{"id":1983,"date":"2011-06-22T10:12:30","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T16:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=1983"},"modified":"2011-06-22T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T19:35:10","slug":"odd-lots-158","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=1983","title":{"rendered":"Odd Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>After being in the water for as many as four years, a broken camera turns up on a California beach <a href=\"http:\/\/www.petapixel.com\/2011\/06\/20\/photos-recovered-from-camera-that-spent-four-years-in-the-ocean\/\" target=\"_blank\">with the SD card still in it&#8230;and still functional<\/a>, complete with a hundred-odd photos taken before the camera was lost. I marvel first at the durability of these cards in a corrosive medium&#8211;and then at how little circuit board there actually is inside the SD card itself. Wow.<\/li>\n<li>There is an ice cream truck that goes down Alles Street here in Des Plaines, playing a midi riff of a familiar old song&#8211;and, periodically, a slightly creepy woman&#8217;s voice calling, <em>&#8220;Hello!&#8221;<\/em> This is evidently pretty common, but judging by some quick online research, the songs are different for almost every ice cream truck out there. (The &#8220;Hello&#8221; voice appears to be the same.) The truck came by here late yesterday, shortly before the storm rolled in, and I suddenly recognized the song: a bouncy variation on the old Southern hymn &#8220;Holy Manna,&#8221; often known as &#8220;Brethren We Have Come to Worship.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>And pertinent to the above: I only recognized the melody because Lorie Line played it in a medley with &#8220;The Lord of the Dance&#8221; on her <em><a href=\"http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fexec%2Fobidos%2FASIN%2FB000003HB9%2Fref%3Dnosim%2Fzoundry0b-20\"><em>Heritage Collection<\/em> Volume 1<\/a><\/em> CD. She plays it fast, much faster than I&#8217;ve ever heard the majestic old hymn itself played in church. (The song is not credited by name on the CD, but it&#8217;s there&#8211;and the CD is very much worth having.)<\/li>\n<li>Damned if these don&#8217;t look like drumlins. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/wiredscience\/2011\/06\/teardrop-shaped-island\/\" target=\"_blank\">On Mars<\/a>. (The other kind of drumlins&#8211;and yes, I am very familiar with them. More on the naming of alien artifacts in an upcoming entry.)<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll come back to this issue once I&#8217;m home and decompressed a little, but Glenn Reynolds posted a case history of a man who had <a href=\"http:\/\/pajamasmedia.com\/instapundit\/122721\/\" target=\"_blank\">non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (also called NASH in some circles, for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis) eventually ascribed to eating\/drinking fructose<\/a>. Depending on your genetics and how much you consume, fructose can send you all the way to cirrhosis and death. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carbohydratescankill.com\/343\/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease-carbohydraterich-diet-epidemic-involves-both-adults-children\" target=\"_blank\">This article<\/a> (linked to by Reynolds) is a must-read. <a href=\"http:\/\/evolutionaryhealthsystems.blogspot.com\/2010\/10\/non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease-in.html\" target=\"_blank\">This one<\/a> is worthwhile as well. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for alerting me to the post.)<\/li>\n<li>And while we&#8217;re slogging through the Carb Wars, well, <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Health\/Diet\/eating-fake-fat-makes-real-fat-olestra-study\/story?id=13893613\" target=\"_blank\">fake fat makes you fat<\/a>. (More and more research indicates that real fat does not.) And let&#8217;s not forget that little issue of &#8220;anal leakage,&#8221; gurrkh. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>Xoom, meet SD slot. SD slot, meet Xoom. You guys have been traveling together for over a year. It&#8217;s time to shake hands. <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2011\/06\/22\/motorola-xooms-in-android-3-1-update-that-activates-microsd-card\/\" target=\"_blank\">In Europe<\/a><\/em> . The problem in the US has to do with the &#8220;Google Experience.&#8221; Somebody at Google is holding back card slot support, and thus (I&#8217;m guessing) a great many sales, including one to me. I smell rentseeking somewhere.<\/li>\n<li>On the other hand, if all you want is an Android ebook reader, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2011\/06\/22\/archos-unveils-bare-bones-arnova-7-android-tablet-priced-at-99\/\" target=\"_blank\">this might be worth a look<\/a>. $99? Who cares if it&#8217;s only Froyo? (Forgive me if I&#8217;m skeptical that it&#8217;ll ever see retailer shelves at that price.)<\/li>\n<li>The creator of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.datamancer.net\/steampunklaptop\/steampunklaptop.htm\" target=\"_blank\">this device<\/a> calls it &#8220;technofetishism,&#8221; and it is. That doesn&#8217;t keep it from being amazing, and killer cool. (Thanks to Bill WB4WTN for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>Finally: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilovebacon.com\/fresh-bacon\/photoshop-mask-nerdy-but-awesome.html\" target=\"_blank\">How To Make a Mask With Photoshop<\/a>. I always wondered if that would work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After being in the water for as many as four years, a broken camera turns up on a California beach with the SD card still in it&#8230;and still functional, complete with a hundred-odd photos taken before the camera was lost. I marvel first at the durability of these cards in a corrosive medium&#8211;and then at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[15,39,49,51,101],"class_list":["post-1983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddlots","tag-hardware","tag-health","tag-music","tag-photography","tag-steampunk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}