catdynamics | October 19, 2007Stormy, angry friday.
So, we ask the Mighty iPod - anything big going to break in early/mid January?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
Hm, that was weird, a new random selection flashed up and then popped back to the old list. Then had to re-randomize.
Some major change of plans at the last minute?
The Covering: Pabbi, Komdu Heim um Jólin - Kristín Lilliendahl
The Crossing: Allegro: Brandenburg Concertos - Bach
The Crown: Golden Years - Bowie
The Root: Redemption Song - Bob Marley and the Wailers
The Past: Ghetto Defendant - Clash
The Future: Please Do Not Go - Violent Femmes
The…
catdynamics | October 18, 2007and apparently he is afraid of Geysir...
As I reported, Iceland withdrew its Iraq contingent, Major Herdís Sigurgrímsdóttir earlier this month.
Rock in Reykjavík
America's leading Real News show will be covering this end of an era in detail, having just finished shooting in depth interviews with relevant parties on location.
Expect an in depth report in about two weeks, from a late night cable show near you.
(ok, I take pity on you, here is an english language article)
Geysir - the one, the original
Herdís says goodbye
Interestingly her name roughly transliterated is: War-Maiden,…
catdynamics | October 17, 2007I regularly get "special offers" inviting me to take up a, usually, 3 month special introductory rate for a wireless or cable or internet service.
What these offers never state is what the base rate is that you default to at the end of the introductory period. When done by phone, the salesperson nevers seems to know this rate, and it is never on mail offers. It generally seems unfindable on company web sites also.
It is a source of never ending surprise, to the salespeople, that I will not sign up for these offers, because, y'know, they really are bargains. They typically involved 1-2 year…
catdynamics | October 17, 2007Sometimes a blog provides time critical sanity preserving information.
Unqualified Offerings meets the dark side of academic life.
The Uncertain Committee and its Vague Quantitative Assignments.
Fortunately Chad has figured this out, analyzed the context, and generously provides a survival mechanism.
I had some vague notion of this general approach, at least in theory, but Chad elegantly provides detailed, field tested, quite specific instructions for tackling this sub-category of the General Committee Problem.
I may need this in the near future.
Makes me long for the legendary ad hoc…
catdynamics | October 16, 2007Nine years ago, in what seemed like a good move at the time, I bought a BIG box of "overhead transparencies"
These are intermediate technology presentation tools; sort of like a keynote slide on transparent paper, "projected" through an analog display system. Post-blackboard tech, barely. Contemporaneous with the short-lived and tremendously annoying "whiteboard" fad of the 80s. 1980s.
Turns out it was a good thing I did, 'cause today I need one (1).
I'll have the other 97 remaining used by the fourth millennium, at this rate.
However, the primary tool for editing these "transparencies" are…
catdynamics | October 15, 2007The deadline for registering for the next annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society is coming up on wednesday...
It is in Austin, Texas, second week of january.
The annual meeting is mostly a schmoozefest, job market for junior faculty, some random "townhalls" and other communiques from DC, and about one hundred press releases, occasionally good and surprising ones.
There is also a semi-private mini-workshop on one of the fields I am working in, that is in conjunction with the AAS meeting but not part of it (a "while you're in town" sort of thing).
But... it is a long way to go,…
catdynamics | October 15, 2007random thoughts on the discovery that black hole outflows contain rubies and sapphires
Corundum grains are always nice, even a micron at a time.
Spitzer press release
Hear the podcast
catdynamics | October 15, 2007out walking on a beautiful autumn day, when the munchkin asks me "why are these boys being bad guys"?
a couple of pre-teen boys are clambering around a white SUV. The boy I see first has a "realistic" toy M-16, black t-shirt and wrap around sunglasses, the other, pushed into the back of the SUV, has a bandana over his face and is being pushed, hit and shot (in play, not for real).
As we get closer, I realise: they are playing "blackwater and iraqis"...
catdynamics | October 12, 2007The NSF is doing a time audit (Nature 4 Oct p 512 - sub) to check that grant recipients are actually spending the promised time on their research.
Apparently they (and the NIH, and DoE, and DoD) just noticed that "top researchers" tend to have grants totalling to more than 100% time committment.
And, y'know, if they were actually working more than 40 hour weeks, than they'd be due overtime: triple overtime... (really, the time I worked 110 hour weeks one summer we got triple time after the first 80 hours - only double time on hours 40-79 though).
How to solve this...
Nah, better to "fine" the…
catdynamics | October 12, 2007A Most Noble Autumnal friday.
So we ask the Mighty and Omnipotent iPod: what now for Al Gore?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Laura - Scissor Sisters
The Crossing: Refavísur - Bessi Bjarnason
The Crown: The Firebird: Lullaby - Stravinsky
The Root: Sigurjón Digri - Stuðmenn
The Past: Dansi Dansi Dúkkan Mím - Edda
The Future: Let's Get Small - Trouble Funk
The Questioner: One Way or Another - Blondie
The House: Geek Stink Breath - Green Day
The Inside: Buckeye Jim - Burl Ives
The Outcome: Young Peron's Guide to the Orchestra: Variation I Flute, Piccolo (Presto) - Benjamin…
catdynamics | October 12, 2007Congratulations to the IPCC and Al Gore for the Nobel Peace Prize
So, Attenborough Award, Oscar, Emmy and Nobel in one year.
Not bad for a Harvard grad.
Wonder what he will do next?
PS: hey I got one right...
I suppose there is no hope now of the US joining the rest of the world in making Nobel prize winnings exempt from income tax...?
ok, I think Scalia has taken the SCOTUS supermacy over international rulings thing too far
and they leaked the ruling to the White House - can't trust anyone
catdynamics | October 11, 2007This year Nobel prizes, to date, are a sweep for Europe.
Is this a trend, or a fluke?
Before world war 2, Europe dominated Nobel prize winnings, in the sciences and medicine, after the second world war, the US rapdily developed dominance, partly by virtue of having brought over a lot of the best European scientists - the US paid better, had more and more stable research funding, and had much better research facilities.
List of Nobel prize winners by nationality - note that a lot of the winners post-WWII lived in the US at the time they won the prize. eg in the 70s, 6 out of 20 US winners…
catdynamics | October 10, 2007I have once more ventured within one of the strange spiky toroidal concrete circles that envelope US centers of power,
and I emerge with unverified anecdotal speculative rumours
NASA HQ people (science, natch) are amazingly cheerful.
Hadn't seen them so cheerful, overall, for a long time.
More money has been allocated to Research and Analysis lines, in the current round, retroactively, kinda without telling anyone.
So success rates for current proposal rounds are in the double digits. Over 10%.
Actually, probably over 20%. I've heard some crazy doods mention 25% or even 33% or even 50%…
catdynamics | October 9, 2007do you lead, or trail?
I was reminded of this beauty for obscure social reasons...
In theory, spiral galaxies may have either "leading" or "trailing" spirals.
In practise almost all that we can measure have trailing spirals.
In trailing spirals the spiral arms flow back with the rotation, as the name indicates, whereas with leading spirals the arms open into the rotation.
For most spiral galaxies, the arms rotate differentially, the outer parts of the arm usually have lower angular velocity than the inner parts, and tend to "wind-up" into more tight multiply wrapped arms, if they are…
catdynamics | October 9, 2007
There's this thing, where you can donate money to a good cause - funding for K-12 teachers looking for specific items, mostly in rural areas.
There's matching funds from SEED!
This has been bouncing around the sciblogs for a week, and I'm afraid I have not been keeping up with the details:
so.... read all about it at Chad's place
and, for maximum leverage make him write some more dog fyzzix entries
catdynamics | October 9, 2007CollegeScholarships.org is offering $10,000 to the student blogger who
Gets the most votes
I don't know who is the best, go browse the blogs, or just take the easy way out and vote for Shelley!
catdynamics | October 9, 20072007 Nobel Prize in physics goes to Fert and Grünberg for Giant Magnetoresistance
Fert is at the University of Paris (sud) and Grünberg is at the Jülich research center.
This is a classic Nobel prize, since it is for relatively recent research that lead to immediate major practical application - modern hard disk drives, from iPods to your desktop - use GMR for coding the high information density expected nowadays
Here is the press release: good one - even if I spectacularly failed to predict it - I didn't think the Academy would award it so soon after discovery.
catdynamics | October 7, 2007It is the season for the Swedish Academy to ponder, and we ask the Mighty iPod, what is your prediction for who will win the Nobel Prize this year?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Heroes and Villains - Beach Boys
The Crown: St Swithin's Day - Billy Bragg & The Red Stars
The Root: Skyttan - Mx-21
The Past: Song to the Siren - Tim Buckley
The Future: O Soave Fanciulla - Pavarotti
The Questioner: Grafir og Bein - Bubbi Morthens
The House: Perfect Day - The Saints
The Inside: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine -…
catdynamics | October 5, 2007Army's most deployed brigade coming home
2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is packing up and headed home.
Finally.
catdynamics | October 5, 2007Hillary Clinton gave a science policy speech at the Carnegie Institute
Now with new improved policy list...
Text is here
Doesn't say if she took questions.
Predictable kick offs on stem cells and climate change.
Wonkish, very solid.
Restore science advisor, OTA, depoliticize agencies and advisory committees.
Increase funding for NSF, DoE, DoD research.
She likes NASA Earth Science and aeronautics.
She enquired about being an astronaut! Iiiinteresting.
That's a damn good speech, very clintonesque, well researched.
It is also interesting that it is being given at all at this stage of the…