Instant Band Night 22 is THIS WEEK

September 11, 2023

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's going to have to look into getting an exercise bike or something 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayI know I say this every week, but the possibility that we may return to podcasting cannot be mathematically excluded! In the meantime, you can find the show's 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 podcastInstant Band Night 22: WILDTHIS THURSDAYCome play or just watch! See bands put together by strangers in five minutes perform one-of-a-kind onstage miracles, or be part of the action yourself!! No pressure, though: you really can just watch if you don't want to get up there; every band needs an audience, and this one's the best in the entire Bay.Sept 14 2023 (click to add to your Gcal)6p$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 YOUI've decided to experiment a little with the pricing in the shop, so if you haven't stopped by, or if you know someone with excellent taste who needs something that literally can't be bought anywhere else, maybe take a look right now and consider some clever ceramics! Brilliant little statues for your garden or home! A place to put your fruit! A little buddy to hold your garlic! I'm working (slowly) on even more delightful little weirdos and I hope to show you soon. 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I'm pleased(?) to be able to report a lack of octopus-based mysteries this week, although I do have a bone to pick with whoever did the QA on the Kindle edition of The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler: there are ....... illustrations, for lack of a better word, that apparently didn't fucking translate at all, which is annoying as hell. This book is recent, y'all. Do better!! Now I'm going to have to, what, track down a print copy of this thing and flip through it until I see the pictures?? What a dumb world this is. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin's first bug of the school year has come and (mostly) gone: fever and sore throat with a light 12-hour barf window. It seems to have passed pretty quickly, all things considered (covid test negative), and while he's home from school today,* we think he'll be able to return ....... soon? [Tuesday morning edit: nope, he's still got his fever, it would seem, so I guess he's home until at least goddamn Wednesday; lovely.] The real question is: are the rest of us gonna get it or not. At what point do I stop seeing a Damoclean sword of illness dangling over our heads? Answer: maybe Friday. I'm going to spiritually prepare myself anyway. [I did spook myself by detecting a faint tickle in my throat last night, prompting me to sleep on the couch for fear of infecting Mavis, but this morning it seems to have vanished.]Speaking of preparations, Mavis is going on a much-needed trip by herself starting this upcoming weekend, departing Saturday and returning Wednesday! I applaud this fiercely and wholeheartedly. By my count that'll be five (5) days of Solo Dad. My current plan is to cultivate a monklike, quasi-Vulcan attitude of serenity and unbotheredness, accompanied by a lowering of expectations and acceptance of heightened chaos levels. Also I'll be calling in as much backup as possible. Watch this space next week for a report from the trenches, as it were.* Can someone point me to an article or something that lists all the shows on Disney+ that star Mickey Mouse and what their age appropriateness is? Right now we're watching Mickey Mouse Funhouse, and I'm nearly positive it's both too young for Quentin and also annoying. Google has fucking failed me and I dare not click around haphazardly in the app: the last thing I need is Quentin pointing at the screen and asking "What's that?" because it's readily apparent to me that there are about eleventy billion shows on Disney+ that are probably middling to awful. We've managed to hold the line against Paw Patrol breaching the perimeter thus far and I intend to keep it that way. Anybody got suggestions? Common Sense Media wants me to subscribe after clicking on three (3) reviews, which I get, but also: fuck you. In retrospect, having Octonauts be the first show Quentin really got hooked on was incredibly lucky, but also kind of spoiled us. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • I don't want to say The Corporations are lying to us about their ecosystem restoration projects; fortunately, the lack of evidence speaks for itself. (Lancaster U) 

  • The Scientists want us to pay attention to bird flu in case it makes the jump; we should probably listen. (U of Nottingham) (Paper) 

  • "Silicon Valley’s vision for AI? It’s religion, repackaged. It’s no accident — the intertwining of religion and technology is centuries old." (Vox) 

  • Rich people straight up do not contribute monetarily to our society the way you or I do. Here are four (4) ways to fix that without "harming economic growth," which is a thing we've been told we should care about, so: eh. (Brookings Inst) 

  • OR! We could just fuckin' go after 'em: the IRS seems to be spinning up a Department of Haters; fuck yeah. Somebody make sure Laci Mosley got a check for this, because I feel like I first heard this idea on Scam Goddess. (AP) 

  • The Scientists have done some scans, and not only does it appear that moral reasoning happens within specific zones of the brain, different kinds of moral reasoning happen in slightly different spots. Read the whole press release; it has fascinating political implications. Seriously!! (UC Santa Barbara) 

  • Speaking of political implications, your geographic location within the country has a huge effect on your life expectancy. (Politico) 

  • Compared to kids, the way adults hang out is ........... unfulfilling. We could change that, though? I've started doing errand runs with at least one friend and they're great, would recommend. (~$Atlantic) 

  • The Scientists can pretty much confirm that opposites don't actually attract, folks. (CU Boulder) 

  • I don't have the time to play computer games, really, but on the other hand, I could direct the course of the future of the United Federation of Planets. Hm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (Polygon) 

  • Some Engineers have successfully tested an underwater communications technology that promises to be both low-power and long-distance. (MIT) 

  • The circumstances of your upbringing have a lot less to do with your outlook on life than we all thought. How about that! (U Penn) 

  • Why do cars even need to collect this data? Rhetorical; I know why (capitalism), but come the fuck on. (Motherboard) 

  • The Scientists want to study the many, many species of bees that nest underground, but they can't do it without destroying the nests in the process — until now, because someone got the idea to try a CT scanner on 'em. (Science) 

  • It looks like the ability to remember things in sequence might be unique to us humans. (Stockholm U) (Paper) 

  • This discovery about the cross-cultural ability of humans to identify different kinds of music doesn't seem as groundbreaking to me as I think they want it to. Dance music? Lullabies? That seems like easy mode, doesn't it? Of course the love songs are harder to pinpoint; you'd have to know what the fuck the lyrics are saying. Love songs can take any form!!!!!!! (Yale) (Paper) 

  • I can't even conceptualize the kind of mind and/or body that wants to run the distance from Florida to England, much less actually make the attempt in a weird homebrew floating hamster wheel MULTIPLE TIMES. Wouldn't you need to sleep or poop? How the fuck? (BBC) 

  • The possibility that elephants have names for each other cannot be mathematically excluded. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

  • I'm going to come down on the side of hilarious for this one: an inflatable catamaran attempting to circumnavigate the globe was brought down by cookiecutter sharks, which I guess is only funny if you know how little those guys are. (CNN) 

  • People who tend to go with their gut to determine whether something is true or false are more likely to fall for conspiracy theories, according to a couple of new studies. Let's all appreciate the paper's title together: "Misperceptions in a post-truth world: Effects of subjectivism and cultural relativism on bullshit receptivity and conspiracist ideation"  (Linköping U) (Paper) 

  • Here are the ten most common types of nightmares, according to a 2018 study. (Science Alert) 

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 Neom 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 Marek Piwnicki on UnsplashReader Aaron S says this one is their "3rd album. They heard Bjork’s “Pluto” and immediately coalesced around that sound, discarding all other musics and shunning any future musics. They haven’t abandoned that sound and they’re at 10 albums, by now self-released." 

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.