Very Important Meeting in a few minutes. It's on Teams, please send me all your Microsoft-please-play-nice-with-linux vibes
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Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Posts
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Very Important Meeting in a few minutes. -
Kia Ora, Invercargilll!@davidtheeviloverlord That is absolutely the best description of what the kiwis were doing!
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Kia Ora, Invercargilll!@simonbp On Stewart Island at least there are only 27km of roads in total, so not a lot of driving happening, and none of it very fast. Apparently all the dogs on the island are required to take kiwi aversion training as well!! The guy who hosted my visit there said there are 12,000-15,000 kiwi on the island, and only 300 people!
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Kia Ora, Invercargilll!Talking about dark sky access really felt like preaching to the choir. That was amazing!! I saw dark sky posters all over the town, there are like 3 actual streetlights, and the rest of the lighting in town is low-level and just shines right on the sidewalk.
I got to see kiwi snarfling around for bugs on people's front lawns in town, in total darkness, underneath the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds!! WOW.
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Kia Ora, Invercargilll!Ok, now that you've sat through that rant, my family and I saw SEVEN KIWIS yesterday! 3 were on Ulva Island, and 4 were just snarfling around in the grass on the sides of the roads around Oban, the only town on Stewart Island. The giant New Zealand pigeons, Kurerū, were abundant and delightful. We saw kākā parrots in town and in the woods, too!
Nearly 40 people came to my talk! Which is extra incredible because there are only 300 people living on the island.
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Kia Ora, Invercargilll!Kia Ora, Invercargilll!
I still owe the world a few posts about my time on Stewart Island Rakiura because that was completely incredibly amazing. But the only internet access I had was through the public library, which has a Starlink antenna on top, which made me feel pretty gross.
Say it with me again, everyone: rural and remote places need internet access that is not controlled by and enriching an American billionaire!! #ProfSamLectureTour
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2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC.@zleap If there is ever good recording from the places I'm giving the talks, I'll post it. I haven't had a spare hour to record it by myself.
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2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC.On the plus side, the Portuguese translation of the Conversation article I co-authored last week about Kessler Syndrome (my part) and space policy (Gregory Radisic's part) has half a million reads(!!) so that's cool.
https://theconversation.com/too-many-satellites-earths-orbit-is-on-track-for-a-catastrophe-but-we-can-stop-it-275430And hopefully there will be another Conversation article I co-authored in the last 5 days out tomorrow! Learn more ways why launching a million satellites is a terrible awful stupid idea!
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2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC.Will I be able to wake up, get family out the door, make it to the ferry terminal, find wifi access, log in to an important zoom meeting, convince important people at the meeting to submit a comment to the FCC (that I and a collaborator wrote for them), and check in for the ferry by 9:15am? Tomorrow morning is going to be... exciting. #ProfSamLectureTour
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2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC.Kia Ora, Invercargill!
Rakiura Stewart Island tomorrow! Then back to Invercargill on Saturday.
Oh my gosh I'm tired. #ProfSamLectureTour
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Me: Woooo I'm finally going far enough south that I might get auroras again!!Me: Woooo I'm finally going far enough south that I might get auroras again!!
The Sun: *completely blank for the first time in many months*
Dammit.
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2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC.2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC. A few weeks later, we flew to Aotearoa New Zealand. Today we're flying from Christchurch to Invercargill. Tomorrow we're taking a ferry from Bluff to Rakiura Stewart Island.
This will be a trip within a trip within a trip within a trip. Wish me luck! #ProfSamLectureTour
https://allevents.in/invercargill/astronomy-vs-the-billionaire-space-race/200029496473111# (talk is actually at 7pm, not 9am)
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Me. I'm a mad scientist.@petergleick Me too, me too
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I had no idea that even mustard can be mansplained.I had no idea that even mustard can be mansplained. Good morning, fediverse 😬
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It is pancake day!RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/111926354737647084
It is pancake day! I know what I am definitely making for dinner (though I should have planned ahead better and bought maple syrup to NZ with me from Canada...yikes it's expensive and in teeny weeny bottles here!)
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". -
Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service".@taniacreates DarkSky is working on a template, I'll share their instructions once it's up
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service".@sophie worldwide
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service".@river yes, share far and wide
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Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service".Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"
The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc
Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!