the Oort problem

After talking to Bovy yesterday about the Oort problem (and extensions, to measure the local gravitational potential gradients in the Galaxy), Rix and I asked Volker Springel (Heidelberg) about the possibility of making mock catalogs and performing method tests in realistic simulations. He was positive, but we have no plans. What I would really like to do is to set up a blind test with a cash prize! But we don't really know how wrong our answers become as our assumptions are violated, and many of the Oort assumptions are wrong in detail. After this conversation, we learned about the Meerkat project, which is an SKA precursor but very ambitious nonetheless.