cone snails, though

October 19, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that likes to think it's getting the hang of preparing steel-cut oats because this is just how life is going now 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway149 - Cone Snail Hole"Jon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Yuri (@ync) ponder exquisite ideas for distractions big and small before tackling some haunting questions."We recorded this one a while ago, but because she's goddamn fantastic, Yuri picked some real bangers, including a hopefully very timely one that I hope we're all able to relish in a few weeks.No doubt some of you have already voted; having taken care of that large-scale civic duty, how about crossing something small but still meaningful off your notional to-do list and hitting that ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in Apple Podcasts??Instant Band Night 15: Gone Til NovemberIt seems laughable to try to throw Instant Band Night without a proven vaccine in place. Let's see what's up in November 2021.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.Last week's link section included an (~$Atlantic) article on the erosion of social trust that I really think you should read if you skipped it last week. This paragraph in particular is just ........ yeah: 

"We were naive about what the globalized economy would do to the working class, naive to think the internet would bring us together, naive to think the global mixing of people would breed harmony, naive to think the privileged wouldn’t pull up the ladders of opportunity behind them. We didn’t predict that oligarchs would steal entire nations, or that demagogues from Turkey to the U.S. would ignite ethnic hatreds. We didn’t see that a hyper-competitive global meritocracy would effectively turn all of childhood into elite travel sports where a few privileged performers get to play and everyone else gets left behind."

Pair it with this one on (Defense One) about, well, how "A Whirlwind of Uncertainty Is Stirring Up Extremism." I don't have a thesis or anything, I just think these are interesting (if sort of horrendous) observations to pair side-by-side. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.I'm writing this on the day I witnessed Quentin create a tiny narrative with his toys and tell me about it for the first time. He has some little wooden emergency vehicles with little wooden slot-people that came packaged on top of a shallow box with rectangular holes cut into its top for the wheels to fit inside; those holes also coincidentally happen to fit the slot-people. Quentin filled three of the holes with slot-people: the policeman, the doctor, and the helicopter pilot. Then he told me they were stuck, and that the firefighter, who was still sitting in his truck an arm's length away, was coming to get them out. He then proceeded to roll the firetruck to the box, get the firefighter out, and enact a tiny rescue. It was great. Kids are great, everybody! Someone call the news!!! 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Extremist militant groups on Facebook got banned and just came back under slightly different names. (BuzzFeed News) While we're here, Facebook (read: Zuck) made a deliberate decision to throttle traffic to prominent leftist news sites back in 2017. I really need to get the fuck off Facebook. (The Verge) 

  • How do you figure out the level of risk for an indoor gathering? Unsurprisingly, it's complicated. (~$Atlantic) 

  • Making people of different political orientations watch high-quality documentaries about climate change can make them more likely to agree with each other about, well, climate change. Sure, this isn't surprising, but at least it hasn't proved the negative, which -- let's face it -- would be fuckin' depressing. (U of Illinois Chicago) 

  • Another jetpack sighting above LAX! The pic at the top of the article is not the guy; for some reason nobody can get a picture? (Popular Mechanics) 

  • An interesting followup to something I included here last week, or maybe the week before? People living with their parents well into their 20s is actually pretty typical around the world. (The Conversation) 

  • Here, have an interesting review of an equally interesting-sounding book about a town in New Hampshire where some libertarian idiots tried to take over, in the process setting up conditions that were ripe for an invasion of literal bears. (~$New Republic) 

  • Interstellar space just outside the heliopause is ......... denser than it should be. (Science Alert) 

  • What would you say to a psych treatment that could help your depression or PTSD, but also potentially change your political beliefs? This sounds wild but seems to be emerging as an unavoidable element of psilocybin treatment, at least according to this pretty interesting read that I think is worth burning a SciAm click on. (~$Scientific American) 

  • It's possible to make human intestinal organoids for drug testing out of surgical leftovers, which would obviate the need for animal testing! (Technical U of Munich) 

  • Exactly one (1) thing has gone right thus far, in that it didn't go spectacularly wrong in a way that could've potentially rendered near-Earth space useless to us. Seriously, people: space junk! It's a fucking problem!!! (Popular Mechanics) 

  • Scientists appear to have observed genuine room-temperature superconductivity. (UNLV) 

  • I admit to having no idea who Anand Giridharadas is, but I enjoyed his harsh words for corporate board members at a conference for corporate board members. (Business Insider) 

  • Solar power is cheaper to build than coal or gas in most parts of the world now. (The Verge) 

  • Someone in the UK has invented a self-playing electric guitar. (Reuters) 

  • The Teens have been doing better during the pandemic than we thought they might, probably because they can actually get some goddamned sleep for once. (~$Atlantic) 

  • Adult wolves seem to form bonds with people just like dogs can. (Science Alert) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.Some bandsCOUNT FUCKULAThe GrossmenLadydive 

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.