in which new literary frontiers are explored

December 07, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that really loves perusing those holiday gift guide articles if for no other reason than to keep tabs on what capitalism thinks we want? 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayNo new episode this week, probably not next week either. I had a couple ready for editing, and then when I went to edit them, it turns out they're unusable from a technical standpoint. So! It's hiatus time for a bit, but we'll be back in 2021!Help me close out the year at more than 33 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings in Apple Podcasts, and I promise you will receive entry into the afterlife of your choice when the Great Beyond comes calling. This goes double if you leave a nice review. I don't make the rules.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.I'm not going to link to any of the material about this whole "aliens have been in touch with the US and Israel for years" thing because how the hell do you believe something is true when it contains the concept "Trump knew about it but we convinced him to keep quiet." Motherfucker, no. You expect us to believe this was possible? For even a second?? Trump would tell the whole world because someone told him not to; where the fuck have you been for the last four years?That said, if it turns out there is a galactic federation that wants to research the nature of space with us who've been talking to us in secret for years, it would be a spectacular way to finally prove me wrong about the depth and power of Trump's hopeless stupidity. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.I got a book of Star Trek concept art for my birthday, and it's great. The thing is, Quentin watched me unwrap and look at it when I first received it, so he knows it exists. At his insistence, we've flipped through it with him a bunch of times, and sometimes he wants us to read parts of it out loud. This new development is extremely good, and only a little surprising. We've integrated a few books into his personal library that are well, well beyond his currently nonexistent reading level and a fair ways past his memorization level, but are about topics he loves dearly* and contain a shitload of great photos or illustrations. This seems to fall into that category, but I'm surprised how into it he is ....... although I suppose I shouldn't be, now that I think about it. One of his other interests is space, and he knows a spaceship when he sees one, even if it's a made-up one. Watch this space; I'll report back on whether he has a favorite thing in this book, and if so, what it is.* Construction, unsurprisingly 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Just because literally everyone involved in it is an incompetent moron does not erase the fact that these stupid fuckshits are trying to grab power that doesn't belong to them: stay frosty. This is worth one of your Atlantic clicks, if you haven't used 'em all up. (~$Atlantic) I did tweet what I think is the most chilling part, though your opinion may differ! 

  • Here's a list of all the things we're gonna need to do right once we know we've got a working vaccine on our hands. (STAT) 

  • If you're a person who gets cold a lot (particularly outside), Blair Braverman has a long thread of advice for you. (@BlairBraverman on Twitter) 

  • Full disclosure: I'm putting this into the newsletter draft on Wednesday December 2. Let's see if it's aged at all now that I'm sending this issue out on the 8th! Of course, we speak of Trump's amazingly idiotic proclamation to defund the military if Twitter won't stop being mean to him: "Do It, Coward". (Gizmodo) 

  • Engineers are working on a way to combine light and sound to image underwater objects. (Stanford) 

  • I would actually love to see this happen: once he gets into office, Biden should just fucking blitz everything he wants to do without giving anyone time to breathe. (Vox) 

  • New research suggests there are four more human chronotypes beyond "morning people" and "night owls." (Science Alert) 

  • Perhaps unsurprisingly, the UN predicts a global surge in humanitarian needs next year as a result of the pandemic. (PBS) 

  • Is ...... are we seeing a precursor to the fucking omnigel from Mass Effect here? Scientists have tested a self-repairing gelatin/glucose film that can "heal" busted electronic connections. (American Chemical Society) 

  • You may not need to burn a Vanity Fair click on this, but if you want to, here's a firsthand account from Ivanka Trump's high school bestie about what a piece of shit she turned out to be, and where the warning signs were. (~$Vanity Fair) 

  • How about letting a computer design robots? There's video! (MIT) 

  • This is an absolutely fucking incredible grift: making Faraday cages to sell to conspiracy idiots for them to put around their home routers. The confusion after their wifi stops working is just [chef kiss]. (@AnsgarTOdinson on Twitter) 

  • Cast members from Disco play D&D together this is not a drill (Dicebreaker) 

  • Jesus. Get your rage cage ready if you're gonna read this article about how the nonexistent state government response to the rona in Iowa's going. (~$Atlantic) 

  • Koala in a Christmas tree. Koala in a Christmas tree!! KOALA IN A (Science Alert) 

  • I can't sum this up any better than the headline: "Oddly satisfying metamaterials store energy in their skin". (Purdue) 

  • Google unjustly fired their most prestigious AI researcher over a paper she wrote for them. MIT Tech Review read it; here's what they think. (~$MIT Technology Review) 

  • For anyone else who wonders what the hell "escape room" is doing in their list of top Spotify genres, here's the answer. (Festival Peak on Medium) 

  • 12,000yo rock art has been found in the Amazon, and it's beautiful. (CNN) 

  • What the fuck is this wonder drug?? (UCSF) Actually, speaking of drugs, it's sometimes -- sometimes!! -- possible for college kids to have a good idea. (Neurology Today) 

  • This is old, but I only just found out about these mysterious medallions because of a surprisingly wholesome Nextdoor post today. My favorite's the dwarf kingdom one. (Berkeleyside) (Quirky Berkeley) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.Some bandsDoomwhaleTunnel of ChildrenWeequeg 

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.