i apparently dream of Taskmaster-adjacent goings-on

November 20, 2023

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that wishes there were fleecy PJs anywhere near as cool and fun-looking as the ones we just got our two-year-old 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Instant Band Night 24: NEW YEARS BALLIf you missed the last one, I am genuinely sorry for you, but not to worry: you can come to the next one, and you can wear something you feel goddamn fabulous in. Come participate or simply witness the most concentrated and joyful burst of musical creativity in the entire Bay, hands down, and bring a few friends along, why not!January 11 20246p$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 YOUIt's 2023 and there's no reason you should settle for a boring garden, potted plant, or living space! You could have a little statue of a crazy-colored tardigrade, a little guy to hold your last fruit, a Star Trek buddy in a party hat, or an Ediacaran life form right now. Take a look and consider some clever ceramics for you or a friend — I hear it's gifting season???Idea Factory GiveawayI think it's probably safe to say the podcast is on hiatus after two years of inactivity, but I'm putting a link to its evergreen 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 podcast 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.This one's not going to make any sense if you don't watch Taskmaster, just so you know.Dreams are wild, folks. Acting all on its own, my brain formulated and served to me the following story: 

  • I'm walking through city streets in what my dream-mind tells me is the college district 

  • I see Greg Davies and Alex Horne cross the sidewalk in front of me and duck into the side entrance of a bookstore 

  • "Ah," I think, "they must be there for the Taskmaster Book signing!" 

  • At this moment I realize that the Taskmaster Book (which I think is something like a behind-the-scenes tell-all and not a handbook or guide to the show itself) would make a great gift, so I enter the store to buy it 

  • Traversing the signing line, I see at least three assistants sitting at the sales table next to Alex, who's sitting pretty still and not making eye contact with anybody (Greg is nowhere to be seen and will not reappear in this dream) 

  • I pick up my copy and open it to discover that the first few pages are covered in short handwritten phrases that are clearly topics of conversation; I intuit that I'm supposed to pick one and that will be the thing Alex and I purportedly talked about briefly at the signing 

  • I choose one and an assistant circles it, then passes it to another assistant, who signs it with Alex's name; at no point does Alex Horne look up or otherwise make contact; I take my book and leave, still highly satisfied with the entire experience 

  • Some time later, I realize I need another copy, so I go back to the signing and everybody's still there, but the crowd has mostly dissipated; the books are still being inscribed with page upon page of conversation topics by dutiful silent assistants while Alex Horne just sits there staring into his lap 

  • This time I pick up a book and upon seeing the topic SUPERIORITY OF CIDER on page 3 or 4, I remark about how right it is, and how people who drink beer are fools when cider exists 

  • My remark causes Alex to look up with a delighted expression on his face, whereupon he stands up, shakes my hand, and we proclaim together on the greatness of cider (he says "cider from red apples is the best") 

  • With my second book in hand, I leave, and that's where the dream ends

My brain made this up from whole cloth for no reason and you know what, even as it provides a strategy for awkward or shy authors to run at signings (although it does have the disadvantage of requiring a trio of tireless and dutiful assistants), the bizarre and otherworldly but still-discernible logic of the whole thing from top to bottom is fucking beautiful. It just is. I hope you've had something just as weird but strangely plausible happen to you in your dreams lately! 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Felix is getting to the point where he's able to recite some of our most-read stories along with me, which is an almost unbearably precious phenomenon to witness or be a part of. I just wanted everyone to be aware. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • At last count, there are 14 "evolutionary traps" we as a species need to avoid, and we're fucking up on 10 of them. But there's hope! I need to read this paper. (Stockholm Resilience Center) (Paper) 

  • We're not even making our climate change emissions targets here in the damn US. (Vox) 

  • Some Engineers have developed what sounds like a spray- or paint-on glass coating for buildings that stops them from absorbing heat by reflecting the infrared back into space, bypassing the atmosphere's greenhouse layer — and they're already working on commercializing it. (U of Maryland) 

  • The Scientists want to just flag this as a possibility: climate change may also be fucking up how our brains work. Just sayin'. (U of Exeter) 

  • Some Engineers have built a proof-of-concept for a solar-powered device that sits in polluted rivers and spits out clean water and fuel simultaneously. (U of Cambridge) (Paper) 

  • Oh goddammit, are the microplastics in the air fucking up the actual clouds themselves, too? (ACS) 

  • Speaking of plastic, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is starting to develop its own ecosystem, which isn't all good news. (Knowable) 

  • Ammonia-based fuels would be a great way to decarbonize, except for all the serious risks they carry. Good news, though: Some Engineers say that if we think and plan hard enough beforehand, those risks can be managed. If we think and plan hard enough. Hmm. (Princeton) (Paper) 

  • The world's first Machine-derived drug, an experimental therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is approaching the final stages of testing. (Yahoo Finance) 

  • Trying to figure out how autonomous systems can fail is a daunting task, but Some Engineers have come up with a good way to do it in simulation. (MIT) 

  • The Machine is getting surprisingly good at predicting certain kinds of weather. (~$MIT Technology Review) 

  • I don't know what's crazier: the fact that thousands of teachers confirm that disciplinary strategies like expelling problem kids don't fucking work, or that nobody thought to ask them what they see as effective until now. (Ohio State) 

  • Some Engineers have come up with a not-so-crazy-if-you-think-about-it idea to put piezoelectric transducers on the walls of noisy spaces to absorb excess sound waves and turn them into energy. (AIP) (Paper) 

  • That whole "it takes a village" thing might actually be hardwired into our psychology; speaking for myself, I could definitely use at least two or three more backup parents, but if this study's any indication, I may be lowballing that figure significantly. (PhysOrg) (Paper) 

  • A species of echidna not seen for half a century was just spotted; click through to see a picture of a very good model. (Guardian) 

  • Your genes can, to some degree, predict what antidepressants will work best for you. The Scientists up in Canada ran the numbers, and a lot of suffering could be alleviated (and money saved) if everyone who showed up with depression symptoms could get tested right away and matched with the best drugs for their genome. (UBC) (Paper) 

  • Today's unsurprising news about The Machine: it can generate faces realistic enough to fool humans, but only if they're fake white people. (Guardian) 

  • Secrecy is generally acknowledged not to be the greatest move, but keeping good news to yourself can have an energizing effect, according to a new study. (American Psychological Assoc) 

  • The Scientists have done their best to figure out where civic opportunity exists (and doesn't) in America. (Johns Hopkins SNF Agora Institute) (PDF of paper) 

  • What even is all that weird bullshit in those Temu ads we keep seeing? Take this quiz and find out if you can guess their true uses (the Rest of World folks even product-tested them). I did: surprisingly poorly! (Rest of World) 

  • Even short-term fostering stays can 5-14x the likelihood of a shelter dog getting adopted. (Virginia Tech) (Paper) 

  • I genuinely cannot believe people are still using these strings as passwords. (Mashable) 

  • There are mysterious blue explosions happening in deep space that The Scientists are struggling to explain. (Nature) 

A Fictional Thing

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

Photo by Rawkkim on Unsplash(I remembered a formula for making fake album covers that involves searching for a random appropriately licensed photo and then applying your best Graphic Design Skills to the result; let me know what you think this band/album sounds like, because your answers are always incredible) 

New Music Roundup

Last week's band/album was:

Photo by Brock Wegner on UnsplashNo reader interpretations came in for this one, although I did get a very entertaining Machine-generated alternate version that I should ask if I can put in the next issue; in the meantime, this version of Buffalo Conference is clearly a solo singer-songwriter with an almost hypnotically low, syrupy singing voice and gloomy, haunting melodic sensibilities. 

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.