Random

Web Astrophysical Calculator - I don't know how I missed this for 16 years... I'd so totally pay $0.99 cents for this if someone wants to make it into an App How to Optimize Your Caffeine Intake - PSU provides a genuine service to society - and it is an App!
A song about that creepy-uppy kind of love
but now I hope to see one: from io9 Purple Squirrel Found in Pennsylvania again?
ok, on a roll, so lets put out some must listen: Blog Talk Radio interviews Bill "CR" McBride from the legendary Calculated Risk blog on a completely different note: The Must Have Billy Bragg and Wiggy podcast collection - linked to before, but can never be reminded of too often, 'cause there ain't nobody that can sing like him! er, that's all I got for now
some random links for your reading pleasure Free SF Online - indexed, mostly shorts and audio podcasts. Excellent way to get an intro to some new reads. Then go out and buy the books. eg Ted Chiang David Brin Greg Egan On a different note:"5 things you should know before dating a scientist" Chad has some good stuff going: Shameless Innumeracy Grumpy About Education I have several hundred AAS press releases in my inbox, may get to reading some
The thing I like most about this mashup is that it's superficially just a mashup of the most popular music of 2011, but it also manages to be a statement on some of the most important events of 2011: the protests from Egypt and Libya to OWS Maybe it's hard We will never be never be broken and scarred There's no way I'm turning back oh oh oh oh Here's the situation Got this feeling that you can't fight Been to every nation The city is on fire tonight Maybe it's hard We will never be never be broken and scarred There's no way I'm turning back oh oh oh oh Here's the situation Got this feeling…
And, so, as this feast of Saint Thorlacius comes to an end, we await the arrival of the last of the yule lads the sneaky candle swiper hisself Kertasníkir The lads are bathed, a major achievement in and of itself, and ready for the grand finale tomorrow night they leave town, but first their mother comes for a quick naughty-or-nice inspection Grýla and Leppalúði of course they do not stop at some token onion, potato or coal in the stocking,nah Jólakötturinn will hunt down the little miscreants and eat them. Well, some of them, the rest are delivered to Grýla's sack and she gets to boil…
The penultimate half-troll trundles into town today, ready to pounce on the shoppers rushing home with their treasures Ketrókur he carries a big stick and he is not afraid to use it, upon it is a hook with which he'll snag the who-beast shanks straight from the pot and scarf it up while it is hot
getting ready for the grand finale, the eleventh of the elven comes sidling into town Gáttaþefur He is well endowed this lad, and his long and sensitive proboscis will sniff out the christmas baking and he will swipe it if he can he is hoping for some Laufabrauð nom nom nom
bit naughty this half-troll is Gluggagægir likes to peep through your window late at night and see wassup he's a sweety, really he is, just checking on whether you've been naughty as we get closer to the big day
and the jólasveinar march on with their stout staffs in their hand... this morning Bjúgnakrækir he climbs the rafters looking for sausages being hung or smoked, he particularly like the thick fatty bjúgu - lamb or horse he'll eat them all nom nom nom
Oh dreadful son-of-a-troll! Last night the most feared of all the jólasveinar came, and a true son of a troll is he... Skyrgámur! Curse you! He steals your skyr, the last of the precious few hauled hundreds of miles across the mountains, in the snow, up hill, both ways... and then he taunts you!
If you wake tonight to the door slamming, it is probably just the wind, or is it... Hurðaskellir - he's a bother. This explains it all...
And the jólasveinar keep stumbling in, the pace ramping up as christmas approaches (actually it is steady at one per day, it just feels ever more frantic) Askasleikir - he licks your Ask clean, natch. No, this sort of Askur, silly - the sort you keep your skyr in!
I'm sure that science isn't the only profession that gets misrepresented in popular media. I'm sure lawyers and police cringe when watching crime dramas, and soldiers are uncomfortable when watching war movies. Leaving aside shows like CSI, I think that scientist's main media foil is almost by definition science fiction. On the one hand, I've learned to mostly ignore exaggeration, over-simplification, and implausible technology - I've come to understand (though it was hard) that these things are sometimes necessary to drive a plot, and that it's unrealistic to expect that the writers are all…
Pottasleikir - cheap, but he licks the pots clean, saves on the washing up
Slow down boys... jólasveinar @home
For my class, one f the things I asked is what I should tell them about which I did not do. Somewhat to my surprise, one question, endorsed by a number of other students, was whether I could recommend some good science fiction to read over the holidays. Why, yes, yes I can... Ok, we'll jst let rip in random free association... I'll also mention some more fantasy oriented stuff at the end, just for fun. I'll presume everyone knows of Wells and Verne, and Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein? Heinlein: I'd go for the early shorts and mid-career juveniles. The later novels are mostly for hardcore…
Stúfur is the littlest jólasveinn, and, I am told, much beloved of the girls. He is not so much a (half)troll as your very own Home Gnome. Very stubborn, loyal, somewhat fierce and generous to a fault. He rowed to our distant shores last night, bringing wee little treats, received with much joy this morning. As is his custom he also licked the pots and pans clean, mostly, refreshed for the journey back north.
and the jólasveinar march on and on across the floor... Giljagaur came this morning. He likes to hide in the folds in the landscape, crawling towards your barn, where he will sneak up to the cows in the morning and skim the significance off your double blinded data set, leaving but a suggestion of a hint of the Higgs Particle on the pail of photons. No cream for theorists on this morning.