Miscellaneous and Useless Information
James Lin’s infrequently updated blog
My German friend Clemens said this has a ring of truth to it: Germans value letters attached to their name more than money, love or having children with nine out of ten rating a good qualification as their most important aim in life, a survey showed Wednesday. Germans prefer letters after name to love or …
Continue reading “Germans love those letters after their names”
Since I and so many of my friends are turning 30 this year, I thought this New York Times article would be appropriate: Smiling Through the 30th, a Birthday Once Apocalyptic Once, turning 30 was slightly irritating, an embarrassing passage, and people were in no mood to broadcast the news. This was especially true for …
I guess I haven’t been in suburbia during Halloween for a while, because I don’t remember so many Halloween decorations on houses when I was in high school. It’s starting to rival Christmas! And then there’s one home which decided to incorporate Christmas lights into their Halloween decorations. Thinking ahead…
As the scale of the enormous disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama becomes clear, two things come to my mind: Despite the mandatory evacuation orders, 20% of the population stayed behind to ride out the storm. Let’s just take the New Orleans metropolitan area, which has more than 1.3 million people. That means about 260,000 …
Native Americans have been dealing with the loss of their culture through assimilation and interracial marriage for over 100 years. But those claiming to be Native American have jumped substantially in the last couple of decades, including those who don’t “look” Indian. How do Indians deal with such challenges? What does it mean to be …
The recent killing of ducks near a car wash in Campbell has spawned outrage and a reward fund of over $17,000. Now, I’ve seen enough of the security video footage to know that it was a barbaric act. But I strongly agree with those who say that people seem to care more about animals than …