it only tuesday

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that highly recommends you get your hands on some of these LEGO Muppets because they're a goddamn delight in every sense of the word even if they come blind-bagged, and you have to seize your joy where you can get it 

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 WARPJuly 14th! The line must be drawn here and no further!! We WILL have an explosive celebration of musical creativity that must be seen to be believed, and you! will! be! there! (Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  r e t u r n i n g   i n   2 0 2 2  + ++ +  h a n g   i n   t h e r e  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.First weekend of June I'm going on a little trip. Specifically I'll be headed to LA for a wedding; it's the first time I'll be stepping onto a plane since before the pandemic. It's going to be good — weddings always are — but I don't have a huge amount of time down there otherwise, so I've made very limited plans with a very limited set of people. Hopefully I'll be able to get away more in the future and see the approximately five thousand other friends I've missed all over the country. The thought of reestablishing connections with so many warm and valued presences is both exhilarating and daunting. Is this how it's been for everyone? Damn! I half wish there was a way to bring everyone to the same spot for a big friend reunion, but of course that wouldn't work: everybody I know doesn't actually know each other. That was fine for our wedding, but I think that's the only acceptable context in which that sort of friend group confluence happens. But what if it wasn't? What if we started doing Big Goddamn Friend Reunions over the next few years? Would that be great, or too hectic? There's only one way to find out. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.As we barrel toward the 10mo mark, Felix is increasingly easy to amuse, in that he smiles at us when we smile at him, and he's developing a baby-level sense of humor — anytime I get the hiccups, for instance, he laughs. We can all agree that the smiles and laughter of babies are the purest possible form of unfiltered, unadulterated joy that exists in the human sphere of experience, right? I'll take it, especially after the week we've all already had. Yes, I know it's only Tuesday. But right now, we can make our baby laugh if we make eye contact with him and just say "HWOOF" with the right intonation. Thanks, buddy. 

Fascination Corner

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

• Surprising no one, the Buffalo shooter's manifesto is full of talking points that have been legitimized by Fox News. (NBC News) Jonathan Chait doesn't miss: "It has become a grotesque ritual in American life that whenever a white nationalist kills enough people to briefly seize the attention of the national media, conservatives will quickly focus on defending the most prominent white-nationalist voice in America: Tucker Carlson." (~$Intelligencer) 

• The future plans of oil and gas companies reveal they're fully willing to trade the habitability of the planet for profits. So that's just fine, I guess? I will repeat that these corporations are run by people who have names and addresses. (Guardian) 

• "In an uncivil age, calls for “civility” are about squashing effective protest" (Vox) 

• Harvard Biz Review has a good interview with Molly White, she of the absolutely indispensable Web3 is going just great, which is timely because it's very much not going just great at the moment; I linked an explainer on the whole crypto crash, too, because I love you. (~$HBR) (Foreign Policy) 

• A recent study may have determined the actual cause of SIDS. (BioSpace) (Paper) 

• The Biden administration has managed to take steps toward helping poorer families get broadband, because it's basically a necessity at this point. (AP) 

• The Scientists have developed a biodegradable coating for paper that makes it rigid, waterproof, and even somewhat antimicrobial. (U of Tokyo) 

• What distinguishes hate from the other negative emotions, and what does it mean to feel hate? (Psyche) 

• Cerebrospinal fluid from young mice boosts memory functions in older mice. Huh. (Nature) 

• Trends are really and truly meaningless at this point. (Vox) 

• It's ........ it's possible that cats not only know the names we give them, but also remember the names of other cats they hang out with. (Science Alert) (Paper) 

• Cameras without lenses? Cameras without lenses. (Digital Photography Review) 

• The SF Standard ran a poll of 1000 San Franciscans about the state of the city and whatnot, and the results are ................ interesting. (SF Standard) 

• I ran across this one on Tumblr and its publication predates the existence of this newsletter; here's a paper from The Scientists who applied phylogenetic analysis methods to folktales to try tracing them back to their roots. It's fascinating! (Paper) 

• What did the 2020 census tell us about the growth, diversity, and segregation of our cities? (Brookings Institute) 

• It looks like rating the credibility of news sources doesn't really move the needle for anybody except the biggest consumers of misinfo, which is probably a good thing! (NYU) 

• The Scientists think it might be easier to detect liars if you make them do another task while they say their lies. (U of Portsmouth) 

• The giant black hole at the center of the galaxy has been successfully imaged using radio waves. (Nature) 

• Marketers take note: consumers only seem to like the invocation of science for utilitarian goods as opposed to pleasurable ones — in other words, "scientifically proven to kill germs" works a lot better than "scientifically proven to taste better". (Ohio State) 

• Lunar regolith makes a reasonable growth substrate for plants, but only barely. (Ars Technica) 

• YouTube brain seems inescapable for the people who actually achieve a certain level of quote-unquote "success". (Vox) 

• It's seemingly obvious but good to point out anyway: we feel better when we can see more different species of animals and plants around us, even sea life. (Swansea U) 

• What's it like to use neurostimulation devices to achieve specific mindstates? (NEO.LIFE) 

• The Scientists have found the remains of microorganisms nearly a billion years old in ancient halite crystals. (Geological Society of America) 

• "People Are Using Job Listings to Sabotage Companies that Mistreat Their Workers: Online job listings have evolved into a powerful tool that labor activists are using to expose the efforts of anti-union companies." (Vice) 

• We should maybe think a little more about the scientific names we give to things like parasitic worms. (Nature) 

• Here's a truly, uh ........... let's just say ambitious theoretical proposal for tapping and directing lava flows to build cities. (Dezeen) 

• The Scientists have built a proof of concept for a small, reliable algae-powered battery capable of delivering tiny amounts of electricity for tiny chips, which would be staggeringly useful for all kinds of remote sensing applications. (U of Cambridge) 

• After looking at these renders, I'll readily admit to now harboring aspirations to become exactly as wealthy as needed to own one of these party submarines and no richer. That should be easy, right? (Robb Report) 

• I saw the student loan TikTok from TooTurntTony on one of my Slacks and idly wondered what the story was there; fortunately, MEL is here for us all (don't worry, it's embedded in there if you have no idea what I'm talking about). (MEL) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumBoundary Thugz, Bravery in the Face of Certain Death(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think one or all of these bands sound 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.