Random
catdynamics | February 22, 2007WaPo has the IAEA report to the UN on Iran's compliance or lack thereof (PDF)
Good stuff on Verification blog
Interesting stuff.
IAEA full story is here (it helpfully explains they won't release the restricted distribution report that the WaPo printed...)
The Iranians have made a bunch (~ 100 tons) of natural uranium hexafluoride, suitable to enrichment in their centrifuge cascade, and have two 164 centrifuge cascades in place with two more to be up by the end of the month, and they are being prepped for a run through.
They did a 50kg batch test run, enriching to 4.2% (compared to 0.7%…
catdynamics | February 21, 2007the US navy right now has two expeditionary strike groups and two carrier strike groups in the Arabian Sea.
PS: Armada vs Iran - curious set of stories in the Telegraph.
Something is being telegraphed.
that is a lot of ships... and there is another carrier group and elements of two more expeditionary groups in the western pacific, by the looks of it
but, that is not all: China is sending a couple of frigates to the Arabian Sea to exercse with Pakistan; exercise will include US, UK, France, Turkey and Bangladesh ships!
but, that is not all: the Indian navy has concentrated in the Arabian Sea…
catdynamics | February 19, 2007O frabjous day!
Billy Bragg Podcast #7 - walls come tumbling down and Internationale comes out.
Great stuff.
catdynamics | February 18, 2007Finally; an mp3 version of Gaudeamus Igitur that doesn't quite sound like a damn hymn. (University of Stuttgart choir).
Pereat Diabolus!
catdynamics | February 18, 2007emusic.com has Clint Eastwood and General Saint.
Specifically they have the classic "Stop that Train" including the all time favourite "Vote for We"
iTunes: you have let me down.
But who will have The Fall?
Oops, emusic has The Fall!
Theme from Sparta FC #2!
Live in Reykjavík!
Elves!
and they do free 30sec mp3 samples.
this could get very expensive...
But no Half Man Half Biscuit.
Could do better...
catdynamics | February 18, 2007After numerous flights, "Old Man's War" by Scalzi finally bubbled to the top of my pile and got read.
It is really good fun.
I heard about Scalzi a couple of years ago, snagged the book shortly afterwards but it entered at the bottom of the pile and took a while to resurface.
In the meantime I heard more good things about his writing and saw he had a blog I look at occasionally.
The novel is a pretty standard "coming of age" story, with a definite streak of "kick alien butt" mixed in.
The premise is novel, and the writing is good - it reads well, I wanted to know what happened next. Not…
catdynamics | February 16, 2007Warm and sunny friday by the sea.
So, oh mighty iPod, we beseech thee, the time has come, so tell us about ships and kings and whether pigs have wings.
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
NB: For technical reasons we are using a sharply reduced subset of the full collected wisdom of the iPod...
The Covering: Burnout - Green Day
The Crossing: Henry Kissinger - Monty Python
The Crown: Mary had a little lamb
The Root: Auga fyrir Auga - Stuðmenn
The Past: Jungle Music - Rico and the Special AKA
The Future: Jón Pönkari - Bubbi
The Questioner: Jack and Jill
The House: Knights of the Round Table…
catdynamics | February 16, 2007The Navy did some slight unscheduled aircraft carrier moves in recent weeks...
The USS Stennis left harbour early to join the USS Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea.
Shortly after, the USS Reagan scooted out, to cover for the USS Kitty Hawk in the western Pacific.
The Kitty Hawk was going in for maintenance, she is old, but she had major maintenance last year, and is due to be decommissioned a year from now? Hm.
Be unlike the US Navy to disguise ship movements by faking maintenance, eh?
Now, the following appears in the Navy Times
"...Military observers have said that stepped-up…
catdynamics | February 15, 2007WaPo has a story on a new Science result presented at the AAAS meeting about evidence for liquid water on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter info at JPL
This is the image.
This is the most viewed photo today on the WaPo website
Laura Bush's redecorations in the White House.
UPDATE: WaPo promoted the Mars result and bumped the decor (so 3 o'clock, you know) on the web site. Yay.
PS: Actual Science story with links to article etc (subscription)
Eurekalert press release
Details at NASA
The Big Picture - click through for hi-res
catdynamics | February 15, 2007"I always wondered how the "Dynamics of Cats" related to astronomy..."?
Asks the Mark the Fur Guy, and as it happens several other people around the blogosphere.
It sounded cooler than Dynamics of COATs
We acquired our second cat just before the first web presence occured
The blog name is actually the title page of my original Web Page - done for beta release Mosaic either in late 1993 or early 1994, when the Web Was Young.
I miss Mosaic.
I kept it, because I have cats; because I do dynamics; because I am still interested in computation, compact objects, astrophysics and theoretical physics…
catdynamics | February 14, 2007Bloomin Heck.
The US Air Force has revised its doctrine on operations for counterproliferation.
AF DD 2-1.8
Pages 8, 17-18, 26-28 and 46 make especially interesting reading.
I think my favourite bit is on page 26...
Legal Considerations
The preemptive nature of counterforce operations, particularly when not
connected to a broader military campaign, is subject to conflicting interpretations of
international law. Given this controversial nature, orders to conduct counterforce
operations will likely originate at the highest levels of the United States Government.
Resulting rules of engagement…
catdynamics | February 12, 2007Turns out Iran does make its own ammunition, duh.
Question is: is that what the Pentagon showed?
PS: More at Entropic Memes
PPS: apparently someone at kos disputes the authenticity of diomil.ir - looked real enough, but these things can be faked.
Don't know why they'd bother, it is not going to be hard to get some Iranian made 81mm rounds in the gulf, easier just to buy or confiscate them if you wanted to embellish evidence
In particular the question is whether Iranian ammo would have bright yellow english language markings and Common Era dating, using US convention.
Defense Industries…
catdynamics | February 12, 2007Once a scout, always a scout...
I was, really, in Iceland - learned useful skills, like how to make a snow cave when a sudden summer blizzard catches you on a hike, how to make a fire in a country with no trees, and how to make "flour bombs".
Excellent. Especially when by court order the scouts went co-ed (1977 I think) and subsumed the girl scouts. Camping trips became something else entirely.
So now that World's Fair and a host of others has established the Order Of The Science Scouts Of Exemplary Repute And Above Average Physique
Since I, more than most, do deeply grieve for the slow…
catdynamics | February 12, 2007travel blogs get tiresome, but since I am trespassing on Cosmic Variance turf, I'll indulge
So: Bay Area, yay!
Expecting major snow storm in PA: ✓
Rain predicted in CA: ✓
PS: Damm! It really IS raining. Phooey.
Apparently I am now a Stanford employee: CA tax forms still a pain: ✓
I need to start leasing out my services a a minor weather deity. Precipitation patterns are definitely non-random as I move.
In the meantime, I need to find out just exactly when Risa shows up in her office (nice building btw), and to hassle some students...
Then it is back to the snow I guess.
catdynamics | February 10, 2007Coturnix made me do it...
Which leader are you?
What Famous Leader Are You?personality tests by similarminds.com
catdynamics | February 10, 2007Chloe, the senior feline catus domesticus member of the family, passed away friday afternoon.
Chloe was a very proper grand old lady cat.
She showed up in our garden in Aptos one spring and stayed with us for very many years through mutliple moves.
For the last four months she had been getting progressively more sick, general old age related problems, which required more and more medication. This week she became reluctant to eat and very withdrawn, and friday morning she refused water. We took her in, had her sedated and then put down, the alternative was too painful for her.
The Big Kid is…
catdynamics | February 8, 2007unverified blog link to a Greek story about an Israeli Air Force strike package buzzing the Greek Islands
Distance from Israel to Greek Islands is a bit shorter than to parts of Iran, but not by much (~ 1200km vs 1600km if my map reading skills don't fail me).
Interesting contingency exercise.
Hm, www.diplomatia.gr looks to be the real thing.
Their news section does not have english translation yet but the article is at http://www.diplomatia.gr/news.php and the translation looks plausible, up to the extent of my limited ability to transliterate.
Now, if I only knew someone who was fluent in…
catdynamics | February 5, 2007Talking Points Memo is not impressed with the Presidential Signing Statement either...
In a nutshell: President Bush is claiming extraordinary authority to circumvent Congressional restrictions on defence appropriations through a signing statement on the DoD appropriations bill.
A read of it suggests the president claims the right to divert funding to do things not covered by the appropriations, and even things explicitly forbidden by subsequent Congressional amendments.
This includes initiating classified programs and actions, and doing so without notifying Conress, as required by law.
Ok…