RE: https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/117515229068094233

New dwarf planet!

I would really like to go for a short walk between the class I just finished teaching and the fancy pants lecture/reception later tonight. But now it's snow-raining, which is the single most miserable form of precipitation. Maybe I'll just practice my talk again instead... SIGH.

I think rather than assigning textbook readings on possible ends of the universe, I'm just going to have my students watch Dr. Katie Mack's excellent lecture on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF0SRWdnMb0

In other news, Reflect Orbital is still completely dangerous and useless, and everyone knows it (except the FCC, apparently): https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/astronomy-and-society/a-satellite-company-tested-sunlight-as-a-service-without-astronomers-knowledge/

After my dress rehearsal for the fancy-pants talk I'm giving tonight, I had a very nice chat with lovely people who make my university run and are self-proclaimed AI-haters. Will lean into that energy a bit more for my talk on orbital AI data centres...

"I am going to invoke the last refuge of a scoundrel: Magnetic fields."

#ThingsActualScientistsSay

Sometimes I think Don’t Look Up was too heavy handed as satire then the Wall Street Journal says “hold my beer”

The freaking CEO of an earth observation consultancy cannot generate a 7 frame clip of site changes without using Claude, honestly, what the screaming hell are we meant to do here

I LOVE starting a very stressful day by spilling cheese curds everywhere and then getting an email saying that I have an overdue bill for publication fees for a paper that was published 18 months ago, that was supposed to have a fee waiver, so I never received a first bill. Did they take a page from US medical insurance companies or something? What the fuck. I fucking hate everything about academic publishing.

Ok, this looks really cool "A breathtaking bike journey to the darkest places on earth": https://thedarkestskyfilm.com/our-mission/

Barn report: Lord Buckingham was snuggled up asleep next to his wether buddy, until I had the audacity to walk 4 girl goats past his pen. Then there was lot of yelling from both him and the girl goats.

New barn cat Spook seems to be completely at home, despite all the yelling.

GODS there are a lot of satellites crawling across the moonlit sky. I guess they are getting lit by both the Sun and the Moon. That sucks.

Good moonrise, good dogs.

Our planet is really a neat one. Worth fighting for.

Why? Why? Why would you do this? Why would you ever think this was a good idea? Why?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/26/california-sunlight-space-mirrors-satellites

I truly cannot believe how much time writing this grant takes. There's such specific ways you have to write each of the multiple sections. I screwed up badly, very much underestimated how long it would take me...

It's due to the university ASAP, due to NSERC on Monday. I have teaching/meetings tomorrow and a fancy-pants lecture I'm giving tomorrow night, and Wednesday hosting a (really cool) visiting speaker allll day/evening. I haven't screwed myself over this badly for a while.

No. Just a hard no.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/26/california-sunlight-space-mirrors-satellites

Need something else to scream about? The CRASH Clock https://outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/ is now down to 1.8 days, as of this weekend.

There's now about a 45% chance of a collision in any 24 hour period if no collision avoidance maneuvers occur. We are totally dependent on SpaceX continuing to operate perfectly, since 2/3 of the satellites belong to them.

This week is bad, but next week everyone in Canada (really, everyone) will show up at the wrong time to all their meetings whether or not they are in a place that does daylight savings time... I guess I should give myself some slack on this, since even Weather Canada can't get it right, apparently???

Taking a quick break to scream about the proposal and scream some more about how incredibly fucking terrible Reflect Orbital is https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/26/california-sunlight-space-mirrors-satellites

I just finished rewriting the biggest part of my grant proposal (after staying up way too late last night trying to finish it). But I still have like 7 other smaller parts to rewrite... I am so far behind where I should be on this...