prepare for the coming of the SOUP WITCH

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that publicly acknowledges it was a mistake to buy those weird fruity Lucky Charms (they're not good) and has gone back to trusty ol' Corn Flakes with a heaping scoop of raisins. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway102 - Tinder FOMO"Jon (@ferociousj), guest co-host Kelly (@enthusiosity), and special guest Alicia (@aliciaostar) decloak ideas for food products and parties among other high-quality notions before pondering a universal question."I honestly would be interested to hear the answers to that question we find ourselves musing on toward the end there, but also I desperately want to rent out a fortune cookie facility for a night to make the weird custom cookies we also discuss. Fuck!If you haven't yet, subscribe by searching "Idea Factory Giveaway" in your podcatcher of choice (and let me know if it doesn't pop up). If you're already there, feel free to leave a 5-star rating and a nice review (it helps; algorithms, etc, you know the deal).Instant Band Night 10I haven't put up the event pages for it yet, but the next Instant Band Night is on May 9th (a Thursday, as they all are). We're adding a new feature to the band selection this time around, which is for duets and small groups; people who show up with a crew and have already thought of something they want to do can just toss their whole group in a separate can that we'll pick from periodically; they'll get less green room time, but the same amount of stage time.Stay tuned for other innovations! 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.This idea is going into the Spreadsheet, but I just had it this week and I think it's better-suited to a written explanation anyway, mostly because I can include links.It's a restaurant called SOUP WITCH, and it doesn't happen unless we can get Woonyoung Jung to do the branding and at least one mural for the dining room. All the employees will be issued witch hats like the ones in the paintings, except not as tall/wide, and made of some sort of breathable fabric. SOUP WITCH serves a variety of soups and offers a complementary variety of toasted breads for dipping, and while it has a dining room, its real business is the takeout/delivery kitchen. Every fridge in the city is adorned with a winking SOUP WITCH promotional magnet with a little speech bubble: "Feeling sick? Let SOUP WITCH work her magic!" Because by the time you've got a cold, you need soup, but you don't have the energy to make soup. And there's shit going around constantly. SOUP WITCH is better than that canned bullshit in your pantry. SOUP WITCH will take care of you. Ultimately, the only possible conclusion will be that every city needs a SOUP WITCH. Get in on the ground floor of this franchise immediately. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Red alert: Quentin has been experimenting with standing on his own and taking a few steps in a given direction before going back down on all fours. Walking is imminent; I repeat: walking is imminent. 

Fascination Corner

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

• Here's a headline: Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes. (WaPo) 

• I have a question about this US Navy laser weapon: what does it sound like when it fires? Did they add a noisemaking component somewhere to let the crew know it's firing? I have to imagine it'd be pretty quiet otherwise, right? Just curious. (Popular Mechanics) 

• Read this press release on particle robots first before you watch the video. (MIT via EurekAlert) 

• Here's a review of an interesting-sounding book that has a theory about how we as a species became more peaceful; there might be a flaw in its reasoning, though, that the review also doesn't shy away from. (Undark) 

• If it takes cloning a high-performing police dog to normalize the cloning of dogs, then I'm all for it, dammit. This article's worth it just for the picture. (Sky News) 

• The horrible nasty bullshit has come for Instagram now because this is just what it is to be connected. (Atlantic) 

• A smart idea that I'm hoping has wider applications: a cheap, gliding plywood drone designed to be dropped out the back of a cargo plane to resupply soldiers. (Popular Mechanics) 

• Reasonably compelling evidence exists that suggests A Tribe Called Quest may be integral to making better cheese. (CNET) 

• TV ads air to empty rooms nearly a third of the time. (Quartz) 

• Huh: if you look at it on average, Mercury is actually the closest planet to Earth. (Popular Mechanics) 

• So Facebook took down 1.5M videos of the Christchurch shooting, 1.2M of which were blocked at upload. First of all: does that mean 1.5 million fuckers were out there trying to upload this shit, or were they leveraging some sort of racist botnet? Second: that means there were 300,000 copies that somehow made it through at upload. That's ............. not great. There's nothing like the internet for revealing the ugliness of humanity at scale. (The Verge) (Atlantic) 

• Bats keep interrupting basketball games in San Antonio; I really wanted to link this for the Batman costume the mascot wears. (538) 

• Better Living Through Active Building Design. (Undark) 

• Bird poop helps coral reefs grow! (Phys.org) 

• An article titled "I Gave Up and Let Instagram Shop for Me" should at least have the decency to list a bunch of items purchased and say whether or not the author actually liked them (it does not do this), but I do enjoy the term "digital resignation" a lot. (Atlantic) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumGOD OF SEVEN CRABS, The Mind is Weak and the Flesh Must Follow 

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.