iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof. Sam Lawler

@sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

1K followers 64 following 3.9K posts

Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her. Living and learning on the land and under the skies of Treaty 4 (Saskatchewan, Canada) […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@sundogplanets, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Posts Replies Media

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6h

I did a shitload of writing today. I'm quite happy about how much I got done! But it wasn't enough. Which overdue thing should I work on for the evening that's supposed to be a holiday actually? 😭

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11h

[GRUMPY COMPLAINING] I just want to find the full text of an article in New Scientist so I can say to SpaceX "Hey look, this article you cited in your ex parte filing actually says 'SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment' " because that's fucking hilarious But I can't find the full […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Tomasz Oryński @torynski.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 20h

A dzisiaj zamiast #LewackiePitolenie kolejny odcinek podkastu #MadrzeGada w którym pytam mojego gościa, dra Marka Stęślickiego z Polskiej Akademii Nauk o to, czy już na zawsze utraciliśmy piękne, czyste niebo, czy należy martwić się zatrzęsieniem Starlinkow i innego badziewia na orbicie oraz o […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13h

I asked a trusted colleague for comments on a written document and they fed it in to chatGPT and sent me back that output and I just want to cry. Guess I won't be asking that person for help or advice on anything anymore. Enshittification happens in people's writing skills too, I guess. I also […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15h

Well, shit. At least it's pretty, I guess? Happy Thanksgiving...

A snowy field with a pond on the far side, with a cloudy, snowy sky above and yellow-leafed, snow-dusted trees around the far side of the pond.

A snowy field with a snow-covered yellow barn on one side of the scene, and snow-dusted yellow trees on the other side. The sky is cloudy.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

I had an incredibly lovely, tasty, fun, relaxing day with my partner and kids. I'm really grateful. Tomorrow is a holiday here but I have a bazillion very stressful things I need to work on writing, so I should probably mostly do that. It's also supposed to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A brown goat and a grey goat, both leaning their heads on the back of a yellowish dog. However, the grey goat's body is somehow crossed over on top of the brown goat's body. All 3 animals are quite unconcerned about this strange position they've ended up in. There are a few more goats partially visible in the background.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Fall is pretty!... ....short. It might snow tonight.

2 fluffy white dogs sitting in a grassy field, with gorgeous yellow trees and shrubs lit by the sun in the background. The sky is mostly cloudy with a few bits of blue sky peeking through.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Happy goats, delighted to eat invasive leafy spurge, burdock, and wormwood. Might be the last new grass patch they get this year before all the grass dies from cold weather and they switch to eating hay until like... May. We'll see...

A grassy area with a junk and rock pile covered with goats happily eating. The sky is cloudy, and there are lots of fall yellow and orange scrubby trees in the background.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

This paper title is 🔥🔥🔥 "Systematic non-compliance of satellite megaconstellations with IAU brightness limits" arxiv.org/pdf/2610.10834 Congrats to the Global Meteor Network team on a great paper demonstrating how bad SpaceX and other satellite operators are on following through on […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

I just learned that the documentary Shifting Baselines f3m.ca/en/film/shifting-baselines, about the environmental destruction caused by SpaceX, is available through most US libraries streaming on Kanopy I'm in it. So is @planet4589.bsky.social. So are my goats and my llama! (RIP llama […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

One positive of digging through SpaceX FCC documents is that I learned about this excellent (scary) debris fall database: reentry.esoc.esa.int/home/recovered…

reentry.esoc.esa.int

ESA’s re-entry predictions

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Just got a spam email from a textbook company trying to sell me access to OpenStax Astronomy (which I use for my Astro 101 class) which is... you know... free? openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pag…

Ch. 1 Introduction - Astronomy 2e | OpenStax

We invite you to come along on a series of voyages to explore the universe as astronomers understand it today. Beyond Earth are vast and magnificent rea...

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

[food, dairy] My stress level shows via the ratio of satellite yelling to goats in my recent posts. Trying to lower that stress level by making some cheese this morning before all the meetings start. This is the only cheese I've had consistently good results with aging. I made a batch of […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

000

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Everybody has to coordinate with Starlink because SPACEX CONTROLS ORBIT. That's against the Outer Space Treaty. Your engineering challenge, SpaceX, is to provide your services with fewer satellites. Not yell at everyone else for having satellites too […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Co-author paper accepted dance!! (It's a doozy of a paper too. FINALLY DONE.)

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

I just saw "PCT" instead of "PDT" or "PST" in an email from a colleague in BC (which has decided to stay on daylight saving time all year round). While I am glad they are staying the same time difference relative to me, in a province that stays on standard time all year, the rest of pacific time […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

First snow in the forecast. Sigh.

screenshot of the 5 day weather forecast for my part of Saskatchewan, with a "chance of rain showers or flurries" on Monday.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Hey academics: 'By consuming AI products (which is optional, nobody – nobody – is forcing you to do it as an intellectually–independent academic, which you are, aren’t you), you are fueling these crises and are therefore actively sabotaging and annihilating the hard efforts and work of many of […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Misinformation-Superhighwayman @damienwise.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Vale Margaret Hamilton. She was a Software Engineer. She was the _first_ Software Engineer because she defined the term, Software Engineering: "When I first came up with the term, no one had heard of it before, at least in our world. It was an ongoing joke for a […] [Original post on aus.social]

A B&W photo of a person standing next to a stack of printed paper as high as the top of their head. This is Margaret Hamilton, at work as a Software Engineer and the leader of a team of extremely specialised programmers who worked for NASA. The photo was taken in 1969, and it shows a physical form if her work since she joined the Apollo project in 1965 (she joined at the age of 29 by my calculation). My interpretation of the expression on her face is a mix of pride and mild amusement. She has glasses, long, straight hair, and neat office attire. Margaret Hamilton has her hands placed gently on the stack of printouts to keep it all balanced upright. The pages appear to be arranged in bundles, ranging from 8-10 centimetres thick, to 20cm thick or more. The resulting stack of printouts is physically impressive for being an unusual feat, and it represents something even more impressive: it's the printed form of the source-code she and the team she led wrote for the NASA Apollo project. Their software ran on the Apollo Guidance Computer that was that on board each Apollo command module and Apollo Lunar Module. The Apollo Guidance Computer onboard the Eagle was an essential flight instrument for Neil Armstrong when he piloted the craft to land on the surface of the moon.

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

GhostOnTheHalfShell @ghostonthehalfshell.masto.ai.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

This is going to continue until we shut cooperations down m.youtube.com/shorts/xB6fF6sR_iA

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

The RM Sherwood data centre protest had like 10 people, because the meeting was online and the shadily-appointed RM decision makers weren't even there. But we all chatted and then did some "Water is life" chanting while 3 security guards and an RCMP officer looked on grumpily, and I did a CTV […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Michele Bannister @astrokiwi.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

With today's Nobel going to IceCube, delighted for Jenni Adams and her team. Jenni is one of very few women physics profs in NZ (here awarded in 2021 for IceCube work)

icecube.wisc.edu

IceCube collaborator becomes first woman to win physics award

This article originally appeared on the University of Canterbury website. IceCube collaborator and UC Physics Professor Jenni Adams was presented with the 2021 Dan Walls Medal, the top award of the Ne...

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

What if I do an interview for the Wall Street Journal about orbital AI data centers while I'm also at a protest for the local hyperscale AI data centre that's being built. Hm. This might actually happen tomorrow...

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Hoo boy, not often that I feel the need to go rage-scream in the hayfield before 8am. It's going to be a hard day.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

I am still half a page over the limit in the longest section of this grant proposal, and I need to totally redo the budget portion because of stupid formatting requirements. Maybe rage-screaming out in the hayfield for a while will help? This is the draft that has now received feedback from one […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

I want to go here so badly. Especially right now, after I've spent all day trying to get the 197 parts of this stupid grant into the word limits and perfect formatting with a couple of "breaks" for meetings with astronomers to talk about satellites destroying everything... sand dunes in the […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

000

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Edwin G. Spooks 👻 @edwing.mstdn.moimeme.ca · 05/10/2026

It’s election day today in Québec :flagqc: If you’re eligible and have not yet vote, for fuck’s sake, go out and vote! 🗳️ You have until 20:00 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/que… - - - C’est journée d’élections au Québec :flagqc […]

mstdn.moimeme.ca

Original post on mstdn.moimeme.ca

000

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

It's the kind of auroras right now where it just looks like a greenish smudge to your eyes, but then you take a photo and it's ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE Please enjoy this lovely instrument (a camera) that lets us see a bunch of colours too faint for our eyeballs!

A nighttime scene, with silhouetted trees in the lower corners of the photos, and bright green auroras across the horizon, with some pink and red pillars above, almost blocking the Milky Way, visible vertically across the sky.

Same idea as the previous photo, but now the green in the lower part of the sky is also reflected by a small pond.

More bright green auroras with red and pink pillars above, the Milky Way sticking up out of the middle, and a bit of green reflected in a small pond with silhouetted trees.

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

`Da Elf @elfin.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Androgoneous Spacecraft docking because neither the US or Russia wanted to be the "Female" docking part. I know a lot of stupid Space shit, but I was today years old when I learned this.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Goats are on patrol out in the woods eating invasive leafy spurge (and everything else, but all the plants around here evolved to be eaten by buffalo, so they can handle some goat nibbles)

A whole bunch of goats spilling out of a horse trailer, while a yellowish dog supervises. The trailer is parked next to some yellow poplar trees, and the sky above is bright blue.

A whole bunch of goats happily eating everything underneath bright yellow poplar trees with white trunks. There are absurdly yellow trees in the background, and a bright blue sky above.

A tractor and horse trailer, parked under yellow trees, with an electronet fence set up to contain goats who are happily eating under the trees. The sky is so blue it's almost unreal.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

A neighbour was out very late last night finishing up the harvest. A bit more light pollution than usual in photos, but found a tiny bit of auroras, and it was late enough that there weren't many satellite streaks. Yay.

A combine unloading grain into a truck, out in a field, all lit by extremely bright lights on the farm equipment. The stars are visible above, particularly the Pleiades.

The Milky Way stretching vertically across the sky, with pink auroras visible on the horizon below, and trees along the bottom of the photo. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Pleiades are easily visible.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

I had a meeting today that taught me that the SpaceX launch site in Louisiana is an even worse idea than I could have even imagined. You know what causes really intensely powerful vibrations in the ground? Rocket launches. And do you know what really powerful vibrations in the ground cause in […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Planning out my teaching schedule for 2 years in the future and thinking fondly of the not-very-distant-past when Chegg was the biggest problem I had to deal with to make sure students were actually trying to learn my course material. Fuck LLMs.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Goat morning to you

An absurdly beautiful sunrise, with silhouetted trees along the horizon, and bright pink and orange clouds stretching across the blue sky

The same view, slightly later in the morning just as the sun is about to peek above the horizon, with a whole bunch of goats back to eating the corn stalks in a frost-killed garden bed, the same place they were eating a couple of days ago. There's also a floofy white dog in with the goats, and just visible on the edge of the photo is a large yellowish dog overseeing the whole scene.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Feeling very stressed about everything, and I went out to do some astrophotography. I was hoping for auroras, and was first excited to see an orange glow on the horizon, then annoyed as I realized it's probably a combine, then delighted again as I realized […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A nighttime sky view, with some silhouetted trees in each lower corner of the photo, the Milky Way stretching vertically up from an orange spot on the flat horizon, which is the moon about to rise

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I don't think that's what was meant in a post I just read about a SpaceX launch that includes a Canadian astronaut from Fort Saskatchewan, but anytime I see "Saskatchewan" and a SpaceX Crew Dragon in the same place, I think about the terrifyingly huge pieces of debris that SpaceX casually drops […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Today was the first morning it was dark enough when I went outside for morning chores that I could see a handful of stars... and two stupidly bright satellites UGH. I'll try to not be so angry that I forget to count next time: our prediction from late 2021 was one in 15 visible points in the […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

WHY. mastodon.social/@alanboyle/11736309…

mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Post-frost garden cleanup done the best possible way

A whole bunch of black, white, and brown goats happily rampaging through a garden with a bunch of dead sunflowers, dead corn, and dead zucchini plants. The grass around the garden is green and they're happily eating that too. The sky above is cloudy.

A whole bunch of goats happily munching on dead corn stalks in a garden row. The sky above is cloudy, with some scrubby woods just starting to turn yellow in the background.

A white goat with a beard happily eating an entire corn cob while looking at the camera. There's lots of corn stalks in the background.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Today is Truth & Reconciliation Day. I am grateful to live on Treaty 4, the land of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif. To share my land with local Indigenous people in the original spirit of this […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A sunrise view of a mowed meadow area, surrounded by trees just starting to turn yellow for fall. The sky is full of clouds turning pink with sunrise.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

I drove by the new RM Sherwood data centre on my way in to work this morning. I almost puked. I can't believe how fast it's going, and how stupendously much money is being dumped into this one data centre. No wonder it blew past any possible approval hurdles, there's no regulation in the world […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Just got an official email from Amazon's reps who wrote up their FCC consolidated response to all the opposition comments on the bazillionty direct to device satellites they want to fly. I don't remember the details, and I don't think they were supposed to email me since I was just a co-author […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

I just started writing up complaints about several different things. And it's all just so far beyond what I can even complain about. So please enjoy these cats while keep writing about the terrible shit that's happening in orbit until my brain switches off for the night.

2 grey cats snuggled close together and looking directly at the camera with their green eyes, the stripey one is hugging the darker grey one

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ship remains in 250? x 276 km orbit, has deployed 26 Starlink sats.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

I think the terrifyingly huge SpaceX Starship launch that's happening right now is the one that's planning to deploy a bunch of the new Starlinks that are not actually approved by the FCC yet because SpaceX knows that the FCC will eventually approve them because they approve literally everything […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I did a fun and well attended panel with Mark McCaughrean @markmccaughrean.bsky.social and Tanja Masson-Zwaan

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Academia is so freaking weird. Part of my job as a professor is actually to occasionally cosplay as a medieval wizard while helping hand out scholarships.

Me, looking at the camera, wearing a black N95 mask and a completely ridiculous academic regailia getup. I've got a poofy purple hat with a wide brim and a gold tassle-rope thing dangling off one side, a blue and gold cape-like thing around my neck, and purple, blue, and gold robes with absolutely hilarious amounts of gathered ruffles on the shoulders. There's a bookcase with a bunch of physics and astro textbooks behind me.

Reposted by Prof. Sam Lawler

David Gerard @davidgerard.circumstances.run.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

lol, spacex is getting out of, uh, space www.ft.com/content/0fd15797-ac89-42… archive: archive.ph/Xot6N

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

[incredibly depressing, satellites] As you look up and admire the beautiful moon over the next few nights, remember that a US-based company has clearance from the FCC to launch a satellite that will be about 4x brighter than the full moon, and moving across the sky at Starlink speeds. And they […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

I don't want to talk about satellites and genAI (though I appreciate all the comments in my mentions. I just need a little break) I want to talk about goats and squash! Positive things I can directly affect! (Well, goats are you know, goats. So there are some limits to directly affecting them.)

A view looking down into the bed of a large pickup truck, completely full of squash. There is a bin of yellow and green gourds, multiple bins of acorn squash, a giant pile of spaghetti squash, semi-green baking pumpkins, white carving pumpkins, delicious warty pumpkins and big orange baking pumpkins.

Me, standing in the middle of a mostly-empty squash field, holding a very large pumpkin (maybe 30 lbs?). I'm wearing a sun hat and a black hoodie and looking very proud of this giant orange pumpkin in my arms. It's sunny and the sky is blue.

A whole bunch of goats happily eating weeds with a small lake and some trees in the background, with a bright blue sky above a pretty flat horizon.