one day we'll all be healthy again

February 10, 2020

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's finally all caught up on this current season of Doctor Who. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayNo new episode this week for reasons outlined in #dadthoughts, but we're gonna get there, folks. Good thing there's an extensive back catalog for you!We're still sitting at 28 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings in Apple Podcasts, which is so very tantalizingly close to 30. So close! You can push us over that edge and into new territory! The power is yours! Do it now!Instant Band Night 15: NUMEROLOGYIf you need a way to describe what Instant Band Night is in 100 words or less, here we go:The most fun you can have on a Thursday night -- onstage or off!1. If you play an instrument or sing, put your name in a can when you enter.2. The stage has a drum kit, guitar, bass, keyboard, and mics.3. We draw names out of the cans to make an instant band.4. Your band gets 7 minutes in the green room to plan a 5-minute set.Every show needs a crowd: if you don't play an instrument, have a drink and watch the show!!March 12! It's the 15th one! I'm bringing cookies!http://bit.ly/instantbandnight15Facebook's doing a thing where I can't invite any more people, so it's up to you to spread that good, good word.* * w e ' l l   s e e   y o u   t h e r e * * 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I have a few different Slacks that I visit on a near-daily basis, each full of friends I've made over many, many long years. In one particular channel on one of those Slacks, we do a lot of blue-skying about the politics of the day, and let's just say I've earned a ......... a reputation. Relevant anonymized excerpt follows from a recent discussion:buddy:The least centrist one in chat is Jon Sung, because he's a closeted interstellar tyrantpal:Jon Sung, Bio of a Would-Be Space Tyrantguy:I assume Sung will be raising Quentin in the Metabaron traditionfriend:man, i take one middle-of-the-day nap and this shit gets WILDally:Ironically, Jon is a closeted Star Tyrant who thinks he's the truest spirit of the liberal-progressive ideal! The Dark Side at its most seductive.Let's just get this out of the way now: they're right. If you ever want a rundown of my highly comprehensive policy slate, get a drink with me sometime and prepare yourself. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin is finally feeling more or less himself again after last week's double ear infection, but hilariously, Mavis fell ill last week, and on Saturday I, too, succumbed. I would describe this particular cold as "a generalized crap feeling along with a sore throat and occasional cough;" Mavis definitely got more of the cough, and Quentin got basically all of it. His coughing fits have subsided substantially, but for a while there it was frankly unnerving; we've learned the value of administering honey before bedtime to keep it at least sort of under some semblance of control, and of course Q doesn't mind the taste. My damn eyes won't stop itching, to say nothing of the roof of my mouth, which makes me wonder if I'm sick and experiencing a hideous allergy attack, which: why not. Bodies! They're gross! You would not believe how many boxes of tissues we've gone through! 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Your space mystery for the week is this fast radio burst that repeats every 16 days. (Science Alert) 

  • What if there's no such thing as a swing voter? If nothing else, this is a fascinating read on an interesting (and hopefully accurate) notion. (Politico) 

  • Here's a list of 8 things we do that confuse the fuck out of dogs. (Science Alert) 

  • You could do worse than burn one of your free monthly Quartz clicks on this one: "The healthiest way to make friends at work." (~$Quartz) 

  • Scientists have built a comparatively simple device that plugs into a smartphone and uses a drop of saliva to detect biomarkers for specific illnesses and health conditions, which I realize sounds wild, but is apparently legit? I wonder how much the detection antibodies cost? (U of Cincinnati) 

  • I ....... was not aware people were working on a method for generating electricity with water droplets? (City U of Hong Kong) 

  • It appears to be possible to trick people into more moderate political views, at least temporarily. (McGill) 

  • Resting heart rates may vary by up to 70 bpm between individuals. (PLOS One via Science Daily) 

  • Here's an interesting interview about mapping cultural differences. (Nautilus) 

  • Let's check back in on Japan in October and see if they'll lend us this robot just in case shit goes real bad in the elections. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • I both do and don't want to be a scientist studying the ocean under the Arctic ice with robots. (Earther) 

  • Huh: food additives made from food waste. Sure, why not. (Fast Company) 

  • Scientists working across 4 continents analyzed 2658 genomes from 38 tumor types to get a picture of how cancer works at the molecular level. (Nature) 

  • Here's an interesting longread on the Vegas residency and how its image has changed over the years, pretty much thanks to Celine Dion. (Vice) 

  • At least mildly encouraging: in theory, if you want to introduce infrastructure improvements to a city that result in better, greener water water management, people are willing to donate time to help make sure it works correctly. At least in theory. It might be dependent on the exact city you live in. Still! (Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences) 

  • This solution to a very real annoyance of mine is like bringing a thousand guns to a knife fight in terms of overengineering, but I also kind of love it. (IEEE Spectrum) 

  • Scientists have worked out how one particular virus is able to cloak itself from the human immune system, and by messing with that ability, they seem to have created an effective vaccine for it. Is it more widely applicable? I sure wish this article would tell us! (Ohio State) 

  • I've been hearing about 3D skin printers for wound-healing purposes for a while now, but this seems like a real leap forward in that it's handheld; the last one I read about was the size of a minifridge. (U of Toronto) 

  • This is going to sound like some Gwyneth Paltrow-ass Goop-nonsense, but it turns out liquid water can have a couple of different internal structures? We're not exactly sure what this means, since we just found out, but that is wild. (U of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science) 

  • Very early trials seem to indicate that exposing people to flickering light at a frequency of 40Hz triggers the release of neurochemicals that can fight Alzheimer's. (Georgia Tech) 

  • You need this story about a raccoon; I don't make the rules. (Kotaku) 

  • Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of gene expression in bacteria that helps them with resistance to antibiotics. If it's something we can fuck with, maybe we can slow that whole business down? (Max Planck Institute) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumThe Grimphs, I Volunteer as Tribute 

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.