Odd Lots
- Here’s yet another brick in the structure I’ve been seeing in psychological research suggesting that beyond a certain (reasonable) point, the more confident you are, the less competent you are.
- The Japanese word I heard at MileHi Con but could not spell (and thus not find) is yaoi (boys’ love) which is evidently fiction targeted at women which portrays homoerotic/homoromantic relationships between good-looking young men. (Thanks to Erbo and Eric the Fruit Bat for clarifying this. I just had no clue.)
- And while we’re identifying obscure pop culture icons and references, I’ve seen this guy somewhere. Who/what is he?
- NASA’s new-technology space-based atomic clock has eight pins, and relies on high vacuum. George O. Smith would approve. (Thanks to Larry Nelson for the pointer.)
- Switch to a “mechanical keyboard”? I never stopped using them to begin with. Modern “mush” keyboards were created solely to be cheap and are mostly useless. (I love it when I’m right–and thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.)
- How many people lived on Earth when you were born? For me, it was 2,556,061,949.
- The 99c MP3 of the Month Award here goes to Sam Spence for “Classic Battle,” which was evidently commissioned by the NFL as incidental music for football games. Dayum. Why doesn’t baseball get music like that?
- Music, heh. Ever hear a piece of music that immediately made you head for the exits? Maybe that’s the whole idea. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the pointer.)
- I’ve found a good home for my old Ampro CP/M system, and will be shipping it out shortly. Thanks for all the suggestions and reminiscences.
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: aerospace · culture · hardware · music · psychology · sf
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Re: Mechanical keyboards
I’ve worked on PCs for years at universities and at Microsoft and I always arrive with my own mechanical keyboard. I always feel like a pool shark as I take it out of its box and plug it in 🙂
But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. In fact, I have a second as a backup that has never been needed.
Pop culture reference: that is Kilowog, one of the Green Lantern Corps
http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Kilowog
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Kilowog
Hmm. What is it about Austrian music in the Strauss vein that turns masses of people off as quickly as rap? I do not suffer from that. Heard the Radetzky march more than once while living in Germany, and the energy it transmits to the audience is quite thrilling.
Maybe not baseball, but one of the greatest sports themes of all time has to be the NBA on NBC theme, used in the 90’s during the heyday of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. This theme, “Roundball Rock,” was actually composed by New Age musician John Tesh. Here’s a video of a live performance of the song, complete with a little intro by Tesh showing how the theme came to be, with the help of his answering machine.
Jeff:
Item 3 in Odd Lots today: The character is question is Kilowog, a current member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for your reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowog
Glad to finally have something to contribute – best to you and Carol.
-Martin
I assume the thing in the green costume is some alien Green Lantern.
Actually, it’s this guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowog
“yaoi (boys’ love) which is evidently fiction targeted at women which portrays homoerotic/homoromantic relationships between good-looking young men. ”
Obviously not the genre read by the male teachers in Shizuoka Prefecture.
“Sex abuse by teachers plagues Shizuoka Pref.”
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111023003239.htm