{"id":2813,"date":"2013-03-31T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2013-03-31T13:13:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T19:13:44","slug":"odd-lots-222","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2813","title":{"rendered":"Odd Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>This Easter, automate your Easter-egg rituals with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.makershed.com\/The_Original_Egg_Bot_Kit_p\/mkems9.htm\" target=\"_blank\">an open-source egg-drawing robot<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-news\/science-at-nasa\/2013\/26mar_marscomet\/\" target=\"_blank\">more on the comet that may hit Mars in October 2014<\/a>. Whether it hits Mars or not, that comet will come <em>mighty<\/em> close, and from here it could be a fascinating show indeed.<\/li>\n<li>Walter Jon Williams is still taking applications for his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taostoolbox.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Taos Toolbox SF\/fantasy writers&#8217; workshop<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2036\" target=\"_blank\">I attended in 2011<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2041\" target=\"_blank\">it was <em>spectacular<\/em><\/a> . (I didn&#8217;t finish the Contra series because <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/?p=2044\" target=\"_blank\">my house almost blew up<\/a>. However, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inkpunks.com\/2012\/01\/28\/guest-post-from-jeff-duntemann-taos-toolbox\/\" target=\"_blank\">I wrote a little more here<\/a>.) Powerfully recommended.<\/li>\n<li>OMG! <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2013\/03\/jeff-bezos-new-patent-envisions-tablets-without-processors-batteries\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Bezos has invented mainframes<\/a>!<\/li>\n<li>George Mason University has <a href=\"http:\/\/freedominthe50states.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">an elaborate 50-state ranking on freedom<\/a>, broken out by category and pulled together by color-coded maps of the states.<\/li>\n<li>Wikipedia has a nice chart indicating <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gas-discharge_lamp\" target=\"_blank\">the colors given off by various gases when used in gas-discharge lamps<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>People are still making cantennas to throw their microwaves a little more sharply in one direction, but <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.makezine.com\/2013\/03\/26\/how-to-improve-your-wifi-signal-using-a-soda-can-in-6-steps\/\" target=\"_blank\">here&#8217;s a cantenna that isn&#8217;t a waveguide<\/a>. (Watch those edges!) Hacker Dave Mirecki builds something similar but much larger using foil-backed duct insulation, in <em>Ten Gentle Opportunities<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s how <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424127887324024004578171403739777528.html\" target=\"_blank\">a strike that essentially shut down the American music industry allowed unconventional (and largely non-white) music to rise to public prominence<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Once people begin making <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.makezine.com\/2013\/03\/28\/vintage-typewriter-keys-new-tech-diesel-punk-keyboard\/\" target=\"_blank\">dieselpunk keyboards<\/a>, will dieselpunk itself move from being a blip to being a trend?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilovebacon.com\/fresh-bacon\/boneless-bananas.html\" target=\"_blank\">Shop carefully, lest you choke on a banana bone<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Easter, automate your Easter-egg rituals with an open-source egg-drawing robot. Here&#8217;s more on the comet that may hit Mars in October 2014. Whether it hits Mars or not, that comet will come mighty close, and from here it could be a fascinating show indeed. Walter Jon Williams is still taking applications for his Taos [&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":[41,43,49,54,20],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddlots","tag-astronomy","tag-humor","tag-music","tag-science","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813","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=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2822,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/2822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}