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.

Reflect Orbital wants to destroy the night sky to deliver "sunlight as a service". SpaceX wants to destroy Low Earth Orbit to launch one million "AI datacentres"

The only way to formally protest these two ideas is to file a comment with the US FCC, which is horribly complicated, but the American Astronomical Society has detailed instructions posted here: https://aas.org/posts/advocacy/2026/02/how-submit-comments-satellite-applications-fcc

Comments due March 6 for SpaceX and March 9 for Reflect Orbital. Write! Write! Write!

I need university administrators (and probably some other people too, but definitely university administrators) to understand something: you cannot motivate your faculty to do more research or better teaching.

They are already maximally motivated people. They did not get the job by being unmotivated. A good chunk of them have more motivation than is healthy for them.

Any action you take to "motivate" them is going to be demotivational. Any of them. Yes, even that one that you just thought of. Yes, even the one you heard about from one of your peers at a different institution that you're jealous of.

Lean in close, here's the secret: all you have to do is (a) support them in doing their jobs, and (b) not fuck things up.

Saw this on #LinkedIn

#AI #GenAI #DangerWillRobinson

Good morning. Starlink has now launched more than TEN THOUSAND satellites into orbit. Nearly 1400 have already been burned up in the atmosphere so far.

Here's a "lovely" image from my Kuiper Belt discovery program with dozens of satellite streaks in a 3 hour stacked exposure from CFHT. This was from 2022, when there were thousands fewer satellites... This is dumb.

Image credit: P. Cowan/W. Fraser/S. Lawler/CLASSY Survey Team

(The small streaks that are similar lengths are actually asteroids!)

💬"On nous demande l’impossible. Et quand on échoue, c’est nous qu’on accuse."
"La désobéissance monte dans les services publics."
"Les annonces politiques précipitées nous entravent."
Ces témoignages sont au cœur de notre enquête sur la hiérarchie et le management dans les services publics.

Être agent public, c’est politique.
Mais quand les moyens manquent, quand les injonctions se contredisent, quand la hiérarchie vacille…
📣 Que reste-t-il du sens du travail ?

📝 Le collectif @nosservicespublics lance une enquête sur l’organisation du travail et les relations hiérarchiques.

👉https://nosservicespublics.fr/enquete-sur-l-organisation-du-travail-dans-les-services-publics

✊ Le samedi 22 novembre, on fera entendre la colère féministe dans toute la France hexagonale et ultramarine ✊

Des centaines de manifestations contre les violences sexistes et sexuelles, organisées par des bénévoles, sans aucune aide publique, sans aucune subvention.

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