Brutkey

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

Everything is terrible, but I submitted the first draft of one chapter of my book to a proofreader! Kind of nerve-wracking, but nice to see that this book might actually happen.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I got to visit some cows at a friend's farm! The internet needs some fuzzy animals right now

2 large orange cows mamas with their 1 day old tiny fuzzy brown babies right next to them. They're all looking right at me, in a pen with wood shavings all over the floor, inside a large old barn. The 2 mamas and one baby are standing, with one baby lounging in the shavings. A large reddish cow with a white stripe down the middle of her face and nose, looking right at the camera, with her reddish baby standing next to her. They are in a pen in a barn, on wood shavings. A close-up of the face of a reddish cow, looking intently at me, trying to figure out if my phone is something she can eat. There's an open door behind her into a pen with more cows. A very close-up, slightly out-of-focus view of the cows moist nose as she comes in close to make sure that my phone isn't something that might be delicious.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Their astronomy outreach program is AMAZING (despite only having 1 astro prof). Paid staff run a modern telescope with perfect equipment, people use a virtual queue to get a turn at the big telescope, and the local RASC amateur astronomy chapter set up their own telescopes around the outside for everyone to look at while waiting. There's scientific art scattered around, and great student volunteer opportunities. It's amazing! Anybody have a few million $ for my university to do this too?

Looking up at a very shiny new large telescope white telescope with a black dust shield and a lot of wires and camera equipment on one side, inside a white dome. A telescope dome sitting in a courtyard under the blue sky. There's a powers-of-ten art exhibit on the ground, a spectral lines art project on the concrete benches, and a bunch of star maps on some concrete walls further on. A sundial that incorporates an analemma for more accuracy in timing. The sun is shining through the analemma making a sun-shadow line that perfectly tells the time when projected onto a curved metal piece with timestamps on it.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

SFU likes over-the-top caution signs

A big sign in the dining hall that says "CAUTION DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE" and then has the outlines of a bear, a deer with HUGE antlers, a raccoon, and a pigeon. A sign standing on a walkway that says "PLEASE FIND NEAREST ENTRANCE AND REMAIN INDOORS ON YOUR JOURNEY ACROSS CAMPUS". It was maybe -2C and there was a teeny tiny bit of frost in a few places.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I survived my incredibly long day at Simon Fraser University, and had a lot of super interesting conversations (molecular motors whaaaattt?!) Also SFU is a wildly weird and beautiful campus

A view looking up a wide staircase that makes a 90 degree turn, and a weird round open space above it. Everything is concrete and very geometric. A view looking across a huge open space underneath a giant roof two stories up, but open on the sides to the outdoors. There are neat parallel lines on the ground from the sun coming through. A huge quad area with lots of super wide staircases and a weird elevated hallway with lots of windows. The sky above is blue. A huge rectangular courtyard surrounded by an elevated concrete narrow building on two sides. There's a rectangular pond in the middle, with a skim of ice on top, and a very annoyed seagull standing on top of the ice. It's sunny and the sky is bright blue.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Oh look I'm complaining about satellite collision risks in IEEE Spectrum too: https://spectrum.ieee.org/kessler-syndrome-crash-clock

(Holy crap, no wonder I'm tired.)

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Ooof I am just totally overwhelmed by everything today. And it's going to be an extremely long day, with many hours of talking. I hope that some of the (many, many, many) conversations I'm going to have today make a difference for at least one of the gigantic awful problems that are happening right now. I guess that's as good as I can hope to do.

Sending peace (and productive anger, where needed).

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Oh look I'm also complaining about the potential for satellite collisions in New Scientist again too: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2512470-spacexs-starlink-dodged-300000-satellite-collisions-in-2025/ (article by @astrojonny.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy)

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

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

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Are you fucking kidding me?? I have to update the Starlink numbers AGAIN from YESTERDAY.

There are now 9,551 Starlink satellites in orbit. 25 more than yesterday. FUUUUUUCCCKKKK I am going to bed.

#ProfSamLectureTour

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Oh hey look I'm complaining about satellite pollution in the New York Times again https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/science/space-junk-seismographs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GlA.KMQQ.E6FkFCBrSevf&smid=url-share