{"id":2696,"date":"2013-01-06T19:43:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T02:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2013-01-06T19:43:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T02:43:11","slug":"odd-lots-209","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2696","title":{"rendered":"Odd Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ve been playing with the new generation of desktop &#8220;all-in-ones&#8221; at Best Buy etc. and can&#8217;t get my head around the notion of using a touch screen on a desktop&#8211;especially a big touch screen. I thought I was just being a grouch, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article.cfm?id=why-touch-screens-will-not-take-over\" target=\"_blank\">now I have company<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-20756247\" target=\"_blank\">This slightly confused piece from the BBC<\/a> raises a crucial issue&#8211;what the whole self-esteem movement is doing to our kids&#8211;but appears to confuse &#8220;self-esteem&#8221; with &#8220;confidence.&#8221; Confidence means &#8220;I am well-calibrated.&#8221; Self-esteem means &#8220;I don&#8217;t need to read the dial.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.makezine.com\/category\/electronics\/raspberry-pi\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Make<\/em> is going deep on Raspberry Pi<\/a>. Check out that repurposed Mac Classic.<\/li>\n<li>One of my domains got on an RBL the other day. Not sure why; it&#8217;s off now. But it&#8217;s a good time to remind you of the <a href=\"http:\/\/multirbl.valli.org\/lookup\/\" target=\"_blank\">valli.org RBL checker<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>We&#8217;ve experienced a very sudden burst in sunspot formation in recent days, which you can see on <a href=\"http:\/\/spaceweather.com\/gallery\/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=75382\" target=\"_blank\">this startling photo<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2503\" target=\"_blank\">When I was projecting the transit of Venus on foamcore this past summer<\/a>, line of sight to the setting sun passed through the approach to O&#8217;Hare Field, and I saw four or five of these much quicker transits. It&#8217;s nice to see one captured, for those who didn&#8217;t get to see them in realtime.<\/li>\n<li>And while we&#8217;re talking sunspots, here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/wattsupwiththat.com\/2013\/01\/04\/counting-sunspots-and-sunspot-inflation\/\" target=\"_blank\">a good piece on the technical details of how we count sunspots<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>This past Christmas I had my first sip of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Goldschl\u00e4ger\" target=\"_blank\">Goldschlager<\/a> in 30+ years. Was stronger than I remember it, or maybe I&#8217;m just weaker. Moot point: I&#8217;m holding out for Ytterbiumschlager.<\/li>\n<li>Made me wonder how strong booze has to be to be burnable in an alcohol lamp. When absinthe burns, what happens to the wormwood?<\/li>\n<li>Carol had heard good things about Shasta sodas, particularly their diet ginger ale. I wasn&#8217;t sure where they could be found, but they have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shastapop.com\/store-locator\/\" target=\"_blank\">a &#8220;soda finder&#8221;<\/a> that I wish more independent brands would emulate, particularly Green River.<\/li>\n<li>That said, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walmart.com\/ip\/Green-River-Diet-Soda-33.81-oz-Pack-of-15\/17197544\" target=\"_blank\">you can get diet Green River from Wal-Mart<\/a>, but you have to order a case. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s in their stores.<\/li>\n<li>Alas, <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.chicagotribune.com\/1986-02-24\/business\/8601140666_1_soda-industry-chicago-area-investors\" target=\"_blank\">the wonderful retro soda-maker across the street from my alma mater vanished in 1986<\/a> and won&#8217;t be found again: The Lasser factory building has been converted to <a href=\"http:\/\/cribchatter.com\/?p=6859\" target=\"_blank\">half-million dollar lofts<\/a>. I do remember having <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/Old-soda-pop-bottle-label-LIME-RICKEY-John-Lasser-Chicago-Illinois-new-old-stock-\/160818880437\" target=\"_blank\">a lime rickey<\/a> or two while at DePaul. I guess I just like seriously green sodas.<\/li>\n<li>I think <a href=\"http:\/\/www.criggo.com\/2013\/01\/cute-22\/\" target=\"_blank\">they did this<\/a> in Colorado last fall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been playing with the new generation of desktop &#8220;all-in-ones&#8221; at Best Buy etc. and can&#8217;t get my head around the notion of using a touch screen on a desktop&#8211;especially a big touch screen. I thought I was just being a grouch, but now I have company. This slightly confused piece from the BBC raises [&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":[41,15,43,46],"class_list":["post-2696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddlots","tag-astronomy","tag-hardware","tag-humor","tag-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696","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=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}