in reluctant praise of the rolling AC unit

September 05, 2022

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that swears it can feels its proteins denaturing in this goddamn heat 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayIn the back half of 2022 I hope to recover enough energy to restart some hobbies, and this podcast is on that list. Until then, you have over 150 episodes in the back catalog to amuse and delight, including an experimental tabletop RPG and a couple of Star Trek fantasy drafts that I would quite honestly and happily make into a whole 'nother show if I had the time!Someone out there has left another incredible review, btw: thank you from the bottom of what remains of my heart. Should anyone else feel inclined to make my day (and Besha's too, probably?), you can drop your 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 at the usual place with the knowledge that it will add at least 5HP back to our health stats.Instant Band Night 16: SWEETIt's this week!! We'll see you there!! Make sure to bringYour self! 😎Your vax! 💉Your booster and your mask! ➕😷You deserve to attend a friendly party where musicians who've just met form bands on the spot. Nobody's forced to play; you can just come watch. See something new every five minutes! One of the links below will tell you literally everything you need to know. EVERYTHING.Sept 86p$10East Bay Community Space507 55th St 94609(Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  S E E   Y O U   T H E R E  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Last week reminded me that I have one other formative romantic fuckup story to tell you, but this week is not that week, mostly because it's past 10p on Monday night and I don't have the wherewithal to type it up at the moment! Let's reconvene next week, okay? SPLENDID 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.This week we're starting Felix out at daycare! He's going for just a couple hours the first day or so and we'll see how he adjusts. I don't want to make predictions of any kind for fear of jinxing it, so I'll just note that I managed to find a place literally 3 blocks from our house, so the commute will be: pleasant.Due to a quirk of climate, houses here in the San Francisco Bay area tend not to have either serious insulation or central AC/heat. Which is fine about 96% of the time, but then come those few days out of every year where the temp shoots up from 73F to somewhere around 99F, and then we're all living within the 2-foot column of livable air produced by a pedestal fan, of which we own four.* After dealing with the reality that the kids' room becomes a literal solar oven around 230p that continues to bake its occupants well after sundown thanks to the frankly incredible heat storage capacity of the westward wall, we bought one of those rolling in-room AC units with the exhaust hose you hook to a window. It's not ideal, but it does bring the temp in the room down to human comfort levels, so I'll take it!* All praise to the engineers at Lasko, btw, who can really design a device that moves some fucking air around. "If it's not Lasko, fuck on up outta here" should be their sales pitch. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • After towns get hit by disasters, they often hire consulting services specifically designed to help navigate the FEMA paperwork, which seems ............ suboptimal. (The Verge) 

  • Hahahahahahaha NFT trading volume on OpenSea has plummeted 99% in the last three months aaaaahahahahaha (CoinTelegraph) 

  • An interesting side effect of the rona (that doesn't at all square the dead and the suffering, let me be clear) is that the pandemic does seem to have instilled an appreciation for nature in a lot of us. (UConn) 

  • "Republicans Have Realized That Forcing People to Give Birth Is Wildly Unpopular". Basically, these shitweasels are scrubbing all mention of abortion from their campaign websites, but I think we can all assume they still harbor the same vile policies. (Vice) 

  • The Greenland ice sheet melt has progressed to the point where a 10-inch sea level rise is now inevitable. (The Conversation) 

  • The Scientists are trying to build neural networks that can actually explain how they arrived at their conclusions; a first step is this tumor-detecting one made by some Germans. (RUB) 

  • What's it like to train as a sanitation worker for NYC? (~$Curbed) 

  • The James Webb says exoplanet Wasp-39b, a "hot Jupiter" in close orbit around its sun, has CO2 in its atmosphere. (Nature) Speaking of CO2, Some Engineers put a device on the Perseverance rover designed to convert Martian CO2 into oxygen at about the same rate as a tree, and lo and behold: it works. (MIT) Finally, here's the first pictures of an exoplanet from the James Webb. (Quanta) 

  • The Scientists are trying to figure out a good way to annoy seals away from a particular spot near Seattle where they usually show up to feast on an increasingly dwindling supply of salmon. (Hakai) 

  • Why is it hydras can regenerate and we can't? The Scientists think they've identified the molecular pathway that starts the process, which ................ might be buried in our genome, too?? (Heidelberg U) (Paper) 

  • Some Engineers have run simulations and concluded a superheated steam dishwasher would actually work faster and better, but is probably suited more toward industrial than home applications. (AIP) 

  • American support for labor unions is at 71%, the highest it's been in 57 years. (Gallup) 

  • Building cities out of engineered lumber instead of steel and concrete would be better for carbon storage; sadly, the article contains no renderings. (Potsdam Inst for Climate Impact Research) While they're at it, they should probably check out this new eco-friendly wood glue The Scientists invented. (Aalto U) 

  • What you know changes how you perceive the things your eyes see. (GWU) 

  • If you want some interesting reading on a slow day, look no further than this springboard to a staggering array of fascinating answers. (r/AskHistorians) 

  • The Scientists have demonstrated a pretty decent zinc-based battery that uses crab shell derivatives for the electrolyte. (Cell Press via ScienceDaily) 

  • A survey of the people who are actually in the room where the climate agreements happen asked them to rate how they think we'll actually do: results are either surprising or unsurprising, depending on your outlook. (UCSD) 

  • Study says humble leaders make more effective teams. How 'bout that! (Ohio State) 

  • PLA-type plastic isn't the greatest for the environment and it's not really recyclable, but The Scientists have found a cheap and easy way to convert it into good resin for 3D printing. (Washington State) 

  • Some Engineers are looking at moth ears for hints on developing tiny directional microphones. (IEEE Spectrum) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.Some bandsClown CultMalefactoryA Kind Fox(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think one or all of these bands sound 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 someone you don't.