Spelling with the periodic table
A program that finds the shortest series of entries in the periodic table that will allow you to spell words, assuming one exists, would be a »
Street address systems
It's hard to imagine that some countries still lack uniform street address systems. In Bali, locals use street names accompanied by relative landmarks to find their »
Traffic buffers
Fortunately, I can usually commute by foot or by bike, both of which are fairly immune to traffic. I'm accustomed to having realistic time estimates on »
Celebrating holidays
Why do we celebrate holidays on the same day? If you're willing to celebrate Thanksgiving a few weeks earlier, you'll save on airfare, travel headaches, and »
Packing autopilot
Packing is something that you should be able to do on autopilot. An easy way to know that you have everything you need when you’re »
Legibility of different writing systems
I'm curious how legible street signs are when they're written in different writing systems. Arabic takes a similar amount of horizontal space as its English translation, »
Cultural attire
When is it appropriate to wear cultural attire from a culture that's not your own? If done out of context, it can easily be seen as »
Urban survival kit
People make fun of me for always carrying around my bag of tricks, but when they need something, they know they can count on me to »
Art of the spin doctor
Spin doctors are experts and using available evidence to tell any story. The best disguise the fact that they're carefully crafting a conversation to push their »
Hypocritical open mindedness?
It's ironic that many who claim to be open minded are actually closed minded. In other words, they're only open minded with those who share their »