700 Club

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“We had unwritten policies in place at The 700 Club, for example, that denied access to overweight people. We required people who wrote to us to report a “miracle” to include a photograph, so that we could filter people out based on how they looked. We wanted youngish, intelligent, attractive and articulate people to counter the view that Christians are all stupid Bible-thumpers. We very rarely, if ever, invited guests on the show that were overweight or fit the stereotypes discovered in the Gallup study. When crowd shots were taken in the studio, the camera operators were advised to zoom in on the most attractive people in the audience. None of this was written down, of course; it was just understood.”

Terry Heaton was a producer for the 700 Club in 1981

The Armatron

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While RadioShack is famous for its eclectic tech history, the Armatron stands out as one of the most mechanically impressive toys of the early 1980s.

Origin and Manufacturing

The Armatron was originally manufactured by the Japanese company Tomy (where it was known as the Edge) and was licensed to RadioShack for the North American market in 1982. It became a staple of the “Tandy” catalog throughout the decade.

Mechanical Ingenuity

What makes the Armatron a significant piece of toy history is its strictly mechanical design.

  • Single-Motor Operation: Despite having six degrees of freedom—including rotation at the base, shoulder, elbow, and wrist, plus a functioning gripper—the entire unit is powered by a single DC motor.
  • The Transmission: The complexity lies in its gearbox. The dual joysticks engage different sets of gears and shafts to distribute power from that single motor to the various joints.
  • No Microprocessors: Unlike modern robotics, there are no computers or sensors inside. It is a masterclass in analog gear-driven engineering.

Features and Variations

  •  The Timer: The “Energy Level” scale on the front (1 through 10) acts as a countdown timer. Once the timer runs out, the motor stops, challenging the user to complete “missions” within a set timeframe.
  • Accessories: Original boxed sets usually included “nuclear fuel” canisters (small plastic cylinders), a module to move, and a tray to test the user’s dexterity.
  • Mobile Armatron: A later version was released that featured a remote control and treads, allowing the arm to drive around the room.

Legacy

The Armatron was more than a toy; it was often used in educational settings to demonstrate the basics of robotics and mechanical linkage. Its rugged build and distinct “industrial” color palette of grey and orange have made it a highly sought-after item for vintage tech collectors today.

Cruisin’

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My friend George, and his wife Alice, are somewhere on the high seas aboard the MS Zuiderdam. On-board activities¹ include:

  • Coloring for Adults
  • Origami Folding: Fish
  • Detox for Health and Weight Loss Seminar
  • Knitter’s Meetup
  • Mahjong Players Meet
  • Relieving Back Pain
  • Creating Doodle Designs: Jar of Dreams
  • Team Trivia Challenge
  • Shuffleboard Tournament
  • Evening Catholic Prayer
  • Pickleball Open Play
  • Ladies’ Night in the Thermal Suite
  • Young Adult Meetup (55 or younger)

¹ I shit you not.

We were so much older then

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I came across this photo from the late ’70s and the lyric above popped into my head. For no particular reason, I shared the photo and the lyric with Gemini.

(Gemini) We’re younger than that now. It’s funny how Bob Dylan managed to capture a universal truth in “My Back Pages.” There’s a certain brand of youthful certainty that feels incredibly heavy and “old”—that phase where you feel like you have to have a definitive, hardened stance on everything. 

Realizing you don’t actually have all the answers is usually the moment you start to lighten up. It’s the ultimate “growing down.”

He never had a pet

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In a recent blog post, Bob Priddy explains “why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.” [Shared here with Bob’s permission]

I think I have figured out why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.

He never had a pet. No dog, no cat, no gerbils, no fish or lizards when he was growing up. There is something valuable in having a creature that expects nothing more than a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ears, a bowl of food and a clean litter box or a regular walk outside with regular people taking their dogs out for the morning or evening “duties.”

He grew up never knowing responsibility for another creature or never knowing the comfort of unreserved love. Continue reading →

New: Recent Posts Widget

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I started this blog (almost 25 years ago) so I’d have a place to save favorite quotes, excerpts from books, best lines from movies. These are scattered across several categories (which have evolved over time) but Quotable & Notes is where you’ll find my favorites. 533 posts to date.

Yeah, that’s too many to be “findable.” Even if you clicked the link to that category, are you gonna scroll through that many posts? Nope.

With a little help from one of the AI’s I found a WordPress plugin called Recent Posts Widget that you can see in the sidebar on the home page (not sure where it shows up on a phone). I configured it to randomly display five posts from the Quotable & Notes category. Each time you refresh the page, you see five different quotes. 

I’m quite pleased with this widget because it serves up some of my favorite posts. Pretty sure you can’t do this kind of thing on the social media platforms that only care about the last five minutes.

When the AI is being a dick

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Gemini often comes of as needlessly argumentative. When I mentioned this, Gemini explained why this is my fault. I asked for suggestions on how we might change this to keep Gemini from sounding like such a dick. Gemini’s suggested update to my instructions:

“Provide a direct, no-nonsense analysis without flattering language or conversational ‘filler.’ Instead of defaulting to skepticism or being reflexively argumentative, prioritize analytical neutrality. Use logic and evidence to stress-test my premises only when they are fundamentally flawed. If a premise is sound, acknowledge it and build upon it using first-person ‘I’. Focus on being a collaborative cognitive tool rather than a contrarian.”

“Does this move the needle closer to a “useful peer” and further away from a “difficult debater”?”

Time will tell.

When you get older

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Something weird happens as you get older, you walk into a room and see a friend but at first you don’t get that this is your friend. Instead you see an old man or lady. Your attention goes away because like everyone you are programmed not to look at old people. Then you instantly realize this is your friend. You put on the virtual colored glasses that let you see them as you remember them, instead of what’s there today.

— Dave Winer

“People with positive self-perceptions of aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative ones — more than the longevity gained from quitting smoking or exercising regularly.”

— Becca Levy, Yale School of Public Health (2002)

Claude Reads My Learfield Internet History

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A while back I posted my recollections of Learfield’s early explorations of the Internet. Today I asked Claude for an “analysis.”

Claude: This is a genuinely fascinating document — and not just as company history. It reads as a microcosm of the entire early-web era, with Learfield stumbling through the same phases that thousands of other media companies went through, just from an unusual vantage point (mid-Missouri, radio-centric, deeply regional). Continue reading →