Notes | Brutkey

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Just sitting here at my desk, procrastinating on packing, and a very specific screw from one of the meteor cameras that I lost months ago just fell on my foot from somewhere underneath my desk?! WHAT.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Trying to motivate myself to push through this last week of packing, getting animals set up into the lowest-work configuration possible, and a terrifying amount of writing and zoom meetings by looking at the weather in New Zealand. (The weather in Vancouver and Victoria, where I'll be spending a few weeks before heading to NZ, is a lot less motivating...)

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

selfie (barely)

Check out my eyebrow-sicles! Follow me for more beauty tips!

(Spent a bunch of time outside in -25C teaching the farm sitter how to run the tractor and move hay bales to keep the goats fed and happy while we are away)

Close up picture of my face, but mostly covered with lots of clothes which are covered by ice crystals from my breath. I've got a stripey neck-tube covering my nose and mouth, totally covered with ice crystals, I've got ice crystals growing on my eyebrows and eyelashes, and I've got ice crystals all over the hood on top of my hat. In the background you can see snow on a tall wooden fence, and a blue sky above.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Aaaahhhhhh I have so much to do in the next week aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

If Reflect Orbital and SpaceX would please launch directly into the Sun instead of LEO that would really help make my week a lot more manageable. Also pack for me.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Pretty! But really fucking cold. (Thermometer said -35C this morning)

Looking at a bunch of black, white and brown goats all squeezed together eating out of a wooden trough on the ground. In the background is a farmyard and a large barn, and lots of snow. The sky is just getting light for impending sunrise in an hour or so.

A very snowy, frosty view of a snow-covered field with some scrubby bare trees. The sky is just getting light from sunrise.

A large yellow barn with old peeling paint on the right side of the photo, with a clump of spruce trees silhouetted against the flat horizon and the sky turning pink and orange for sunrise.

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

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

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!