catdynamics | April 11, 2007So far, in the 100 days of 2007, there have been 118 papers submitted to arXiv with the words dark, energy, model in the abstract.
This is across all of physics, most are in or cross-posted to astro-ph.
There are 154 papers with dark, matter, model in the abstract
We are only on day 100 of the year.
Limiting ourselves to just the title, there are 78 papers with "dark energy" in the title.
64 of which were on or cross-posted to astro-ph.
Too much? Or not enough?
Anyone actually reading them all?
In the last four years there have been 1000 over papers on arXiv with dark energy in the title, so…
catdynamics | April 10, 2007In the autumn of 1859, the Earth was hit by a massive coronal ejection from the Sun.
Aurora flared worldwide, compasses went wild and the telegraph system crashed.
This is the pivoting event in Stuart Clark's book "The Sun Kings" - Princeton University Press, ISBN-13:978-0-691-12660-9
The book is centered around the life and work of Richard Carrington, amateur astronomer and member of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society.
There are flashbacks and side trips, covering mainly English astronomy, Hershcel through to Maunder, with some discussion of events in Germany and the US.
The…
catdynamics | April 10, 2007Björk held an outdoor concert monday night to introduce her new album, Volta
I wasn't there, of course, but word is that it was good. Very good.
Sounds like some of the songs are as good as her best work, and (not having heard it yet) the album may be excellent, and different, again.
That'd be good.
Album is out next month, first single is available as a download right now.
(Yup, it is up on iTunes, just checked).
YouTube snippet
No pirate video from last nights concert, yet.
catdynamics | April 9, 2007An ode to Princeton Professors:
Don't try this at home...
Rumour of War
There are soldiers marching on the common today
They were there again this evening
They paced up and down like sea birds on the ground
Before the storm clouds gathering
I must buy whatever tinned food is left on the shelves
They are testing the air raid sirens
They've filled up the blood banks and emptied the beds
At the hospital and the asylum
I saw a man build a shelter in his garden today
And we stood there idly chatting
He said: "No, no I don't think war will come"
Yet still he carried on digging
Everything in my life…
catdynamics | April 9, 2007Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton makes a bold suggestion in the Daily Princetonian:
Bomb Iceland!
In lieu of bombing Iran.
It is true that it'd be easier (easier still if the US had not broken its bilateral treaty with Iceland and abandoned its air base there), and it makes almost as much sense.
It'd probably be cheaper; at least in the short run.
But here is where he goes too far!
"If we unleashed Shock and Awe in Reykjavik, we would generously compensate Iceland to the tune of, say, 275 percent of that country's $14 billion 2006 GDP -- a mere…
catdynamics | April 9, 2007The aircraft carrier USS Reagan and its Carrier Strike Group have concluded 7th fleet operations
Question is: which way did they head when they left; east, back home to San Diego; or, west to the 5th fleet area of operations?
It has been a short tour if they go back home. I hope they have a good prompt trip back to the US.
Hey, the 5th fleet now does podcasts!
The Stennis has backed out of the gulf and is providing air support to Afghan forces.
Also in the news, HMS Sir Bedivere brings a new platoon of Royal Marines to HMS Cornwall.
Hope they are more careful with that batch.
catdynamics | April 8, 2007'cause it is not art?
The WaPo did something interesting:
they convinced a top violinist to take his strad to the DC metro and busk at rush hour
seven people stopped to listen, twenty seven gave money total of $32.17 - $20 of that came from the one person out of 1000 who recognized the musician.
the good thing - every single child passing through turned to listen and tried to stop
the bad thing - every one of their parents dragged them away without stopping
- there are pubs in England where big time rock stars sometimes come and play unplugged and unannounced. I think Elvis Costello also…
catdynamics | April 7, 2007über, duper;
hyper, super!
Astronomy has always reveled in superlatives; what with supernovae, hypernovae, ultraluminous this and thats and other Extremes of Nature.
I have reason to believe that, despite the best efforts of our few classically educated faculty, we are about to run out of descriptors!
This crisis of nomenclature is fast approaching, and we need to start planning now.
What other prepends of overenthusiasm can we use to pitch our favourite outliers?
Extra bonus points for pure neologisms.
catdynamics | April 7, 2007"like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime"
The LA Times' John Kenney reports:
"...The F-14s flew by low. Each of us activated our earpieces and hand-held mini walkie-talkies, agreed on a frequency, and I slowed the car to 15 mph as Carol and the boys opened the doors and rolled out, taking cover under shrubbery near the Bibb lettuce stand (the boys love salad!)."
Typical journamalisms!
I mean, everybodyyyy knows that the F-14 was retired from service last year.
The only people still flying F-14s are the Iranian Air Force...
Oh, my god, you don't suppose they got Indiana…
catdynamics | April 6, 2007Oh Good, Friday it is then.
By special request, here in the urban area in which the true scientific miracle of the oracular omniscience of the iPod was first revealed, we ask a burning question:
which of the Beyond Einstein missions will fly first?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: I dreamed I saw Phil Ochs Last Night - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Sigga Gamla - Edda
The Crown: Recitativo
The Root: Lagið sem hefði átt að vera leikið - Spilverk Þjóðanna
The Past: Young Lust - Pink Floyd
The Future: Wishing the Days Away - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Life During Wartime (live) -…
catdynamics | April 4, 2007The National Research Council's Assessment Committee for the Beyond Einstein program had a townhall meeting here in the Windy City.
Much to my surprise, I was there also.
The Beyond Einstein program at NASA is in trouble. With cuts and squeezing by the Exploration Development effort, the original plan for two major missions (Con-X and LISA) and three medium missions (JDEM, BHFP and CIP) combined with an integrated effort in research and EPO is out the door.
At the request of the DoE, the NRC is doing a priority ranking, a funding wedge is opening in 2009, one mission can get a startup, the…
catdynamics | April 4, 2007bloomin' heck, it is snowing!
Actually it is not the snow, it is the 40 mph gusts of wind on top of the steady 20-25 mph brisk breeze that drove me into a spot with hot cocoa and free WiFi
(this entry brought to you by PANERA - large cups of hot chocolate and unlimited WiFi, at a college town near you)!
So, when I left of this trip, I very carefully took out all the gloves, scarves, hats and other woolly wam things.
'Cause its spring, y'know.
Silly me.
At least I though to take proper boots.
Actually, I've been pondering how reliant on always being "on" I've become.
In Ye Olde Days, making…
catdynamics | April 3, 2007Iran claims Bushehr nuclear power station is "logistically complete"
That means it is ready to be loaded with fuel and ought to be just a turn-key from being operational.
Russia is reportedly holding back fuel for 2 months, pending UN process.
Iran claims it has paid Russia in full and wants the fuel delivered now.
Iran is also noting that Russia's delay validated its push to do its own uranium enrichment, with some justification, although it is a bit of a catch-22.
Further, Iran announced its intent to tender for another power station, 2GW this time.
There are conflicting reports about…
catdynamics | April 3, 2007John Mather is head of the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA
That is an interesting move by Stern.
And Paul Hertz directs Science Policy, Process and Ethics Office!
Which puts him in charge of solicitation, review and awards! Yay Paul!
Mather remains JWST senior project scientist. So, I'm guessing JWST is safe from cuts ;-)
This will be very interesting: Stern and Mather are both experienced scientists in charge of ongoing missions.
They ought to have a lot of disgression within the Science Mission Directorate, but things could still get very painful if the SMD budget is squeezed out by…
catdynamics | April 3, 2007The poisoned pet food story keeps getting bigger and more worrying.
Pretty clear that some food grade (as opposed to feed grade) wheat gluten was in the contaminated batch and that the FDA is worried it got into the human food chain.
FDA summary page
They still don't really know what the contaminant(s) were.
One comment I noticed is that melamine is used as coating for slow release pesticides or fertilizer granules (can anyone confirm that?), which would explain why it was found and maybe contributed to toxicity, but may not be the main cause (since it is just not that toxic).
FDA still won'…
catdynamics | April 3, 2007Apparently Bee hives are suffering massive die offs in parts of the US
Colony Collapse Disorder.
It sound like something to keep an eye on, since honey bees are rather important both commercially and ecologically.
Lots of conjectures about causes, one that caught my attention as mildly plausible is that "nicotinoids", a (new?) class of pesticides, is weakening bee immune systems rendering them vulnerable to infection.
(Hm, nothing on them on wikipedia, curious, nor on neonicotinoids, here to make up for it is the wiki entry on Imidacloprid - one of the new nicotine based pesticides).
There is…
catdynamics | April 2, 2007It seems likely astronomers are the most arrogant of academia!
Yay us!
See there is this weird discussion in the current American Physical Society News about an out of context quote about the arrogance of scientists.
The whole thing is a misreading of what some journalists said, but the essence of it is that if you google phrases like "arrogant biologists" (73) and "modest biologists" (19) you get a measure of public perception of the attitude scientists present [the numbers are different from those mentioned in the letters, I used the "repeat search for similar results omitted"]
That's…
catdynamics | April 2, 2007Bee at Backreaction points to a use for graph theory
The topology of the High School Romance/Sexual network is interesting.
I'm a little bit surprised by the structure, and assume that the disconnected branches are real, and not illustrating sub-structure of the main graph.
I would have expected more tree like connection between the main side branches, not a ring topology.
I also assume the left out the isolated points and points that connect only to other networks...
BUT, there is at least one flaw - if the structure is romance, rather than physical sexual connection, then the graphs ought…
catdynamics | April 2, 2007In honour of the occasion, Sean decided to poke the string theory pile
It is an interesting thread, including the comments.
But, especially in view of some of the stuff there and here and over on Uncertain Principles and Backreaction on general issues in physics and science, it is worth remembering that string theory in particular, and the theoretical particle physics and quantum gravity in general are a small part of the physical sciences, and even a small part of theoretical physics.
Really. Most of physicists, even cosmologists, don't have continual existential angst about the meaning of…