Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that does believe in the scrubbing power of baking soda

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.

Instant Band Night 31: FLAVOR

If you couldn't make it to Instant Band Night 30, I am once again sorry to report that you missed the fuck out.

The bands: great
The crowd: into it
The vibe: excellent

Fortunately, you have roughly two months to clear your calendar for the next one on May 8. Mark it now and tell your friends: whether you choose to play in one of the bands or just watch it all unfold, it's an almost unbelievably joyful celebration of spontaneous creativity that we could all probably use more of in our lives, especially now. You know what I mean!!

✨🪩✨
May 8 2025
6p
$10
East Bay Community Space
507 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 YOU

If you've been looking for a weird little guy to put in your garden, potted plant, or kitchen, then I have the perfect place to start your search. If you know someone else who needs a weird little guy for their garden, potted plant, or kitchen, then you're also in luck!!!!

Idea Factory Giveaway

I think it's probably safe to say the podcast is on hiatus after three+ years of inactivity, but I'm putting a link to its evergreen 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 podcast

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.

I used a Pixel 2 for a very long time until it started to get extremely picky about the orientation of the charging cable, to the point where it started to feel like I was trying to propitiate some highly capricious minor god using rituals that had been half-lost to the mists of time, and really who has the energy these days. So I got a new (refurb) Pixel 6 not too long ago, and I think my favorite upgrade to the experience far and away has been the Android keyboard's "Emoji Kitchen" feature. Friends who've been corresponding with me for any length of time will know that my favorite emoji is the 🎃 — there's something about its goofy, good-natured grin that I like better than any of the smiles on the standard emoji. This is almost certainly old news to my extremely tech-savvy readers, but just in case, Emoji Kitchen is a little demon that lives in your keyboard and watches for pairs of emoji that it knows, and when it sees them, it offers a combined version you can attach to your text as an image. Not all pairs are sanctified — the demon refuses to have anything to do with the 🍆, for example — but a great many are, and the act of discovery is a continuous low-level delight. This is just to say that I want to acknowledge in writing that I’m aware I’m a public menace of 🎃-based mashups, I will never stop, and you cannot catch me or even temporarily contain me.

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.

The spring fundraising season for the PTA has begun, and this week is the Read-a-Thon, which takes on a whole new dimension now that Quentin is able(!!) to read large swaths(!!!) of books on his own(!!!!), or even entire books if given the chance(!!!!!!!!!). It's the same kind of pledge model that we did for the fall Tigerthon, except with reading instead of physical activity. You are of course not required to, but if you felt like making a donation, it would be vastly appreciated; the modern funding hellscape of American education means money for things like a gym teacher, field trips, art supplies, and support for students in need are up to us (meaning the PTA). You could make a difference and flip the bird to certain unnamed forces out in the world seemingly hell-bent on depriving children of everything good in this world by simply throwing a few dollars this way!

Copy/paste this into your address bar and remove the two instances of "TAKEMEOUT" before hitting Enter:

httpTAKEMEOUTs://pledgestar.TAKEMEOUTcom/harding/pledge/?LgAdGRVZegEBHX5RXnFXQ0I-

Or if that doesn't work, just reply to me and I can supply you with the link subsequently! Perhaps unsurprisingly, beehiv's link tracking tech fucks up the pledge link if I try to put it in directly, so this rigamarole is the best workaround I can currently think of. Thank you from not just me but the entire elementary school Quentin currently attends and loves!!

Fascination Corner

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

• Evidence suggests that looking at nature — even just a video of nature — can reduce the experience of pain. (U of Vienna) (Paper)

• We should maybe take a closer look at all these stories about how much microplastic is accumulating in the human body. (Nature) (Paper)

• In order to avoid being eaten after sex, male blue-lined octopuses resort to envenomating their partners during the act; not sure why they'd bother, since they die afterwards anyway, but everybody does what they gotta, I guess? (Guardian)

• An elderly Wisconsin man who came to speak in support of an anti-trans bill spent so long listening to the testimony against that he changed his mind by the time it was his turn to talk. Okay!!!! (Queerty)

• The Stanford Prison Experiment has more gaping holes in it than RFK Jr's brain; is it time the scientific community simply retracted it? (Retraction Watch)

• Both inarguable and inevitable: "AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality" (404 Media)

• Whales constitute a massive oceanic nutrient transport vector in the form of their waste products, including their own bodies, and The Scientists have worked out the (astounding) numbers. (U of Vermont) (Paper)

• According to data from the Jimmy Dubs, the universe appears to have a significant bias toward galaxies that rotate clockwise when it should be 50/50, and The Scientists are stumped. (PhysOrg) (Paper)

• Thomas Zimmer's got a sobering perspective for us on the American brand of authoritarianism Trump and the rest of the chuds are putting together. (Democracy Americana) And if you're wondering why the fuck Schumer and the rest of Dem leadership are doing what they're doing, Hamilton Nolan once again has a good take for you. (How Things Work)

• Daaaaaaaaamn: The Scientists have worked out a process in mice that induces a skin cell to transform directly into neurons, which would be incredible if it works the same way for human cells. (MIT)

• We're not actually that good at interpreting our dogs' emotions. (Arizona State) (Paper)

• An entirely new plant genus was discovered in a national park just last year by someone who casually uploaded a picture to iNaturalist. (Atlas Obscura)

• The Scientists have discovered a sleep pattern that may — may! — be a reasonable indicator of coma patients who have the potential to wake up. (Columbia Medical)

• Life In Hell famously (to me anyway) commemorated middle school as the deepest pit in hell, and here's some data that might explain why, presented as one of those scrolling animated essays. (The Pudding)

• Apparently the Neom project is a complete shitshow from top to bottom, as if anyone who looked at it for longer than a microsecond couldn't tell immediately what was going to happen, but at least the consultants are getting $$$paid.$$$ Dear Jesus, I see what you have done for others and I want that for me, please and thank you. (TechCrunch)

• The goddamn fucking measles is still spreading and that worm-riddled prick at the top of HHS has a lot to answer for already. (Ars Technica)

• New Yorkers inside the congestion pricing zone are honking a hell of a lot less, which is yet again more evidence that it (a) works and (b) is good. (The City)

• The Scientists are trying to work out the factors that let a planet hold onto its atmosphere — "it sure seems like being too close to your host star's furious radiation can blast it all away, but which wavelengths matter?" is just one unanswered question — and the Jimmy Dubs is helping. This is a good read! (Quanta)

• Speaking of, exoplanets covered in oceans + a hydrogen atmosphere (adorably nicknamed "Hycean" worlds) that harbor life would theoretically show it by featuring methyl halide gases, which would be easy for the Jimmy Dubs to detect. (UC Riverside) (Paper)

• We all remember that old stoner question about "how do I know the color blue I see is the same as you see" being seemingly unanswerable, but The Scientists are have actually run quantifiable tests on little kids' qualia of color and the answer seems to be "it pretty much is the same, bro." (Kyoto U)

• Africa's the sunniest continent in the world, so it makes total sense that Nigeria would go all-in on solar micro-grids; hell yeah!! (Knowable)

• Fossil evidence suggests mammals in the age of dinosaurs were probably dark-colored to facilitate what was in all probability a nocturnal "don't get spotted and eaten by dinosaurs"-type lifestyle. (~$Science)

• A very very preliminary sign of maybe possible traces of ancient life on Mars was spotted by the Perseverance rover. (Nature)

• Container ships kill a shocking number of whales; a new system powered by The Machine (Analytical Flavor) can spot them from nearly 4 miles out, which should be sufficient warning to turn appropriately. (bioGraphic)

• Saturn officially has 274 moons now. The hell are we going to name them all? (UBC)

• The Scientists and Some Engineers claim to have used a quantum computer to solve the first scientifically relevant problem that absolutely could not be handled by conventional technology. (Nature) (Paper)

A Fictional Thing

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

A band and their album

(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:

No reader interpretations came in for this one, which I think is an album of songs that would be gentle in other hands, but in this case is a thrumming, crunchy brick brimming with stacked choral vocals that are always on the verge of blowing your speakers.

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. If you received this as a forward and would like to subscribe yourself, you can do it at the bottom of this page right here (which also has the archive)!