are microtargeted bumper stickers a thing now

March 22, 2021

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that wishes everyone a happy start of spring, sincerely 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayI need to level with you: last week Quentin brought home a cold somehow, and it knocked me just far enough off my game that I couldn't finish the edit. But rest assured it will appear next week. In the meantime, if you somehow missed it, give a listen to the bonus episode I made of a fake podcast from a person who started out wanting to run a cheap grift on MAGA dumbshits, but was ultimately unable to hide his exasperated contempt for his ostensible target audience. Packed with very good jokes, under eight minutes long. Treat yourself!!!!!Don't forget to hop on over to Apple Podcasts and give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating because that's what the Algorithm needs in order to declare us worthy of listeners!!Instant Band Night 15: Gone Til NovemberNow that proven vaccines exist, let's wait til November and hopefully -- hopefully! -- we'll see you all at the next Instant Band Night.Facebook event's still there in case you (like me) can't yet escape the vortex of Facebook* * s t a y   h o m e   / /   s t a y   h e a l t h y * * 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.On my way home from picking up some takeout, I ended up behind a car that sported a slightly faded bumper sticker which read, I shit you not, verbatim:"What have you done today to advance the prospects of reaching the Technological Singularity?"The type -- in a relatively calm-looking serif font -- was so small that I had to be stopped directly behind the car to read it. I wish I could've taken a picture of it, but there were no traffic lights between when I caught up to this car and my destination."What have you done today to advance the prospects of reaching the Technological Singularity?"Is this a bumper sticker marketed exclusively to people who live in terror of Roko's Basilisk? Is that it? Where would you even go to find something like this? Should I task someone with designing a sticker that says ROKO'S BASILISK GONNA GET YA just so I can slip it under this car's windshield wiper if I ever see it in a grocery store parking lot? Would such a sticker have more generally applicable uses? Someone let me know. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin has learned that he can, in fact, leave his bed and even open his door to request things of us after he's been put down for his nap or bedtime. Thankfully, he seems to be using this for actual requests and not for repeated stalling of sleep: thus far he's only opened his door once after a nap and once post-bedtime. How long will this state of affairs last? Praise all the gods above and below, may it last forever. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • "The problem is work: Pandemic parenting is impossible. American work culture is a big reason why." (Vox) 

  • Tim O'Reilly has an interesting longform meditation on what he sees as the reasons why Silicon Valley may not be the only big tech hot spot in the world soon. (O'Reilly dot com) 

  • FREE DAILY KRISPY KREME IF YOU GOT YOUR VACCINE THIS IS NOT A DRILL (CBS News) 

  • Take a second and read about the fucking harrowing battle this woman is fighting for pay equity in tech. (The Verge) 

  • NASA wants to map the microbiome of the ISS. (~$Scientific American) 

  • Herd immunity's likely impossible. (Nature) 

  • For an alleged narcosub, this one's pretty pleasing to the eye. (AP) 

  • Trying to control a robotic exoskeleton is surprisingly taxing; what if they could just walk themselves around? (U of Waterloo) 

  • Electrifying our commercial trucking fleet is not only financially feasible, it would actually save owner-operators money over the long run. (Lawrence Berkeley Lab) 

  • In case you're wondering what The Kids are up to now and whether they're all right, viral book reviews on TikTok are driving sales. ($NYT) 

  • One planetologist thinks worlds with subsurface oceans might actually be more conducive to life than ones that have water on the surface. (Southwest Research Institute) But how would it get started without ⚡⚡lightning??⚡⚡ (U of Leeds) 

  • Read this one just to learn about the term "swarmalators." (U Pitt) 

  • The Perseverance rover recorded audio of itself driving on Mars. (NASA) 

  • Beware the "hydra effect" when attempting to eradicate an invasive species -- they might bounce back 30x more numerous than when you started, at least if they're European green crabs. (UC Davis) 

  • UCLA has done a study purporting to be an examination of the values The Kids learn from TV shows over a span of 50 years and how they've fluctuated, but I haven't had the time to read it yet and see if it's some bullshit. (UCLA) (PDF of study) 

  • Looking at the data from the logbooks of old whaling ships, it's possible to conclude that sperm whales were actually sharing information with each other on how to avoid our harpoons. (Guardian) 

  • If you want people to switch to green energy sources, just do it for them by default and make them have to opt out. (Anthropocene) 

  • Astronomers can't even agree on what fucking shape 'Oumuaua was. (AP) 

  • Scientists have worked out specific areas of the ocean that, if protected, could go a long way toward helping out with macro-scale shit like biodiversity and climate change. (UCSB) 

  • Why did it take so long for life to recover after the Permian extinction as compared to some of the smaller ones? (Cal Academy of Sciences) (PDF of paper) 

  • Some sea animals have been observed moving in circles a lot and nobody has a solid theory as to why yet. (Science Alert) (Paper with amusing-looking graphs) 

  • Chemists are basically sorcerors: here's a catalyst that can break down medications in wastewater while releasing hydrogen, which could be used as fuel. (ACS) 

  • Evidence seems to suggest dogs are hardwired to understand humans; that is, we successfully bred the trait into them. The study was done with hundreds of adorable puppies, and yes, there is video of one being tested. (Science) 

  • An international study says parental burnout is highest in countries whose cultures have a strong individualist streak (hint, hint). I would love to actually read it, though. (UCLouvain) 

  • How do humpback whales rest? Scientists stuck a camera on a whale to find out. (Kobe U) 

  • The Coachella Valley's getting a little 3D-printed neighborhood. (Guardian) 

  • Motherfuck: ocean trawling releases as much carbon as the aviation industry. (Vox) 

  • Who's smarter, sheep or goats? (Martin Luther U) 

  • Everybody look at this perfectly dopey prehistoric "winged" shark. (CNRS) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumTiger Library, Not By the Hand of Man Alone 

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.