welcome to combination wildfire + apartment-as-a-solar-oven season

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that just hopes everyone made it out of last week without having their proteins denatured; climate change is a motherfucker, y'all. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory GiveawayNo new episode this week, but don't worry, we've got you next week.There appear to be no new ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings or reviews this time around, but you could singlehandedly make this statement a lie if you so choose. Just sayin'!!Instant Band Night 15: Gone Til NovemberIt seems laughable to try to throw Instant Band Night without a proven vaccine in place. Let's see what's up in November 2021.Facebook event's still there in case you (like me) can't yet escape the vortex of Facebook* * s t a y   h o m e   / /   s t a y   h e a l t h y * * 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.I'm turning this into Distraction Corner this week because it's my newsletter and I do what I want. Specifically I want to talk about a source of distraction that I think you might enjoy if you're a nerd who's already read all of the sci fi that exists, because you might be missing one.All right, fine, this is a pitch from me to you to read the Lancer ruleset again because I cannot stop thinking about this setting. It's a distant future where humanity has expanded to the otherwise-empty stars and brought all our problems with us, except now there are mechanized battle suits to customize and climb into. Skip the gameplay rules if you want; you can just read all of the background (lore, precious lore, [Gollum noises]) and flavor text on the various mechs and weapons. It's good. I don't know what else to tell you. I just need someone else to read this stuff so I've got someone to yell with about it. Thank you in advance. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin's latest culinary experiment involved dipping whatever he had with his lunch -- a tortilla chip, a lump of cheddar, a spicy dill pickle spear -- into a small cup of red salsa. Sure, buddy. Quentin will also eat an entire (large) cup of pico from our favorite taqueria on its own with no accompaniment; I think of it as his side salad. I wonder at what age this comparative* adventurousness will fade? He's extremely reluctant to eat a spoonful of fried rice (with veg) until I place a small square of kimchi on it. He would probably eat straight-up kimchi if I let him; I haven't, for some reason. (The reason is partly fear that it might be too spicy for him, and also a nagging feeling that kimchi should always be eaten as an accompaniment, never alone, but I shouldn't be imposing my rules on him, I know this) Jury's still out on whether he prefers cabbage kimchi to radish, or v/v -- the radish kimchi I got from Berkeley Bowl doesn't taste right. I gotta visit the Korean store soon; the cabbage jar I got (also from Berkeley Bowl) does taste right, but this radish jar turns out to be some weird locavore bullshit. It has apples???? Why?? I should've read the ingredients at the store; I've let myself and my whole house down here. I've put several radish chunks into the cabbage brine in the hopes that I can rectify this mistake.This got off-track, but I make no apologies for where my mind goes right now; it's very hot and my brain is barely functional.* He refused to eat part of a nectarine slice this morning because it was too dark/purple/something. This despite the fact that he's a fiend for cherries, which are just as dark/purple/something. 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye.Given the right-wing veneration of the military, you'd think the active derision Trump has for wounded and fallen soldiers would be a huge problem for them. I think I ceased to be surprised a long time ago. (Note: I put this in here when the story first went up, and I'm shocked at how mad everyone turned out to be; remember when the Humayun Khan thing went essentially nowhere?) (~$Atlantic) I do very much enjoy this followup, simply titled "Everyone Knows It's True". (~$Atlantic)The founder of Jelly Belly is giving away a factory after a literal countrywide treasure hunt. This is not a drill. (The Takeout)The math says countries led by women have done better against the rona than the rest of 'em. (The Conversation)If you've got a Medium click to burn this month, you could do worse than this Umair Haque piece on the three kinds of American idiots and why/how they've put us where we are. (~$Eudaimonia on Medium)Dr. Olivia Rissland has read a new scientific paper every day for over two and a half years and it's made her a better scientist. I read somewhere between 1-3 new scientific papers every week, but my understanding of any one of them never crests the 60% mark at best; by my rough math, I think that means I read the equivalent of a full paper a week, just about. I imagine her understanding of each paper she reads is probably closer to 100%, so I'm improving at about 1/7th the pace she is. At best. Hey, it's better than nothing? (Nature Index)There are five (5) types of cat owners, at least according to this study. (U of Exeter) (PDF)Example #475837 of "talk does not equal action" at Facebook. (Recode) Do we have a sense of whether employee anger at shit like "not dealing with Trump's 'vote twice, everybody!' post for hours and hours" is going to reach a boiling point, or? (BuzzFeed News)Unfortunately, the people who did this survey actually know what they're doing, which means the likelihood that a full third of Republicans believe in QAnon is depressingly high. (Civiqs)How big was the megalodon, really? Annoyingly, the writeups don't show the picture that the paper produced, so you might as well look at the paper itself. (Nature)Being an asshole at work doesn't get you ahead any faster. Let's be clear that it can still work, it just doesn't work better than being nice. (UC Berkeley)Let's just let the headline do the talking on this one: "Many GOP Voters Value America’s Whiteness More Than Its Democracy," (NYMag Intelligencer) (Paper) which isn't great, but hey: their numbers are shrinking anyway. (NPR)A survey of San Francisco's homeless, conducted by some of San Francisco's homeless, produced a report with some interesting recommendations. (KQED)There's a chance that account "@[name][numbers]" you've been assuming is a Twitter bot might ........... not be. (Tiny Subversions)Natural pest control is saving us billions, it turns out. (U of Queensland)What could the future of the restaurant industry look like if we really dream big? (Eater)Speaking of big dreams: recovering from past disasters have helped cities to reshape themselves. Is there a similar chance coming post-rona? Personally, I have doubts: it's not like the virus is literally destroying physical infrastructure the way a fire would. But who knows? (~$Atlantic)Huh: a small number of self-organizing autonomous cars on the road could actually improve traffic flow, at least according to some simulations. (Bar-Ilan U)FX seems to be walking the walk when it comes to increasing behind-the-camera diversity. (Deadline)Dead coral reefs aren't entirely dead. (U of Queensland)Here's an interesting shift in consumer robotics: instead of trying to figure everything out by itself, the Roomba will start asking questions that'll make it a better home-cleaning buddy. (IEEE Spectrum)How come nobody has any pictures of the "guy in a jetpack" reported flying near LAX? (NBC News)This cannot possibly be good: bacteria of two different species have been observed merging cell walls to work together. (U of Delaware)Elephants at the Warsaw Zoo are going to start receiving medical marijuana to see if it helps relieve stress (their matriarch just died). (Guardian) 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.A band and their albumEveryone Is Trapped, Go Forth and Sin No More 

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.