in which the world's most specific petition is pondered

January 20, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that isn't 100% sure what makes its new Pixel 2 wake up sometimes once it's been taken out of its jeans pocket and should probably do a little reading on the subject. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway132 - Cosplay Bouncer"Jon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Ian dig up stupendous ideas for businesses, parties, and booze."I really think I would get a good workout at the gym idea we found in here; I also have to say the dummy customization business we cooked up on the spot seems like it should be investigated. I'm just sayin'.And we're back! Also, just between you and me, readers, be on the lookout for a special bonus episode sometime this week. Just sayin'.Also, don't forget to pop on by our Apple Podcasts presence and throw us a quick li'l  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- we're at 27 ratings now; could we get to 30 by next week? Dare I dream ....... 35??Instant Band Night 15: NUMEROLOGYMarch 12! East Bay Community Space! 7p! Mark ya calendar!It's the 15th one and it takes place on a date whose numbers add up to 15. This cannot be a coincidence. I think by cosmic law, you have to be there. Also, there'll be cookies, and odds are VERY GOOD that many of the bands will be shockingly good.Send everyone you know this link immediately:http://bit.ly/instantbandnight15And/or invite your top 50 fun crew on Facebook* * w e ' l l   s e e   y o u   t h e r e * * 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.The "Pumpkin Spice Almond Beverage" at Trader Joe's is still there despite it being well past fall. Also, it's 99¢. I'm drinking it straight out of the carton because there's nobody else in this house who wants any, which is fine by me and my secret wannabe inner slob. The fact that it's still available at all despite being a fall item while none of the Xmas stuff stuck around just feels wrong to me. I should start a change.org petition to have TJ's stock the Winter Wassail and those mini gingerbread men with the white fudge backs year-round, honestly. Would anyone co-sign this. I need to know where my people are. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.This week in Minor Quentin-Derived Linguistic Mysteries: 

  • A couple times this week, Quentin has told us "Daddy's too much trouble!" with mild but clearly evident glee, and while it's hilarious and adorable, we have no idea where it comes from.

  • Mavis's best friend Maya has always been "Auntie Maya" to him, but while on FaceTime a few nights ago, he started calling her "Auntie Noon" and cracking himself up. What makes that so funny?

I love that we get to watch his mind develop in real time like a picture from an instant camera. Sure, there's logic and reasoning in there, but also a sense of humor, which is wild. Clearly there's something in there that makes perfect sense to him and is also fucking hilarious, but that we have no insight into. Amazing. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • I have a couple of other newsletters to recommend to you fine folks. Letters from an American is a nightly one that summarizes the events of the day (mostly Trump) in a sober historical context while also managing to be a compelling read. A Woman to Know will give you a short daily email about a lady from history that you may or may not have ever heard of. Both of them also cite sources. They're good! 

  • Much the same way your genome identifies you genetically and your "screenome" identifies you by the pattern of sites/apps you visit, you also apparently have what I'm going to call a "danceome" made of dance moves that renders you identifiable to a computer with 94% accuracy ......... unless you're a metalhead. (University of Jyväskylä) 

  • Scientists have created a material that can be used to make implants for the body that break down in the presence of blue light, which means you'd need to swallow a tiny LED when it was time to get rid of 'em, but that's a hell of a lot more comfortable than endoscopic surgery! (MIT) 

  • NASA is trying to figure out a way to make a self-growing house out of fungal tissue for the exploration and (presumably) eventual colonization of Mars. Did ........... did Jeff VanderMeer get a job there while we weren't looking, or .... ? (NASA) 

  • It would be theoretically possible to provide worldwide satellite internet coverage with only four (4) satellites. (~$MIT Technology Review) 

  • Here's a livetweet of The Princess Bride from a person who's never seen it. (Threadreader) 

  • The giant squid genome has been sequenced! (Marine Biological Laboratory) 

  • I would like more of these data breakdowns of weird internet phenomena (this one's about YouTube apology videos and whether their internal features correlate with subscriber counts going up or down). (The Pudding) 

  • Hmm. Have smartphones and tech in general ruined the concept of spaces for us? (~$Atlantic) 

  • Biochemists have created what's essentially a synthetic slime that kills bacteria and fungi when you shine red light on it, which is theoretically amazing news for making wound dressings that won't get infected. (Wiley) 

  • It makes sense but that doesn't mean I have to like it: what if the first animal to leave the primordial ocean and walk around on land wasn't some sort of adventurous fish, but instead was a scorpion? (Ohio State) 

  • I'm both for and against drones with actual feathers, for reasons that are surprisingly hard to articulate. (MIT Technology Review blog) 

  • I think I put a link to something similar in here forever ago, but here's a fascinating interview with a believer in panpsychism (that's the theory that consciousness is an intrinsic property of all matter in the universe) (yeah) who makes some interesting points. (Scientific American) 

  • Put the concept of celebrity chefs on hold for a second: why the fuck aren't there celebrity waiters? (Guardian) 

  • Here's a story about the resurrection of a Maine paper mill by a Chinese company. ($NYT) 

  • What if our building materials were alive, capable of self-healing or even growth, and helped clean the air? (U of Colorado Boulder) 

  • I unironically trust the IEEE to tell us what the best and/or weirdest stuff at CES was. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • Cameo is a thing; here's why. (Vice) 

  • Here's an interesting angle on the whole "wisdom of crowds" thing that I did not expect; I'd love to get a look at the layered concept maps, honestly. (Portland State) 

  • You may have seen this already, but what the hell: scientists have built tiny machines out of living frog cells, creating what are in effect programmable life forms. (U of Vermont) 

  • It's probably worth remembering that the Twitter electorate isn't the real electorate. (~$Atlantic) 

  • If you want to transplant a liver, you've got a matter of hours before it dies. A team in Zurich has built a machine that can keep human livers alive outside the body for a full week, and even partially regenerate a liver that's been too damaged to consider fit for transplant. (U of Zurich) 

  • There's something deeply surreal about watching an elephant wander serenely around a hotel lobby quietly investigating the whole scene. (Twitter) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumThe Headcrabs, Hope Lives at Odd Hours 

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.