Random
catdynamics | October 14, 2017scienceblogs.com is shutting down
moving back to ye olde blog: catdynamics
out
catdynamics | January 22, 2017I've been puzzling over the rationale for some recent events...
Exxon has a large contract to develop oil and natural gas resources in the Russia.
This can only go forward if sanctions on Russia are lifted, which seems likely to happen in the near future.
But, there is too much oil and capacity to surge produce more oil and gas on the market. If nothing else, the US has well developed capacity which is idling.
The problem, as it has been for the last few decades, is that Saudi Arabia can squeeze new producers out of the market, by increasing production and sharply dropping prices, for a while…
catdynamics | January 22, 2017The Aspen Art Museum is doing a series of interdisciplinary lectures, titled "Another Look"
Another Look Lecture: Gabriel Orozco & Cosmology - so this is a thing.
I did one of the lectures. The first one, I gather.
It was quite an interesting experience, for me at least.
Good fun, riffing on the perspective from physics on Orozco's work, which is partially inspired by astronomy and thoughts on cosmology.
MoMA was very helpful in providing a perspective on Orozco's work over the years.
The actual exhibition was very interesting. The central floor display piece was quite startling in…
catdynamics | December 23, 2016Roads to Rome
All roads really read to Rome
moovel lab makes funky maps,
go play
catdynamics | December 12, 2016Today is the 12th of december, and there are 13 days until christmas.
This means, of course, that the first of the yule elves came to town this morning.
As you know, Bob, there are thirteen of the Yule Lads, or jólasveinar, as we call them.
And they are not really elves, since their mother is a troll.
The childstealing, cannibal Grýla, of legend.
Stekkjastaur
They come to town, one each day until christmas eve, and then leave in order, starting christmas day and finishing on the 6th of January.
They leave small treats or presents in the shoes of good children, if the kids know to leave…
catdynamics | June 27, 2016In case anyone hasn't noticed, Iceland is playing England in the Euro 2016 Cup today, round of 16.
This is the first time Iceland has been in a major football tournament, the first time, obviously, they have progressed to the second stage, and as I write this they are unbeaten in tournament play.
Iceland has a population of just over 330,000.
It is about half the size of Wyoming, both in area and population.
For perspective, the mens' football team is drawn approximately from the 21-37 year old demographic, which has about 65,000 people in it. Or about 33,000 males.
The football squad has…
catdynamics | June 9, 2016"If life were a mellow elementary school run by well-meaning education PhDs what would your report card say?"
catdynamics | November 18, 2015Why sex is just like a nice cuppa...
This animation from Emmeline May and Blue Seat Studios is really quite excellent and has been making the rounds, but that doesn't mean everyone has seen it...
"Copyright ©2015 Emmeline May and Blue Seat Studios
Non-commercial use: Video must have copyright information displayed below video, with a live link to original. No alteration to the video may be made, other than translation."
Quite good analogy.
catdynamics | February 13, 2015We haven't done an iPod iChing prognostication in a very long time, and needs must!
So, Oh Mighty iPod One! What say you?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Woosh.
The Covering: The Secret Marriage - Sting
The Crossing: I Will Not Be Denied - Bonnie Raitt
The Crown: Away in a Manger - Kenny G
The Root: Last Christmas - Wham
The Past: All At Once - Bonnie Raitt
The Future: Rock Steady - Sting
The Questioner: Circle Dance - Bonnie Raitt
The House: History Will Teach Us Nothing - Sting
The Inside: Centuries - Fall Out Boy
The Outcome: She's a Rebel - Green Day
The Covering: well, that was tres…
catdynamics | January 4, 2015One of the joys of the holidays and the University turning off the heating and locking us out, is that it provides time to catch up on things: papers, refereeing, recommendation letters, grading, syllabi, proposals, all the stuff one can rarely get to during actual working semester hours.
And, sometimes, there is time for real life: casual reading, family, catching up online...
One of the ye olde blog things I like to look over occasionally is Scott Aaronson's shtetl-optimized, for the latest on P!=NP news, or polemic on quantum computing.
This time, what caught my eye was his take on the…
catdynamics | January 3, 2015Happy New Year!
I heard that Killing The Internet is a Thing, and apparently keeping more than a few hundred tabs open in Firefox will do the trick, so I'm doing some blog dumps to get the year kicked off:
Quanta Magazine is an (editorially independent) publication of the Simons Foundation which has been doing some interesting science journalism, beyond the usual channeling or press releases and artificial dichotomy that plagues much of the media:
These are some of the stories they ran that caught my attention:
Seeing Cats and Cosmos
Why RNA is Right Handed
A New Physics Theory of Life
Fluid…
catdynamics | August 24, 2014good thing about Icelandic, it is phonetic, almost all the words are pronounced the way they are spelled, including Bárðarbunga
the extra few letters are just what they look like.
Fortunately Biggi Lögga is there to set you straight.
catdynamics | August 22, 2014Bárðarbunga is arguably the scariest of the 30 or so active volcanoes in Iceland.
Extreme volcanoes don't always have extreme eruptions, but they are scary because they have the capability for extreme events, uniquely so.
Bárðarbunga - under the ice cap at the top left - from Google maps
It is not the most active, it is not the tallest, it may possibly be the biggest in some sense, but it is the volcano which gave us the largest eruption on Earth since modern humans started trying to get organized: the Þjórsárhraun eruption about 8,500 years ago.
[caption id="attachment_3871" align="…
catdynamics | August 22, 2014Science had a very interesting special section this spring: The Science of Inequality - basically doing a summary and review of issues related to the stuff in Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century
The section has a series of very interesting articles on a range of related topics:
"Inequality in the Long Run" by Piketty and Saez
"The ancient roots of the 1%" by Pringle
"Our Egalitarian Eden" by Pennisi
"Physicists say it's simple" by Cho
"Tax man's gloomy message: the rich will get richer" by Marshall
"A World of Difference" by Underwood
"Can Disparities by Deadly?" by…
catdynamics | April 25, 2014Why you might sometimes care about the sex lives of strangers.
A snarky comment over on an evanescent social media site lead me to shoot back from the hip, but on reflection, unusually enough, I decided I liked the retort enough to preserve it in more permanent intertoobz form.
The discussion was on oligarchy and extremes of wealth, and the comment was essentially that this was a private matter, and that the income, or wealth, of an individual was not a matter of public interest - that it was a prurient obsession of no more relevance than the identity of their sexual partners or preferences…
catdynamics | April 22, 2014"The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful things..."
Tigger was my favourite on the Hundred Acre Campus.
"...bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!"
Recently I was at a meeting, and a comment was made about how someone was being negative.
Not only was this a bit of a bummer, total downer, harshing everyone's mellow.
It actually violated our Code of Mututal Respect and Cooperation!
Namely Article 9: "Have a positive attitude"
Huh?
Well. Yes, I knew we had a Code. But I had not internalised this particular requirement, and the more I thought about it the…
catdynamics | April 17, 2014
Big Eyed Beans from Venus - Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band!
Cool. Literally
Comparable to Mars in effective temperature, bit larger than Earth, probably slightly more massive than Earth (mean density could be lower), atmosphere unknown.
Might well have extensive surface regions with persistent liquid water.
Kepler-186f comparison