Updating my astro 101 lecture on satellites and holy crap... there are 1738 more active satellites in orbit today than 1 year ago, and 1690 of those are Starlinks.

62% of all active satellites are now Starlinks, up from 55% 1 year ago.

As long as Starlink doesn't make a single mistake in orbit, it's all fine, I guess. Which is cool, because SpaceX never makes engineering mistakes, like dumping hundreds of pounds of "fully demisable" space debris on other countries... whoopsie.

Congratulations #ottawa on following the #austerity playbook !

You get a #transit system that’s laughable, and a more broken, poorer #community.

And that’s befofe we talk about the #lrt, which no doubt, some dude is making a bundle on, as the city remains dependant on cars.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-council-funding-advocacy-support-1.7313446

Behold air quality stripes; like climate stripes, but for the stuff that kills you directly.

The visualization shows how much clean air legislation, moving away from coal, and generally not setting carbon on fire improve air quality and reduce excess deaths.

https://airqualitystripes.info/stripes/?continent=Europe&country=United%20Kingdom&city=London&plot=stripes

I did a calculation yesterday that made me want to scream. If you look at the *current* density of satellites in 1km altitude bins in Low Earth Orbit, and assume they are travelling at circular velocities (generally true), then Starlink satellites pass within <1km of each other EVERY 30 SECONDS.

At Starlink altitudes, everything is travelling at 7 km/second, so <1 km close approaches are terrifyingly close. Every 30 seconds. WHY.