the brothers sung gruver WILL get to sleep tonight

August 08, 2022

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that's doing its best to cast a spell via the subject line of an email that goes out the following morning 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayIn the back half of 2022 I hope to recover enough energy to restart some hobbies, and this podcast is on that list. Until then, you have over 150 episodes in the back catalog to amuse and delight, including an experimental RPG and a couple of Star Trek fantasy drafts that I would quite honestly and happily make into a whole 'nother show if I had the time!Someone out there has left another incredible review, btw: thank you from the bottom of what remains of my heart. Should anyone else feel inclined to make my day (and Besha's too, probably?), you can drop your 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 at the usual place with the knowledge that it will add at least 5HP back to our health stats.Instant Band Night 16: SWEETOh, this is happeningIf you missed the return of Instant Band Night in July, don't sweat it — just come to the next one in September! September 8, to be specific. If you've never been and are wondering what the hell it is: imagine a party where musicians who've just met form bands on the spot. Nobody's forced to play; you can just come watch. I guarantee you haven't seen anything like it!! One of the links below will tell you literally everything you need to know. EVERYTHING.Sept 86p$10East Bay Community Space507 55th St 94609(Eventbrite) (Facebook)+ +  S E E   Y O U   T H E R E  + + 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I was away from the internet pretty much all day Monday and holy shit, the FBI raiding Mar-a-Lago is too much for me to try to process. Catch you next week, everyone!! 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Tonight marks the start of our attempt to have the boys sleep in their own room. We put them to bed about 45m ago and I can still hear them, but at least nobody's crying (which was how it started). We tried to impress upon Quentin the importance of staying in his own bed and being quiet, but that went out the window fairly early on, understandably — Felix started crying and Quentin was not pleased. At some point he must've started handing Felix some (Felix-appropriate) toys through the bars of his crib, and there was definitely a while where the two of them were face-to-face bouncing and laughing at each other like loons. Quentin explained this to me as "We were having a laugh party," which is simultaneously amazing and heart-melting and a little dismaying only in that it means Felix is now somewhat riled up and ready to party when he should be sleeping, and Quentin is now ready to sleep. At least I think he is. I was in there at his request helping him set up a "floor bed" next to Felix's crib (which was how I got the laugh party explanation). I can hear Felix babbling to himself; Quentin's not replying, at least, which is good. Maybe they'll tucker themselves out soon! Maybe? I have no memory of how I started cohabiting with my brother when we were little. I don't know if I'm jinxing this entire endeavor by marveling at how non-disastrous it's been, relatively speaking, thus far. 🤞🎃Edit: I have indeed jinxed myself; we're now at 90m in and Felix is full-on crying again, bringing us back around to where we were an hour and a half ago. But weirdly, Quentin is asleep??? Incredible.Second edit: Felix fell asleep a few minutes ago; it is now 906p. Both kids are sleeping!!!I wonder how tomorrow night's gonna go? 

Fascination Corner

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

  • The people of Kansas said fuck no to a state constitutional amendment that would've killed abortion rights, so hell yeah. Frustratingly, the article says it was "overwhelming" yet doesn't give the actual numbers, but that's ok I guess. (NBC News) 

  • Federal charges for the fuckers who killed Breonna Taylor! (ABC News) 

  • The tax stuff in the Inflation Reduction Act sounds like it would've been pretty good, actually. (Roosevelt Institute) Then Kyrsten goddamn Sinema killed most of it. (NPR) 

  • Um. The Scientists have demonstrated a technique capable of preserving pig cells and organs to the point of being able to restore their function a full hour after death, which would be an absolutely wild game-changer for human transplants. (Yale) 

  • Alex Jones's idiot lawyer fucked up bigtime and it's so, so delicious I can barely stand it. (Vice) At first I wished this jury had really cored him out financially, but then I learned he has two more of these trials to go through; monetarily gutting him and running his flayed (metaphorical) skin up the nearest flagpole immediately would mean there'd be nothing left for the other Sandy Hook parents, which I think we can all agree would not be ideal. (CNN) 

  • Look at this amazing fish fossil. (Science Alert) 

  • In a just world, the leadership at four very specific corporate landlord offices would have some very serious explaining to do in order to avoid being dragged into the street and beaten to death with tire irons, but we already know this isn't that world. (Vice) 

  • Some Engineers have created a battery made of paper that activates when you get it wet. (Empa) 

  • "What if the suburbs were just a first draft? Remote work, the arrival of home-owning millennials, and other forces can be an opportunity to remake them for the better." (Vox) 

  • Some very excellent reporting from Bloomberg on the absolute horseshit that passes for crime coverage in NYC: crime reporting is hugely overblown, making the place look like Gotham City pre-Batman when in fact it's fine. It's just fine. Jesus creeping Christ in the cornfield. (Bloomberg) 

  • This is pretty goddamn adorable: a guy custom-painted a toy Matchbox car in his youth, lost it, then went looking for a replacement decades later on eBay only to find the exact car from his childhood. (Guardian) 

  • The Scientists have demonstrated a method for making bricks out of waste cooking oil and petroleum refining byproducts that stick themselves together without mortar when sprayed with a catalyst. Okay!!! (Flinders U) Another group of The Scientists figured out how to make cement 40% stronger by mixing in nanoparticles made from shrimp shells. (Washington State) Is there an org out there actively trying to trace and connect more dots between "garbage made by Factory A that Factory B would find hella useful" or not? 

  • Why are some birds smarter than others? (McGill U) 

  • Look at this goddamn crazy red eyeball of a galaxy the James Webb Space Telescope is showing us. (NASA) 

  • "If the Economy Is Shaky, Why Are Company Profits Still Strong? Corporate optimism may seem at odds with the Fed’s grim determination to hold back the economy to get inflation down, but earnings tell a story that other data doesn’t." 🤔🤔🤔 ($NYT) 

  • Some Engineers have created a 3D printing process they call Multiplexed Fused Filament Fabrication that does a much better job much quicker. (Rutgers) 

  • The crypto idiots who bought that Jodorowsky Dune book in the hopes of making a movie out of it are now trying to sell it as their DAO seems to be essentially collapsing. Somebody please put at least three of these morons in a room and point a camera at them so we can ask a few questions and see their faces. I just want to know if they know. (The Verge) 

  • Check out this massive sinkhole that just appeared in Chile. (NPR) 

  • The Scientists have demonstrated a bacteria-derived battery that, uh, you know what, let's just hear it from them: "By contrast, this new biofilm, which can supply as much, if not more, energy than a comparably sized battery, works, and works continuously, because it is dead. And because it’s dead, it doesn’t need to be fed." (UMass Amherst) 

  • My prediabetic ass can't have this job even if I somehow got it, but that doesn't mean I have to stop dreaming about it. (CNN) 

  • A machine learning system trying to puzzle out the physics of moving things is coming up with some intriguing results. (Science Alert) 

  • The Scientists have been making moves in the intestinal microbiome. Sometimes infusing the guts with new guys doesn't work, because they don't survive — so they demonstrated a way to take existing guys out of mouse guts, put new genes in them, and watch them work. (Paper) Another project to identify an array of viruses specifically targeted to assassinate guys that cause inflammatory bowel diseases is paying off, too. (Paper) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumProfessor Love-You, The Stubborn Will to Live(If you've made it this far, feel free to hit REPLY and tell me what you think this band/album sounds like, because now I'm curious) 

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.