{"id":2789,"date":"2013-03-07T16:02:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T23:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2013-03-07T16:18:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T23:18:40","slug":"odd-lots-219","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2789","title":{"rendered":"Odd Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Which movie theater did you go to on your first date? Whether or not that theater still exists, <a href=\"http:\/\/cinematreasures.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">this site may have a photo of it<\/a>, along with other interesting historical data. The first theater I took Carol to is <a href=\"http:\/\/cinematreasures.org\/theaters\/273\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a>. It&#8217;s still there, and still awesome. (Thanks to Ernie Marek for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>Five years later, I proposed to Carol while we watched the sun set from a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/diy\/article\/2013-02\/worlds-nerdiest-marriage-proposal\" target=\"_blank\">There are other ways of doing it<\/a>. I forgot to bring a flashlight up the side of that bluff, and we had to pick our way down in near-darkness. My nerdiness has gaps. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.softpro.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Softpro retail bookstore at the Denver Tech Center is closing its doors at the end of March<\/a>. Even though it&#8217;s 70+ miles away, I&#8217;ve dropped a fair bit of change there. Bummer.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiomuseum.org\/forum\/sputnik_9v_superheterodyne_tube_radio.html\" target=\"_blank\">Back in the 50s, the Russians were producing an extremely interesting line of low-voltage tubes<\/a>. I&#8217;m still trying to get my head around how they work internally, but hey, &#8220;Gammatron&#8221; is a wonderful name for a line of tubes&#8211;or anything else. (Thanks to Jim Strickland for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>The war on &#8220;moist&#8221; (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2787\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday&#8217;s entry<\/a>) prompted Bruce Baker to remind us of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Moist_von_Lipwig\" target=\"_blank\">Moist von Lipwig<\/a>, a Discworld character whose distinguishing characteristic is having no distinguishing characteristics. See <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Going_Postal\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Going Postal<\/em><\/a> and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Making_Money\" target=\"_blank\">Making Money<\/a><\/em> .<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/Authentic-Kansas-Tumbleweed-\/181031724177?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&amp;hash=item2a2654e491\" target=\"_blank\">People are still selling tumbleweeds on eBay<\/a>. I can&#8217;t figure it. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/1964-Tumbleweeds-7-Press-Photo-\/390484288925?pt=Art_Photo_Images&amp;hash=item5aeaad659d\" target=\"_blank\">If the world has an abundance of anything, it&#8217;s tumbleweeds<\/a>. Unless maybe you live in New York City and want some Western ambience without ever actually going there.<\/li>\n<li>When I was in college, a girl told me: &#8220;The trouble with you, Jeff, is that you&#8217;re too <em>damned<\/em> happy!&#8221; Guilty. And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news1130.com\/2013\/02\/28\/study-finds-pessimists-are-happier-than-positive-thinkers\/\" target=\"_blank\">this research sounds like BS to me<\/a>, in part because low expectations are not the same as pessimism. And also in part because most pessimists I&#8217;ve spent time with seem pretty unhappy. But what do I know? I&#8217;m a pessimism denier.<\/li>\n<li>The Atlantic reports research suggesting that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2013\/03\/the-neanderthals-may-have-died-out-because-of-bunnies\/273684\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Neanderthals went extinct because they ran out of woolly mammoths and couldn&#8217;t get their substantial (and hard) heads around hunting bunnies<\/a>. I&#8217;m still convinced that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=1387\" target=\"_blank\">they wiped themselves out for lack of dogs<\/a>. (Thanks to Bruce Baker for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>Humanoid robots could make good firefighters, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/03\/13\/tech\/innovation\/robot-fire-us-navy\/index.html?iid=article_sidebar\" target=\"_blank\">the Navy is working on it<\/a>. I&#8217;ll believe it when I see it, of course, but I keep thinking that a humanoid robot who can fight fires can do a lot of other interesting things. (Thanks to Bp. Sam&#8217;l Bassett for the link.)<\/li>\n<li>God sometimes teaches stupid people harsh lessons&#8211;and <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/blogs\/sideshow\/applebees-waitress-stolen-id-drivers-license-154712609.html\" target=\"_blank\">sometimes they&#8217;re so funny they hurt<\/a>. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for the link.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which movie theater did you go to on your first date? Whether or not that theater still exists, this site may have a photo of it, along with other interesting historical data. The first theater I took Carol to is this one. It&#8217;s still there, and still awesome. (Thanks to Ernie Marek for the link.) [&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":[33,43,151,46,113,117,72],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddlots","tag-books","tag-humor","tag-memoir","tag-psychology","tag-robotics","tag-tubes","tag-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}