Today's #ProfSamLectureTour everything-is-connected adventure was visiting a UVic lab where they are testing balloon-borne internet delivery. I have some doubts about whether or not this is actually feasible/safer than satellites, and need to do a lot of reading. But I love seeing some different ideas happening, and what is more solarpunk than high-tech balloons/airships delivering your internet?
I just want to eat ice cream and go to bed but it's almost time for dinner with UVic profs...
crowdsource advice-seeking on latex/markdown
I started writing this book project using zettlr in markdown, because that seemed like the best way to incorporate many citations from a wild variety of journals/books/articles. But I am now having serious problems trying to integrate files.
Latex is hard but I know it quite well, I just don't have a latex editor that I like that's reliable (I'm not doing this on overleaf, it's just me, no sharing needed).
Recs? Advice? I'm running Ubuntu.
I was planning to get to UVic early and take a morning Zoom meeting from there, but I just had the realization that it will be 10000x more pleasant to take the zoom call from my incredibly ridiculous hotel room and then take the bus up to UVic.
I guess this is what happens when you get way too nice of a hotel room for the colloquium speaker... (this is undoubtedly the most Ivory Tower thing I've ever written) #ProfSamLectureTour
I have to update the Starlink numbers in my talk. But this time, I last gave my talk TWO DAYS AGO. This is stupid.
There are 27 more Starlinks in orbit today than there were on Monday: there are now 9,526 Starlink satellites orbiting above our heads.
1,458 have already been burned up in the atmosphere (and at least 1 of those made it to the ground in the easiest place in the world to find space debris...) adding many hundreds of tons of weird metals to the stratosphere. #ProfSamLectureTour
Oh fuck, there are 9 more Xingwang megaconstellation satellites in orbit compared to Monday as well. Time to go outside (and not see any stars. I am really tired of cities).
I have to update the Starlink numbers in my talk. But this time, I last gave my talk TWO DAYS AGO. This is stupid.
There are 27 more Starlinks in orbit today than there were on Monday: there are now 9,526 Starlink satellites orbiting above our heads.
1,458 have already been burned up in the atmosphere (and at least 1 of those made it to the ground in the easiest place in the world to find space debris...) adding many hundreds of tons of weird metals to the stratosphere. #ProfSamLectureTour
Wait wait wait wait... there are TWO GIANT TV's in this hotel room!! TWO! WHY ARE THERE TWO?!!
Ok time to go for a walk. This is too much for me.
MUCH BETTER
Oh my gosh...the hotel that UVic got for me is so fancy it's... embarrassing? Horrifying? I got a "free upgrade" (extra free because I didn't pay) to a suite and this is actually bigger than the ground floor of my farmhouse. And it's 10 stories up. And there's a balcony. This is... super weird. (It actually wasn't very expensive, either. I guess nobody wants to visit Victoria in winter, except people who live in Saskatchewan). #ProfSamLectureTour
Wait wait wait wait... there are TWO GIANT TV's in this hotel room!! TWO! WHY ARE THERE TWO?!!
Ok time to go for a walk. This is too much for me.
My talk tomorrow afternoon at UVic is aimed at physicists and astronomers, but will be very digestible for anyone interested in space debris and a teeny tiny bit about Kuiper Belt orbital dynamics. It's open to the public: https://events.uvic.ca/physics/event/104470-physics-astronomy-colloquium-dr-samantha-lawler
#ProfSamLectureTour
Oh my gosh...the hotel that UVic got for me is so fancy it's... embarrassing? Horrifying? I got a "free upgrade" (extra free because I didn't pay) to a suite and this is actually bigger than the ground floor of my farmhouse. And it's 10 stories up. And there's a balcony. This is... super weird. (It actually wasn't very expensive, either. I guess nobody wants to visit Victoria in winter, except people who live in Saskatchewan). #ProfSamLectureTour
I caught the very-expensive-but-UBC-is-paying-for-it coach bus that picks up passengers in Vancouver, drives onto the ferry, lets us off for the ferry ride, then we get back on and it heads to downtown Victoria. I forgot how nice the view is from coach buses! Haven't been on one of these in a while. Now waiting to board the ferry, judging from where the driver parked, it looks like the fancy bus gets on the ferry before anyone else. #ProfSamLectureTour
Prof. Sam Lawler