how is it already mid-May

May 15, 2023

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that regrets to inform you that the hot weather is coming but there's a new table out there on the back deck and it's kinda nice to sit at in the mornings 

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: MIXERInstant Band Night 20 happened last Thursday, and it was pretty goddamn great. Good bands! Good times! We had cake! But listen: you can always come to the next one. Which is in July. It's July 13. Mark your calendar now and save yourself the disappointment! I'll tell you a secret: we're cooking up something very interesting for this one. If that's not enough to tempt you, you should know that the venue has AC, so if it's stupid hot out, it'll be nice inside. Hell yeah!!!!!!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.Here's what it is, folks.You probably read the Fascination Corner section of this newsletter — the links — so you've probably noticed what I've noticed. Right? Every week it seems like somewhere between 2-5 discoveries get made that have ........ I don't wanna say "world-saving potential" because each individual one doesn't quite rise to that level, but in aggregate they seem promising, don't they? Recyclable plastics or copolymer plastics made from the components of incompatible sources. What about rechargeable batteries that use zinc or oxygen ions? How about calculations that prove agrivoltaics would be beneficial both for food production and solar panel longevity?What happens to these discoveries afterward? In the case of new technologies or techniques or materials, for instance, do The Scientists take the next step and work out how best to scale and implement what they've found, or do they move on to other questions? Does someone else do that deployment work? Is there anyone sitting one level up from the various universities and whatnot who can coordinate efforts between institutions pursuing similar goals? Or are there conferences where The Scientists meet up and figure that out amongst themselves? Seems like there oughta be some kind of office or agency or some damn thing who's spurring this all forward, doesn't there? For all I know it might exist already. But who is it? Where are they? Are we just not seeing them? I would rest a lot easier if I knew there was somebody out there who was making sure these discoveries are being put to use as soon as possible to fix this fucking mess we made. If you know something, raise a hand and tell me! Or tell me who to ask!!! 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quick notes because I'm surprisingly (or perhaps not-so-surprisingly) tired:Yesterday we honored Mavis for Mother's Day by making her pancakes: Quentin and I mixed the batter and Felix played with the used measuring spoons. Quentin's a great baking assistant — Mavis has trained him well and he's eager to learn — and the pancakes were delicious, in no small part because of a recipe Mavis made up that involves the use of an orange and some cinnamon.I also honored Mavis for Mother's Day by getting one of her kids the hell out of the house for a few hours while Felix napped: Quentin and I went to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve down past Pacifica to check out the tide pools, and he had a blast. Hot tips if you ever feel like going: check the tides for the day (obviously), leave at least two hours ahead of time, and wear your tallest boots. Sandals aren't gonna cut it: the rocks are slippery and you want to be sure-footed!Felix is at the most adorable part of the toddler phase where not only is he picking up new words left and right, he also has clear favorite books. Sometime soon I hope to capture him on video walking up to one of us waving Goodnight Moon and saying "Goodnight. Moon. Goodnight Moon!" before plopping himself down in our lap. It's the best. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • I can't decide whether I'm surprised or not that George Santos is actually experiencing consequences. (Vox) 

  • This is a NYT gift link and it will expire in like four days, so click on it now, because it's great: "Generation Connie" (NYT) 

  • "Abortion Clinics Are Dealing with More Arson, Stalking, and Anthrax Threats Now: Abortion providers feared they’d see an increase in harassment and threats if Roe v Wade was overturned. They were right." (Vice) 

  • I have subscribed to HEATED and recommend it if you want to keep your climate rage at an even, thorough boil. This issue is about the profits Big Oil posted, which are fucking staggering. (HEATED) 

  • The Scientists think that as the world warms, viruses are going to start popping up in ecological niches we haven't seen before, but they're not sure what kind of impact that'll have — they're just pretty sure it's gonna happen. (DOE Office of Science) (Paper) 

  • "Achewood is back, and it’s weirder than ever" — I signed up for the $5 tier more or less immediately. (The Verge) 

  • The Scientists have released their first draft of the human pangenome, synthesized from 47 different people. (UC Santa Cruz) (Paper) 

  • There's a new mobile game that simulates the experience of trying to moderate a user-generated content site. (Techdirt) 

  • It's vaguely comforting to know there are still some mysteries in this world. (Big Think) 

  • Here's a pretty good longread if you still have a free Harper's click: "The Age of the Crisis of Work: What is the sound of quiet quitting?" (~$Harper's) 

  • Maybe pair that with "Covid transformed the U.S. labor market, and it isn’t done yet: As the Biden administration ends the pandemic emergency, economists expect workers to continue flexing their newfound power even as the economy cools." (CNBC) 

  • One last one: according to the numbers, job satisfaction is surprisingly high, but not so much among women, which is unfortunately unsurprising. (Quartz) 

  • The sun's corona is hotter than its surface. Why? How?? A thousand undergrads helped rule out a popular theory. Seriously; check out the full author list on the paper! (U of Colorado Boulder) (Paper) 

  • Have a 90sec video that shows the patterns inside wood in a way I all but guarantee you haven't seen before. (Aeon) 

  • There are apparently microbes up in the Arctic who are perfectly happy to break down plastic at just a little under room temperature, which is a big step up (or down) from the tropical conditions usually demanded. (Motherboard) 

  • If you stop to think about it for a second, an abandoned crab trap is a terrifying thing for sea life: animals crawl in, they can't get out, they die, they become bait for more animals who crawl in, etc. A consortium in Mississippi is paying shrimpers $5 a pop to recover derelict crab traps from the seafloor, and it's working. (Hakai) 

  • The Scientists think there might've been a mass extinction we missed, halfway through the Ediacaran period, before the Cambrian explosion. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

  • Speaking of the Ediacarans, they sure seemed oddly picky about where they liked to live for a bunch of weird proto-animals that didn't even have body parts that would let them move around. (UC Riverside) 

  • Bugs are goddamn everywhere; why aren't there shitloads of them in the ocean? The Scientists think they've figured it out. (Science Alert) 

  • Self-essentialist thinking is probably a strong component of our attraction to others, but it's also a shortcut that gets in our way. (BU) 

  • Data says Saturn's rings are only a fraction as old as the planet itself. What!!!!! (U of Colorado Boulder) (Paper) 

  • This isn't the first time we've heard about it, but there is an interesting case to be made for switching to airships, not just for freight but for travel, even though it'd take a little longer. (Anthropocene) (Paper) 

  • Sure looks like the richest neighborhoods in NYC order plenty of delivery while also putting up policies that make the workers' lives harder! (Streetsblog) 

  • Read this, and then know that I wish an equivalent amount of beautiful serendipity into your lives as well. (Kotaku) 

  • Scalloped hammerhead sharks can close their gills to maintain body heat while they go hunting in deep, deep waters, the first documented case of fish essentially being able to hold their breath. (U of Hawaiʻi) (Paper) 

  • The Scientists have been monitoring the biggest explosion ever seen in space, by which I mean an explosion 100x the size of our entire solar system that's been going on for three years. (Guardian) 

  • "Is Reality TV Stopping us From Staying in Long Term Relationships? Are we really there to view these people’s success and joy? No. We’re here for the drama." (Vice) 

  • A YouTuber crashed his plane on purpose, the FAA figured it out, and now he's in Trouble. The universe sometimes functions as it should. (Ars Technica) 

  • The Scientists have successfully used existing undersea fiber optic cables as hydrophones to track moving fin whales with a surprising degree of accuracy. (PhysOrg) (Paper) 

  • The U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Augmented Listening Lab has released a design for a simulated human head to be used in acoustics experiments where it's important to have something approximating a real person's head shape; just check out the pictures for an amazing picture of the way aliens would probably depict us in all their media. (Acoustical Soc of America) 

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; let me know if you like this better or worse than when I just wrote them out and/or if you want to tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because your answers are always incredible) 

New Music Roundup

Last week's band/album was:

Nobody submitted an interpretation for this one, but I like keeping the email template consistent, so I might as well tell you I personally think All-Around Horrible is a college metal band that just does intricate instrumentals. 

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.