Balancing privacy concerns in my photos

I’ve struggled with finding the right balance of descriptiveness and privacy in my Flickr photos account. Up to now, I’ve almost completely avoided displaying people’s names, because I think it’s a little creepy to be able to go to someone’s photos, and search for someone else to see what they’ve been doing. On the other …

A random collection of videos

It’s amazing how much time you can sink watching videos online: Robot Chicken is a satirical stop-motion animation show on Cartoon Network. For example, take a look at how the Emperor reacts when he finds out the Death Star was destroyed. (Thanks to Brian.) Line Rider is a Flash-based game where a little guy goes …

2 out of 2 economists agree: voting Democratic will improve the economy

Today is Election Day in the U.S., and I’m reminded of a funny thing I saw on CNBC last Friday. Morning Call hosted two economists, one from the AFL-CIO labor union, and the other from the libertarian Cato Institute. Surprisingly, they both agreed that a Democratic majority in Congress would improve the economy. The AFL-CIO …

’80s overdose

Maybe it’s because I’ve watched Time-Life’s Classic Soft Rock Collection infomercial one too many times, but when I was leaving for work today, Christopher Cross‘s “Ride Like the Wind” popped into my head, complete with backing vocals by Michael McDonald (“what a fool believes…“). So I got curious and did a Google search on “ride …

Bizarre misuse of languages

You may have heard of Engrish.com, which showcases the bizarre ways English is often used to “look cool” in Japan and China. Well, two can play that game: Tian Tang was inspired by Engrish to set up Hanzi Smatter, which is dedicated to the bizarre ways Chinese characters are used to look cool in Western …

More music fun

When I was in elementary and middle school, I listened to mostly adult contemporary songs (i.e., “soft rock”), mostly because I didn’t know any better. So watching the infomercial for Time-Life’s Classic Soft Rock collection was particularly trippy, because they showed that these songs were sung by real people! With bad hair and funny clothes! …