Prof. Sam Lawler

Feeling extremely burned out on my academic work, which lately has been almost 100% focused on satellite pollution. So I spent all weekend doing farm work instead, which was mostly very pleasant.

Turns out pulling weeds and shoveling literal shit is WAY fucking better than writing useless-but-important FCC comments about incredibly fucking dangerous shit (metaphorical shit) techbros want to launch into orbit.

May 11 at 2:15amWeb
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11

And then we had a little farm accident. Everything is fine, but with a moment of hesitation or a misstep, that could have turned out EXTREMELY bad.

(A nice reminder that farming is actually quite dangerous. And farming is incredibly important, obviously.)

Everything can change in a moment. So what to spend my time on?

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11

I am tired of writing articles about satellite pollution. I am tired of doing research on satellite pollution. I am tired of talking to journalists about satellite pollution. I am tired of talking to politicians about satellite pollution.

But I am real fucking tired of seeing satellites all over the sky every night, and these are the tools I have to fight it.

So, I'll be on the CBC morning radio shows in Regina and Saskatoon tomorrow, talking about, you guessed it...

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11

This ramble is really to commiserate with everyone who's tired of fighting whatever your fight is. Because, holy shit, there's so much awful stuff to fight right now.

Keep fighting.

Thank you.

Show threadMinmiTheDinoMay 11
@sundogplanets we appreciate you!!
Show threadLAURENMay 11

@sundogplanets

✊ ❤️

Show threadHouse Panther May 11
@sundogplanets I am very tired of fighting. I have the kind of exhaustion that does not get cured by sleep. I am fighting battles on too many fronts.
Show threadpenpencilbrush🇨🇦May 11
@sundogplanets Sounds like it's time for some baby goat snuggles if that's possible?
Show threadSyulangMay 11
@penpencilbrush @sundogplanets Everything is better when you snuggle a goatlet :)
Show threadStephen Bannasch (316 ppm)May 11

@sundogplanets

Please be careful enough running heavy machinery, or whatever else you were doing. I’d like you stick around!

After many years I’ve learned to stop using my chain saw when I get tired. More recently it’s also become clear that when I’m stressed I have less attention available to apply which is easy to forget if I’m doing something inherently dangerous that I’m also very familiar with.

Show threadHisses with Geese 🌱May 11
@sundogplanets 💚🙏✊
Show threadJohanna, CanCon varietyMay 11

@sundogplanets thank YOU too, for carrying it on.

It’s such a different lane from mine, I might never have understood how it really is an issue if I hadn’t somehow tripped across a goatherd posting cute baby goat pics who also turned out to be a space scientist …!!!

I just figured the dark skies and incredibly rare satellites of my childhood camping trips were a write-off. 😳

Show threadMark NairMay 11
@sundogplanets We have to stick together. We can’t stop.
Show threadT. J. BombadilMay 11
@sundogplanets I was just asked, in all seriousness, if I’d like to be the astronomer to help advocate for space-based solar power and how it could do good things for astronomy (by mounting telescopes on the back sides or something?). I was pretty unambiguous about how I wasn’t the guy. I almost sent him to you for a more pithy and four-letter comment.
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@c_dan4th WOW yeah I'd have some fun writing that email. Hopefully they know better than to ask me. May I ask what company so I can keep an eye on them?
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDMay 11

@sundogplanets @c_dan4th At this point I suppose the most powerful argument against this is the state of the market of ground-based PV and grid storage. You cannot beat dirt cheap.

I was sympathetic to the idea back in the 1970s. The biggest environmental problem is not so much visual pollution as the microwave power downlink.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@martinvermeer @c_dan4th Yeah, frying birds, doing who even knows what to atmospheric chemistry, and making a no-fly zone? All seems bad.
Show threadMartin Vermeer FCDMay 11

@sundogplanets @c_dan4th It's more the leakage from a beam that may be extremely well defined and harmonically clean, but... several gigawatts. A radio astronomer's nightmare.

Or, someone hacks the beam's guidance, and it illuminates New York City. The spot is just about city size.

Show threadT. J. BombadilMay 11
@martinvermeer @sundogplanets Next thing you know, they’ll decide they want to do wind turbines in space.
Show threadWileyMay 11
@sundogplanets I definitely know the feeling. I probably spend ~30% of my time these days feeling entirely Done With This Sh#t. I'm a community organizer in a rural small town, and it frequently feels like I'm spitting at a wildfire. But I know that if I hold on, get some rest, and take care of myself, I'll cycle back around to the stubborn, grim joy of causing good trouble 😅
Songs that help me:
"Matches" by Sifu Hotman
"Tunnel Vision" by Aisha Badru
"Roguelike" by Guante
"Tomorrow" by Miner
Show threadPetra van CronenburgMay 11
@Wiley thank you for the good inspiration! @sundogplanets
Show threadJuan A. Zamarripa [E.]May 11

@sundogplanets

#ListeningTo!

https://aeproductions.bandcamp.com/track/matches

https://aishabadru.bandcamp.com/track/tunnel-vision

https://guanteandbigcats.bandcamp.com/track/roguelike-2

https://miner.bandcamp.com/track/tomorrow

#Thanks for the 🎵 tips!

🖖!

Matches, by Sifu Hotman

from the album Matches

aeproductions
Show threadMastodon MigrationMay 12

@jaze

Great songs! Thanks for sharing.

#ListeningTo!

https://elaminus.bandcamp.com/track/megapunk

megapunk, by Ela Minus

track by Ela Minus

Ela Minus
Show threadFoxyLad May 11

@sundogplanets The bad guys rely on this asymmetry. They have effectively unlimited time and money to throw at this (like finding sympathetic astromomers) and you don't. And ninety-nine concerned people out of a hundred will throw it in the too hard basket.

But it seems to me that you are that hundreth person, and you are not only qualified but have the guts to fight this battle. And I reckon you'll win it too.

Why? Becasue a very old friend who I hadn't seen for twenty years came to visit the other day. And she couldn't stop talking about this amazing lecture she went to in a tiny hall on Stewart Island. And she's now back in the UK spreading your story.

So look after yourself, and your goats. You can only do what you can do, but never doubt that what you you do is working.

P.S. I rekon your new goats will live longer than the bad guy's insane ideas.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@foxylad WOW! A double connection with someone who came to my talk on Stewart Island?! Amazing! Thank you for sharing this, and the kind words.
Show threadRubenMay 11
@sundogplanets thank you for all you do for all of us!
Show threadBroadforkMay 11
@sundogplanets Thank you for what you do. It’s important to keep fighting but also to find the time doing the other things that nourish you too. 💚
Show threadRiaResists❌ 👑May 11
@sundogplanets Professor Lawler, your knowledge & your fight keeps me in.
Show threadNormanDunbarMay 11
@RiaResists @sundogplanets What @RiaResists said!
Show threadLeoniekeMay 11
@sundogplanets Thanks for fighting for our sky! We'll be there to pick up other worthy battles against injustice, 
Show threadeuroplus May 11
@sundogplanets 🫂💗
Show threadGin KangarooMay 11
@sundogplanets @ShaulaEvans Thank-you!
Show threadDan YorkMay 11
@sundogplanets Your work is definitely appreciated!
Show threadGeePawHillMay 11
@sundogplanets Thinking of you, and beaming the warm.
Show threadBill, organizer of stuffMay 11
@sundogplanets Thank you for your service... And for the goat posts.
Show threadteledyn 𓂀May 11

@sundogplanets here's wishing you gallons of super-sauce!

https://youtu.be/FKss2pBYQ6Y?si=2oTqt1Y7IxcYhlxC

The Super Chicken Cartoon Theme Song

YouTube
Show threadWill PhoenixMay 11
@sundogplanets The World needs more like you.
Show threadJoe VilasMay 11
@sundogplanets Thank you. 🫂
Show threadJonathan O'CallaghanMay 11
@sundogplanets I appreciate so much every chat we have on this subject Sam. Just wanted you to know your expertise and work is greatly valued.
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@astrojonny Thank YOU for continuing to write about it in many different places, teaching lots of people what's happening in orbit!
Show threadRay LeeMay 11

@sundogplanets Hello Dr. Lawler. Long time reader, first time replier. (...maybe second?)

Thanks for teaching me about why I should care about this. Thanks for giving me talking points to help me convince others to care about these things -- be it via changes to our atmospheric chemistry, or stock market fraud, or just not allowing a few people to destroy our heritage of dark skies, which helps connect us with our Universe.

Here's hoping your message snowballs into larger impacts, from all of us sharing this in conversation with others.

Also, thanks for the farm animal updates 🙂

Show threadeuroplus May 11
@sundogplanets you’re doing dog’s work 🫂💗
Show threadMees 🔻May 11
@sundogplanets thank you!
Show threadviqMay 11
@sundogplanets following in the steps of noble tradition of pitchforks, I wonder... I've seen videos about building for about 100 USD a guided rocket able to track small aerial targets at range of maybe couple of kilometres. How about being able to reach out and touch something in orbit? 🤔
Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@viq I can definitely appreciate the sentiment, but an explosion in orbit would likely cause Kessler Syndrome and that would be far, far worse than the current situation... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
Kessler syndrome - Wikipedia

Show threadviqMay 11
@sundogplanets mmm, get them on the way up you say 🤔
Show threadjlinMay 11
@sundogplanets hope all is ok.
Show threadStacey Cornelius 🇨🇦May 11

@sundogplanets I don't think nearly enough people realize this. They have an idyllic vision of a "simple" life, but have no idea of how a farm is a complex system – and each piece has its own necessities.

Living beings and machinery and all that.

Clearly I have no idea what happened, but I've had enough things go sideways in my non-farm household that I get the basics at least. Very glad everything is okay. 💕

Show threadMichael GemarMay 11
@sundogplanets Yikes! I’m glad everything is ok! (My grandparents had a small cattle ranch in Texas, and I know how potentially dangerous that life can be.)
Show threadBumper HarvestMay 11

@sundogplanets friendo, you have gone from goat farmer and professor to International Voice of Reason in a short amount of time. The work you've done and continue to do is so important, but please remember to take time to rest. ❤️❤️❤️

my 9.5 fingers and I know just how dangerous farms are when you are tired and burnt out. Be safe out there.

Show threadProf. Sam LawlerMay 11
@MelkyWay Thank you, friend.
Show threadOtte Homan - remember GeordieMay 11
@sundogplanets ... goats? Spend your time on goats? Goats are fun! (Except sometimes male goats, they can kinda stink, you know.
Show threadWTLMay 11
@sundogplanets Glad everyone's safe. Farming can be *so* dangerous. <looks at tractor's PTO>. I so appreciate the time you take to talk to the public about the … space trash problem.
Show threadAsbestosMay 11
@sundogplanets
The douchey tech bros are really just private equity/ hedge fund assholes.
The actual shit you were shoveling is Infinitely more productive and beneficial then they are.