the 50(!)-episode(!!) mark(!!!)

August 21, 2017

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, your weekly window into whatever's on my mind. This time I'm switching the section order around, since technically "letting people know about the podcast" was the original reason for this thing in the first place. Only four months in and I've already gotta get back to my roots. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway50 - The Tat RatioJon (@ferociousj), Besha (@besha), and special return guest Yoz (@yoz) work out some games, apps, & fandom-related concepts while honoring the sacrifice that Just Two Things makes for us all every day.This episode contains an idea that sparks a number of questions that I would love to see answered by a statistician, a sociologist, and a small group of Tumblr power users working together. That's all I can really say about that.You can subscribe using:iTunesRSSStitcherGoogle Play MusicYou can also just go to the website to play or download episodes:https://ideafactorygiveaway.simplecast.fm/Instant Band NightOh, it's happening. On the off chance I haven't talked your ear off about this concept before: 

  1. There's a stage with one (1) band's worth of equipment on it.

  2. People put their names into hats labeled DRUMS, GUITAR, VOCALS, etc.

  3. Names are pulled from the hats periodically to make Instant Bands, who get 10 minutes in the green room to plan an 8-minute set.

  4. Rinse & repeat.

If you're local to the Bay Area, you should come, whether or not you sing or play any kind of instrument. Failing that, invite any and everybody you know; this shit is gonna be bonkers.507 55th St 94609Thursday Sept 148-11p$5 doorBYOB 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.Idea Factory GIveaway hits the 50-episode mark this week, and in an unintentional bit of commemoration, #50 happens to be the first one where we brought a past guest back for another round: the inimitable Yoz, who's your standard-issue utterly fucking delightful human. This would be true even if he didn't have a charming British accent, but it sure doesn't hurt, either -- we went over the insane advantages conferred by a British accent (and how/why one might go about inculcating one in their offspring) back in episode 11, along with a truly genius restaurant concept (fans of Iain M. Banks and the Culture will find something to enjoy at the end of that one, too). We Americans are suckers for the British accent; is there one that even comes close in terms of appeal? Does the British accent translate this way in other languages, too? Like do German or Swiss people think German spoken in a British accent is super charming? What about Japanese? Or Arabic? For that matter, is there a "language X spoken in accent Y" combination that could be universally agreed to be the most interesting? I have too many questions and no way to get them answered. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Do I need to reassess my relationship with chaos?Something I'm noticing as I age is that I like it when shit is organized. I don't exactly wig out if there's a mess, but I think messes irk me a little more than they used to when I was 20. (If you listen carefully, you can hear everyone who knew me in my freshman year of college laughing) Here's the thing: kids are messy and they make messes. All the time. I really want to be careful about this, in the sense that I don't want to get angry at my kid for just doing what it does, nahmean? How do I not do that? Or will it not matter? Is there a point after the baby's born where I simply acquire a Zen-like acceptance of what is at all times? Maybe that's how I do it; did I just answer my own question?? Am I already the best dad in all of existence???Seriously, though, if anyone has advice or even just loosely-formed thoughts on this, let a man know. 

Fascination Corner

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

  • Is it crazy to anybody else that Nobody Knows What Lies Beneath New York City??

  • This is going to sound strange coming from a person known to be extremely picky about condiments, but I would give a bug-based burger a try. Granted, this might be because it sounds like one of the only reliable ways to make bug meal appealing is to basically deep fry it, but hey: sustainable protein source. Sustainable protein source!

  • Pharma-grade, mass-produced psilocybin is technically possible now. Just sayin'.

  • This transgenic method for producing vaccines in plants is rad as hell, but why does it seem like they always use tobacco for these experiments? Is tobacco the only plant whose genome we know well enough to hack like this? Am I just crazy?

  • Here's an interesting mediumread about putting sniper rifles on souped-up quadcopters and what that implies for robot-based warfare going forward; it's interesting and disturbing. Disturberesting?

  • We are one step of indeterminate size closer to getting Geordi LaForge's VISOR, people.

  • Science can cure peanut allergies!

  • We don't need to do any more of these "look at the Trump voters who now experience regrets" articles. The only one I want to read at this point is a psychology paper that looks at how exactly they were dumb enough to believe his bullshit, and how to stop that from happening again. If that's even possible.

  • Some Nausicaa-type shit up in here.

  • First of all, these car seat costumes are amazing, but second, that really is a nasty design problem whose proposed solutions I can't wait to see.

  • Here's an interesting if somewhat unsettling answer to the good ol' Fermi Paradox.

  • Oh, thank fuck there's a rebuttal to that Atlantic article I linked to in a past issue about smartphones and happiness in kids.

  • I'm trying to balance my feeling that we're eventually going to have to resort to geoengineering of some kind if we want to stave off climate change against the low-level panic of "this is literally how shit goes real wrong in the timeline leading up to the creation of the Matrix."

  • Something we can all agree to like as a country is Danny Trejo's foray into restaurateurship, right? 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumD.I.C.K.P.R.I.N.T., Smile All Ye Triumphant Animals 

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.