Notices by Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)

How many baby goats can you fit on top of one hay bale?

Answer: always one more. (Until the head-butting starts)

Mama and baby birds are all snuggled in for the night. Sleep well.

Just got an email with a serious suggestion for AI use that is completely stupid and deeply offends me, right after a stressful (but useful) webinar on online safety for scientists and I think it's really time to chuck my laptop into a pond and rage-scream in the hay field.

Anybody have info on the #ConnerFire in Nevada? Watch Duty and the Nevada Wildfire Info Dashboard and photos a family member sent me are showing very different things (family member's photo looks terrifyingly large) @ai6yr maybe?

Happy almost-solstice from my chaos animals

My friend sent me this from Victoria, and I was equal parts relieved and disappointed to learn that this is a band and not an actual company.

(Relieved because yay we're not at the point yet where that's actually a viable business. Yet. Disappointed because that would actually be quite handy to have someone else better trained than me try to find more pieces of that Crew Dragon Trunk that I'm 100% sure are still scattered around near Ituna, Sask.)

Was up late for obnoxious reasons and feeling really grumpy about it, but the upside was there were dozens of fireflies! I know that doesn't sound like much if you're from New England or somewhere with lots of fireflies, but that's more fireflies than I've ever seen here! It was so cool!

So yeah, Saskatchewan has fireflies. (At least, if you live on an organic farm. I suspect that's another reason people here don't know there are fireflies: conventional farms kill them all...)

@gemlog @wim_v12e @evilscientistca @Maya Thanks for the connection to frugal computing! This is a term I was completely unaware of.

I was recently reminded of this powerful statement by the International Astronomical Union! Yes!

"...no group has the right to change Earth's environment in any significant way without full international study and agreement"

Yes! We need this energy!

...by the way, this is from 1961.

Informal poll of a bunch of New Jersey 5th graders suggests that more kids know about Pluto than Starlink. So there.

I know that I apparently attract space debris, but I was quite surprised to be handed a satellite tattoo at the Pride Parade!

(The swag at the parade was fantastic. I have no idea why I got handed a satellite?! Damn things are everywhere these days, I guess).

Those of you who have written science research papers, what's the oldest paper you've cited in a paper you published? (I just saw a citation to an 1843 paper.) Pretty sure my oldest reference is only 1920 or so.

(I know, you historians out there are going to have scientists beat, but you're also welcome to share)

It is confirmed!! The mama duck hatched at least 2 chicks! (I stuck a bunch of chicken eggs under her, because we don't have a male duck so her eggs would not hatch)

I suspected I heard peeping a couple days ago, but I had been afraid to check because last year she flung poop at me - an *incredibly* effective defense strategy.

Also, I need to sell some goats.

So. Many. Goats. (Livestock guardian dog doesn't mind being outnumbered)

It's smoky because everything is burning up north, and awful military crap is happening down south, but I love that the CUTEST mama and baby that ever existed live in my barn!

Remember my goat that we named Cybertruck because of his various safety issues? He's been doing great, until earlier when he went offroading (in the barn) and high-centered himself and had to be rescued, again living up to his name. All hail Cybertruck!

My takeaway: Satellite launches are undoing the recovery of the ozone layer that should be happening now that CFCs are banned. And this study doesn't even take into account metal deposition from reentries, which might be even worse!

When I teach climate change in my astro classes, I always give the recovery of the ozone layer as an example of how countries can work together to fix a giant problem (Montreal Protocol). I guess satellite companies are now destroying that too.

Co-author Michele Bannister posted a thread about this paper yesterday on bluesky: https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f3jxtgz7tnwvzkpgzb6wsqqj/post/3lr7qoirmxr27

The more I learn about atmospheric chemistry, the more terrified and angry I am about satellite companies' blatant lack of consideration for how their actions will harm the atmosphere. I hope this gets a lot of press. Great work by a whole team of scientists, including @astrokiwi.bsky.social!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-025-01098-6.epdf

Coincidentally, I'm "giving" a pre-recorded talk at the American Astronomical Society meeting later today about atmospheric pollution from satellites (and I didn't even get to include this excellent paper because I recorded the talk a few days ago).

This talk is short (12 min) and directed at professional astronomers, so there's not as much background info as usual, but maybe it's a helpful summary of where things stand now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbx_O0RTJlI

Even with constant "lawnmowers" running, my office for the afternoon is the best!