catdynamics | July 25, 2008Hey you, out there in the cold
this is me
An unfortunate clash of CDs led to the following improvised mashup:
Hey you, out there in the cold
I've always been the kind of girl
Getting lonely, getting old
that hid my face
Can you feel me?
so afraid to tell the world
Hey you, standing in the aisles
what I've got to say
With itchy feet and fading smiles
But I have this dream
Can you feel me?
bright inside of me
Hey you, dont help them to bury the light
I'm gonna let it show
Dont give in without a fight.
it's time to let you know
Do you know what it's like
Hey you, out there on your own
to feel…
catdynamics | July 25, 2008NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a nice little group blog
Lots of pretty pictures.
h/t NASAwatch
catdynamics | July 25, 2008YES!
Billy Bragg! in State College! Finally!
Oct 17 2008. Downtown.
Civilization comes to rural PA!
Y'all wait politely to get your tickets until after I get mine.
I missed him in DC and SF, I'm not missing this one.
catdynamics | July 25, 2008The California "minumum wage" standoff moves closer to the edge.
Universities "requested to co-operate" and cut wages.
Next week, probably on monday, the California governor intends to use executive authority to "request" a cut in salary for state employees to the federal minimum wage, until the California budget issue is solved
Hah.
In the meantime, as noted previously, the universities have to deal with this, and the UC President has sent out the following employee morale booster...
"An important message from President Yudof to UC employees regarding potential state pay cuts"
July 24, 2008…
catdynamics | July 25, 2008Warm, sunny, dry friday, and our thoughts turn to the West.
So, oh Mighty iPod: how fares California?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Billy Bragg Podcast #12 - William Bloke
The Crossing: Hey You - Pink Floyd
The Crown: Confessions - Violent Femmes
The Root: Precious Pain - Melissa Etheridge
The Past: Almost Blue - Elvis Costello
The Future: If I Fall You're Going Down With Me - Dixie Chicks
The Questioner: Still Can't - The Cranberries
The House: Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
The Inside: Erie Canal - Bruce Springsteen
The Outcome: Hr. Reykjav&iiacute;l -…
catdynamics | July 24, 2008PZ, you bastard!
Now you have gone too far.
Some of us do try to teach our children proper reverence, and what do you do?
You rip the pages of a perfectly good book.
This will not stand!
I haven't even read the God Delusion yet and PZ goes ripping up a perfectly good copy.
What. A. Waste!
Books have information, and history, and store atmospheric carbon by the megaton! to just rip their pages out is a waste. Grrr.
Unless they are mildewy, of course, or you are about to freeze to death (and it is a particularly bad book).
Seriously, though, I have kept half an eye on the Great Cracker…
catdynamics | July 24, 2008so the governator "has prepared an order to cut the pay of about 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until a budget is signed"
"Administration officials said Schwarzenegger was expected to sign the order, a draft of which was obtained Wednesday by The Times, early next week as part of an effort to avert a cash crisis. The deadline for passing a budget was July 1, and without one soon, the officials said, California may be unable to borrow billions of dollars needed to keep the state solvent."
Hmm.
Interesting.
BTW: I have authoritative information that UC will…
catdynamics | July 24, 2008inspired.
graduate students, I'm guessing
XKCD really is lovely
h/t Making Light, of course
catdynamics | July 23, 2008A couple of Durham postgrads have set up The Graduate Junction - a career/social webforum for (post)graduates in all disciplines.
Looks like it has potential, glancing at it. Try it if you feel like it.
Physics/Astronomy seems underrepresented currently.
catdynamics | July 22, 2008If a major bank goes bankrupt, are corporate accounts insured?
Like university payroll accounts?
The answer appears to be: yes, up to $100,000 per TAX ID number.
So... does the FDICs like for moving in on banks on friday afternoons include last friday of the month? And, if so, what happens to payroll accounts?
Large institutions, like universities, need to have large sums transiently in deposit so they can distribute payroll (unless they do it through a line of credit, but corporate lines of credit are getting tightened, payroll may need to be done more through cash).
Global Economic…
catdynamics | July 20, 2008the folks on Calculated Risk pointed out an elegantly designed web site
as y'all know, IndyMac Bank in good old Pasadena failed the other day - third largest bank failure in the US.
Most individual depositors are of course uninsured, but there are always some careless with their balances, or unlucky in being caught with large funds in transit, so a lot of people want to know if they are actually covered or not
So, the good people at FDIC put up a web site to check the status of your account
it is nicely designed, fairly clean code, little java script, takes you on for the information you…
catdynamics | July 18, 2008two oldies that I randomly realised I didn't have digital copies of and had to acquisition immediately from iTunes in the interest of my sanity
My brother in law had to mention this upon seeing the senior family member f.Thor...
This one is all Colbert's fault - having them still doing the drum riff 23.5 hours later on the next show was just absolute brilliance...
I got the live versions of both. Of course.
catdynamics | July 18, 2008Steamy friday, again, and another science lite week goes by.
So, oh mighty iPod: "Sizzle" - will it sizzle or be a cool flop?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: It's Silly Time - Twin Sisters
The Crossing: Fantaisie de Concert: I. Moderato
The Crown: If Love Was a Train - Michelle Shocked
The Root: Buckeye Jim - Burl Ives
The Past: Stillborn - Michelle Shocked
The Future: Any King's Shilling - Elvis Costello
The Questioner: Travelin' Soldier - Dixie Chicks
The House: Irk The Purists - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Inside: Life Is A Scream - Violent Femmes
The Outcome:…
catdynamics | July 17, 200891st Skeptic's Circle is up at Sorting Out Science.
Heavy on Crackers and Sizzles.
catdynamics | July 15, 2008is the physics blogosphere a bit boring right now?
Angry Physicist says it is, and he's mostly right...
so, I got nothing - maybe I'll say something mean about Yarn Theory again later this week just to stir things up, or something...
actually, I lie, I have about two hundred items that I have thought of, been asked to do or feel obliged to blog on, but no time
Nuclear Mangos has a frightening set of quick hits - but not science per se.
Calculated Risk is probably the best blog on the planet right now but getting frightfully busy
In the meantime, I have a moral dilemma: clotheshorse that I…
catdynamics | July 14, 2008A marine biologist, a gay couple and a polar bear walk into a studio...
Hey! That's not funny.
But Sizzle is.
It is not Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell goofy slapstick funny, which is just as well, because I mostly can't stand that kind of humour.
More Steve Carrell level.
Randy Olson, marine biologist and filmmaker, director of Flock of Dodos has now come out with Sizzle, a documentary comedy about climate change.
Olson, with Brian and Mitch, his sponsors, and Marion and Antwon, his crew, sets out on a roadtrip to interview scientists, climate skeptics, and, of course, celebrities.
Because you…
catdynamics | July 14, 2008Fiddlesticks, boy.
Feed the birds, and what have you got?
Fat birds!
You can purchase first and second trust deeds
Think of the foreclosures!
Bonds! Chattels! Dividends! Shares!
Bankruptcies! Debtor sales!
...for kharmic balance.
catdynamics | July 11, 2008Iraq denies reports Israeli Jets exercising deployment to Iraqi airfields in preparation for Iran strike...
PS rhetoric is heating up further
Jerusalem Post denial story
Phew, had me all worried there for a mo'
Former Spook dissects the rumours and starts some new speculation
Funny how these rumours get started...
Here is the Iranian take on it
Hey Iran Press does Instapolls - 56% of readers believe Israel will strike Iran...
PS: Iran to target 32 US bases in Gulf if attacked
catdynamics | July 11, 2008apropos Bush... I heard a curious third hand tale recently
At a recent international meeting, not the G8 summit as it happens, I was told by a reliable source, that Bush was very ebullient meeting with allied leaders, but acted mildly bizarrely.
As I heard it, Bush would actually undercut US negotiating positions on items of medium importance, contradicting or undermining his people doing actual dealing, and as far as the other side could tell, doing so purely out of contrarian spite (I am intepreting here).
That is, Bush would make concessions or negate US claims purely because he could,…