catdynamics | August 10, 2007"breaking news" that NYPD is deploying to search for or intercept a aQ threat of a "radiological bomb" in New York (one news site claims "near 34th street"?)
threat is "unverified", of course, we'll see - radiological bombs are mostly psychological weapons, very hard to get material together for a bomb and then dispersed in a way that makes much of an actual health effect - more something for causing panic and dislocation, especially with false alarms
also interesting that right wing news sites have been buzzing with "imminent 'dirty bomb' attack" speculations for several days now
http://news…
catdynamics | August 10, 2007reports of damage to Endeavour on launch
small loss of tile on underside and possible ice impact on wing
worrying, but too early to tell if it is a serious issue
catdynamics | August 10, 2007we continue providing educational products for the new kids on the block
last one for a while, I promise, just had to put this one up
catdynamics | August 10, 2007the new kids need some more education to complete their perspective on science
across the 8th dimension...
Dedicated to (soon to be) Dr May
catdynamics | August 10, 2007in a more innocent time, at the beginning of the week, the Female Science Professor pondered the implications of Ignatieff's assertions of political science
In academic life, false ideas are merely false and useless ones can be fun to play with.
She left her train of thought unfinished, but made the point that most physical scientists really can not and do not think this way, well except when some cosmologists stray off the reservation, and even then there is always some hard nosed astrophysicist ready to rein them in. In public.
Not always saying they succeed...
But, deLong knows which…
catdynamics | August 10, 2007sultry dog days, and if there's been much astro science news, I haven't paid attention
so... we go topical and ask the All Wise iPod: whence go those engines of capitalism, the Free Markets of the world?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Too Soon To Tell - Bonnie Raitt
The Crossing: Bright Lights - Special AKA
The Crown: What Colour Are You Wearing
The Root: Homeless - Paul Simon
The Past: Thing Called Love - Bonnie Raitt
The Future: Hello, I Love You - Doors
The Questioner: Hitchin' A Ride - Green Day
The House: Hey You - Pink Floyd
The Inside: Alabama Song - Doors
The…
catdynamics | August 9, 2007deLong notes the central banks increased the money supply by 7% in a single day (dollar and euro),
for some reason
this works out to 5.3 trillion percent per year, or 4.3 billion %/year if you assume bankers don't work weekends...
economists can sometimes have more fun than even astronomers
Watching the markets has been "interesting" recently
I have vague memories that a feature of markets is highly correlated variance,
ie that large day-to-day fluctuations correlate with large medium term fluctuations,
could be an interesting autumn
catdynamics | August 9, 2007University Diaries rambles on life in academia and points us to a little known fact:
Being a College Professor is the second best job in America, narrowly beating out financial advisor...
strangely, they rank software engineer number one, despite worse average pay and lower grade (BBAC vs BAAC for profs).
'course they put "real estate appraiser" at number eight, so what do they know.
The strange thing is the title of the entry on UD is "Bitch PhD", after the eponymous academic blogger, who, may I say, lost her edge when she quit her mid-america academic post and moved to SoCal... she should…
catdynamics | August 9, 2007For some ineffable reason, the Washington Post's Congress Votes database lets you sort the vote count by astrological sign...
I kid you not!
No, they don't include Ophiuchus.
Bastards.
Apparently piscans and taurids are authoritarians, while scorpions are liberal rebel hippies, or something.
And don't talk to me about those Congressional virgins either...
But, wait, for the plebs in the House the fishes and bulls are all liberals, although the virgins remain authoritarian.
Now, I am all confused, clearly my initial hypothesis is flawed...
Hm, some serious fun could be had with this.
catdynamics | August 9, 2007So, the Beeb reports Russian Tu-95 rec aircraft buzzed Guam
They most likely went to check on how Valiant Shield '07 is going - the summer's three aircraft carrier exercise off Guam.
Stennis, Nimitz and Kitty Hawk are there, while the Enterprise just cleared the Suez Canal and is hovering outside the Persian Gulf. So the Gulf now has no carriers, which apparently has some of the emirates on the coast in a tizzy, since they were under the impress there'd be a permanent carrier shield in the Gulf between them and Iran.
According to the unreliable Debka file, foreign observers were excluded…
catdynamics | August 9, 2007Oh yeah, it is the season and PhD Comics delivers
Turf Wars Pt 1
and
Turf Wars Pt 2
h/t Steve
catdynamics | August 9, 2007Joe P. is keeping busy
I'll be sending another package there in about 10 days, if anyone local has a contribution
catdynamics | August 8, 2007Congratulations Dr Mandell
Wow, that's an old web page... he must have been busy for the last couple of years...
Here's our old press stuff on the first part of his thesis
The second part will be submitted soon. It is quite interesting also.
So... that was three PhDs in 12 days.
Interesting, not sustainable though. Depletes the source population too rapidly.
catdynamics | August 8, 2007...in the Minor Key
One of my favourite Billy covers.
Don't know what the video is supposed to convey...
catdynamics | August 8, 2007Some links are just for the sake of linking
Banality of Evil
For Our Own Good
catdynamics | August 7, 2007Doug N. got a memo on faculty recruiting
Apparently post-boomer faculty are completely unreasonable in their expectations, and the silverbacks in academia are trying to analyse the new demands.
Doug goes straight to the point, the young 'uns want:
Not to be treated poorly where they work
Have a life, and not be given shit about having a life
Not to be told stupid things by clueless senior people
Not to be stuck with stupid, obscure or byzantine policies
We also want ponies.
Freedom, liberty and justice for all.
Peace in our times and love and harmony.
Really, we do. We learned this…
catdynamics | August 7, 2007Grauniad Science podcast has Brian May on the effect of taking a 'gap year' on progress on his PhD - how did that work out for him anyway? And how did he cope with London housing prices coming back to Imperial College to finish up and hand in his PhD thesis on "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud"
The real question, of course, is whether his advisor noticed his absence.