catdynamics | November 22, 2009It appears to be a MOND autumn in the science glossies, as Science publishes a review on our favourite alternative physics theory and the status of MOND like extensions to general relativity
Earlier we we had a nice little discussion about a paper bu Gentile et al in Nature on galaxy surface densities, with but an oblique hint at MOdified Newtonian Dynamics.
Now Ferreira and Starkman have a Review in Science (326 p812 [sub]), also as "Einstein's Theory of Gravity and the Problem of Missing Mass" Ferreira and Starkman, arXiv.0911.1212.
It is a nice sensible review, discussing both why MOND…
catdynamics | November 19, 2009There is a radical proposal in Iceland to restore the economy and rescue the nation from bankruptcy: expand the tax base to recover revenue from the extensive underground economy.
Tax the fucking elves!
Translation by Alda at the Iceland Weather Report
Yeah! The Free Ride Is Over.
Party is over, Elves!
Income and capital gains taxes on the elves - especially the High Light Elves, that should cover the repayments to the UK all by themselves. This applies to all the Hidden Folk.
Ghosts, zombies and others in the afterlife will be charged a Death Tax.
Dwarves will, finally, pay VAT!
That…
catdynamics | November 18, 2009Ethan at Starts With A Bang did a nice post the other day on an old chestnut - why you can't touch your toes if you're backed against a wall.
It is a simple physical argument: when you bend to touch your toes, your center of gravity moves forward, so to stay balanced your butt must move backwards. Wall blocks this.
Non e pur si muove.
This is a good exercise to try on kids, so, lo, I did.
But...
As the Dynamic Boy and Dynamic Girl lined up to to try it, I mischievously said:
"you won't be able to do it, but there is a trick..."
Kids quickly discover the problem, and Dynamic Boy braces…
catdynamics | November 18, 2009Hubble multicycle large proposals were due today...
Julianne tests the conjecture of proposal number invariance under simple scaling.
Looks to be annoyingly close to correct with about 40 proposals in by the deadline.
I still think we need to check the proposal success probability as a function of proposal rank number.
catdynamics | November 17, 2009deCode, the genetics startup that genotyped the entire population of Iceland and reconstructed the Book of Icelanders is going down
deCode files for US bankruptcy
assets are to be sold off and company may be liquidated.
This could get complicated - the database of icelandic genetic sequences is not a simple commercial property and I would expect the Icelandic government to intercede to prevents its sale.
This is also catastrophic for Icelandic PhDs - deCode employed a lot of bio researchers, many will probably seek to leave the country, other companies like prokaria will not be able to…
catdynamics | November 16, 2009NASA's planet hunter mission ought to be announcing something at the American Astronomical Society in january, 2010.
But what?
Ah, well, I don't know, and if I knew I wouldn't be telling.
We have some idea of what Kepler could do, based on the cleanliness of the early release result photometry.
But, we don't know what they actually found, or how fast and thorough the followup confirmations might have been.
There is a definite buzz in the air though, a sense of anticipation that the Kepler team will deliver big at the AAS.
So, shamelessly stealing a good idea from a good graduate student,…
catdynamics | November 13, 2009Yup, the LCROSS crash did kick up some water.
NASA shows proof.
Splash
UV-spectroscopy shows H2O vapour.
About 0.1 m3 from a ~ 10m radius crater.
Not much, but definitely there.
I must day, the LCROSS "bombing" of the Moon is one of the worst handled NASA events in a long time, from a press perspective - very poor explanation of why NASA did this when it did, the likely scale of the event or indeed the analysis.
Lunar orbits are generally unstable - chunks of metal going around the Moon will generally end up crashing into the Moon - this is partly due to the Earth's gravity perturbing…
catdynamics | November 12, 2009A couple of years ago, a group of California theorists came up with a whacky theory for a new kind of thermonuclear supernova.
It would be just like regular type Ia supernovae, but fainter and faster, and a bit more mixed up, as evidenced by its new label: the 0.Ia supernova, a perfect mallogos of a neologism.
So now someone had to go and find one, with plenty more to come.
As you know, Bob, there are two types of Supernovae, type I and II.
Supernovae are stars blowing up, big time, and:
type I supernovae do not have hydrogen emission lines,
while type II supernovae do have hydrogen…
catdynamics | November 11, 2009Cash for Grades?
In Middle School?
I am speechless.
Raleigh News & Observer:
"The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro has come up with a novel fundraising plan after last year's chocolate sale flopped.
The school will sell 20 test points to students in exchange for a $20-dollar donation.
Students can add 10 extra points to each of two tests of their choosing. The extra points could take a student from a "B" to an "A" on a test or from a failing grade to a passing grade.
Rosewood's principal Susie Shepherd rejected the idea that…
catdynamics | November 11, 2009Awesome combined image from Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra, showing deep view of the centre of the Milky Way, in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy.
From Hubblesite.org
Annotated image (click for larger version)
Full image collection at Hubblesite.org
Tricolore (click for larger version):
the images combines near-infrared imaging from the Wide Field Camera (3) Ye Olde Near-Infrared Camera (really, NIC mosaic - ouch - see comments) on Hubble, mid/near-infrared images from Spitzer, and soft x-ray images from Chandra, mosaic'd into a gorgeous false colour close up of the inner…
catdynamics | November 6, 2009Plot complexity is not, in and of itself, a measure of the quality of a work of communication, but it is surely a measure of something:
Frodo Baggins vs Luke Skywalker:
This is just awesome - click to embiggen
- from XKCD
Really big version is here...
Hm: the Ents actually sort of show up indirectly in the Shire, so could have a thread going back to there.
No Tom Bombadil thread?
The darned "Army of the Dead" really does show up out of nowhere as a plot device.
Why couldn't Aragon have gone up North to recruit the Dwarves of Iron Hills, Men of Dale and Elves of the Wood, and Beorn and…
catdynamics | November 6, 2009LHC started overheating when a cooling unit cut out
The cause was quickly established - a bird apparently dropped a piece of baguette on a high voltage cooling unit - conjectures that it was thrown out of a passing airplane are clearly false: you can't get actual edible french bread on airplanes.
how freakishly unlikely is that...?
ok, so there are thousands of people working on a huge installation covering an area of hundreds of square kilometers, and a perimeter of tens of kilometers, with hundreds of points of vulnerability with thens of thousands of independent failure modes...
But,…
catdynamics | November 5, 2009A long time ago, a massive star about 10,000 light years from Earth went kaboom.
329 years ago, we think, in 1680, the light from the supernova explosion reached Earth and was recorded as a new star by the Flamsteed, then the Astronomer Royal, looking relatively dim as nearby supernove go, due to the layers of dust in the galaxy between us and the site of the explosion.
Now, digging into archival x-ray data, a couple of astronomers may finally have figured out what is going on in Cass A.
It is a ball of ultradense degenerate neutronium, plated with a thin layer of diamond.
A Neutron Star…
catdynamics | November 3, 2009reports coming out of Ukraine and neighbouring regions that H1N1 'flu strain may be getting nasty in spots
too early to tell for sure, but there are consistent reports out of Ukraine, and also possibly Belarus and Romania, that the local H1N1 'flu strain is a bit more aggressive, making a higher fraction of people more sick, and maybe a higher fatality rate.
Also reports of hemorrhagic 'flu, which is bad, if true.
CIDRAP story:
"The high level of illnesses activity and severe cases, combined with reports of hemorrhagic pneumonia cases, have raised some speculation that the virus might be…
catdynamics | November 3, 2009Whee!
Cassini does a bit more zipping about the Saturn system.
Pretty pictures and conceptions abound.
Cute artist concept animation of the flyby - quite good
Map of Enceladus (click to embiggen - warning BIG - click to ZOOM)
Bonus:
Today's Pretty Picture of Rhea.
From last weekend (click to embiggen)
catdynamics | October 30, 2009Isis, our very own laboratory goddess, apparently knows the secret to hot and sexy science blogging.
We investigate.
Apparently it is all about leather, a shapely calf, and hot shoes - this will drive traffic up on the most boring sites
D00d!
I can totally do that.
Has it all.
Leather, shoe fetish, the pose.
If I don't at the very least out traffic PZ hisself this weekend, I will be very disappointed.
If that wasn't scary enough for you, I can always try the ScienceBlogs calendar for next year! (see Isis, above).
But I now know what we can challenge Chad to do for the next DonorChoose…