catdynamics | July 10, 2006It is the Tesla Sesquicentennial!
Happy Birthday!
No, not this Tesla, that Tesla
As his SI unit celebrates he was clearly a very intense guy.
Though I don't know that he was really 10,000 Gauss!
Coturnix is the Source for all things Tesla
catdynamics | July 8, 2006GSFC's Terra mission detects indisputable evdence for gravity waves.
From the MISR instrument
Ok, this was inspired by last month's Physics Today, but y'all remember that "gravity waves" are old fashioned fluid waves with gravity as the restoring force, and quite distinct from gravitational waves.
Those will come later.
catdynamics | July 7, 2006Prof Hawking is stirring things up again...
seen on CNN...
Hawking put out a Social Science question on Yahoo's "Ask the Planet".
Got about 18,000 answers.Bono got even more...
Oh, the question: "How can the human race survive the next hundred years?"
Answer: Little luck.
Al Gore had a serious science policy question and only got ~ 7500 answers.
The best one was actually rather sensible.
catdynamics | July 7, 2006Friday, and I went blueberry picking.
So, we ask the mighty iPod...
This cloning business, are we going anywhere with that?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Help Save the Youth of America - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Strange Days - Doors
The Crown: Allegro: Eine Kleine Nachtmusic - Mozart
The Root: Golden Years - Bowie
The Past: Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello
The Future: Lack of Knowledge - Violent Femmes
The Questioner: Stalin Malone - Elvis Costello
The House: Impromptu (The Spinning Top) - Roge
The Inside: Allegro B - Mozart
The Outcome: Isobel - Björk
#11 is Please,…
catdynamics | July 6, 2006I don't want to see anyone picking on Al Gore again.
Apparently, Bush is "in the process of solving" the debate over whether global warming is caused by human activity
Well, no, dear, you're not.
"In an interview with People magazine, President George W. Bush said there is "a worthy debate" on whether global warming is caused by human activities.
"It's a debate, actually, that I'm in the process of solving by advancing new technologies, burning coal cleanly in electric plants, or promoting hydrogen-powered automobiles, or advancing ethanol as an alternative to gasoline," he said.
Bush said…
catdynamics | July 6, 2006Yikes, Dynamics of Cats is nowhere on the Nature science blog rankings.
That, dear folks, is because most of you are still pointing at ye olde catdynamics.blogspot.com, or at least I like to think so...
Move those blogrolls and web links.
The web values based on connectivity...
(ok, I admit, I hadn't moved the pointer on my own home page yet, but I have now, and you don't want to be even bigger procrastinators than me, now, do you?)
ok, so I also need to update my own blogroll to move the pointers from ye olde blog to the New Improved Blog.
Real Soon Now.
catdynamics | July 6, 2006Ask a Science Blogger: On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned mammal. Ten years on, has cloning developed the way you expected it to?...
Yes. More or less exactly as I expected, in fact. So there.
Oh, an explanation...
The original cloning effort was an early breakthrough, it was looking likely that mammalian cloning would work, what remained was "engineering", but the team that did it stumbled on a crude but successful approach.
After a breakthrough like that, people get overexcited and start making wild short term predictions, none of which come true. People…
catdynamics | July 5, 2006France vs Italy eh, could be good, could be not good...
Italy did well to hold off Germany, their defence+goalie look invulnerable.
They're good on the counter, but the first goal looked like a defensive error by the Germans, looked like someone missed their assignment.
Only saw the last few (and very exciting) mins of France vs Portugal. Glad the "good French team" showed up. Did not develop much fondness for Portugal watching their games, they'd do even better still if their players just focused their abundant talent on playing.
So, the final...
Well, if the France that beat Brazil shows…
catdynamics | July 5, 2006It was NASA proposal season last month, meant to comment on it, but was so exhausted and pissed off about the whole thing that I needed some space.
A typical proposals is 15 pages of main text; including biblio, bios, associated documents and blurbs the final (electronic) package is typically 40-55 pages.
NASA's budget is a funny thing.
It has the Space Operations Directorate which is basically keeping the shuttle and space station and associated armies of contractors at JSC and KSC in business. $6 billion in round numbers.
Then is has Science, Aeronautics (well, not so much anymore) and…
catdynamics | July 4, 2006Word out of Space Telescope Institute is that the Advanced Camera has taken blanks and the spare electronics are good. Low read noise and bias, and system is stablising at operational temperature.
Both cameras working.
Should have first calibration frames by now, looks good as new.
Will look for "second light" images, if/when they put them up. Science schedule should start executing soon.
catdynamics | July 3, 2006Mm, fresh Rainer cherries go very well with vanilla skyr
For some reasons there are an amazing number of wild raspberry canes fruiting this year; we're picking a pint or two in 20-30 mins (with two munchkins "helping" this is not as slows as it sounds), and there's more every day, both black and red varieties.
Pick your own cherries for a day later this week, and rumours are the commercial pick your own raspberry farms are open. Real soon it will be blueberry season. Yay. We'll go for more than last year, down to our last pound and if we were not exactly rationing ourselves, we were not…
catdynamics | June 30, 2006Topical friday and so we ask the Mighty One a Topical Question:
Oh, mighty iPod: will LIGO, now that it has reached phase I design sensitivity and is in double coincidence science run mode, detect the ringdown from the formation of intermediate mass black holes in the local universe?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Sofa Urtubörn Á Útskerjum - trad.
The Crossing: Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir - Claudio Arrau
The Crown: A New England - Billy Bragg
The Root: My Youngest Son Came Home Today - Billy Bragg
The Past: Good Man, Good Woman - Bonnie Raitt
The…
catdynamics | June 30, 2006Side 2 (spare) electronics were powered up on the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Preliminary indications are that they are in good shape and that the ACS will be live and taking science data again by July 4th.
Looks good.
catdynamics | June 29, 2006
Jim Baen died.
He was publisher of Baen Books, the primary source of libertarian and military oriented science fiction, with emphasis on the above. He discovered and promoted some excellent authors, and kept teenage boys everywhere amused for hours.
He also premiered online fan discussion with authors, electronic publishing and distribution of free electronic books from the Baen books archives.
catdynamics | June 28, 2006ScienceBlogger asks: "What are some unsung successes that have occurred as a result of using science to guide policy?"
Um, errr...
Ok, since the place is full of bio/med/geo types, lets narrow the field to astro and space.
Astronomers have been extremely successful in guiding space science policy, at least through to 2005, through the little know advisory committees and various NRC, AAS and APS small, high prestige, ad hoc committees that make recommendations like "the decadal survey" and how astro and physics should interplay their priorities, like Quarks to Cosmos.
These are major…
catdynamics | June 28, 2006
The Las Cumbres Observatory is a private foundation planning a network of 5-7 homogenous 2m telescopes around the world, and an associate network of smaller educational telescopes for schools.
As I'm told, they have one operational telescope and one under construction.
The observatory has funding, thanks to a .com boomer, they are hiring serious staff to do serious work, and possibly fishing for science ideas.
Lots of things spring to mind, including planet transits and astroseismology (well I know they know that); gamma ray burst optical transients, microlensing, white dwarf oscillation…
catdynamics | June 28, 2006
From space.com
Vandenberg AFB launched an NRO sat on a Delta 4 last night.
Launch was scheduled around 8 pm, I had dinner obligations but we sat outside and I was facing the right way, less than perfect angle, but still.
Actual launch was 8:33, so I missed the burn, saw the sunset reflect off the trail as it broke up and realised I had missed it. Still a beautiful sight, with a new moon on the horizon over the ocean.
This rather nice flickr photo is almost exactly like the view I had, just substitute the foreground with a roofline of a mexican restaurant.
I, of course, didn't bring a…
catdynamics | June 27, 2006space.com is running the top ten weird things in space.
Some of the choices don't seem that strange, but then familiarity does bring contempt.
Go vote. Vote early. Vote often.
catdynamics | June 27, 2006Your results:You are Spider-ManSpider-Man 70%Hulk 65%Green Lantern 55%Robin 52%Superman 50%Batman 40%Iron Man 40%The Flash 35%Supergirl 30%Catwoman 30%Wonder Woman 20%You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.
Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...I am flattered, I think.
Seen on Oliver Willis
Hey, if it works for Chad...
My traffic is up, but more never hurts, eh?