catdynamics | April 26, 2007Was NASA science funding redirected for party political purposes leading up to the 2004 or 2006 elections?
There is a slowly growing flap over White House political operatives giving briefings to government agencies on election vulnerabilities and how to move funding to boost some local candidates and hurt others.
TPM reports that "oddly" NASA was included in the briefings
This is interesting for two reasons: one is that more than one high level civil service staffer at NASA HQ was summarily dismissed and, in at least one case, escorted off-premises, during or immediately after meetings with…
catdynamics | April 26, 2007Shelley at Retrospectacle ran into a corporate tangle of moronicity
to cut a long story short, she used a figure from a paper in discussing the article, which seems to be clear "fair use", and got a lawyer letter from the publishers (Wiley).
Here is the original - with figure recreated from the data rather than cut'n'pasted (duh!)
A lot has been said alredy, this is really just to link in sympathy and point people at the flap.
My take on it is that Wiley are being morons. Shelley's article was clearly fair use, and recreating the plot from the data is trivial anyway.
There is probably some…
catdynamics | April 25, 2007In 2005, Jon Stewart, who, may I say, is a comic genius and one of the top two or three deliverers of media news to the US populace, was paid $1.5 million for his work.
In 2006, Mather and Smoot shared the physics Nobel Prize: 10 million SEK
At the current exchange rate that is almost exactly $1.5 million.
Mather is NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
He is also a civil servant, in 2005 G-15 paygrade topped out around $120,000 per year. With adjustments Senior Executive Service can reach $168,000 I believe - which also requires more…
catdynamics | April 25, 2007if you want to help find planets, in the comfort of your home (as opposed to staying up all night on cold clear winter evenings), there is a place that you can go...
systemic is a web-site/blog run by Prof Greg Laughlin at UCSC to play with planet data
they do a lot of stuff, testing stability, inclination models, planet interactions etc all setup to run at the click of a button, you provide CPU cycles and eyeballs to look over the output.
systemic includes both synthetic data - testing observations of model systems, and real data, so users can run "solutions" for know systems, trying to fit…
catdynamics | April 25, 2007earlier this year I was a co-author on a paper which, among other things, attempted to "predict" which of the currently known planetary systems we might expect to find future planets in the habitable zones - specifically terrestrial or "super Earth" planets.
Gliese 581 was on our list (p. 33)
I like it.
catdynamics | April 25, 20072nd Battalion, 14th Regiment, 10th (Light) Infantry Division
Busy folks.
catdynamics | April 24, 2007The Swiss-French planet hunter team have a new interesting discovery.
A low mass "super Earth" in a potential habitable zone.
Nature news story
UPDATE: Details are up on the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia
and Udry's web page
and here is the actual preprint (PDF)
Hm, interesting, the full solution gives a finite eccentricity to the middle planet, which is interesting, but it could still be very small. Dynamically, looking at formation it makes a big difference if the middle planet has e << 0.1 or e ~ 0.1-0.2
Interestingly the numbers in the submitted paper are slightly different from…
catdynamics | April 23, 2007do minor errors ruin good books?
I feel very churlish being annoyed that Spin's author got
M41 mixed up with
M31
There were other errors, but this one was jarring.
Good book though, fun read.
catdynamics | April 23, 2007One hundred billion.
One hundred thousand million.
That is a lot, in most contexts. Astronomical even.
Apparently, if you ask nicely, know the right people, you can have it, in cash.
US dollars. Off budget, no questions asked, no supervision, no audits.
What could you do with that?
It is both a lot, and a little.
It is a little bit less than the combined gross worth of the two richest people on the planet.
So a single charity foundation, the very richest, might have that much money, soon.
It is a bit less than the current capitalization of google; but it is more than the gross domestic…
catdynamics | April 23, 2007it may be immodest, but there are a small number of things a hotel should do to achieve perfection...
Free broadband internet connection. Preferably Wi-Fi and Ethernet, but if only one can be done, then provide Wi-Fi. Suck the cost up in the room charge, don't split it out. Federal grants don't pay for hotel internet connections and breaking out the charges is annoying, it is also petty.
The more expensive hotels are the worst about this - I suspect they signed bad long term deals when having internet connections was a big deal and they are either stuck on inertia (already did this internet…
catdynamics | April 23, 2007AGILE - Italian gamma ray observatory, like a faster, lighter GLAST - launched successfully
catdynamics | April 20, 2007The toxic pet food problem is not going away
There have been more recalls, possibly with new contaminants.
Also appears rice gluten as well as wheat gluten was affected.
There is also buzz that the FDA is concerned the poisoning was deliberate.
It is also clear that some of the contaminated feed stock was fed to animals that were then slaughtered for human consumption.
Also, apparently, at least one batch of gluten went to a factory that makes processed food for human consumption as well as pet food.
no quarter has some
as does itchmo - they have a story on corn gluten - oh crap. We just…
catdynamics | April 20, 2007The Astrophysics division at the Science Mission Directorate has been renamed and has a new director.
It is now Universe.
They haven't updated their organization chart yet, but I hear Jon Morse is the new director.
I also hear there is someone new being brought in to take over R&A.
Should be interesting. Don't know if ROSES '07 can be amended, but things should be very different next year.
Now all we need is some money; and no micromanagement from the political levels; and some consistency in directives from the White House.
catdynamics | April 20, 2007Oh, mighty iPod, it is a sunny, scary friday, and we ask hubmly:
is dark energy really bad for astronomy?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The SDM riff
The Covering: Lullaby of London - Pogues
The Crossing: Pearly Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins
The Crown: There's No One Like Me
The Root: Í Grænni Lautu
The Past: Take Down the Union Jack - Billy Bragg
The Future: Like Soldiers Do - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Colpito qui m'avete - Pavarotti
The House: Mr Parmacist - The Fall
The Inside: Recitar!... Vesti la giubba - Pavarotti
The Outcome: One Better Day - Madness
So, not good, eh?
As…
catdynamics | April 18, 2007The humble 35mm film is rapidly vanishing, vanquished by ever improving digital cameras.
But, in the process we're losing an invaluable resource:
the humble film canister!
These used to flood the world by the hundreds of millions each year, taken for granted, ever present.
Now, they are a vanishing species. Selling for $0.05 EACH in large lots on eBay (I kid you not!)
These things are useful! For everything from storing beads, to making alka seltzer rockets!
K-12 outreach for the sciences could collapse.
Hundreds of thousands of kids might become delinquent with boredom.
There are…
catdynamics | April 15, 2007Well, I got out of DC ahead of the latest Weather Channel paroxysm.
Since I am now apparently a minor agent of chaos with deistic powers, I confidently predict snow in Happy Valley tonight.
Pasadena is as lovely as ever; the traffic through downtown still sucks, and they still haven't done anything about the tunnel ramp to the I-5 on the Pasadena Freeway. Not even California drivers seem to be able to handle the merge and backup.
Exciting times ahead scientifically.
Is it just me, or is most of "big physical science" in the US looking at 10-15 year dead time?
Was catching up on APS news and…
catdynamics | April 14, 2007Gravity Probe B reports its first results at the APS meeting...
...and the winner is: Albert Einstein.
General Relativity is consistent at the 1% level, at least for geodetic precession...
Phew, that was worth the wait.
Frame dragging measurements are still not confirmed due to unexpected systematics, they hope to be able to say something by christmas. 2007.
The GPB home pages have some nasty frame based sub-pages. But the info is there if you just keep clicking.
catdynamics | April 13, 2007USS Reagan is headed home
Pulled into Pearl Harbour this week.
The Y Ranter calls non-war this new moon
Alex at FoE tells us what you need to bomb Iran
Counting is a very powerful approach to reality.
New moon is April 17th, the US Air Force's main advantage against a foe like Iran is stealth.
Best time to strike is late night/early morning.
So, all things being equal, the few days right after new moon are their time - otherwise those expensive stealth planes risk being silhouetted against a waning moon.
To do the sort of strike that is being bandied about, requires serious assembly of…
catdynamics | April 12, 2007In view of the weather, we ask the iPod: wazzup iPod? Anything exciting coming our way?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
Traveling lite edition...
The Covering: Mars Ultras, You'll Never Make the Station (liv) - Half Man, Half Biscuit
The Crossing: Science Friction - XTC
The Crown: Bright Lights - Special AKA
The Root: Damaged Goods - Gang of Four
The Past: Henry Kissinger - Monty Python
The Future: Shut Up - Madness
The Questioner: Decomposing Composers - Monty Python
The House: Wibbleton to Wobbleton
The Inside: Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle
The Outcome: Come Go With Me…
catdynamics | April 12, 2007I confidently predict when the next galactic supernova will take place...
Late 2008 or early 2009.
Supernovae occur on average once or twice per century in the Milky Way.
But we have not seen one for over 300 years now.
Not counting SN1987a - that was in the Large Magellanic Clouds.
It is quite possible that there were supernovae within the Milky Way that we missed in the 18th and 19th centuries, most likely on the far side of the Milky Way, obscured by the galactic center. It is tempting to think there might have been some in the galactic center, but I think we would have seen the…