountains;
one of my colleagues here pretty much saw it start - the site is clearly visible outside the "fishbowl tower room" where we were having a research group meeting.
He pointed it out to me a few minutes before 2, and the fire is thought to have started at 1:45 or so.
Fire wasn't much tuesday, but threatened some homes and had the potential to be very serious.
Wednesday we had a KITP picnic at the beach, with clear view of the fire.
The winds picked up and the fire got bad, but was…
catdynamics | May 10, 2009confirmed case count by CDC and WHO respectively
we can learn some interesting things
First thing we conclude is that some of WHO's correspondents don't like to work weekends.
Second thing we conclude is that the CDC got the test kits out to the states this week:
what we don't know is whether the turnover in the US cases is the 'flu petering out; or the State labs saturating throughput; or doctors not bothering to send samples in.
Could be any of the above.
Worldwide cases are till growing.
Of course we still don't know how many undiagnosed cases per unconfirmed case; it looked like about 30…
catdynamics | May 8, 2009ole! ole!
I like the original, but this version is more suited to my current mood
catdynamics | May 7, 2009Honest as the day is long...
Absolutely.
...at least we think so...
in Iceland, on winter's solstice.
catdynamics | May 6, 2009yesterday, as we were headed into an informal research group discussion,
one of the locals grabbed me and pointed out the window at a small plume of smoke on the mountain above Santa Barbara
it was a small brush fire in San Roque canyon, the Jesusita Fire, high on the mountain, it was warm and windy, but the fire was moving diagonally uphill and looked like it would be contained;
firecrews and helicopters were on it immediately
by night the fire looked to have died down, but with the heavy brush in the canyons, the firecrews couldn't form a line around the fire, and in the morning it flared…
catdynamics | May 6, 2009if you won the lottery would you stay in grad school?
and more links, of random interest to me
Debt - now and then - from Seeking α
Krugman: no comment - classy
An old friend of mine from a small university town in the UK had dinner with Obama some weeks ago: said Obama was unusually up on a number of issues, in a good, smart way, and asked very good questions, iteratively; also said he was unusual in being polite and considerate of everyone, even the less important people.
He also said Hillary had become a total Obama fanboy...
I am paraphrasing, obviously. Heavily.
Graduate advisors…
catdynamics | May 2, 2009just for laugh, here is the US H1N1 confirmed case count by date as provided by the CDC
now with added bonus WHO worldwide case count.
from CDC: past daily updates
click to embiggen
looks pretty linear now, I think the dip at day 7 is a CDC error and the case number was 109 then, not 91.
Doubling time is roughly 2 days, or e-folding of about 3 days.
The early rise is catching up on existing cases.
There is some sign of flattening, could be rate slowing, could be CDC lab falling behind.
If the doubling time is really about 2 days, and the confirmed case count is not dominated by the…
catdynamics | May 2, 2009CDC images the new H1N1 virus
A/H1N1/2009 (click to embiggen)
click to embiggen
from CDC