Talk is mostly updated and ready for tomorrow (and the following 2 weeks), though I'm sure I will learn things as I go that will necessitate small edits! (Very exciting to parachute down into another country and immediately try to teach stuff to people there)
One edit I'm very happy with is I added a "further reading" slide with books that have really helped me to understand what's happening in orbit and why. #ProfSamLectureTour
@sundogplanets Just remember that whatever turns you make, you as the driver should always stay towards the center of the road and you’ll be fine. At least thats what worked for me.
Tell me about it. I didn’t trust myself when I visited Australia many years ago to drive a car just because I know my brain would revert to habit on driving on the right side.
First, don't worry about Musk. The data centre proposal is the same as his Mars thing. It will never happen.
Second, they might be Kiwis but they drive on the correct side of the road. 😎
And third, have fun. NZ is a nice place.... to visit 😉
@sundogplanets just got back from there, amazing place though everything shuts down by 9. If you go to Rotorua visit the hot springs and Wai Ariki for an amazing sauna/pool experience
@sundogplanets Ok—for the really important questions…Are any of the pohutakawas still in flower?
@sundogplanets 💪 ✊ 💞 you've got this! 💞 ✊ 💪
@sundogplanets so stupid. enjoy summer :)
@sundogplanets An angle I can't puzzle together: The CEO of that company is very obviously a delusional mega-idiot, a once-in-a-generation simpleton. So on some level it's to be expected that he'd push for shockingly stupid ideas.
But I cannot figure out what's going on with the people who are working there. The scientists. The engineers. The people who should know better. Are they REALLY willing to steal the sky from us for a paycheck? I'd like to talk to them.
Also, that is a LOVELY beach.
@sundogplanets
Have fun in NZ, one if my favorite places, and in prep for your talks, you might watch British satirical puppet show Spitting Image episode “The Billionaires’ Space Race”:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQHC85whh2A
@sundogplanets Got my tickets for Auckland! When near Napier, I recommend Gannet Safaris. The Gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers is an amazing sight. Sadly, you just missed the spectacular Festival of Lights in New Plymouth.
Next week is Napier (can't find a link...)
Then New Plymouth (also not finding a link...)
Then Wairarapa-Marlborough https://www.wairarapadarksky.nz/blog/post/158812/astronomy-vs-the-billionaire-space-race/
Then Wellington https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/scps/about/events/astronomer-vs-the-billionaires-space-race
(I'll have some talks on the South Island over the next couple months, will announce as they get closer)
Talk is mostly updated and ready for tomorrow (and the following 2 weeks), though I'm sure I will learn things as I go that will necessitate small edits! (Very exciting to parachute down into another country and immediately try to teach stuff to people there)
One edit I'm very happy with is I added a "further reading" slide with books that have really helped me to understand what's happening in orbit and why. #ProfSamLectureTour
The first book is https://acityonmars.com/ by Kelly and @zachweinersmith.bsky.social
The authors apparently started writing this as a =how-to manual, before realizing that it was actually pretty much impossible for us to live on Mars. Discusses all the reasons why this is not going to happen anytime in the next few hundred years with lots of easy to understand scientific examples. Also, delightfully hilarious while discussing incredibly important topics. #ProfSamLectureTour
@sundogplanets I tell the idiots this, and they are just shocked. 🙄.
@sundogplanets @zachweinersmith.bsky.social
I enjoyed reading A City On Mars, and yes, it's hard to believe in the viability of a Mars habitat in the foreseeable future
The second book is Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubenstein https://www.maryjanerubenstein.com/
This book explains why and how the billionaire techbros are using religious language: "The world is ending! The only way you can save yourself is to come with me to Mars!" And also hilarious! I didn't know I could laugh out loud while reading awful things about environmental limits and billionaires. #ProfSamLectureTour
@sundogplanets
One thing this has taught me is that smarts and wealth have only at best a casual relationship.
@sundogplanets I kind of get the feeling that, if they ever do start something on mars, it’ll be everyone else who gets sent there to work so the billionaires can have earth all to themselves.
@sundogplanets I wish off the techbros and fascists would go to Mars!
And the third book is More Everything Forever by @adambecker.bsky.social https://freelanceastrophysicist.com/
Goes more deeply into the techbro culture/religion that seems to think that AI will save us all and that we have a duty to destroy our planet and go to the stars. (Also the best way I've ever heard to explain how hard it is to live on Mars: even if you lived on Earth the day that the dinosaur-extinction asteroid hit, you'd be better off than trying to live on Mars.) #ProfSamLectureTour
@sundogplanets oh that's a great tip.
I found a City on Mars oddly healing in a "It's not my field but I bloody knew it was nonsense" way.
Will have to read Astrotopia.
@sundogplanets will there ever be a video of your lecture? For those people in other parts of the globe ☺️
@sundogplanets Your Wairarapa listing is mislabeled - Marlborough is top of the South Island ;-)
@sundogplanets Booked! enjoy the driving
@sundogplanets the botanical gardens in Hamilton are worth a visit if you have time. :)
