“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” — The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 have been interpreted and re-interpreted, acting over the years as a starting point for debates on privacy and online anonymity. In Japan, a country wit...

A few weeks ago I was in touch with a relative of mine that I hadn't spoken or seen in possibly over twenty years. One of the joys of Facebook is its seamless ability to network and reconnect disparate human beings all over the planet. Whether its talent will move from a dream phase to a nightma...

It's like clockwork. Every month, a handful of emails hit my inbox from readers with a singular purpose: What should I do on my trip to Japan? There are endless things to do in Japan that run the gamut of traditional to modern to fascinating to banal. What unites these emailers is that A). They're g...

The 100 episode limited edition high definition reintroduction of DragonBall Z has a name: DragonBall Kai, and a fresh HD trailer, embedded and lovingly fansubbed after the jump. More details have come out about the series since it was revealed, with the backers still emphasizing "no cropping" of or...

Mental (and network) note: Orion Southern Star literally tastes like piss water. I finally finished the last can and will absolutely kill myself if I buy it again… or have to have another house party to get rid of it. Orion (Mugi Shokunin) 3 Stars. No problems here! Buy more....

It's hard to choose favourites, but of all the sweet-smelling flowers of spring I think jinchoge (sweet daphne) is the best, with its lovely fragrance that is strong enough to make you stop in your tracks, without being cloying. We have bushes of jinchoge at our apartment's front entrance an...

Just saw this chart in an FT article about Malaysia: Not good! Also, they seem to have taken a bigger hit than Brazil as well: But Brazilians might beat their own record in the first quarter of 2009, as a thrifty American consumer and less demand for oil have hit Brazil hard. Overall exports fe...

Empire of the Sun, French edition, Denoël (1985), with cover art ‘Singapour 1945′ by Ronald Seatle. Thanks to Herve for all cover scans. Interview by Tony Cartano & Maxim Jakubowski. Translation by Dan O’Hara. The following interview, originally titled ‘Le passé compos...

Filed under: Editor's Picks, Switched Video SHOP HOP: In this new series, the Switched Video crew will be touring shops around the country in search of great gadgets and gear. For the first episode, we show up at AC Gears in New York City to sample some of its newer wares: AC Gears in New York City ...

Filed under: Audio/Video, iPod For some reason, whenever gadgetry and smiling cross paths, things tend to get a little creepy. Where the smile trainer was mostly a curiosity, the Orwellian implications of the Okao Catch technology were a bit much -- even for the hardened tech blogger. Sure, the Mimi...