contains one (1) hot art take

May 22, 2023

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that advises all of us to stop watching trailers for things we know we're going to see on account of how much better it makes the viewing experience in general 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayI haven't lost hope that I'll recover enough energy to kick the side of the podcast machinery and get it rumbling to life sometime in 2023. In the meantime, you can find the show's Apple Podcasts presence here, which includes a back catalog over 150 episodes long chock-full of excellent ridiculousness, including an experimental tabletop RPG and a couple of Star Trek fantasy drafts that could almost be their own show if I had the time to make yet another podcastInstant Band Night 21: MIXERWe have already sold a few tickets to Instant Band Night 21 even though it isn't until July 13, if that tells you anything! If you've never been, this is going to be the one to see! Come play some music with friendly strangers for a wildly receptive audience, or just be part of said audience and chill out. Mark your calendar now just to be sure you don't miss it! We've got at least one idea in the works for something you've never seen before!July 13 2023 (click to add to your Gcal)6p$10East Bay Community Space507 55th St 94609(Eventbrite) (Facebook) + +  T E L L   Y O U R   F R I E N D S  + ++ +  S E E   Y O U   T H E R E  + +Surprising and Unique Ceramics For YOUI've finally put up an Etsy shop where you can find some of my sculptural output; the announcement at the top of the page and the About section at the bottom really encapsulate the entire vibe, so I advise checking it out for either of those if nothing else. Watch this section for new drops, or just follow the shop. 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I've said this on Twitter and Tumblr and it's not getting a lot of traction but that doesn't mean it isn't true: Abstract artists who title all their works "Untitled" are cowards. Why'd you make it if you didn't want to give it a title? What moved you to create it?? You're telling me you're content just calling it "Composition 24" or just labeling it with the city and year it was made? "Berkeley 1967" — fuck off!!! I'll take a title like "Symphony in Blue" or whatever; that at least tells me something. You're going to paint or draw or sculpt some abstract, beautiful thing the world's never seen before and just call it "Untitled"?? Fuck you, turn on your location, I just want to talk!!! 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.We're coming up rapidly on the end of Quentin's first full year of public school and he's had a goddamn blast; long live the reign of Ms. Suzi, his TK teacher, who's just the best, and Debbie, the teacher's assistant, who's also fantastic. Mavis and I attended a fundraiser maybe a month ago that piqued the interest of whatever part of me likes to help plan and execute events like Instant Band Night; am I going to become a PTA parent? Is that what's happening here?Felix's new involvement in the world of books has become so adorable it'll make your teeth hurt. Today he held up Goodnight, Moon and said "Goodnight noises."Me: "Goodnight noises everywhere?"Felix: (pause) (grin) "Yeah."Our little guy!!!!!!!! 

Fascination Corner

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

  • We're almost certainly going to bust that 1.5C increase in the next five years. (The Conversation) 

  • There is almost nobody alive right now who can write about the huge, horrible assholes in our lives better or more incisively than David Roth: feast upon this very good summary of Elon and the version of Twitter he created. Here's just a taste:"The various scammers and hustlers and aspiring drop-shipping magnates and inexplicably self-assured freelance life-coach types are all there, of course. They are drawn to Musk because they aspire to be rich and epic themselves, and post as if their livelihoods depend upon it, holding forth at great length and with little depth on whatever they think might redound to their benefit. As in all the worst online spaces, there is a sense that the hucksters outnumber the marks; a trench of jostling anglerfish, gaping and preening and starving for lack of prey."He's so good it would make me angry, if I were capable of that sort of anger! (Defector) 

  • How to protect your local libraries from the conservative fuckface book censors. (Bloomberg CityLab) 

  • Lots of plastics literally are not fuckin' recyclable right now and the EPA wants companies to stop putting the symbol on them. (E&E News) 

  • The Scientists think soil microbes might actually help us out a little with this whole climate change thing. (Lund U) (Paper) 

  • Mommunes. (Business Insider) 

  • Pure hydrogen has a lot of fuel potential, but the only way to get it is dirty, at least from an emissions standpoint. The Scientists are working out a way to produce hydrogen with artificial photosynthesis(!!!!). (U of Rochester) But here's what I mean when I ask if anyone's out there making introductions or whatnot: another batch of The Scientists are also working on hydrogen production using something totally different, namely a chemical catalyst and something called "pulse radiolysis." (U of Kansas) 

  • Disney World is shutting down the Galactic Starcruiser; they only gave it like a year+change. I still think this concept could work for a Star Trek-themed getaway. The costumes alone would be cheaper! (CNN) 

  • Some Engineers have demonstrated a sponge that can remove metals from contaminated water and be essentially squeezed and reused. (Northwestern) 

  • Domesticated dog brains have gotten bigger over the last 150 years and The Scientists aren't exactly sure why. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

  • Fans of the franchise have been polled and seem to think the very first Fast & Furious movie was the best one, which sounds absolutely insane to me and everyone else I personally know, who agree they only started getting really good at 5. (Morning Consult) 

  • Understanding the molecular structure of melanin would be the key to unlocking a way better sunscreen, but it turns out to be incredibly hard to study; The Scientists are making progress, though. (McGill U) 

  • The Scientists have been arguing for years over whether sponges or comb jellies came first, and now they might have a definitive answer. (UC Berkeley) (Paper) 

  • Some Engineers have invented a new method for 3D printing that sounds fucking wild. (Notre Dame) (Paper) 

  • The oldest building plans ever discovered — 8000-9000 year-old stone engravings depicting desert megastructures for trapping wild animals — have been found in the Middle East. (U of Freiburg) (Paper) 

  • Sample-quality human DNA turns out to be everywhere, which is a Problem for privacy if anyone with the right equipment and database access could suck some dust out of the air anyplace on the face of the planet and determine you've been there at some point. Now what? (U of Florida) (Paper) 

  • Once again, The Scientists have worked out a way to turn loose carbon dioxide into formic acid and then formaldehyde (which is industrially useful), this time with a synthetic enzyme. (Max Planck Inst for Terrestrial Microbiology) (Paper) 

  • Wild horses are apparently a huge problem that nobody's addressed properly because we can't figure out on a policy level whether they're a majestic symbol of natural beauty and untrammelled freedom or a goddamn pest animal that needs controlling. (Anthropocene) 

  • Materials from used disposable diapers, properly sterilized, can be mixed into concrete to build housing. (Paper) 

  • Fascinating: "RIP, The CW: Too Good For This World, Too Pure" (Decider) 

  • In general, fecal microbiome transplants work great against C.diff infections, but The Scientists have been working hard to figure out how, why, and whether there are factors affecting success that we haven't considered. There's a lot! (Cell Press via Science Daily) (Paper on benefits) (Paper on efficacy) 

  • A new study involving professional hypnotism suggests our beliefs about our bodies can affect physical perception. (Ruhr University Bochum) (Paper) 

  • The Scientists estimate the total amount of abandoned land in the world is roughly half the size of Australia, which has implications both good and bad for biodiversity. (Intl Inst for Applied Systems Analysis) 

  • Some Engineers are working on a robot that can help people with dementia find items they've lost track of, like their phone or keys or wallet or whatnot. Smart and helpful! (U of Waterloo) 

  • New evidence suggests that the human species as we know it didn't arise from a single population in Africa; instead, it was a bunch of different groups all over the continent. (Nature) (Paper) 

  • This week in self-fulfilling prophecies: a survey of married people who cheated discovered they had both high satisfaction and little remorse, which was probably inevitable given the sample population, right? I'm just glad whoever wrote this release got to use the meme image for its intended purpose. (Johns Hopkins) (Paper) 

  • The Scientists have uncovered some interesting behavior around unfairness and whether it matters if a human or a machine makes unfair decisions in your favor. (Cornell) 

  • Are wild animals having a good time out there? This is actually a serious question that The Scientists are starting to think about. (UTS) (Paper) 

  • Death cap mushrooms are no joke, but The Scientists may have found an antidote, or at least something that reduces the risk of horrible death if administered quickly enough; it works in mice. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

  • No one knows exactly when kissing was invented, but we have evidence that it goes back at least to Mesopotamian times. (U of Copenhagen) 

  • Some Engineers have invented a new kind of suture that can detect inflammation and even deliver drugs; once again, it's hydrogels to the rescue. (MIT) (Paper) 

  • Can you make a satellite out of wood? The Scientists have a highly specific answer for you. (Universe Today) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their album

(I remembered a formula for making fake album covers that involves searching for a random appropriately licensed photo on Flickr and then applying your best Graphic Design Skills to the result; tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because your answers are always incredible) (This particular image is part of an interesting genre I've seen on Flickr that seems to consist of screenshots from Second Life) 

New Music Roundup

Last week's band/album was:

Reader Erin Explosion has an explanation that's hyper-targeted but pretty much perfect: "Due to the inclusion of the Achewood Verge article, my brain can't help but assume that Tha Hornswogglaz's Just Do The Math is Little Nephew's band with music and lyrics based on "Fuck... ALGEBRA!" After all, people are starting to be nostalgic for the early 2000s. It's probably time for a callback. Maybe it's a concept album. I feel like Post Malone is featured on at least one track." 

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.