catdynamics | October 31, 2007Destiny's Child:
Me, in a suit, on television...
The Daily Show, in Dec 2002,
back when they used to do real fake news instead of serious commentary and analysis
The camera does add about ten million solar masses...
I lost my copy of the press video (this is taken from a rather fun NASA Space Science Update conference). Was amused and gratified to see it appear in tDS archives.
Maybe the first time most of my family has seen me in a suit since my cousin's wedding...
I have vague memories they showed another clip of me laughing, intercut with Gunther looking embarrassed, need to browse some…
catdynamics | October 31, 2007seasonal pretty pictures
NGC 1999
The two below are artist concepts, worth clicking through.
Pumpkin Nebula
Lost Souls Nebula
catdynamics | October 30, 2007article claims the new US Army "Counterinsurgency Manual" is substantially plagiarised
There is an interesting article by David Price in "Counterpunch" which suggests that large sections of the new US Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 3-24), co-authored by Gen. Petraeus, is substantially plagiarised - that is it copies or paraphrases substantial sections of text from other published work without attribution or cite.
They quote multiple examples ranging from Lawrence of Arabia to an MIT on-line sociology course.
Some of the stuff is blatant, some might be considered less plagiarism and…
catdynamics | October 29, 2007li'l news items of note:
a local paper is reporting two east coast carrier wings are exercising night time landings for imminent deployments - that'd have to be the USS Truman and the USS Washington? or possibly USS Eisenhower??
I don't know where two of them would be going. One yes, the other should stay in reserve. And, why the emphasis on night time operations?
The Enterprise is in the Gulf and the Kitty Hawk is off Japan on fall deployment, but that still doesn't add up. Enterprise is not due to be replaced till the new year.
I suppose they could be sending a second east coast carrier…
catdynamics | October 29, 2007seasonal snippets for our seniors
your calendar shows more hours in committee than class this week
the papers need to be graded before the next assignment is due
oh, we charged a different overhead on that grant, a higher one
4070 unread e-mails
...including yours
not including the 1600 from mailing lists that are automatically filtered to archive
146 of them have .doc attachments
at the current rate it will take 37 weeks to catch up on arXiv again, but at least the time is now finite and positive
yes, we are more than halfway through the semester
"I just need your signature on…
catdynamics | October 29, 2007for just the third time this season I caught the end of a Penn State football team on television, and they lost, again
it is almost as if I were jinxing them
good thing we don't believe in jinxes
one of the eternal complaints of the fans is that Penn State play calling is not imaginative enough - they should try the "Trinity Lateral"
Note the score just before the end on the bottom scroll bar.
Think JoePa will go for it?
catdynamics | October 26, 2007The flap over Rowling's revelation about the Dumbledore backstory has really revitalised literary criticism
and, in particular, deconstruction.
I mean, after all, what does the author bring to the discussion?
It is not like Rowling has some special role of privileged position in our interpretation of the novel, her thoughts on the text are just one of the many equal analytic modes of interpretation, and we may reject that her view is dominant or privileged.
No! If white middle aged male,s uncomfortable with their sexuality or youthful indiscretions, want to interpret the text to emphasise…
catdynamics | October 26, 2007It is a rainy, autumnal friday, and many things are in mind.
So, oh Mighty iPod One. What lies in store for us in the next year?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Slippery People - Talking Heads
The Crossing: Something About Alligators - Twin Sisters
The Crown: Christmas in Heaven - Monty Python
The Root: Which Side Are You On? - Billy Bragg
The Past: Restless Legs - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Future: Scenes From Childhood: Entreating Child
The Questioner: Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen - Mozart
The House: Paradise Lost (You're The Reason Why)- Half Man Half Biscuit
The Inside:…
catdynamics | October 25, 2007LOLcat Bible: official translation wiki
Say no more.
h/t kos
a start
From Not A BlogTM
With CafePress T-shirts an'all.
catdynamics | October 25, 2007From Chad, statements typed into Google which return this blog as the top hit
Skyr Food for Fighting
So You Want to Be an Astrophysicist
WMAP for dummies
King of Tambora
Bird 'flu for theorists
ok, three of these are for ye olde blogge on catdynamics.blogspot.com, but that's just 'cause I haven't updated the "highlights" link for a long time and couldn't be bothered to search a lot
Other hits include: "strange but true pulsars" and "planet around a white dwarf" and of course "iPod iChing" (sorry Sean)
catdynamics | October 25, 2007Schools around here get a lot of parent volunteers and rely heavily on them.
Some of the kids have an interesting attitude about this.
I was talking to a friend recently. As with many of the volunteers she has no training in education and no experience with actual teaching of groups. She is a professional with two kids of her own.
She mentioned the "two trouble boys" in the class she was helping with, and said she had tried to work with one of them.
After trying to cajole him and then order him to do something, he turned to her and told her bluntly: "I'm not doing it, and you can't make me".…
catdynamics | October 25, 2007Accuweather is now forecasting return of Santa Ana conditions late saturday persisting for sunday and monday - though not predicted to be as strong as this week's winds.
This is bad news for the wildfire situation in southern california, as the bigger fires are unlikely to be fully contained by then.
There is also the possibility of new fires springing up in other locations - eg the San Gabriels were pretty much not touched in this round, slightly different wind direction might make them vulnerable.
Might not be done yet.
catdynamics | October 24, 2007In the short story "A Pail of Air" by Leiber, the Earth is ejected into interstellar space.
The story describes the one family's struggle for survival as the atmosphere freezes out.
A few years ago, David Stevenson noted that such free floaters could sustain liquid water on the surface through geothermal heating, if the atmosphere was thick enough and of the right composition.
Now a smart, hard working postdoc and some random co-author have explore it further, looking at what happens to free floaters with Moons! Tidal heating may supplement geo heating long enough for live to become…
catdynamics | October 24, 2007San Diego Tribune is reporting the reservation fire has reached South Grade road on Palomar mountain.
Am I correct in thinking this is the switchback road that goes straight up to the observatory? So the fire is 5-10 miles away and below the observatory?
Anyone know observatory status?
PS: apparently fire was mid-mountain about 2 miles from observatory at dawn
PPS: House-to-house battle on top of Palomar Mountain
PPPS: Caltech web site now says wind turned and observatory is safe for now.
UPDATE: definitely a bad fire coming up Palomar Mountain, whether it engulfs(ed) the top depends on what…
catdynamics | October 23, 2007One of the minor joys in life is to pick a sporty-ish car out of the executive-elite-super-premium-platinum line at the car rental at LAX and hit the three-level exchange in downtown LA with KROQ on heading for Pasadena, as long as it is not the rush hour or two
so, how many years did it take for me to click, that of course KROQ is live streamed on the intertubes...?
If it hadn't been for the SoCal fires I'd never have thunk to look.
I mean, who can resist the truly inane fire situation commentary inbetween the mix of old alt-rock and contemporaty lite-pop?
I wonder if Doc-on-the-ROQ is still…
catdynamics | October 22, 2007The Yorkshire Ranter avoids the topic of rugby, but does summarises the current strategic situation - the US carrier groups are refurbishing (well, the Kitty Hawk just left harbour for fall deployment and exercises in the west pacific, and the Enterprise is "on station" but not listed in the Persian Gulf or Arabian Sea, so I'm guessing in harbour picking up stores).
Nothing happening there. Don't know where Cheney gets his bluster from.
The US is just not positioned to do anything silly before spring, makes the rhetoric coming out look kinda impotent.
catdynamics | October 22, 2007I have family (in-laws) and lots of old friends in SoCal, so I checked in on the fires on-line this morning - looks bad.
But, really, it is a local disaster, right?
At lunch the e-mail came in - the San Diego Supercomputer Center is erratic and heading for going down later today. Don't expect it will be up to much this week.
Staff were ordered to stay home, power is "erratic"...
dammit.
We have 100,000 hours to burn on that big iron, this semester, it can't burn down.
SDSC just e-mailed. All systems down at noon local time...
catdynamics | October 22, 2007Some time ago I was asked to nominate candidates for an honorary degree from Penn State.
For the record, I nominated V. Wilson (née Plame), Penn State alumnae, for services to the nation.
I was thanked, most politely, for my suggestion.
catdynamics | October 19, 2007in a rational US the '08 election would be
Dodd vs Huckabee
in practise Huckabee's name is not presidential enough, I am told
and Dodd's hair is not presidential enough, or so I am told - not that presidential hair may be too pretty either... if you're a democrat
y'all have a real funny way to do these things,
I still haven't figured out why party primaries are run as a state event, nor why some rules allow non-party members to vote for party candidates - unless it is some interesting exercise in seeing if people understand game theory