catdynamics | October 16, 2006Magnitude 6.6 earthquake on Big Island.
Sounds like Kona and Waikiki got the brunt of it.
Anyone heard if there is damage on the mountain?
All the telescopes ok? The Keck mountain web site seems to be down.
UPDATE: sounds like minor telescope drive/mount damage at Keck 2
- see Brad Holden's comment.
No injuries, Keck 1 looks ok, Keck 2 is down for a few days at least (and there is the issue of flights in and out of the island...).
No word on UK or Japanese observatories, or CFHT. Am figuring they're in similar shape to Keck.
Hope they had earthquake restraints on their mounts.
CHFT web…
catdynamics | October 13, 2006NY Times has article claiming US Air Force sources say they found radiological evidence for a nuclear explosion on overflights
Tentative, but indicative.
We may now find out whether Japan could literally build a nuke over a long weekend.
They ought to be able to, maybe one of two nations that could but haven't yet (Germany is the other).
Then there's the dozen or so who could make one in less than a year, one of which is certainly South Korea.
I won't get worried until Sweden and Canada start dusting off their contingency plans, they're definitely both capable.
catdynamics | October 13, 2006The physical science carnival, Philosophia Naturalis Part Deux is out at Nonoscience
See here for future carnivals
catdynamics | October 13, 2006Happy friday the 13th!
We ask the Mighty iPod a more serious question for the occasion:
Oh, Mighty iPod - are there gauge fields, hidden in the Standard Model, which show up as extra hair on astrophysical black holes, and could we see evidence for this in measurements of multipole moments during ring down measured with gravitational radiation?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Carnival of the Animals: Elephant - Peter and the Wolf
The Crossing: My Feelings - Twin Sisters
The Crown: Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
The Root: Thing Called Love - Bonnie Raitt
The Past: Everywhere - Billy…
catdynamics | October 12, 2006Fourth Billy Bragg podcast is online here
Ah, 1984, a Good Year. Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy segways to Brewing Up With Billy Bragg.
He is also Live blogging his road tour..
Now I am really sorry I missed the Golden Gate concert.
Wah.
catdynamics | October 12, 2006From Dr B herself
there is a wiki Academic Blog Portal
Go browse, add yourselves, or Colbert the site, or something.
catdynamics | October 12, 2006Interesting segment on Olbermann's show last night; another Bush Admin book expose is coming out on monday: "Tempting Faith" by David Kuo.
DarkSyde also blogs on it
Short version: the administration is, unsurprisingly, insincere in its claims christian faith; they are contemptuous of their evangelical base, and their leaders, and use them to push issues and energize voters while ignoring their policy priorities or just lying.
I can not say I am surprised. I am also somewhat reassured. Strangely.
catdynamics | October 12, 2006Who ordered that?
A couple of years ago, Prof Buzasi at the US Air Force Academy, mentioned he had acquired a new toy...
"The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs has obtained a 4m-diameter, lightweight telescope from the discontinued Space Based Laser project. Originally designed and constructed for space, this segmented telescope is being reconfigured for use in a ground-based facility. The current optical design is an afocal Mersenne configuration with an extremely thin (17mm) glass primary. The telescope has 312 fine figure actuators for active shaping of the…
catdynamics | October 11, 2006Had fun attending HEAD in San Fran last week.
Came away with some impressions...
GLAST is really on an upswing.
Spacecraft is delivered, launch scheduled, first science meeting planned (before launch?!), and there was a lot of vibe about the prospects.
Suzaku has some interesting results. I was too slow to pick up the CD-ROM of the early data release, ah well, next meeting.
Con-X rescoping concept is formalized. Cuts quite a but of capability, especially at the higher end of the energy range, for relatively modest cost savings. Of course delays and stretching eat cost savings faster than…
catdynamics | October 11, 2006Nuclear Mangos has a good summary and pointer set on North Korea and its nuke.
armscontrolwonk has a good series of informative posts. Including a seismograph image from IRIS which I shamelessly pass on:
IRIS says magnitude 4.2, presumably on the Richter scale.
I've heard ranges from 3.6 to 4.6 quoted (the scale is inherently ambiguous in absolute scaling).
It is a logarithmic energy scale, with magnitude 4.0 corresponding to roughly 1 kiloton of TNT equivalent (or 4.2 trillion Joules).
If the South Korean numbers, magnitude 3.6, are right, then it is a dud - only ~ 500 tons of TNT…
catdynamics | October 9, 2006As many of you know, the Beyond Einstein mission line is being sent to Thunderdome to see who survives a meeting of the Dreaded NRC Committee To Be Named At A Later Time.
Apparently the mission teams may have to present their case in as little as three weeks, which is causing some interesting consternations, especially since what they have to present is not yet defined, which makes sense since no one seems to know yet who the committee members are. Or if they know, they haven't told me (HINT!).
But... I learned The Critical Piece of Information:
the cost of the committee is split 50:50…
catdynamics | October 9, 2006While in California, I went to the HEAD meeting (High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society) in San Francisco.
Good fun, more on details later as I assimilate (even Phil couldn't properly live-blog the meeting - those F-18s are bloody loud).
And I missed Billy! Again.
See, Billy Bragg was playing the bluegrass festival in the Park on saturday, for free! (and, yes, I am jealous of the Pharmboy, and not ashamed to admit it).
I knew, vaguely there was a "bluegrass" festival in the Park, if I had known Elvis Costello was playing I might have made a push to go, but I…
catdynamics | October 6, 2006It is almost midnight, and we seek guidance.
Oh, mighty iPod one: is the Smith solution of the Navier-Stokes equations a true immortal solution of this legendary problem?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Why - Tracy Chapman
The Crossing: The Passion - Billy Bragg
The Crown: Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello
The Root: Mbh - Billy Bragg
The Past: Winter - Vivaldi
The Future: King of Pain - Police
The Questioner: Deep Dark Truthful Mirror - Elvis Costello
The House: Carnival of the Animals: Kangaroos - Peter and the Wolf
The Inside: Don't Leave Me Now - Pink Floyd
The Outcome:…
catdynamics | October 6, 2006Short news in Nature says there is a claim for one of the Millennial Clay Problems
Possible exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations by Penny Smith a Lehigh University.
That would be a serious achievement if it holds up to review.
Be interesting to code it up and see if it is stable as well as being a solution.
PS Summary by Christina Sormani at CUNY
here is the arXiv preprint
More on Good Math, Bad Math - as he says, it could be useful.
catdynamics | October 6, 2006The SWEEPS survey of distant stars in the galactic bulge has finally announced their findings.
They found 16 transiting "hot Jupiters" with the Advanced Camera for Surveys synoptic imaging of a field towards the center of the Milky Way.
Five of the planets are ultra short period (day or less) and likely to be Very Hot.
Possibly ablating, and puffy. This is a puzzle in some ways.
Number of planets found is consistent with that expected from local population, so going further out
(10-20,000 light years in this field) we keep seeing that sub-population of hot massive planets.
So planets are…
catdynamics | October 6, 2006Am at a meeting out west, with remarkably poor internet access given the location and sponsors.
But good meeting nevertheless.
But it keeps being interrupted by the Blue Angels, navy air show team, buzzing the hotel.
So the USS Nimitz is in town, which answers the question of where she's been.
USS Eisenhower is heading east to the Gulf to relieve the Enterprise which has been there four months, due to head back in december. So Ike is out a little early.
As is the Expeditionary Strike Group (5) relieving ESG3.
The USS Mercy is back in San Diego, but there are a lot of amphibious assault ships…
catdynamics | October 3, 2006The Academy has spoken, as expected the NASA COBE mission measurement of the cosmic microwave background won the Physics Nobel prize, with the award shared equally by John Mather at NASA Goddard and George Smoot at Berkeley
Congratulations!
This is a well deserved award, although I expect several people will be wondering why they weren't recognised for their contribution to the mission's success with a share of the prize (and that of course is the problem, arguably several people were comparably worthy in being the third recipient, and there are never more than three people named).
COBE was…
catdynamics | October 2, 2006What is National Security Presidential Directive 31?
Repost:
I saw some slides from a public NASA HQ presentation made a few weeksmonths ago.
It was on the timeline for the Terrestrial Planet Finder, and the Navigator program beyond that.
On one slide, there's a footnote - NSPD Jan 2004. with a quote from that directive that I paraphrase:
Use advanced telescopes to detect and characterize planets outside the solar system
Now, 2+ years ago I had a conversation with a guy from NASA HQ.
I wanted to know why the Beyond Einstein program had been deprioritized and Navigator (as it came to be…
catdynamics | October 2, 2006Earlier this year I was at a military ceremony.
The keynote speaker was an active duty flag officer, in logistics.
Good speech, humorous anecdote, solemn moment, look to the future...
and in the middle he snuck in a somewhat discordant meaty section.
He discussed the distinction between the responsibility of enlisted men to obey the orders of their commanding officers, and that of commissioned officers to understand and interpret the orders they receive and pass down the chain of command.
He discussed, at some length, the importance of the individual officer understanding the lawfulness of…