catdynamics | October 5, 2007I gather NASA has discovered web 2.0 and social networking.
From a series of very interesting conversations I've had recently had, there is both growing awareness of a semi-official NASA presence in web 2.0 realms, and an interest in making this permanent and official.
My first reaction was to go back and flick through my old copy of True Names
Hah feds, you'll never take Mr Slippery alive!
There is an astrobioblog, which is moribund, usual problem in "official blog" creation. There was at some point an official LISA blog, but I can't even find it anymore.
- Contrast with Keith Cowing's…
catdynamics | October 5, 2007"Life goes on as it did before
As the country drifts slowly to war"
The Torygraph is getting worried: Drum beaters for Iran war should think again
"Those in favour of war are now apparently contemplating including Syria, opening not one door into the dark, but two.
We should all hope that serious people in Britain are weighing up whether these ventures into the unknown are in this country's deepest and widest interests, a theme crying out for comment from anyone bidding to govern us."
Mad.
They're all completely bonkers.
Seriously.
catdynamics | October 5, 2007Hot and sultry friday. Happy, happy autumn.
So, we ask the iPod, in commemmoration of yestarday's anniversary...
This whole space travel thing, what will come of that?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Fantaisie de Concert II: Lento assai - Perlman
The Crossing: Hestavísur
The Crown: She's Lost Control - Joy Division
The Root: I Really Like You - Melissa Etheridge
The Past: Dawn Chorus - Modern English
The Future: Shut Down - Beach Boys
The Questioner: Wadidyusay? - Zap Mama
The House: Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy - Tchaikovsky
The Inside: Blood of the Lamb - Billy Bragg…
catdynamics | October 4, 2007Mikulski-Hutchison put in extra billion into NASA appropriations in Senate
and HR3737 - House votes to save Arecibo - doesn't come with money, just orders to NSF.
I bow in awe to Cornell's powers.
catdynamics | October 4, 2007"Girls go to College
to get more knowledge;
Boys go to Jupiter
to get more stupider"
by Á. age 6 1/4
catdynamics | October 4, 2007Fifty years ago today, the first tiny step was taken off planet.
We may be more introspective nowadays, but we sure know how to Have Fun 2.0
Here is a selection of finds from the blogosphere, trawled up over the last few weeks. Some of these were sent in, some I picked as good examples of blog posts on physical science or related issues in the last month or so.
Sputnik!
The launch of Sputnik, fifty years ago today, inspired a generation of scientists and spurred a renaissance in science, education and technological development.
Academia:
Quantum Pontiff celebrates a great historical event…
catdynamics | October 3, 2007anyone know who was first to use avatar in fiction to describe the virtual persona representation of a real person either in cyberspace or as telepresence?
It is not in True Names, which would have been my first guess. I have vague memories of it being used in new wave science fiction in the early/mid seventies.
Quick google suggests Poul Anderson used it first. Figures.
(From "Call me Joe" - really?).
catdynamics | October 3, 2007NASA may be rolling back their "full cost accounting" scheme
A couple of years ago, NASA switched to "full cost accounting.
Previously a fair fraction of NASA permanent staff were paid out of center budgets directly, but, with some reason, to be fair, they moved to the aforemention full cost accounting, where each persons time had to be accounted for and charged to the appropriate line.
This can be a serious pain when you have someone supporting or supervising multiple projects, or when someone wants to do something new that hasn't been through a budget cycle. On the other hand, there was a…
catdynamics | October 1, 2007Ugh.
Outfit is wrong.
Flag colour is wrong (shade of blue, dood)
And no no no hockey sticks! You think we're Finns or something?
Funny though
catdynamics | October 1, 2007
"ten dead American soldiers and four burned trucks"
'Let's do it if the Iranians stage a cross-border attack inside Iraq.'
"Shifting Targets" a Sy Hersh article in the New Yorker.
Speculative but interesting read.
Wonder what our Brit readers think of the "shame" and "desire for revenge" the Royal Navy is supposed to feel. Doesn't quite ring true to me.
Of course if there were some nasty evil group out there who wanted to start a war between two nations, they would now have an explicit goal for what incident to stage to trigger it.
I am of course thinking of al Qaeda and the faintest…
catdynamics | October 1, 2007unconfirmed report that Russia pulled all its technicians out of Bushehr
the ever unreliable DEBKA is passing along a report from Iranian opposition group that the Russians pulled their technical people out of the almost completed Busher nuclear reactor in Iran this weekend
DEBKA floats a lot of false rumours (the USS Nimitz, for example, is back in San Diego this weekend, not in the Persian Gulf as DEBKA claimed recently), so big pinch of salt on this.
If true, they speculate 1) Russian-Iran relations broke down - one possibility is the Russians made a deal to support UN sanctions which…
catdynamics | September 28, 2007iRobot the makers of the Roomba robot vacuum have new toys...
we have a Roomba, 2nd generation, which works great in the smaller rooms, or it would if we didn't have books piled everywhere, interspersed with occasional toys, cats and laptop accessories
I like the look of the Looj - robot gutter cleaner - our gutters are a serious pain-in-the-ass to clean and have to be done spring as well as autumn because of the 70+ year old giant oak and its pollen.
But... the ConnectR telepresence robot strikes awe and fear in me...
It is basically a small autonomous robot with audio and video link, (here…
catdynamics | September 28, 2007Off-season, but still two proposals in two days.
So, oh Mighty iPod - given them vagaries of panels and those who run them, how will they dispose of what we propose?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: World is Full of Crashing Bores - Morrissey
The Crossing: A New England - Billy Bragg
The Crown: Learning My Shapes
The Root: Komdu Kisa Mín
The Past: Stay Up Late - Talking Heads
The Future: Big Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
The Questioner: Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz - Three Tenors
The House: Lost John - Lonnie Donegan
The Inside: Now Get Busy -…
catdynamics | September 27, 2007strange allegation that NASA climate scientist, James Hansen, was "paid" by the Soros foundation...
NASAwatch points to an op-ed in Investor's Business Daily where they claim:
"How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?"
That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.
Huh?…
catdynamics | September 26, 2007Now there's an insult: they must have put Ahmadinejad in one of those annoying fancy hotels that charge for internet access, 'cause he still hasn't blogged the Columbia visit, and no liveblog of the UN speech, either!
In fact he hasn't updated his blog in like six months. Deadbeat.
And it is not Safari compliant, must be using IE. Typical politician.
Like it'd kill the guy to pop down to starbucks, or even mcdonald's for a half hour to keep his blog up to date... don't they have wi-fi in Iran?
catdynamics | September 26, 2007I'm hosting the next physical science carnival: Philosophia Naturalis #14 on Oct 4th 2007.
It is a memorable date, send me entries on any relevant physical science bloggings.
catdynamics | September 26, 2007Carnival of Education #137 is up
at Global Citizenship in a Virtual World
catdynamics | September 25, 2007What are your true, academic, pleasures?
Sean is disgusted at the lameness of academic guilty pleasures
Chad gets in on the action also...
I'm not into guilt, and there are real academic pleasures; emotional states that come with the job.
We should revel in them.
The rarest and greatest pleasure: the rush of comprehending in an instant, finally, a very very hard previously unsolved problem.
Realising later that there are some technical details to work out, does not detract from that momentary pleasure. Sometimes the details can become a life's work.
Observing something new, interesting and…
catdynamics | September 25, 2007New banner image and design, courtesy of Josh Gemmell. Thanks.
I like it.
May redecorate eventually. We'll see how it goes.
catdynamics | September 25, 2007I gather Halo 3 just came out.
How much did it cost to develop?
A news story on the wire quotes a development cost of $30 million for Microsoft, with another $30 million or so in marketing and bonuses, for a launch cost of $60 million. Which implies very high profit margins for a successful game.
But, the story also claims it took 300 elite programmers three years to put the game together, which is plausible.
So, an elite programmer can be had to $33,000 gross per year?
I don't think so.
You might think that this is because most of the programming is done somewhere off-shore at very low…