it's still february, y'all

February 17, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's putting out an uncharacteristically short issue this week. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway133 - Velvet Rope 24-7"Jon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special guest Shawna explore a magnificent set of ideas for consumer products in a variety of industries, as well as a new model for wedding seating."For some reason, this episode was also full of great candidates for new taglines for the podcast itself, which I'm not mad at. Also, I might as well offer a correction here, in that the guy in the M.O.P. video was wearing a shirt, not a hat (I swear it'll make sense when you listen to the episode).As we discuss in the episode, the Apple Podcasts app seems to want to obscure the functionality that lets you leave a review, but it seems like it might be easier to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating. HINT, HINT 😎Instant Band Night 15: NUMEROLOGYWe're officially about a month out!! March 12! It's the 15th one! I'm bringing cookies! Forward this email to five fun friends, or just text them this link and say "WE'RE GOING" -- that oughta get the message across.http://bit.ly/instantbandnight15Facebook won't let me invite any more people, so it's up to you to spread the word; I thank you.* * w e ' l l   s e e   y o u   t h e r e * * 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Today I don't have much of a ramble in me; I would like to dedicate this space to the memory of a very good dog I never met in person named Dewey, whose human adored him and gave him as loving a home as any dog could ever dream of inhabiting. Sleep well, small champion. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Very, very occasionally, on the order of maybe once per season, I catch Mavis talking in her sleep: she'll utter one word or a short sentence in a very clear voice before falling silent. Quentin has apparently inherited this trait. I was out running an errand or two last night after helping put him to bed, and when I returned over an hour later, Mavis told me she heard him announce "That's amazing!" to absolutely no one after a long period of sleep-based silence. What's even better about this is that there's no way we'll ever be able to know what it was; it's an ephemeral little secret just for Quentin's dreaming mind. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Y'all heard about this study Yale did on single-payer health care? The full paper is being offered for free, but you have to register for it; just let me know if you wanna read it and I'll send you the PDF. (Lancet) 

  • Why are megaprojects (mostly large-scale construction that costs over a billion) such a clusterfuck? I'm definitely going to read this one. (University College London) 

  • I just learned the term "pluralistic ignorance" and so should you. (Nautilus) 

  • Here's a very good method that's just been demonstrated for keeping mosquito populations in check at the larval stage. (U of New Mexico) 

  • It turns out those gently-pulsating upside-down jellyfish you've probably seen at aquariums just love to fill the water around them with mucus-blasted grenades of stinging cells. (Smithsonian) 

  • We keep using petroleum as a base for manufacturing lots of different chemicals. What these researchers presuppose is: what if we used wood instead? Bonus: CO2 emissions would also go down! (KU Leuven) 

  • I wonder how many times I've read about a low-cost desalination device that's just been invented and stands poised to revolutionize how the developing world gets fresh water. It feels like a lot, honestly. (U of Bath) 

  • Whoops, it's still relatively easy to buy guns on Facebook. (Protocol) 

  • Scientists might have just discovered a universal cellular weapon against viruses. (Mass General Hospital) 

  • First of all, let's acknowledge that "terahertz quantum cascade laser" sounds like something you'd find in the Engineering section of a Federation starship. Second, it turns out we could theoretically use them to transmit data at a truly ridiculous-sounding 100GB/sec if we jiggle them with sound waves just right. What a time to be alive. (U of Leeds) 

  • Here's how to prevent the insect apocalypse. (Anthropocene) 

  • Building more grocery stores might actually help reduce food waste. (The Counter) 

  • Parents say they want racially integrated schools, but if you look at the ones they actually send their kids to, ehhhh. (Harvard Graduate School of Education) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumFreakmuffin, The Husks of Greater Hands Than These 

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.