catdynamics | June 25, 2007The Extreme Solar System conference at Santorini is off with a bang!
Number of announcements already in the first session, I'll catch up on the highlights later, and just give the, in my opinion, most interesting.
The California-Carnegie-AAT group has a genuine extrasolar Jupiter analog!
Jason Wright announced it in the first session.
It is one of several systems that have been monitored for ~ decade and been known to show a long term trend in velocity.
The velocity variation peaked a few years ago, but had not shown a full cycle, so the orbit was poorly constrained. The second turn just…
catdynamics | June 25, 2007Ok, Santorini has broadband and WiFi
We're on. I'll intermittently live blog the meeting as I can and if and when anything on particular interest comes up.
And we're off, on time...
catdynamics | June 25, 2007ok, I confess, I am now lounging on a small mediterranean island
Santorini to be specific.
(I hope, since I am using the movable type "scheduling" function, and am confidentially anticipating all flights and connections flew and connected)
I am not just lounging by the pool, indeed I suspect and fear I may never see a pool or beach during my stay; I am, rather, at the Extreme Solar Systems Conference, where I am also running the "Extreme Habitability" workshop. Should be fun.
I'll post news, if and when I can. No idea what internet facilities I will find.
There are pre-meeting rumours…
catdynamics | June 22, 2007So, it will be friday, and we will ask: oh mighty iPod One - will we have robust detection of candiates for genuinely habitable extrasolar planets around nearby main sequence stars by 2010?
And, if so, can you tell us more...
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Never-Played Symphonies - Morrissey
The Crossing: Sexuality - Billy Bragg
The Crown: Barnið Sefur - Utangarðsmenn
The Root: Clubland - Elvis Costello
The Past: Do Anything You Wanna Do - Eddie and the Hot Rods
The Future: Blóðið er Rautt - Utangarðsmenn
The Questioner: Garloney Rats - Pogues
The House: Kökubaksturinn…
catdynamics | June 22, 2007The incoherent ponderer ponders the joys of doing physics as a professor at a research university...
but to offset his irrational exuberance, he points to the classic "two geeks" post by Steve Hsu
Ouch.
Read the comments.
The first one, on the analogy with art careers is a point frequently made, there is a good point there, but it is incomplete and misses half the point.
Steve also has a current pointer to discussion on grad engineering recruitment in US programs
Ouch. Ouch.
Steve has also discovered Ted Chiang, (and here and here) which is a good thing.
But Rob reminds us why we really do…
catdynamics | June 21, 2007Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov
"We have recently discussed the question with the Foreign Minister of Iran. We have no misunderstanding regarding the execution of contractual obligations regarding the construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr. We agreed to continue the cooperation between competent departments regarding the subject," Itar-Tass quoted Minister Lavrov as saying.
Ok, so the Russians really are pissed off enough to ship Iran their enriched uranium.
If they haven't done so already
Bummer.
catdynamics | June 21, 2007This would be funny, but...
Congress questions VP Office claim to not be an entity within the executive branch
"I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."
An elegant solution does present it self: if the VP's office is not within the executive branch, then it presumably should not receive any funding that Congress has designated for the function of the executive branch.
This might leave…
catdynamics | June 20, 2007Greg at systemic makes a bold, and probably accurate prediction
observational sensitivity is now reaching parameter spaces where we can detect genuinely nice habitable planets, and the odds are that we will in fact see some real soon now
For what it is worth, I think he is right.
We're not at the point of seeing precise Earth analogues right now, but we are close, and we are at the point where we can detect either Earth like planets around nearby low mass stars, or "super-Earths" around Sun like stars.
The super-Earths are rocky planets with masses several times those of Earth. They are…
catdynamics | June 19, 2007A Supreme Court Justice cites a television show in his deliberations on torture...?
"Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge's passing remark - "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra 'What would Jack Bauer do?' " - got the legal bulldog in Judge Scalia barking.
The conservative jurist stuck up for Agent Bauer, arguing that fictional or not, federal agents require latitude in times of great crisis. "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of…
catdynamics | June 19, 2007Depends...
When I were a lad, we would occasionally get dismissed from school, particularly in early spring, usually at noon.
These were known as "Sun"-days, and were those rare days on which the sun shone in a clear blue sky and the temperatures reached a balmy 10-15 C (50-60F you heathens).
This is because, as everyone knows, 8-12 year olds should be out soaking up the sunshine in free outdoor play whenever they can, synthesizing themselves some vitamine D, not stuck behind school desks all afternoon.
Of course, when I were a lad, I also ventured to southern latitudes (Morocco, if you must…
catdynamics | June 15, 2007It is a lazy sunny friday, and we ask humbly, what excitement lies ahead, oh mighty iPod one?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Old King Cole
The Crossing: Engill í Rólu - Bubbi
The Crown: Koka Kola - Clash
The Root: Confessions - Violent Femmes
The Past: Brain Stew - Green Day
The Future: God Only Knows - Beach Boys
The Questioner: The Army Goes Rolling Along
The House: Ball and Chain - XTC
The Inside: South Australia - Pogues
The Outcome: The Alphabet Army - J.B.'s Allstars
Then it's Hi! Hi! Hey!
The Army's on its way.
Count off the cadence loud and strong
For where e'…
catdynamics | June 14, 2007Note to self: when submitting NSF proposals through Fastlane -
if you do a last minute revision then run LaTeX twice before generating the new PDF file, or the bibtex cross-cites break... ugly.
Apparently the panel really hates that. Really, really hates that.
Never had such a unanimous referee response.
catdynamics | June 14, 2007EADS Astrium, the European conglomerate that builds the Ariane rockets has come up with a concept vehicle for suborbital flights
Hybrid jet and rocket plane about the size of a business jet. Capable of suborbital hops, allegedly, like the Rutan's Space Ship One
Nominal market is high end tourism at about 1/4 million $ per pop. 4 passengers for 3 minutes of free fall. Astrium unveiled a mock up of the forward section at the Paris airshow.
Sounds like it is currently a power point project, they're looking for investors to build - ie they won't risk the company's capital or credit.
I'd have…
catdynamics | June 13, 2007House subcommittee on Science and Related Agencies has marked up its appropriations bill
Looking good...
They give NASA and extra $290 million, majority for Science.
Sounds like they also plan to put in the barriers between line item spending in NASA, to preclude some divisions (exploration) raiding others (science and aeronautics).
We'll see what the Senate does.
NSF is on target for doubling, according to this, which would be another decent sized increase in its budget. Again both details in which divisions get the moolah will matter, as will what the Senate has to say. But this is a good…
catdynamics | June 13, 2007My earlier rumouring was false, I hear third hand that the NRC committee on Beyond Einstein has not consolidated their reporting and sent it to the NRC, they are having one more meeting right about nowish.
Interesting.
Still due to submit to NASA Sep 8th, with an announcement on Sep 9th from Griffin.
We'll see if NASA still has any of that money left by then...
catdynamics | June 12, 2007There is a claim that the Russians have delivered the fuel for Iran's Bushehr reactor.
The source is DEBKA, which is interesting in and of itself.
The story is quite detailed, both in timeline and claims of political motivation (Putin pissed off at Bush, natch), but DEBKA is not entirely reliable on these matters - they tend to err on the paranoid "airplane novel" side of things.
But, their stories also appear to be politically purposed, either as deliberately leaked intelligence to trigger action in the US conservative masses, or to send a signal to see what a response to a possibly fake…
catdynamics | June 8, 2007Stormy friday, which is weird, ought it not to be thursday...
We approach the mighty iPod and ask, oh Mighty iPod One: is there a characteristic accretion signature of late stages of binary supermassive black hole mergers?, and is it LISA relevant?
The Covering: Gó Gó Partí - Stuðmenn
The Crossing:Hey Nonny Nonny - Violent Femmes
The Crown: Jack Spratt
The Root: Skyttan - MX-21
The Past: Lover's Rock - Clash
The Future: I see little dolly
The Questioner: Stuart and the Avenue - Green Day
The House: Brian's Song - Monty Python
The Inside: Energí of Trú - Stuðmenn
The Outcome:
Old King…
catdynamics | June 6, 2007Good news is that the east coast Whole Foods are now carrying plain skyr
Aahhh.
This is the real stuff, not the oversweetened flavoured vanilla stuff they've been pushing.
The bad news is that I bought it all.
Really, I think I cleaned out all the Whole Foods north of NYC.
BwaHaHaHaha!