catdynamics | May 12, 2008more random naval ponderings
The aircraft carrier USS Lincoln has arrived in the Persian Gulf, where it briefly overlapped with the USS Truman - which has now left and is in the Med.
The USS Washington has finally rounded the Cape and is in the southern Pacific, heading for Japan to replace the Kitty Hawk.
The Kitty Hawk is in the Philippine Sea, with the USS Nimitz - which went west, not east after leaving Guam.
The Kitty Hawk and Nimitz may detour to "invade Burma" - this is not as stupid as it sounds, the UN has seriously contemplated asking member nations to land aid workers and forces…
catdynamics | May 12, 2008NASA Ames is getting some new big iron
245 Teraflop Altix system from SGI
to be followed by the Petaflop Pleiades, also SGI architecture with Intel CPUs.
Given SGIs bankruptcy and continuous hemorrhage of cash, this will get interesting.
Now if they could only settle on a security system that was both secure and enables users to actually use the system...
Plan, allegedly, is to scale this up to 10 Petaflops in the surprisingly near future. like 2012.
At last, a use is found for the Hanger #1.
catdynamics | May 12, 2008CNN is surprised at how much astronomers make, and how few there are
personally I am surprised at how little paramedics make
On an unrelated note, the next Hubble servicing missions launch has slipped at least five weeks, from end of August to early October.
Given hurricane season, the delay in putting together the shuttle tanks and to have two shuttles on the pad, it is not unreasonable to expect additional delays.
As is, with the need for orbit verification, the next observing cycle is likely to slip into early 2009.
Ed Weiler is now permanent as the new associate administrator for…
catdynamics | May 12, 2008In the beginning, a To Do list was not needed.
Everything important To Do could be remembered...
then, bitter experience, lead to the creation of the To Do list
To Do: clean-up and prioritize To Do list
To Do: consolidate, clean-up and prioritize To Do lists
To Do: shower, lunch, etc...
Heh. Not that I need to remember to shower or lunch, it is just good to have something you know you'll get to cross-off...
To Do: shower, lunch, etc...
ok, maybe if I Brown Bag next week I can do lunch during the meeting... at least I got shower.
A To Do list is not needed - everything time critical can be…
catdynamics | May 11, 2008NASA EOS has some startling images
Flooding in Yangon, Burma
Chaiten Volcano, Chile - before eruption
catdynamics | May 11, 2008Julianne gets an invitation
I too got the invite, to the 11th Birmingham-Nottingham Extragalactic Workshop - 1st Announcement on "Semi-analytic models - are we kidding ourselves?"
Great title. Great topic. Nice lineup.
A workshop I'd truly like to be at. But I won't 'cause it conflicts with other obligations.
On a different note, driving through small town America this weekend, I saw a billboard ad for a new sub-urban McMansionish development.
The ad offered people a one year "mortgage holiday" if they'd buy and move in - the glimpse from the highway did not tell me if this was a genuine "…
catdynamics | May 9, 2008Friday. Raining, again.
So, Oh Mighty iPod - what is going on on the mystery Canadian Train in Ontario?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Firebird: Lullaby - Stravinsky
The Crossing: Introduction - The Lilac Fairy - Tchaikovsky
The Crown: Ten Little Bumblebees
The Root: The End - Doors
The Past: Jimmy Crack Corn
The Future: Sexuality - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Inoculated City - Clash
The House: I Have a Wiggly Jiggly Tooth
The Inside: Hamingjan er Krítarkort - GCD
The Outcome: Sunday - Cranberries
Very classical and youthful.
Not at all happy about the Root.
The…
catdynamics | May 9, 2008Passenger train halted and quarantined in northern Ontario
One dead, apparently 60 year old female.
Ten sick, four reported serious.
All reportedly part of a tour group from Alberta, train Vancouver->Toronto.
All from two sleeper carriages.
'flu like symptoms. Reports don't specify if that includes a fever.
Could be toxin - food or bad ventilation.
Or it could be infectious agent.
PS: with a food toxin or inhaled toxin fever is unlikely.
Presence of fever would suggest bacterial or viral infection.
Bacterial infection could be from food, though it is more likely to be gastric than…
catdynamics | May 9, 2008Nima Arkani-Hamed front pages cnn.com
Beating out Ashton Kutcher's surprising hit performance with Cameron Diaz, Mariah Carey's wedding, the green puppy and the Texas Giant Sink Hole.
W00.
It is also a not bad, by journalism standards, article on how the LHC may test speculation of Large Extra Dimensions.
Bit breathless, and I think a bit optimistic on just whether LHC can do more than cut some corners out of parameter space.
But it is a start.
of course the LED paper is very good, and 3000+ cites ain't bad.
The phenomenological followup paper was also very nice.
Although one should always…
catdynamics | May 8, 2008apropos nothing - what sort of circumstances hypothetically trigger university disciplinary investigations?
Universities have rules that are both an improper subset of and a superset of community laws.
Generally, universities are subordinate to the laws of the jurisdiction they are in, although there are historical exemptions. Further, universities are not actually obliged to discipline their members, whether students or faculty, merely because of legal convictions, although in practise they often do.
Issues of concern to the university include internal safety - conduct that threatens the…
catdynamics | May 8, 2008Now we know why Ron Weasley didn't like Astronomy
hos's world is turned upside down at Kitt Peak - extra bonus points for clicking through and figuring out the second photo...
A commenter there reminds of the classic: Pigwidgeon or Hedwig?
catdynamics | May 7, 2008Prof Brad DeLong dislodges an academic grain of sand, and formally requests academic action on the question Prof Yoo.
The immediate response is repose.
We will see if the talus slope is ever exceeded. Inertia works both ways, even at the institutional level.
Another episode of linking as a public good.
PS Interesting back-and-forth at Volokh on the issue
and Brian Leiter's take on it - he takes a narrow interpretation that tenured faculty misconduct are strictly limited to internal academic affairs.
It should be noted that the Berkeley conduct guide explicitly notes that its list of…
catdynamics | May 7, 2008The Chaiten Volcano in Chile is erupting, first time in at least 2000 years, more likely the last eruption was about 10,000 years ago.
The eruption is intensifying and local towns are being evacuated
EOS image
(click for hi-res).
GDACS has issued a Green Alert
International Volcano Research Centre has more info
Ok, nice volcano, low population density, and Chilean navy seems to have the evacuations under control. Currently spouting ash.
The interesting thing is that the last eruption was a Caldera forming explosion of unknown strength, but indirect evidence puts it on the large eruption…
catdynamics | May 6, 2008The news from Tropical Cyclone Nagris keep coming and getting worse
Earth Observatory shows what happened
(click for hi-res aftermath image).
Chris at the Intersection keeps good running updates, and, we should remember, noted the threat the storm presented early last week!
Jeff Masters at the Weather Underground also has good information.
As Masters notes, the storm hit the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta where the spring rice harvest is just coming in.
This means likely significant loss of crop, with local shortages until the autumn crop comes in.
Myanmar is also a significant rice…
catdynamics | May 6, 2008...57 papers to grade on the pile on the desk
57 papers to grade on the pile on the desk
take one off, grade it down
56 papers to grade on the pile on the desk...
catdynamics | May 5, 2008All right.
Which of you jokers edited wikipedia to say "Cosmic Magnetic Background"?
It was funny the first time, but the nth time I read that for the CMB in ugrad essays it gets tiresome... just in time for finals week, eh?
catdynamics | May 5, 2008selected referee comments on "A bold proposal to do something new and interesting",
years 1-3
with added bonus translation
very speculative, no track record in this area, would be helped by showing preliminary results proving methodology and showing that results will be forthcoming [trans: come on, first do the research then ask for funding, don't you know anything?]
trans: - huh, I never heard of this! Some new stuff. Speculative.
Oy! He wants full postdoc for three years?
Who does this guy think he is?
this is a very competitive research field, very ambitious, not clear work can be…
catdynamics | May 4, 2008some time ago I made an off-cuff comment to a colleague that he "had been lucky".
He reacted badly to this, and rather curtly told me he resented being told he had been lucky, he had worked for his success and earned it.
At the time I shrugged it off - no big deal, he was being a bit oversensitive.
Sorry, dood, it was a bit of an asshole thing to say.
It also had some truth. There was luck involved.
There are several different modes of operation in science: there are astonishing brilliant breakthroughs, observational or theoretical, stuff that no one saw coming; there are timely…
catdynamics | May 2, 2008Last friday!
And, somewhere, it is snowing.
So, we skip joyfully to the Mighty iPod, and ask, intrepidly: what interesting things are we in for this summer?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks
The Crossing: III Menuetto & Trio - Mozart
The Crown: Know Your Rights (Live) - Clash
The Root: And She Was - Talking Heads
The Past: Sgt Rock (Is Going to Help Me) - XTC
The Future: Senses Working Overtime - XTC
The Questioner: Trust - Billy Bragg
The House: Why, Oh Why - Woody Guthrie
The Inside: Vizka Einsteins - Utangarðsmenn
The Outcome: Death of a…