all humans out!

September 17, 2018

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that welcomes the coming of fall; though here in northern California the change is subtle at best, it's still detectable, dammit 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway81 - What Happens in Narnia"Jon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Diamond (@diamondfischer) uncover ideas for videos, booze, new cultural practices, and at least one videogame currently (and coincidentally) in production."Diamond tells some stories in this episode that are 100% unmissable -- one of them is where this week's subject line comes from.If you haven't yet, subscribe by searching "Idea Factory Giveaway" in your podcast app of choice (and let me know if it doesn't pop up). If you're already there, feel free to leave a 5-star rating and a nice review (it helps; algorithms, etc, you know the deal). 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Do I want the @dril book or not? I keep going back and forth on this. 

  • On the one hand, I'm sure I'll get a fair amount of enjoyment out of it

  • On the other, I am 1000% positive I'll be the only one in my house who does, pending the development of Quentin's ability to read and also to comprehend whatever you want to call @dril's sense of humor

I will at this point fully admit to not keeping up: a quick Google search revealed that apparently @dril was unmasked at some point last year, but I was absolutely not paying attention -- some Trump-ass bullshit was probably kicking off. You know how it is. But the one editorial review I could find in my admittedly cursory search notes that the @dril book doesn't really contain any material of an "explanatory" nature, as it were. I own and love the Liartown book partly because it's a convenient compendium of absurdist genius, but also because creator Sean Tejaratchi lets you behind the curtain to the extent that he's able, which in some cases isn't very far. And that's fine -- honestly, who can really explain a joke they've come up with down to the attometer and expect it to make sense to anybody? But there is a nonzero amount of satisfaction to be had in seeing the creator of a thing you like tell you something about how it came to be.Of course, the other question I have to ask is: do I really need that from @dril? I probably don't, to be perfectly honest. The tweets speak for themselves.Anyway, as you can tell, I'm on the fence here. Tell me what you think. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin is definitely teething again. He's been cranky (or at least "cranky" by Quentin standards, which amounts to an occasional slight uptick in crying easily soothed by snugs and the judicious administration of infant Tylenol in tasty liquid grape form) and drooling a lot, and just this evening Mavis reported feeling the razor edge of an upper incisor -- his first upper tooth, to go with the two bottom incisors that have well and truly established themselves. I should probably be bolder about adding texture to his food; he's happy to have oatmeal mixed with pureed fruit and yogurt, and he's definitely eaten (with varying levels of gusto) pureed vegetable bowls with cooked lentils, quinoa, or food-processed chicken/beef mixed in. What this really means is I need to be more watchful when it comes to him cramming his wooden blocks in his mouth; might he actually be able to gouge some chunks/splinters out if he decides to start actively chewing on them? Or will he realize that wood tastes bad and food is better? 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

  • Dutch engineers have built a small robot with flapping wings that can go half a mile on a full charge. 

  • Good biodegradable plastic alternatives are still a ways out, folks, just fyi. 

  • Huh: geothermally-powered farming? Sure, why not. 

  • On the one hand, good on Reddit for shutting down the QAnon corner, but on the other, now we don't have a reliable way of knowing what those idiots are thinking. 

  • The concept of a company being "too big to fail" has led to some serious fuckery; the next concept we need to introduce is "moral hazard." 

  • Safe artificial intelligence requires cultural intelligence. Hard to argue with, honestly. 

  • Apparently, the magic number of people to have in a conversation is four, max. 

  • Many of the things we call AI aren't even as smart as a toddler. How do we get them there? 

  • There are ways to make sure affordable rental housing exists; the trouble, I'm guessing, is getting any of these the hell implemented. 

  • I have a lot of respect for the way First Round Capital's little magazine/newsletter deal just gives me what seems like One Big Thing to read instead of many little things. This week is a good 'un: Eight Ways to Make Your D&I Efforts Less Talk and More Walk. 

  • Have you ever heard the term "red-collar crime" before? I hadn't until I read this fascinating little piece on workplace murder and how it's the third leading cause of death therein. 

  • What the hell? Look at this list of the most valuable college majors and what's in the #2 spot. Shit, let's all go study animals! 

  • The fact that wireless signals are about a million times faster than the speed of sound means some very interesting things for noise-canceling technology. 

  • This will seem obvious when you look at it: why not use mobile robots to 3D print big things? 

  • Twitter users presented with opposing political views just dig the fuck in deeper on their own, it turns out, though I suppose we probably didn't really need anyone to tell us that. This probaly goes hand-in-hand with the finding that we tend to implicitly trust our gut-based decisions more. 

  • Brandon Bird has executed perfectly on a hilariously hideous notion and you need to see it with your eyeballs. 

  • Why Is College in America So Expensive? The Atlantic investigates. 

  • I don't know why it didn't occur to me to interrogate this videogame proposal story further, but yiiiiiiiiikes.

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumHambag, Free Maps to God's House 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.