In light of yesterday's seminar, this is especially creepy --
Recently I joined an anonymous social networking site to try to meet new people in LA. Within 3 days, I got an email from an old friend from D.C. who I had sort of lost touch with-- turns out the network *somehow* matched us together, despite the fact that 1)I now live in LA and he lives in New York, 2) I neither searched for him, nor did he search for me, and 3) there's nothing in my profile (or his) specific enough that would connect us together above the millions of other people who say they enjoy music and cycling. How did this happen? Is there meta data that the site is culling from me that somehow augments my profile to connect me to people I actually know? Or are their matching algorithms really so amazing that I should invest fully in their match-making capabilities? ... ok, i've said to much. But, as my friend put it, Big Brother is watching.