catdynamics | January 7, 2007National Optical Astronomy Observatory shows off some of its photography skills
The Bubble Nebula - NGC7635
catdynamics | January 7, 2007It is official, Google is a partner in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
"Google's mission is to take the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The data from LSST will be an important part of the world's information, and by being involved in the project we hope to make it easier for that data to become accessible and useful."...
"The LSST will be the world's most powerful survey telescope, with vast data management challenges. LSST engineers and scientists have been collaborating with Google on a number of these exciting opportunities. Even though the Universe…
catdynamics | January 7, 2007Rob from Galactic Interactions is here
as is Phil from Bad Asronomy
I gather Sean and Jennifer are here also, not bumped into any of them.
'Course my flight was late and I completely missed the opening reception.
Phil has a good entry on the COSMOS "structure of dark matter press release, Rob on black hole spin.
PS: Professor Astronomy is also here
I'd expect Astroprof to be here also, but the link is dead.
Babe in the Universe is here also
Yes indeedy Astroprofs here also
catdynamics | January 7, 2007NSF town hall meeting today was depressing.
The failure of the 2006 Congress to pass a budget is turning to catastrophe.
I don't blame the democrats from ducking the trap and going for a continuing resolution, am hoping the science budgets will be the pieces exempted, but am not holding my breath.
Cutting earmarks out is also good thing in general, except of course when they are our earmarks.
Eg a big part of the squeeze on the NASA science directorate are the unfunded earmark mandates, but the earmarks also kept Hubble going through the period when it was to be killed; and SIM right now is…
catdynamics | January 7, 2007It really does rain in Seattle, where the umpteenth mega annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society is underway...
Fun. Lots of schmoozing.
Technically I'm already done, "my" poster was up in session 10 on the first day. Yay.
Ok, I sub-let it to one of my students.
Another student gave a Dissertation talk this morning, went well.
A second speaks tomorrow afternoon - pressure's on, dood.
And the third speaks tuesday. Phew.
There's postdoc candidated to interview, talks to listen to, prospective students to cajole, and schmoozing.
Schmoozing, schmoozing, schmoozing.
That is the true…
catdynamics | January 7, 2007Caltech's NCAA record 207 game streak is broken
Clearly The Quantum Pontiff jinxed them, maybe in some alternate reality the streak continues unbroken...
catdynamics | January 5, 2007There is a trope in classic science fiction, where humans are "special".
We get out there, into the galaxy, and there's a bunch of aliens, and they're all Really Dumb.
So the clean cut heroic square jawed human takes charge and saves the day. Fini.
What if it is true?
Ok, I've been reading too much Alastair Reynolds recently, trying to catch up on the Conjoiner/Inhibitor series, but there is a serious issue here in looking to resolve the Fermi Paradox.
The basic issue is simple: there are a lot of planets; we think a significant fraction of these are habitable (in the narrow sense of…
catdynamics | January 5, 2007Friday again. And still not snowing.
We ask the iPod: what wonders can we expect from the Great Gathering of Astronomers next week?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Wari Featuring Saian Supa Crew - Alpha Blondy
The Crossing: Slá í Gegn - Stuðmenn
The Crown: Aisle of Plenty - Genesis
The Root: Waiting for the Worms - Pink Floyd
The Past: Færeyjarblús - Bubbi Morthens
The Future: One Part Be My Lover - Bonnie Raitt
The Questioner: Longview - Green Day
The House: Careless Whisper - George Michael
The Inside: Play that Funky Music - Wild Cherry
The Outcome: Days Like These -…
catdynamics | January 5, 2007Information Processing does an interesting riff on the human genome, and how to quantify variations in alleles and whether clustering in allele frequence maps to morphological typing.
This is a very "physics view" of genomics, and I suspect that there will be some interesting counterpoints.
I will chicken out of the fight by claiming "more data is needed", in particular on correlations in allele variations, not just the mere fact that there is some clustering.
catdynamics | January 5, 2007Blue Origin has gone public with info about their first test flight which took place before christmas.
space.com has more
It is a rework of the old DC-X Delta Clipper concept. Looks kinda cool.
Currently low powered peroxide thrusters, sounds like they want to try it with cryogenic LH2/LOX engines next.
Hope it works, going to the high power density engines is non-trivial, and potential difficulties scale as the velocity squared or cubed, as so many have found.
As Chad notes, they're hiring
catdynamics | January 4, 2007So, there I was, an undergrad in England, and I needed to get to Caltech by september.
Flying seemed best (this is non-trivial, since a friend of mine faced with a similar dilemma went for the motorcycle to Mosow, then trans-Siberian train followed by tramp freighter to LA via Japan approach - ok he then took a Greyhound to Ohio, so not quite the same).
I was in the south of England, so Gatwick seemed like a good choice.
Catch is that flights cost money. And I was an undergraduate.
Now, I was on a full grant, which actually mean something back then, and I had good summer jobs every year since…
catdynamics | January 4, 2007There has been much talk of a proposed surge escalation bump in the number of US soldiers deployed to Iraq, in the near future, for the purpose of doing something vaguely quantum mechanical, I gather, since the mission seems to become more poorly defined as anyone attempts to observe it more closely.
But... the number of troops bandied about is 20,000 +/-
Which appears minor compared to the 150,000 or so already deployed, except the discussion seems to indicate that these are the combat soldiers to be deployed!
Something does not add up.
There are currently something like 14 combat brigades…
catdynamics | January 4, 2007Steve explains why Caltech Rules!
Undergrads... sheesh!
It may sound good, but then you have to deal with the weirdo roommates...
catdynamics | January 4, 2007I finally replaced my poor laptop and discovered that although my case fits not only the poor old 12" and the antique 15" it is just too tight for the new 15.4".
Never mind if I have it in its skin.
So... turns out the campus store has a strong backpack bias for laptop bags, for some unfathomable reason. Not my look; backbacks are for mountains and lava fields, not airports and campuses.
The Apple store selection was not satisfactory, I'm sure there were some ok bags there, but nothing struck me as worthy.
So, google time, and after some browsing I stumbled on SFbags carrying "WaterField…
catdynamics | January 4, 2007CNN has a news item about a mystery object that hit a house in New Jersey
Small picture, no data, but it looks like a possible iron meterorite.
Apparently some damage, but no injuries or deaths.
Owners are being cagey, just wait until their insurance company decides to take an issue.
Show-Me Meteorite Identification
and from down-under
PS: Already on Bad Astronomy - curse that Pacific time zone...
catdynamics | January 3, 2007Over a period of just over one week, just over 500 pieces of spam got through to my last spam filter, and were autodeposited in a "is this spam?" box.
My primary e-mail account is buried behind three layers of spam and virus filtering, and my mailer has a Bayesian junk mail filter.
At least five different aliases forward to this account and I have at least three other accounts that receive e-mail and do not forward, some of which are public and some of which are never shown on web pages or readable Net sources.
My primary e-mail has been visible for 20 years, and the current address has been…
catdynamics | January 2, 2007'Tis the season...
...to write dozens of recommendation letters.
And, may I say, to the graduate program administrators around the country; the commercial on-line application services universally suck.
Having to enter and re-enter the same information about myself, as a recommender, on poorly designed piece of crap websites is a waste of my time and a source of enormous irritation.
If this continues I will start boycotting electronic grad school application services and send good old fashioned paper letters directly to the departments.
I expect someone will then have to scan them (into…
catdynamics | January 2, 2007No Quarter links to the Saddam execution video
Unseemly.
People should watch it.
catdynamics | January 2, 2007I missed almost all of yesterday's football due to various social obligations.
I caught the last 50 seconds of PSU's spanking of Tennessee (QB taking a knee twice) and then late last night decided to look at OU vs BSU just to see some football.
That was the best 4th quarter of football in a long time. Since PSU vs Michigan in 2005 methinks.
OU's come back was good but gloomy, and when BSU was picked off with a minute left I thought they were done. The last second trick-play touchdown was awesome, but to go for two points immediately in overtime after OU's quick score was the gutsiest coach…