scintillating electron-based discourse

May 31, 2021

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that operates with the full knowledge that nobody can stop it from making and deeply enjoying a big batch of fried rice with Spam in it this week 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayI'm going to try like the dickens to get the new episode edited this week, but there's also a glaze firing this weekend and I have new pieces I really want to get done before that happens. Wish me luck!!Will you be the one of the three heroes who gets us up to 40 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews on Apple Podcasts??? There's only one way to find out!!Instant Band Night 15: Gone Til NovemberHalf of America's adult population has been vaccinated. Pencil 11/11/2021 into your schedule and if we're all very good and lucky, we'll see you all at the next Instant Band Night.Facebook event's still there in case you (like me) can't yet escape the vortex of Facebook+ + g e t   y o u r   s h o t   / /   l e t ' s   d o   t h i s + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I listen to podcasts through an earbud while I do chores or watch Quentin play (there are long stretches where he's talking to himself or otherwise doesn't need any input from me, so I don't have to pay attention to his utterances). My habit has been to just use them one at a time, so I can charge a dead one while I use a fresh one. The annoying thing is that the damn things don't seem to know when they're actually fully charged: there's a light on the side of the earbud that glows red when it's charging and turns off when it's "full." Except when I turn it on and connect it, my phone tells me what the earbud's actual battery level is, and it always, always goes like this:EARBUD: (charges 45ish minutes)EARBUD: I'm full!ME: Uh huh. (connects earbud)PHONE: It's at 30%.ME: Thought so. ME: (turns off earbud, reseats earbud in charging case)EARBUD: (charges 30ish minutes)EARBUD: I'm full!ME: Riiiiight. (connects earbud)PHONE: It's at 50%.ME: Checks out.ME: (turns off earbud, reseats earbud in charging case)EARBUD: (charges 10ish minutes)EARBUD: I'm full!ME: Okay, little buddy (connects earbud)PHONE: It's at 100%.ME: Marvelous.At this point I don't even bother to connect the earbud after the first two charging cycles; I dislodge it long enough to turn off the charging light, and then reseat it and let it go about its business. Sometimes this doesn't fool it and I have to go through the reconnection rigamarole, which is only irritating because turning the earbud off involves a six-second button press. It's weird that it only needs to "charge" for what seems like another mere ten minutes to go from half to completely full; I vaguely suspect it might be a firmware issue, but I'm also too lazy to care enough to do any research whatsoever. How would I even go about fixing something like that.It's funny to me because it's the exact opposite behavior of my phone, which likes to get into some real Zeno's Paradox shit when it comes to charging the last 10% of its battery. It can go from what seems like nearly dead to 90% full in 45m, but then it'll tell me there are "10 minutes remaining" for another 45m to get the last 10% done. The overall battery life is still nice, though, so I'm not complaining too much. This has been: the most exciting update in this section ever written!!!!!! 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.A few weeks ago we took Quentin to the Oakland Zoo for the first time, and while he didn't explode with amazement immediately,* there was a kind of gradual unfolding of delight throughout our visit that continues to resonate even now. He's consistently told us his favorite animal was the zebras, which is interesting because he didn't seem to have much of a reaction to them when we saw them, but who knows what's going on in his little brain! Seeing as how his favorite stuffy is a bunny, I thought he'd be more impressed with the rabbits (props to the zoo for having a children's section that includes rabbits). Today he talked about the elephant that ate part of a tree, which honestly he's not wrong about, given the size of the palm(?) fronds we witnessed it chowing down on.We're taking him again on Friday, and this time we're riding the gondolas (Oakland Zoo is split into two major zones, one of which is accessible only by gondolas that ride suspended under cables over a majestic landscape). Despite their clear resemblance to the cab of a tall construction crane, Quentin's caution got the better of his fascination and we decided to save the gondolas for a subsequent visit (we were also sidling dangerously close to naptime). Now that he's had some time to process the fact of their existence, he seems quite excited to get in one as soon as we're through the line. I'll try to keep you all updated.* He did throw his arms in the air reflexively when he first spotted the giraffes, though, which was great to witness. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Anybody else out there feeling like you've been taking crazy pills lately, you're not alone; witness the subhead here, whose subject has been maddening me for weeks: "If Democracy Is Dying, Why Are Democrats So Complacent? Democrats are unwilling to match their language of urgency with a strategy even remotely proportional to it." (~$Atlantic) 

  • While we're here, some applause for the editors at the Atlantic who make the headline/subhead combo really sing; this one is a real must-read, and of course it's from Ed Yong. "What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale: The pandemic’s mental wounds are still wide open." (~$Atlantic) 

  • What has the movement to defund the police actually won thus far? (Vice) 

  • The man who popularized the term "culture war" thinks they've basically taken over politics, which is .......... a bad sign. (Politico) 

  • I don't know if this will count as a balm for the above, but like all of his thinkpieces, it's at least beautifully executed: David Roth muses on the stark idiocy of Caitlyn Jenner's nascent gubernatorial run. (Defector) 

  • An optogenetic technique for restoring sight in a blind person has been successfully tested. (Nature) 

  • The French are giving a €300 "culture pass" a try and it sounds like a nice idea. (BBC) 

  • In case some cowards at editorial change it, the headline for this piece as of the time of this writing is "Shareholders Tell Exxon to Eat Shit" (Gizmodo) It turns out Big Oil in general took a beating that day, which you love to see. (CNBC) 

  • Did you know "gameday homes" are a thing? And that they're not great for the small towns they're in? (Georgia State) 

  • Imagine being a drug smuggler and having a picture of a block of cheese be your downfall. (Liverpool Echo) 

  • Let's adjust how we do dinner parties from now on. (Epicurious) 

  • It turns out (a) cities have their own microbiotic fingerprint of sorts (b) cities are also seething with microbes technically unknown to science. Not as dire as it sounds; actually kind of fascinating! (Weill Cornell Medicine) (Paper) 

  • I'm not gonna lie: one thing I do miss about road trips is the gas station snacks, even though lots of them are now considered verboten by my traitorous bloodstream. (Eater) 

  • This is probably the kind of drunk texting I would do if I had the number of a scientific institution onhand if I had the time or inclination to get drunk anymore. (Vice) 

  • "The Pandemic Exposed How The Rich Lead Totally Different Lives Than The Rest Of Us" (BuzzFeed News) 

  • Work on giving robots expressive physical features continues. (Columbia Engineering) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumQuite Frankly Terrifying, Here's Where It Gets Messy 

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.