Brutkey

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

It was so cold this afternoon this little goat decided to commandeer the dog house. The dogs didn't mind.

A small white goat with super cute droopy ears peeks out of an unpainted, rectangular, plywood dog house and looks at the camera.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I'll end with the last paragraph of the paper:

"In addition to the dangerously high collision risks calculated here, we are already experiencing disruption of astronomy, pollution in the upper atmosphere from increasingly frequent satellite ablation, and increased ground casualty risks. By these safety and pollution metrics, it is clear we have already placed substantial stress on LEO, and changes to our approach are required immediately."

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

2 interviews lined up to talk about the CRASH Clock so far!

And I usually say yes to just about every interview request I get, but I got 1 interview request on a non-urgent, non-time-sensitive astronomy topic late on a Friday afternoon asking to talk today or tomorrow. I think I will have to blow that one off and focus on other things.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Official Weather Canada windchill here is -43 right now, if it goes below -45 they cancel the busses and I have to go pick up my kids from school, where they will probably have to wait outside until I get there... (Kind of a ridiculous rule, but ok whatever. These are pretty ridiculous conditions.)

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

One of the (only) ways to protest an FCC launch filing is by showing technical infeasibility. So... I may have started writing a technical paper about Reflect Orbital last night, driven entirely by rage. Luckily I have a lot of astronomer colleagues who I think will help out with this! Because I definitely don't have time to write yet another paper... aaahhhh....

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
possibly AI generated from linkedin?

I hate linkedin a lot, but one of my co-authors sent this graphic posted here on linkedin, based on our paper https://www.linkedin.com/posts/florian-dolci-8160ba19a_telecommunications-spacetech-satellitecommunications-activity-7405230831058788352-sJM1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAB9h0KABlNJ-LeChOloNSyyQ0kDjB9LraQg

I refuse to get a linkedin account, so I can't snoop around this person's profile more and determine if it's LLM-generated. I hate hate HATE that chatGPT has made me doubt all art. I don't know whether to be mildly annoyed or very impressed by this!

A cartoon that says at the top "Telecom paper of the day: are we one solar storm away from a LEO crisis?" On the left side is a cartoon of a clock showing lots of time and satellites nicely spaced out. On the right side is a cartoon of a clock showing short time, and tons of satellites and junk and a house of cards in orbit, while the Sun sends some cartoony solar flares our way. At the bottom it says "Conclusion: orbit is a resource, we are building a house of cards. Ensure the wind doesn't blow."
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
selfie (barely)

First below -40 windchill morning. Yuck.

Me looking at the camera, wearing many layers of clothes. I've got a stripey neck tube over my face which is covered with frost from me breathing, a green hat with a headlamp (also covered in frost), a black hood over all that, and a purple scarf for good measure. I'm also wearing a purple jacket over a brown work snowsuit.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Just another post about the ridiculous Saskatchewan weather... (and yes, these temperature swings are exacerbated by climate change, but this well within historical norms)

30 degrees Celsius of temperature swing in just over 48 hours. Wheee.

screenshot of the 4 day weather forecast. The high for tomorrow is -24C with a low of -31C. The high on Monday is -1C with a low of -1C. WHAT.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I know e-audiobooks are not a good deal for libraries so they don't purchase many copies. But I am continually baffled by what my library has. Examples:

They have books 1-4 and book 6 of the Misewa series, but not book 5

They have Project Hail Mary in Spanish, but not English or French

They have Jurassic Park in German, but not English or French

...?

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Fascinating replies. No doubt this is all because of enshittification!

Has anyone made an enshittification song yet? I feel like a song would not help, but would make a lot of people feel better (ok maybe just me)

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I know e-audiobooks are not a good deal for libraries so they don't purchase many copies. But I am continually baffled by what my library has. Examples:

They have books 1-4 and book 6 of the Misewa series, but not book 5

They have Project Hail Mary in Spanish, but not English or French

They have Jurassic Park in German, but not English or French

...?

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

It's absolutely dumping snow right now and it's one of the approximately one million times a year I am so so so grateful the schoolbus will bring my kids home for me. Yay transit! (Now if only we had literally any other kind of rural public transit at all, that would be lovely)