Prof. Sam LawlerNov 6, 2022

Tomorrow morning I'll be on our local CBC radio station talking about the total lunar eclipse on Tuesday morning (which we'll probably miss here due to clouds+snow 😭 ) https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2022-november-8

And because they've interviewed me about Starlink before, tomorrow I also get to talk about why I'll be using Mastodon a whole lot more and Twitter a whole lot less. (You are all very smart, I don't have to spell out this connection, right?)

Should be an interesting conversation! 8:10am CST tomorrow.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerNov 7, 2022
Interview in 10 minutes. My partner and I both have work today, but my kids don't have school (fortunately it's a planned work-from-home day for me). Anyone want to make a bet on whether or not this morning's radio interview will include my kids in the background whining/yelling/singing/making other loud noises?
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerNov 7, 2022

The kids stayed quiet! Interview complete.

Lunar eclipse will probably be a bust from here due to clouds, but I'm hopeful that I can at least see the colour of the moonlight change during the eclipse.

I ended up promoting Mastodon pretty enthusiastically! I originally joined months ago when That Horrible Billionaire first bought it as a little protest, and I really like it here.

I hope I convinced a few more cool people from #Saskatchewan to try this out!

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerNov 7, 2022

Here's the interview recording. Hopefully I didn't say anything totally wrong about Mastodon in my glowing newbie review! (And yes, I know it's properly called the Fediverse, but pretty much nobody outside here has heard of that, and some people *have* heard of Mastodon so that's what I called it)

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-66-the-morning-edition-sask/clip/15947057-university-regina-assistant-professor-sam-lawler-talks-upcoming

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets The direct link to the audio interview is at https://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/220/926/dave-wCnDVfAm-20221107_1667832487862.mp3 , and here's a quick transcript (apologies for typos, I rushed through it):

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2m39s [Stefani Langenegger]: Also, Sam, I've been following you for a while now on Twitter - https://twitter.com/sundogplanets - but people will not be able to catch you there for stargazing advice any more. How come?

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

[Sam Lawler]: So, uh... I'm sure a lot of people have heard that Elon Musk has taken possession of Twitter, and well I've been seeing the Starlink satellites - that's also a company he runs - they've been in my astronomical data, they've been in my skies as very bright, and this company is not doing a very good job of making them fainter and sharing the sky with other users of the night sky. So as my little act of protest I'm not using it anymore.

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

3m24s [StL]: Yeah, you've written about that before, right? Light pollution writ large?

Show threadBen Zanin

@sundogplanets

[SL]: Oh yeah, it's a really big problem. Just with the proliferation of satellites, Starlink is now almost half of all satellites, and that has changed in the last three years. And they're very bright, they're very easy to see in the night sky, and they're not regulated at all. They have not used... Starlink has fantastic engineers, but they have not used their engineering expertise to make the satellites fainter like they said that they would.

Nov 7, 2022 at 5:21pmmastodon.el
Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

So, yeah, so I'm not impressed. This is my little act of protest.

[SL]: I've started using a different social media site called Mastodon. This is very similar to Twitter - it's a little different to get started, but you can use it exactly like Twitter, and it's open source, and it has a lot of things built in that make it a lot friendlier and happier than Twitter. So far I've been really impressed!

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

4m34s [StL]: I have the app on my phone, inspired by you and others who said that they were finding it to be a good place, although at the moment I'm having trouble finding people. I could search for you precisely @sundogplanets, but when I looked for "journalism" as sort of a general area I couldn't really find anything. It has suggested people to follow but I don't know who they are. Is there any kind of tutorial you would tell me to look at?

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

I just don't quite know how to started on Mastodon. I think a lot of us aren't sure what's going to happen to Twitter.

[SL]: Yeah, so... with Mastodon there's a lot of good tutorials you can find online, and as with Twitter it takes a little while to find people that you want to follow. Mastodon is not set up with advertising - it's supported by donations and open source software - so people are not getting promoted.

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

The controversial topics don't get promoted to the top of your feed to make you angry and make you read them and make you click on them, right? So it takes a little bit more effort to find people. But if you find someone that you like, look at who they're following, and start there. That's a really good way to get started.

Show threadBen ZaninNov 7, 2022

@sundogplanets

So I'm learning all this - it's very different - but I really like it. It's got a lot of promise to be a happier place than Twitter.

6m0s [StL]: Well, I'll see you on Mastodon when I can figure out how to wave.

[SL]: Excellent, me too!

[StL]: OK, thanks Sam!

[SL]: Thanks! Enjoy the sky, even if it's cloudy!

[StL]: I will!

That's Samantha Lawler, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Regina.