greetings from vacation bungalow alpha, week 3

January 24, 2022

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's getting this draft done late and we're all just going to have to accept it 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayThe edit on the last episode we recorded is almost finished, but as you can imagine, moving temporarily to a new house while still managing a baby and a 4yo is not without its logistical challenges.As of the time of this writing, there are still 43 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings, plus howevermany wonderful reviews. You have the power to take us to 45 and beyond: you!!Instant Band Night 15: TIME WARPAll right, vaccines for kids under 5 probably aren't going to appear by March. What do we think. May? July? Should I just shoot for holding this in July? (Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  r e t u r n i n g   i n   2 0 2 2  + ++ +  h a n g   i n   t h e r e  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I can't believe I'm saying this about an Ed Yong article, but this one about why it's a terrible idea to deny medical care to the unvaccinated isn't convincing me, especially the part about the logistics of it. 

"Moral arguments aside, withholding care from unvaccinated people is also logistically unfeasible. No one I talked with could imagine a patient arriving in need and having to wait while a health-care worker checks their vaccine card."

How ......... how long does it take to glance at someone's vaccine card? Last time I went -- which let's remember was within the last year -- we still had to wait A While before someone could see us. Are patients entering a hospital getting instant care now, to the point where taking ten seconds to check a vax card is an unacceptable delay??I want someone to run a study on how long it takes to determine why someone is unvaxxed. Crucially, (a) how hard is it to determine whether it's"I'm part of a minority group that's been consistently mistreated by the healthcare system and I have valid concerns about its motives regarding my body"or "Tucker Carlson told me not to"and also (b) how long does that determination take? Science is for asking questions. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Felix's nighttime sleep pattern is still stabilizing. 

  • We can get him to sleep consistently around 7-730p

  • Sometimes (but not always) there's a wakeup between 9-10p that can last between 7-30m, during which we occasionally check in on him with soothing words

  • Sometimes (but not always) there's a wakeup around midnight, during which I put a bottle in his gob and he drinks it down and falls asleep again

  • Usually there's a wakeup around 3-4a, during which he gets a nice nurse and falls asleep again

  • He wakes up for good around 630-7a

We'll see how long this lasts; our hope is that the pre-midnight wakeup gets phased out, followed by the others, but who knows! Quentin was a great sleeper; Felix is a great eater. I guess you can't have both, but we'll take at least one gladly. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • "Omicron Is Making America’s Bad Jobs Even Worse: The latest wave of the pandemic is pushing service workers to the brink." (~$Atlantic) 

  • A surprisingly useful home assistance robot design turns out to be "just a table that moves around with you." (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • Oh great: the planet's interior is cooling down faster than expected. (ETH Zurich) 

  • The Scientists are pretty sure we're in the middle of the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history. (School of Ocean & Earth Science And Technology) (Paper) 

  • Moving around really might enhance your creativity. (University of Würzburg) 

  • There's something oddly reassuring about discovering a new coral reef in this, the year 2022. (AP) 

  • "L.A. Just Ran (and Ended) the Biggest Free-Transit Experiment in the U.S." (~$Curbed) 

  • What I can only assume to be a combination of The Scientists and Some Engineers have developed an MRI machine that's much, much cheaper to build than the big expensive ones you see in hospitals. (Physics World) 

  • The human body goes absolutely buckwild destroying its own red blood cells the instant it gets into space and nobody knows why. (U of Ottawa) 

  • "A Boat Surrounded By Sharks Is A Childcare Option I Am Seriously Considering" (McSweeney's) 

  • Research indicates the best way to fix a sad mood is to use whatever technique you've been told you're good at, regardless of whether you're actually good at it. (Ohio State) 

  • The Scientists have come up with yet another way to recycle a form of industrial waste into something useful at economic parity with current petroleum-based products. (U of Delaware) 

  • It's starting to look like sparse forests might actually be the way to go if we're trying to make them resilient. (UC Davis) 

  • Here, watch some penguin POV video while it hunts underwater. (Science Alert) 

  • Hanging lights on nets can reduce the amount of accidentally-caught endangered animals by a shocking percentage. (Wildlife Conservation Society) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumThe Thirsty Roses, Get That Out of My Face(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because now I'm curious) 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon