Spent the day with Bovy at the IAS speaking with Tremaine (and others) about inferring dynamics from kinematics. We decided that the best place to start is the disk, because (a) there are lots of data available right now, (b) we already have results on the velocity distribution and the significance and origins of structure therein, (c) there are other straightforward projects to work through there (most of them much easier than what Bovy has already made happen), and (d) we need to build up some experience before we start thinking about the Gaia problem, which is huge.
Sandy Faber (UCSC) gave the IAS talk today; she spoke about the stellar mass and star-formation evolution results from DEEP2, but especially the multi-wavelength AEGIS data. She argued for a very simple picture in which halo growth is simple, and galaxy growth within those haloes is also simple (depending only on halo mass, with a slight adjustment with redshift). She showed that even this very simple picture explained most of the observations adequately. I don't disagree.
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