iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 3h

Good moonrise, good dogs. Our planet is really a neat one. Worth fighting for.

2 large fluffy light-coloured dogs in a hayfield, with the full moon rising over the edge of the very flat horizon. The Earth's shadow is just rising above the horizon, meeting the moon with a band of pink/purple.

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 9h

Need something else to scream about? The CRASH Clock outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock is now down to 1.8 days, as of this weekend.

A diagram showing the CRASH Clock value labelled over time, with a green section labelled "safe zone", a yellow section labelled "caution zone" and a red section labelled "danger zone". The last time we were in the green zone was January 2023. The latest value from Oct 2026 is almost in the red zone.

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

This week is bad, but next week everyone (really, everyone) will show up at the wrong time to all their meetings whether or not they are in a place that does daylight savings time... I guess I should give myself some slack on this, since even Weather Canada can't get it right, apparently???

Screenshot of a warning that is at the top of the page on Weather Canada forecasts. It says:

Due to recent time zone changes in some provinces and territories, time information may not appear accurately on our website. The content of alerts and forecasts remains accurate. We are in the process of updating our systems to reflect these changes and appreciate your patience. Please ensure your browser is up to date.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

[animal husbandry] Meet this year's buck: Lord Buckingham! (He gets a fancy name because he was way too expensive). He seems happy now that he's got a wether for a buddy and a lot of hay and a little grain snack. Welcome, sir! The female goats can already […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A regal looking all white saanen goat, with tall pointy ears, a little beard, and a ridiculous poof of fluff on top of his head. He's standing in the back of a pickup truck under a canopy.

The same buck, now in a wooden-sided barn stall, full of clean straw. He's standing in the corner.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

Barn cat update: he's now named "Spook" because he's mostly white and it's close to Halloween. Devil cat (surprisingly not named for Halloween, named for chomping me as a kitten, she's actually quite a sweet cat now) really does not like Spook, but he just […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A white cat with some dark brown on his ears and a semi-moustache looks towards the camera, while a grey stripey cat glares angrily at the white cat. They're both inside a barn with lots of random barn equipment in the background.

A view looking down at my feet in muck boots, standing on a straw-covered floor, with the grey stripey cat next to one side of me, and the white cat on the other side. They grey cat is again staring menacingly at the white cat who doesn't seem to care. There's also an orange glove on the floor next to the cats for some reason.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/10/2026

Started the morning with ridiculously high winds and a little bit of snow. Went into the city (found that there was no snow in the city) and bought perhaps a bit too much yarn from a bunch of local fibre producer fair. Came back home and took the squash out […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

2 large dogs walking toward the camera through a lightly snowy farmyard, between a tall wooden fence and a metal-sided farm building. In the background are a bunch of goats happily eating from a large hay bale. The sky is cloudy.

A room with a high shelf along the whole top edge of the room, completely full of a bunch of different types of squash: dark orange, light orange, peach, dark green, light green. There's also a bunch of squash stashed behind a bunch of geranium plants next to a large sink.

3 blue bins full of different types of veggies. One has sad looking basil, cherry tomatoes, a few peppers, and some ground cherries. Another has a bunch of swiss chard and parsley. Another has a lot of cherry tomatoes still on the vine.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/10/2026

By the time I get to Friday afternoon I've got no concentration left for writing. But I can still mess around with data visualization apparently. Please enjoy a silly movie version of some of the resonant behaviour plots I shared last Friday.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/10/2026

The new barn cat was meowing away at me as soon as I walked into the barn. It hung around while I milked the goats, didn't seem to bother the other 2 barn cats much, and fully expected me to feed it along with the other barn cats. I very briefly patted it […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A mostly white cat with a dark brown tail looking back over its shoulder at me next to a bunch of straw bales inside a barn.

A mostly white cat with a dark brown tail and some dark brown around its ears, happily eating cat food out of a small bowl next to a bunch of straw bales.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/10/2026

Good sunset and moonrise. Now time for 🎵 another stupid zoom meeting because time zones are haaaarrrrd and about to get harder 🎵

Some silhouetted bare trees in front of a flat horizon, with pink rays radiating from where the sun has set below the horizon, with brilliant blue between the pink rays.

The waxing gibbous moon above a small pond surrounded by mostly bare trees, with a few yellow ones. The sky is dark blue.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2026

Looks like today is going to be the last nice day, maybe until April. And I have to teach and get my flu/covid shots and have a bunch of meetings indoors. LAME.

The forecast for the next 6 days. Today will be 21C and sunny, tomorrow has rain and thunderstorms, and after that the high temperatures aren't much above 0C.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

I have to fill in a bunch of US gov't forms to be an unfunded co-I on a NASA grant and this message is sitting at the top of every page making me want to rage-scream and throw my laptop out the window

screenshot of the top of a webpage. The text says:

NIH Websites Are Changing

* Get the Latest Updates and FAQs on the transition

* Per Executive Order 14434, federal agencies are now using "Super Intelligence" (SI) in place of "Artificial Intelligence" (Al). You may see both terms across NIH content during this transition.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Luckily there were auroras and good stars, so I put on my snowsuit over my pajamas and got some nice photos. Going to be a very long day though. Starting with an important meeting that will be 100% […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A nighttime view, with the Milky Way nearly vertical, and green auroras low on the horizon, with silhouetted trees in front. There's a pond at the very bottom of the photo, reflecting the green auroras.

A barn, silhouetted by the stars in the night sky. The Milky Way is vertical above the barn, with Orion visible on one side and Jupiter visible on the other. There are also silhouetted trees on one side of the barn, and a silhouetted fence on the other side.

The Milky Way nearly vertical in the sky, with green auroras all along the lower edge of the photo, above someone's annoying yard light. There are silhouetted trees along the lower left corner, in front of the auroras and stars.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

[SpaceX-related screaming into the void] Uhhhhh WOW one of Kardashev's own papers includes this completely unhinged figure...

An absolutely psychedelic pen and ink drawing showing a disk around a star (I think) with a rocket coming out? And there's a magnifying glass showing a cartoon alien driving a cart with a steering wheel on another alien's bum, some fanciful background buildings, some alien flying on a disk, and a bunch of concerned looking aliens looking out of the magnifying glass like they know we're looking at them. There's a handwritten "Type III" up in the corner of the drawing. The caption says "Figure 1. A general view of a Type III Supercivilization (cartoon by I. Maximov).

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

I made this plot to try to visualize how crowded these sun-synchronous terminator orbits are going to get with all the "orbital AI data centres" that companies want to launch. Diagram needs a bit of work still, but it's a start. These names are awful, huh? […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A diagram showing altitude on the y-axis and "relative sun-synchronous terminator orbit density" on the x-axis. There are lots of dots, many of them in overlapping bands at different altitudes. The densest parts of orbit are where "Starcloud" and confusingly-named "Orbital" have asked for the exact same orbits. SpaceX's million satellite plan kind of dominates, with big wide bands of extremely high satellite density at 3 different altitudes.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

Ooof I started grumpy posting way too early today. Let me start over and try again. Good morning.

A really nice sunrise above a flat horizon, with a nicely silhouetted spruce tree on one side. The sky is orange close to the horizon, fading to light blue above. There are bright pink clouds scattered pleasingly around the sky.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

I also found a buck! Way more expensive than I wanted, but from a herd that's very unlikely to have diseases, and he's a fancy purebred Saanen. I actually bought a buck from this same woman 5 years ago and my best milkers are his offspring. I don't really […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A large yellow barn covered with peeling paint, under the huge blue sky. In the foreground is a small grey cat who's happily rolling on the weedy ground. There are a couple of large compost piles between the cat and the barn.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

It took most of the day, but we finally took the rail off the barn, dug out all the rotten wood it was attached to, replaced it with new wood (well, nice wood that came with the farm), bought a new rail section to replace the one that was hopelessly warped […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A view showing part of the front of a barn covered with peeling yellow paint. There's a big gap above the door where a bunch of rotten wood is visible.

Similar view, now the gap of rotten wood is filled by a nice new board. There's a ladder visible as well and the sky is absurdly blue above the barn.

Similar view, now with a shiny new metal rail above the door. The rail is hilariously shiny compared to the rusty metal and peeling paint on the barn.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

Lovely bike ride! We had a couple of very windy days, so most of the fall colour is already gone off the trees. Not too many animals out besides birds, and most of the birds have migrated away already. But I saw a grouse, and some good footprints (deer, moose […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A view down a straight muddy dirt road, lined by trees that have mostly lost their leaves already. Just a few yellow leaves holding on. The sky above is mostly cloudy with some blue peeking through.

Looking down on a gloved hand holding several oat stalks, next to a very muddy bike wheel

A close up of badger footprints, kind of like cat footprints but with long claws. The prints are "walking" away from the camera down a long straight dirt road.

Another view of a long straight dirt road, this one less muddy, and with harvested fields full of stubble on both sides of the road. The sky is mostly cloudy.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

This is showing the behaviour of the equation below with different values of m and n. This is using the measured orbital elements of a real TNO, showing how it's constrained by Neptune on long timescales. Mean-motion resonances are SO COOL and I'd much rather work on this than satellite pollution.

a silly equation with lots of subscripts and greek letters. phi subscript p, q, m, n equals p times lambda minus q times lambda subscript N minus m times varpi minus n time capital Omega. It's a combination of a bunch of angular orbital elements for a TNO and Neptune, and integers.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Oh this is good too. You don't even need to know anything about what this is showing, it's just neat looking.

5 narrow horizontal plots stacked on top of each other, with cool diagonal wiggly lines made up of rapidly oscillating points. Each plot has a different diagonal slope.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

At least I finished a cool plot for the incredibly obscure mixed-mode resonant dynamics paper that maybe someday I'll actually get to finish writing.

3 scatterplots stacked on top of each other, showing cool diagonal patterns.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Here's our new map of the outer Solar System: we detected and tracked 141 TNOs to high precision, 62 of which are in mean-motion resonances with Neptune. There's a tiny bit of science work testing a model of the hot classical belt orbital distribution, but […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A scatterplot of the orbital elements of real objects in the outer Solar System, showing previously discovered TNOs from the Outer Solar System Origins Survey as well as newly discovered TNOs from LIDO. We found TNOs from inside 20 AU to outside 140 AU.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Sometimes TNOs show different behaviours in different parts of the orbital uncertainty. But most of the time our orbits were precise enough (and the phase space for different behaviours large enough) that the current dynamical behaviour of the real TNO is very clear.

4 scatterplots showing semimajor axis vs eccentricity or inclination, for 2 different TNOs. There are a bunch of points showing the uncertainties in the measured orbit, and the test particle clones that were used to look at dynamical behaviour.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

We diagnosed resonances by taking clones of the TNOs' best-fit orbits within the orbital uncertainties, and integrating them forward for 30 million years using REBOUND, then carefully looking at the resonant angle of several nearby resonances to see if it's […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

3 plots showing behaviour of the resonant argument or the argument of pericenter over time, with green blocks indicating parts of phase space that were not visited by test particles in the integration.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

The point of this survey was to find moderately high inclination TNOs, specifically, Plutinos in the 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Neptune that are also in the Kozai resonance. We picked 2 patches on the sky that we knew from models would probably have lots […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

An all-sky map with a band along the ecliptic showing the density of Kozai Plutinos. There are two green blocks where we observed on the sky in the densest part of this model.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

It sounds like something truly terrible is happening to these goats. The truly terrible thing that's happening? I am not walking fast enough toward them with the evening grain bucket. Poor poor goats.

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

The goats are very unhappy that they had to walk from one barn to the other and are now refusing to come out. The chickens won't even try. But the ducks and geese are delighted. They love snow!

2 black goats and 2 white goats walking out of a large barn door with peeling yellow paint into a snowy yard. They look annoyed.

3 goats walking through the snowy field toward the other barn as quickly as they can. They will not wait for me to take my silly pictures, they want out of the snow. The sky above is cloudy and it's snowing pretty good.

A snowy farmyard with a snow-covered greenhouse and chicken coop building on one side, with a tall wooden fence. 3 large white geese and 6 small brown ducks are happily playing in the snow. No chickens are visible because they won't come out of the coop.

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

If I only share pretty pictures of the sky will that make the satellites go away? (I know the answer to this question... back to work...)

The sky early in the morning before sunrise. The sky is orange on the horizon, and it fades to dark blue way up in the sky, where the crescent moon and Jupiter are hanging out. There's an old barn and some trees silhouetted by the orange part of the sky.

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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.

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

Fall is my absolute favourite season here. (I just have to not let myself think too much about the next season...)

Yellow leaves framing the absurdly blue sky, with the half moon in the centre of the photo

A view down a mowed grassy pathway between yellow poplar trees with white trunks. The sky is blue above.

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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.

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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.

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

You can still get photos with few/no satellite streaks, but it's hard (of course there's software processing to get rid of streaks, but that's not my point here). While there are still lots within ~2 hours of sunrise and sunset, we're getting to the time of […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The orange moon rising above a flat horizon, with the Milky Way stretched vertically across the sky above. There are silhouetted trees in each lower corner of the photo.

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

[incredibly depressing, satellites] So many satellite streaks in 13 second exposures (and one airplane, you can tell because it's dashed)

Looking up at the Milky Way vertically across the photo, with the Andromeda Galaxy easily visible. There are the tops of a couple of spruce trees silhouetted down in the corner. And a lot of satellite streaks all over the photo.

The moon rising above the horizon, with a streak from headlights as someone drives by, and lots of satellite streaks in front of the Milky Way vertically across the photo.

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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

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

They did a pretty good job! Only a few corn stalks left!

A whole bunch of goats who know I have apples in my pockets. One is so close to the camera you can only see her eye, one is staring intensely into your soul (hoping for apples), and the others are jockeying for position. In the background, the two livestock guardian dogs are booping noses, and in the farther background is the remains of the frost-killed garden beds, with just a few corn stalks still standing.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

Day 2 of the horse trailer trial also went really well! Loading the goats is still a bit chaotic (and today the livestock guardian dog ended up in the middle of all the goats in the trailer briefly (there's a little door that he can get out that the goats […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A view from just above a whole lot of goats happily squeezed into a tiny horse trailer. Several of the goats are happily munching on apples. And next to the happily munching goats is a slightly confused looking yellowish dog.

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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.

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

We recently bought a horse trailer from a neighbour and today was the first day we successfully herded all the goats into it (lured with a bin of apples), drove the goats to a different part of the farm in the trailer, set up the electronet fence and portable […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Goats packed into a horse trailer. One is looking at the camera while eating an apple and it looks really funny.

A blue tractor pulling a brown horse trailer across a grassy farm field, under a bright blue sky.

A whole bunch of goats spilling out of a horse trailer into a new weedy grassy area, while a fluffy white dog tries to "help."

A whole bunch of goats happily eating grass inside an electric fence, next to a tractor hooked up to a horse trailer, under a bright blue sky.

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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.

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