Instant Band Night 15 is THURSDAY, y'all

July 11, 2022

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that hopes to see as many of you in person as circumstances allow very soon 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayThe thing about having a 4yo and a baby who doesn't yet sleep through the night is that you can't put them in the same room together overnight, and it's also not possible to put yourself in the room with him without causing even more sleep complications. Long story short, we're sleeping in the office (the house's third and possibly actual master bedroom, considering it has the attached half bath) on the pull-out couch, which is also where my computer is, so the edit on the last episode we recorded (which admittedly was last year) still isn't quite complete. But it'll get there someday!As of the time of this writing, there are still not only 43 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings, but someone managed to slip past the perimeter and enter another lovely review, which I only just saw now! Whoever you are, you have not only our thanks but our favor should we ascend to the throne. The rest of you: a new standard has been set!!Instant Band Night 15: TIME WARPT H I S   T H U R S D A Y ,  Y ' A L L💉 Vax!➕ Boost!😷 Mask!Otherwise your ass isn't getting in the door, and after a two-year hiatus, I cannot imagine what kind of amazing shit you're going to see, so make it happen! (Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  S E E   Y O U   S O O N  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Nothing for this section today because I'm battling a headache and I think I'm finally attaining the upper hand, but don't want to get cocky. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.The past week or so has seen a return to the concept of the Floor Bed for Quentin, where he takes his pillows, blankets, and a couple of select stuffies to sleep on the floor next to his bed. No idea why this is considered necessary or even desirable! But it doesn't seem to hurt him, so sleep where you want, buddy.In other news, Felix has invented a game that goes like this:10 Felix holds a block or other toy20 He puts it in your hand30 (A few beats go by)40 You put the toy back in his hand50 GOTO 10This game has proven to be a consistent and reliable source of amusement for him, if not delight; we can tell because he often says "Guck!" which we've deduced means something along the lines of "This is good and I approve!" This game is thus pretty much perfect. No notes! 

Fascination Corner

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

  • "After string of Supreme Court setbacks, Democrats wonder whether Biden White House is capable of urgency moment demands" GEE GOLLY GOSH I WONDER WHY (CNN) 

  • Gotta say I don't love this either: "Why Democratic Appeals To The 'Working Class' Are Unlikely to Work" (538) 

  • While we're there, let's wonder about what happens when Americans lose their trust in institutions this quickly. (538) 

  • The weapon that killed Shinzo Abe was extremely homemade, looks like. (Motherboard) 

  • Perhaps the ultimate in silver lining seeking, but still a real thing: natural disasters are getting worse because climate change, but they kill far fewer people than they would've otherwise, because we're getting better at predicting and managing them. (Vox) 

  • "Here are the most effective things you can do to fight climate change" aside from gathering about an auditorium's worth of very specific CEOs and board members whose identities I will remind you are not a secret and giving them a very forceful talking-to (The Conversation) 

  • Or — or! — there's a team at MIT who think we could reverse global warming if we put a blob of bubbles about the size of Brazil at the L1 Lagrange point between Earth and the sun. Seriously. (Space Bubbles) 

  • Now I'm contemplating how to fake citizenship in Ulster County just so I can get my hands on this sticker. (Mashable) 

  • A small study reports intriguing results in getting humans to prefer an AI-suggested system for redistributing pretend wealth than any of their own schemes. (Science Alert) 

  • The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope has come in early, and it's a fuckin' doozy. (NASA) 

  • Not being on TikTok, I've never heard of the Pink Stuff and now I'm curious about its apparently supernatural cleaning power. (Vice) 

  • This week's Interesting Correlation is between dogs and crime in a given neighborhood. You heard me. (Ohio State) 

  • The Scientists have worked out a way to listen to whales in the ocean by using existing fiber optic lines —which crisscross the entire planet — as giant hydrophones. (NTNU) 

  • Speaking of whales, it looks like the fin whale population is rebounding. So that's genuinely nice. (Alfred Wegener Institute) 

  • Some Engineers have built a proof of concept for collectivized magnetic microbots that can work together to clean human teeth, eliminating the need for toothbrushes or floss. (U Penn) 

  • They just switched this thing back on and already it's finding new particles. (Motherboard) 

  • What are we going to do with all these office parks in the suburbs? ($NYT) 

  • The Scientists are working on ways to improve on photosynthesis that'll help us do more with the sunlight we get. (Science Alert) 

  • Hard data from thousands of researchers over three years confirms that it's unfairly good to be a straight white guy in science, to the tune of almost $8k/year more than everyone else, not to mention more opportunities and respect without the harassment. (Nature) 

  • Training a neural network is energy-intensive and therefore an emissions problem, but turns out it's possible to mitigate at least some of that by just doing the computation in specific places at specific times. (~$MIT Technology Review) 

  • Visiting art galleries can improve your mental well-being, but if you can't make it to one, the digital version also works. (U of Vienna) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumUsability Problem, No is the Answer(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think this band/album sounds 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.