Mastodawn

Auntie Cato 3h ago

Prof. Sam Lawler

SpaceX's highly paid lawyers responded to the hundreds of comments and oppositions submitted to the FCC in one letter, that basically shows they didn't actually read our petitions to deny. And now we astronomers and dark sky advocates who are volunteering our time have to do a shitload more work to respond to their non-response. By Friday.

Fuck you, SpaceX.

Prof. Sam Lawler 8h ago

I am feeling seriously depressed about this, and also Reflect Orbital's no doubt similarly infuriating response that's due in a couple of days. I'm not sure what I expected, I guess I'm just not cynical enough to deal with current reality yet. Kessler Syndrome, here we come!!

Prof. Sam Lawler 7h ago

Yesterday I borrowed a book off @astrokiwi.bsky.social's bookshelf written by @annaleen. Feeling slightly homesick for Saskatchewan after a few weeks in New Zealand, I was DELIGHTED to find that the book begins with "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGGNsE3_8Y and I'm totally going to channel that Saskatchewan pirate energy into the talks, writing, and meetings I have today fighting satellite pollution.

Aaaarrrr, Matey! Get it? Métis?

The Arrogant Worms - The Last Saskatchewan Pirate

The Arrogant Worms - The Last Saskatchewan Pirate1st track from the "Self-Titled" albumThis IS The Arrogant Worms, NOT Captain Tractor, enjoy ! :)Oh, and thi...

YouTube

Emma needs ☕️ and paying work 7h ago

@sundogplanets I hope their arrogance is their downfall and they don't take the rest of us with them.

Samuel Smith 7h ago

@sundogplanets @annaleen I know nothing about Saskatchewan, so in my head canon they have pirates on the rivers stealing fertilizer. 😁
I'd love to visit someday.

Sparrows 5h ago

@sundogplanets Autonomous is a good book.

CoolBlenderKitten 5h ago

@sundogplanets @[email protected] @annaleen
💕😸😸💕💕

Sietske Boer-van Vugt 2h ago

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social @annaleen about the only thing I know about Saskatchewan is this song. It's speaking of real life events is it not? 😉

Ken Butler 1h ago

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social @annaleen I'll give you that one, since you're a long way from home.

@sundogplanets And once the Kessler Syndrome starts, then they'll say that there was no way anyone could have predicted it, and file for a government bail-out. 🤦🏻

Prof. Sam Lawler 7h ago

@WTL Yep.

@sundogplanets <very long digital sigh>

Robert Pluim 🇪🇺6h ago

@WTL @sundogplanets Either that or they'll say "why did nobody warn us?"

@rpluim @sundogplanets Even worse: "Our AI said this couldn't happen". 😳🤦🏻

Jay (they/them)7h ago

@sundogplanets It is very disappointing to find out that despite having deep multi-layered cynicism, I'm still not actually cynical enough...

Otte Homan - remember Geordie 6h ago

@curiousjay cynicism development is a lifelong project. @sundogplanets

The Doctor 6h ago

@curiousjay @sundogplanets Can I quote you on that?

@sundogplanets stay strong, Sam! With science we have the power of the formalism!

pandabutter 7h ago

@sundogplanets Kessler Syndrome now features in a near-future dystopian setting that I'm working on, though we don't really see how it impacts the world as a whole—in this setting, the collapse of the United States into smaller confederations has disrupted the availability of broadband, especially since at least one of the Big 4 telecom companies has completely fallen apart. So the internet exists, but people in this region can no longer reach it.

Prof. Sam Lawler 7h ago

@pandabutter I would read this book!

pandabutter 7h ago

@sundogplanets I *really* want to write it. The idea of a localized dystopia, and the characters within being unable to know how the rest of the world is getting on—but distantly aware of the possibility that life in other places is still pretty normal, and the world has mostly kept on ticking? That grabs me.

ShadSterling 7h ago

@pandabutter @sundogplanets bookmarking with the hope that someday I’ll go through my bookmarks and find it has been written

pandabutter 7h ago

@sundogplanets I've been playing around with how that affects things like media availability, when devices are still common but most can't play physical discs. Working blu-ray/DVD players are now worth a lot of money; the people who had media ripping setups are now renting USB sticks with movies on them. We're basically back to sneakernet. Analog-to-digital conversion is particularly prized, because the only copy of a TV show in a 100-mile radius might be somebody's old VHS tape.

ShadSterling 7h ago

@pandabutter @sundogplanets IRL, I want SD cards to be the successor to BluRay. We need a way to own the media we pay for, and to access it offline, and SD cards are the best candidate I know of. And I’m pretty sure they could make readonly cards without too much trouble.

(And I want Wikipedia on an SD card)

Roy -- the dull one 6h ago

@ShadSterling @pandabutter @sundogplanets

We are allowed to download Wikipedia, in part or the whole thing, onto our own storage media. It might require an "SD Card" the size of Wyoming, however.

If we each download as much of it as we can afford to store, on subjects that interest us individually, that might offer some protection against it's destruction by the Broligarchy or Opus Dei.

ShadSterling 5h ago

@oldclumsy_nowmad @pandabutter @sundogplanets if my quick search is in the right ballpark, capacity is not a problem; Wikipedia is ~200G, and microSD goes up to 2000G

Roy -- the dull one 4h ago

@ShadSterling @pandabutter @sundogplanets

Wow! Amazing that Wikipedia ["W"] is so compact. (Some first-rate IT people. No surprise.) Good job, finding that out!

Afterthought: for some topics W fetches things from "subsidiaries". E.g., a search on indigenous crops in the Amazon basin returned an article from a Portuguese server that seemed largely independent of English-language W. Translation offered, quick and smooth (few minor errors). Would all subsidiaries be in one 200G download?

The Doctor 6h ago

@pandabutter @sundogplanets Call them the Betamax Syndicate?

tian2992 6h ago

@pandabutter @sundogplanets it could be called Cosmo Kessler..? (From #seinfeld)

Knud Jahnke 7h ago

The only thing that keeps me slightly optimistic about the SpaceX "plans" is that they want an IPO and have to make Tesla-like claims (=lies) to bolster their claimed future plans.

I mean they somehow have to distract from shelving their Mars plans, and that any investors in SpaceX now also have to buy Grok and Twitter.

hiiamfrompoland 6h ago

@sundogplanets I have added it to the peesonal list of dreads and life anxieties.
It seems we are again risking everything (like a planet) with 15k satellites in orbit, they talk about millions.

Roy -- the dull one 5h ago

Are there any lawyers among the group of satellite-sanity volunteers? I'm wondering if a gofundme or other campaign might raise enough donations to support someone who can go after the coming constellation of constellation proposals, using well-targeted legal arguments, as opposed to substantive, scientific or cultural arguments (which don't seem to impress the regulatory nonregulators).

Spencer Lindsay 1h ago

@sundogplanets thank you for causing me to look up “Kessler Syndrome”.

I’ll be over here, hiding under my pillow.

Pierre Pezziardi 8h ago

@sundogplanets use Grok

@sundogplanets Would astronomy benefit if...no, let me be more realistic, WILL astronomy benefit when the Kessler syndrome finally cascades and minces everything in LEO? SpazX is certainly hastening that day.

Prof. Sam Lawler 7h ago

@ottomate No. It'll be like a hideous sparkly snow-globe worldwide. Not good for anybody.

@sundogplanets That is sad. I understand it really is not and "if" but a "when" proposition.

Thank you for your service

LΞX/NØVΛ 🇪🇺7h ago

@sundogplanets or they did it on purpose in hope you don't answer.

CoolBlenderKitten 5h ago

@lexinova @sundogplanets
Of course they do it on purpose to exhaust the opposition.
Costs them nothing but everyone else has to do the work in their free, unpaid time to try and answer this BS

@sundogplanets Pure evil. It makes me so angry 😡

CoolBlenderKitten 5h ago

@ahimsa_pdx @sundogplanets
Oh yes, me too!!

@sundogplanets @ahimsa_pdx

Thank you for your efforts.

@sundogplanets If there is a cascade, is there anything that can be done to mitigate after the fact? Or is it a currently a one-way ticket?

Heliograph 7h ago

@sundogplanets I once had to take a big corp to court (couldn't afford a lawyer, had to do all paperwork myself) and I ended up winning, simply (or also) because the 'big guys' were found in contempt of the court, because they just wouldn't supply proper responses (if any at all) so maybe just maybe their negligence might be of help to you down the track 🤞

CoolBlenderKitten 5h ago

@Heliograph @sundogplanets
Oh wow, well done, you! That's quite a great thing to achieve

Heliograph 4h ago

@CoolBlenderKitten trust i was thoroughly burnt out by the end and would start crying whenever a phone rang... (took time off and fixed myself, but still 🙈 was a bad time) @sundogplanets

Peter H. Fröhlich 7h ago

@sundogplanets I would venture the guess that the letter was generated by xAI. 🤷

labbatt50 6h ago

That seems to be a common response to valid questions… Avoid the question with a non-answer.

teledyn 𓂀 6h ago

surely the folks on the shop floor at SpaceX are long-time space-loving scientists, which makes one wonder what sort of kool-aid they've been drinking to stay at such a job with such a company.

I do, now, thank the gods I was a few points short to be accepted into aerospace engineering. Lucky for them too, as once I caught on to their REAL game, I would have had the tech chops to retaliate! 😅

Trixter of the Moon Council 6h ago

@sundogplanets SpaceX lawyers: “Nuh uh.”

@sundogplanets
I have a feeling the fix is in!

SnowBlind2005 6h ago

It's gotta be Ian M. Bank Culture Space Opera upped Sam.
We've detected aliens beyond our detectable range of detection. We need large array of space telescopes and at least four Space Yamato Battleships. This is definitely a Special Circumstances situation. Project Sherlock needs more funding!

Looking forward to the new science-fiction novel Fuck You By Friday.

Legit_Spaghetti 6h ago

they didn't actually read our petitions

I bet they did read the petitions quite thoroughly. I also bet they concluded that there is no way to actually respond to those petitions in any way that would allow SpaceX to continue with their plans, so instead they chose not to respond to anything at all.

Legit_Spaghetti 6h ago

WE: "Kicking puppies is bad."

THEM: "We understand people's concerns about work on weekends, and we are pleased to reveal that we will only be kicking puppies Monday through Friday."

WE: "That's NOT the issue! The issue is that kicking puppies is BAD!"

THEM: "Concerns about kittens being slapped are understandable, so please rest assured that we will only be kicking puppies."

WE: "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO WHAT WE'RE SAYING?!?"

Toni Aittoniemi 6h ago

@sundogplanets Cruelty is the point, and increasing the amount of it the game.

@sundogplanets I really wish the drive to be liked outweighed the drive to do evil. Dude could have been the most popular person on the planet. Imagine that. On the globe!

But, he chose greed instead.

CoolBlenderKitten 5h ago

@kimlockhartga @sundogplanets
👍👍👍

@sundogplanets Space Karen paying lawyers to do nothing, can’t you just get Grok to do some nude pics of those lawyers to prove it’s all just Emperor’s New Clothes?
(Sorry to be facetious but that just seems to be the world we live in)

llanciawn 4h ago

@sundogplanets #SpaceTwitter