happy Harrow the Ninth release day

August 03, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that wishes you all a happy Harrow the Ninth Release Day; death first to vultures and scavengers! 💀🗡💀🗡💀 Harrow the Ninth is the second book in a trilogy that starts with Gideon the Ninth, and seriously, if you haven't already read Gideon the Ninth, do yourself a favor and get! on! that! immediately!!!! The pitch everybody likes to make is "lesbian necromancers in space," but to be honest, even though the main characters serve an interplanetary empire, there's not actually a lot of space travel in it; it's more like a mysterious haunted castle story with lesbian necromancers and swordfights (I can tell you the experience improves substantially on re-read, because you can sit back and enjoy it without feeling apprehensive about where the plot's going). Can you tell I really liked this book y/n. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway144 - The Followup BureauJon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Ken explore a set of highly valuable ideas for products, services, stories, and a feature that every phone should have.I don't care if I've said it before: Ken's idea file is a true trove of treasures, and I look forward to recording these episodes immensely. Everyone should have a Ken in their social circle! There, I said it!Just one of you has to contribute a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating to bring us to the pleasing numeric symmetry of 33 total -- could it be you? The better question is: why not??? Head on over to Apple Podcasts and make it happen!!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.Something I've noticed is that I've basically stopped posting on Instagram. It feels increasingly weird to keep posting cute pictures of my family as if nothing else is happening (Breonna Taylor's killers remain at large, etc), but I also feel mild resentment toward the expectation that I should be Doing Something On Instagram: all of my Doing Something takes place on Twitter, in this newsletter, in the donations we make, and the things we try to teach our family.* Part of me wants to ask of the world, "Can I not have Instagram as my place of respite, where I can just post this good Quentin picture without feeling like I have to make a statement?" At which point another part of me points out that Black people don't have a place of respite from systemic racism, and maybe I should just sit in this place of existential discomfort for a bit and feel what it's like. That, and I don't actually know how to do whatever the Instagram equivalent of reblogging is. I was always more of a content consumer than a creator on that platform anyway, so I think I'll continue to just observe and absorb for the moment. What are your thoughts on this?* We have a healthy stack of children's books by Black creators now, and one of Q's favorites is a book about Dr. Mae Jemison that I think I could probably recreate in its entirety (art and words) from memory at this point. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.There's something magical about making a meal that the whole family likes -- as in, something I cooked originally for Mavis and myself that it turns out Quentin also wants to eat very much. So today I'm giving you the recipe for a farro kale sausage stew that hopefully your toddler will cram into his mouth by the spoonful so enthusiastically that he doesn't respond at all to questions like "How is it, buddy? Is it good?" Credit goes to our friends Ryan & Kristen, who gave us a batch of this when Quentin was a newborn; it became a staple of our household thereafter, and I'm reasonably positive it's the first "grownup food" he ate.Here's the version I know; I've made an attempt at vegan substitutions afterward, but I'm certain the vegans out there will know better than me what to do.Stuff you need:

  • Olive oil

  • 1 roll Italian sausage OR 5 Italian sausages with casings removed, torn into little chunks

  • 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced

  • 2+ cloves garlic, minced (I use 5)

  • 1 tsp-ish dried thyme, oregano, basil

  • A pinch of dried sage

  • 5 large carrots, diced

  • 5 stalks celery, diced

  • 1 cup farro

  • 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

  • 6 cups chicken stock, bone broth, or just broth

  • 1 large bunch kale, ribs removed and leaves roughly torn

  • Salt to taste

  • Grated Parmesan cheese for serving

  • A big Dutch oven

The actual process is fairly simple:

  1. Toss a few glugs of olive oil into the pot and cook your sausage.

  2. Add leek and garlic; cook until softened, about 4 minutes.

  3. Add herbs/spices; cook for an additional minute.

  4. Add carrots, celery, farro, tomatoes, and chicken liquid; bring to a boil.

  5. Lower the heat and simmer 30-35 minutes, partially covered.

  6. Add kale, stir, and turn off the heat.

  7. Salt to taste if needed and serve with grated Parmesan!

You could probably make a vegan version of this by substituting a can or two of white beans and using veg broth, and skipping the Parmesan. I don't know what to do about the spices you'd be missing out on from the Italian sausage, but odds are good any vegans out there probably have a much better idea of what to do than I would, anyway.I love this stuff; it's relatively simple, it only uses one vessel, and there's built-in breathing room: while it boils, you can mangle your kale and also wash whatever's in your sink. Anytime I can arrive at the end of a cooking process with a meal bubbling in a pot and an otherwise clean kitchen, I feel a minor victory over the forces of entropy. That's normal, right? 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Ed Yong has become a pandemic must-read; thanks to The Atlantic for making this one unequivocally free to click: "How the Pandemic Defeated America" (Atlantic) 

  • You know what, fuck it, here's your other must-read for the week from BuzzFeed News: "Working Parenthood Is A Terrible Deal Right Now" (BuzzFeed News) 

  • President Dumbfuck doesn't have the authority to delay the election. (Vox) 

  • "We Need to Talk About Ventilation: How is it that six months into a respiratory pandemic, we are still doing so little to mitigate airborne transmission?" (~$Atlantic) 

  • A company in London wants to bring back the open-top tourist buses for working commuters, and frankly it's the most rona-sensible public transit idea that exists aside from, you know, just staying home, which isn't an option for some people because $$CaPiTaLiSm$$. (Bloomberg CityLab) 

  • Do we need more videogames with a gray approach to morality? What this article proposes is: no. (Polygon) 

  • Take a deep breath before this one: Jared fucking Kushner of all people came up with a national testing plan before the summer and it vanished because, well, you know. Not that his plan was even that good in the first place, but the reason behind its disappearance will thoroughly enrage you. Have fun! (Vanity Fair) 

  • We could theoretically recycle e-waste into protective coatings for metals. (American Chemical Society) 

  • ProPublica put together a database of 68 videos where cops are shown beating on protesters, including whether they were disciplined after. Spoiler: that-there latter group is a single-digit number. (ProPublica) 

  • If you live near a beach where sea turtles nest, turn off your lights at night, or the babies will head for your house instead of the water. Hint: sea turtles need to be in the sea to live. (Hakai) 

  • In case you don't have an Atlantic click left, I'll sum this (very good) article up: "hygiene theater" is a waste of time. Surface transmission isn't a thing, but airborne transmission very much is, so spending money and energy on sanitizing surfaces distracts from the actual threat and creates a false sense of security. (~$Atlantic) 

  • The math seems to say a planetary system without a gas giant could potentially have up to seven(!!!) planets in its habitable zone. (UC Riverside) 

  • "The Future Of True Crime Will Have To Be Different" (BuzzFeed News) 

  • Let's build some, then? Engineers have created a proof-of-concept hybrid solar/thermal device that generates electricity and steam simultaneously. (Anthropocene) 

  • We shouldn't be so eager to return to flying when this is all over. (The Correspondent) 

  • If you're going to have an argument with your romantic partner, bring in a mediator; your brain cells will literally reward you both. (U of Geneva) 

  • I for one am not super sad about the end of open-plan offices and houses. (~$Atlantic) 

  • Who had "Chinese mystery seeds" on their 2020 bingo card? What's the rest of it look like? Just so we can have a heads-up. ($NYT) 

  • This solution is extreme, but probably good for anyone who's looking for a craft project: here's a box that will let you actually look people in the eye during a Zoom call. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • We should give hedonism more of a shot: "The capacity to experience pleasure or enjoyment without getting distracted by intrusive thoughts contributes at least as much to a happy and satisfied life as successful self-control." (U of Zurich) 

  • Microbes that have been on the bottom of the sea since the literal time of dinosaurs can be revived. Huh. (U of Rhode Island) 

  • Is ....... is it possible to use machine learning to teach AI how to smell? (UC Riverside) 

  • If you got picked up by the federal goon squads in Portland, you had to agree to something "sort of hilariously unconstitutional" to get released. (ProPublica) 

  • Science conferences that had to switch to doing it online actually went OK, and saw a jump in diversity of attendees because nobody had to travel. (Nature) 

  • According to the latest estimate, the universe is 12.6 billion years old. (U of Oregon) 

  • Putting teen docents in museums raises engagement significantly for younger kids, especially the ones ages 9-11. Hire more, dammit! (NC State) 

  • An AI analysis of data collected from 11,000 couples concludes that when you're assessing its quality, the actual relationship you've built matters more than the specific person you picked. (Science Alert) 

  • Here's a pretty nice-sounding infrastructure stimulus plan to fight the rona recession that you can just sort of imagine in your mind, because that's probably the only place it'll actually happen. (Brookings Institute) 

  • Instead of sticking metal pins and plates into broken bones, what if we clicked together a scaffold of little Lego-style cubes filled with cells and growth factors and stuck that in there? It might make healing quicker and more complete. (OHSU) 

  • Just strike now, teachers! Just strike now. (AP) 

  • I'm in favor of businesspeople meeting in videogames instead of Zoom, 'cause why not. ($NYT) 

  • Unfortunately, Virgin Galactic's ship looks like it would be damn fun to ride in. (TechCrunch) 

  • Merch from Fyre Fest has gone up for auction and it's already way too expensive. At least it benefits the victims. (US Marshals auction) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.Some Federation starship classes and names that an online neural network gave me after I fed it two lists of canonical onesUhura-class starship USS SpectrumDidact-class starship USS Globelia StewardDark Void-class starship USS Tell Them There's No Such Thing as Business LLC 

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.