Random
catdynamics | July 21, 2006It is friday, and we will be topical today.
So, Oh Mighty iPod, Oh Omniescent One...
Are there planets orbiting main sequence stars, within 100 parsecs of the Sun, which have abundant carbon based life producing biosignatures we can detect and recognise within the medium term, if we get the requisite technology built?
Whoosh, goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Rat Race - Specials
The Crossing: The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Rogé
The Crown: Sing Your Way Home - Twin Sister
The Root: Litli Tónlistarmaðurinn - Björk
The Past: Boys Own - Alison Moyet
The Future: North Sea Bubble - Billy…
catdynamics | July 20, 2006Spotted on Pharyngula, forwarded in case any astro/physics types are out there who don't scan PZ
What to say while having sex with atheists
FreeThunk illustrates the point
though I think in practise most atheists fall back on the cultural ambiance and go with colloquial blaspheming...
"Big Bang" might work though, especially if it follows a prolonged contemplation of the Steady State.
catdynamics | July 20, 2006As the sun blazes in the sky, and the heat climbs, people strip to the bare minimum and head for the pools and beaches. This morning a number of companies announced they would close for part of the afternoon to give employees a chance to cool off, you have to figure no one is going to be out doing business in this heat anyway...
Yes, the noon temperature in Reykjaík, Iceland, skyrocketed to a balmy 17.3 C (that's 63 F for the uninformed) and the Sun was shining.
No time to waste, tomorrow it is back to normal (12 C == 54 F and drizzle)
Original mbl.is story
Perfect place to visit, should…
catdynamics | July 19, 2006There sure are a lot of angry bloggers out there...
Angry Physics is an old favourite
but I didn't know there was also an Angry Astronomer
who is not the same as Angry Stanek, who is an astronomer
but they may one day become like the legendary Angry Professors
but who is not Professor Angry
There is an Angry Economist
Angry Canadian
Angry Atheist
Angry Clam
Angry Patriot (defunct?)
and the generic Angry Bloggers
there is Angry Arab - if you visceral sense of one side of the terrors of the Middle East, he is your blogger. The photos should make you cry.
The Angry Mathematician doesn't seem to…
catdynamics | July 18, 2006I have learned many useful things recently:
It is harder to organize a birthday party for a dozen munchkins, then it is to organise a four day festival for several thousand people (the previous limit of my organizational reach)
Both "Average Angry Professor" and "Angry Average Professor" would be Great Blog Pseudonyms
Blog pseudonyms are not reliable for anonymity (but we knew that from Ye Olde Days on the Net)
If you want people to read and comment on blogs in large numbers you should say something outrageous about string theory, or cosmology, or religion, or politics, or war, or medicine,…
catdynamics | July 18, 2006I am going to go on a minor iTunes spending spree.
What music should I get?
Caveat: this is input for the output range of the Mighty iPod Oracle, so be careful what you recommend.
My tastes are not as limited as the current iTunes list might indicate - a large fraction of our music collection is on "cassette" and "LP" Gramophone Record... (including, sadly, much of my classic Icelandic rock collection) - I need to get digital copies of these, but have moral resistance to paying for the same music again - what I really need is a handy ADC gadget for Macs (hm, google time? oh, yes.…
catdynamics | July 18, 2006Revere on Effect Measure points us to an interesting fact I did not know....
The US charges its own citizens for evacuations from war zones.
"...The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will…
catdynamics | July 17, 2006astroprof has a succinct semi-technical summary on the hardware raining down on north Israel
my 2c worth...
What Hezbollah did was an act of war, a breach of truce, a violation of agreements; it was not, in this instance (the ambush of an IDF patrol), an act of terrorism. Hezbollah has committed acts of terror, in this case they committed an act of war; they've trapped Israel in a moral reverse.
Israel had the right to respond, and they do have the right to insist Lebanon control its sovereign soil and preclude third parties, or Lebanese government factions, from attacking its soil.
From the…
catdynamics | July 14, 2006Hot friday, and I am out of touch.
So we ask the Mighty iPod...
...Oh, Mighty iPod - are we getting a short term shortage of those ever so addictive Megaliters of hydrogenated carbon chains we find so useful?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Price I Pay - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Russian Dance - Tchaikovsky
The Crown: Cadet Rousselle - Sien Diels
The Root: When Will I See You Again? - Billy Bragg
The Past: God's Footballer - Billy Bragg
The Future: Granada - Three Tenors
The Questioner: Víur um Ref
The House: Du reines Taubchen, nur Herein! - Mozart
The Inside: (The…
catdynamics | July 14, 2006That most reliable of sources, the friend of a friend of a friend, told us they know someone who works at the corporate HQ of a major petroleum retailer in the US.
In short: expect ~ 20% rise in retail prices of gas this weekend.
I wonder why, did I miss something?
Some unrest somewhere while I wasn't paying attention?
catdynamics | July 7, 2006Prof Hawking is stirring things up again...
seen on CNN...
Hawking put out a Social Science question on Yahoo's "Ask the Planet".
Got about 18,000 answers.
Bono got even more...
Oh, the question: "How can the human race survive the next hundred years?"
Answer: Little luck.
Al Gore had a serious science policy question and only got ~ 7500 answers.
The best one was actually rather sensible.
catdynamics | July 7, 2006Friday, and I went blueberry picking.
So, we ask the mighty iPod...
This cloning business, are we going anywhere with that?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Help Save the Youth of America - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Strange Days - Doors
The Crown: Allegro: Eine Kleine Nachtmusic - Mozart
The Root: Golden Years - Bowie
The Past: Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello
The Future: Lack of Knowledge - Violent Femmes
The Questioner: Stalin Malone - Elvis Costello
The House: Impromptu (The Spinning Top) - Roge
The Inside: Allegro B - Mozart
The Outcome: Isobel - Björk
#11 is Please,…
catdynamics | July 6, 2006Yikes, Dynamics of Cats is nowhere on the Nature science blog rankings.
That, dear folks, is because most of you are still pointing at ye olde catdynamics.blogspot.com, or at least I like to think so...
Move those blogrolls and web links.
The web values based on connectivity...
(ok, I admit, I hadn't moved the pointer on my own home page yet, but I have now, and you don't want to be even bigger procrastinators than me, now, do you?)
ok, so I also need to update my own blogroll to move the pointers from ye olde blog to the New Improved Blog.
Real Soon Now.
catdynamics | July 5, 2006France vs Italy eh, could be good, could be not good...
Italy did well to hold off Germany, their defence+goalie look invulnerable.
They're good on the counter, but the first goal looked like a defensive error by the Germans, looked like someone missed their assignment.
Only saw the last few (and very exciting) mins of France vs Portugal. Glad the "good French team" showed up. Did not develop much fondness for Portugal watching their games, they'd do even better still if their players just focused their abundant talent on playing.
So, the final...
Well, if the France that beat Brazil shows…
catdynamics | July 3, 2006Mm, fresh Rainer cherries go very well with vanilla skyr
For some reasons there are an amazing number of wild raspberry canes fruiting this year; we're picking a pint or two in 20-30 mins (with two munchkins "helping" this is not as slows as it sounds), and there's more every day, both black and red varieties.
Pick your own cherries for a day later this week, and rumours are the commercial pick your own raspberry farms are open. Real soon it will be blueberry season. Yay. We'll go for more than last year, down to our last pound and if we were not exactly rationing ourselves, we were not…
catdynamics | June 30, 2006Topical friday and so we ask the Mighty One a Topical Question:
Oh, mighty iPod: will LIGO, now that it has reached phase I design sensitivity and is in double coincidence science run mode, detect the ringdown from the formation of intermediate mass black holes in the local universe?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Sofa Urtubörn Á Útskerjum - trad.
The Crossing: Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir - Claudio Arrau
The Crown: A New England - Billy Bragg
The Root: My Youngest Son Came Home Today - Billy Bragg
The Past: Good Man, Good Woman - Bonnie Raitt
The…
catdynamics | June 29, 2006
Jim Baen died.
He was publisher of Baen Books, the primary source of libertarian and military oriented science fiction, with emphasis on the above. He discovered and promoted some excellent authors, and kept teenage boys everywhere amused for hours.
He also premiered online fan discussion with authors, electronic publishing and distribution of free electronic books from the Baen books archives.
catdynamics | June 27, 2006Your results:You are Spider-Man
Spider-Man
70%
Hulk
65%
Green Lantern
55%
Robin
52%
Superman
50%
Batman
40%
Iron Man
40%
The Flash
35%
Supergirl
30%
Catwoman
30%
Wonder Woman
20%
You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.
Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...
I am flattered, I think.
Seen on Oliver Willis
Hey, if it works for Chad...
My traffic is up, but more never hurts, eh?
catdynamics | June 27, 2006The first few minutes are not warm up.
The game is still on even if it is the last minute.
Fascinating game Gha vs Bra.
The Ghanan's are dominating the midfield and the Brazilians are relying on the quick counter.
The Brazilians look like they don't want to be there most of the time...
Oh, and the second Brazilian goal was off-side, twice.
But the score is still 2-0...
Ah well, at least the third goal was onside.
catdynamics | June 26, 2006DC flooded, more on the way
You should sooo read this book - 40 signs of rain by KSR
NSF panels, biotech, global climate change, NSA, and Tibetan Monks. What more could you want?
Sequel is good to.
From flickr...