Nerd vs. Tech Savvy

I got an email from my daughter Mary today. She is 25 and lives in Riverside, California.

Hey Dad! I was watching a rerun of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (which I see as the late night show for tech-savvy youngsters, compared to Jay Leno or David Letterman.) and thought of you! You were (/are) the only one excited (and recognized) the new scan [QR-code – see the left column of this blog]. This particular episode had Steven Colbert and a crazy dance and song in it. One random guy in the dance scene was holding a cardboard sign with a scan! I paused the episode, scanned the code and got this website: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2011/04/fallon-colbert-project-bonus-video-thank-you/ It’s way cool seeing where technology is taking us! Moving forward every day! [See the episode here: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon – Stephen Colbert Sings ‘Friday’ with The Roots (4/1/11) – Video – NBC.com]

It’s wonderful Mary associates me with the “tech-savvy” culture. She could have just called me a “nerd”!!

The Greater Good

A wonderful response to Nicholas Kristol’s op-ed piece in the NY Times:

I am a frequent international traveler.

I take a taxi to JFK on pot-holed roads, arrive at dirty airports, and land in clean European airports. Then I take their clean and convenient trains to their city centers. Then I fly back to the pot-holed highways to New York City, and admire the glittery glass enclosed and marble tiled buildings belonging to private corporations.

This is what is fundamentally different between us and Europe. We admire our ability to amass wealth at the expense of public services, and they provide services to the public at the expense of their (fewer) citizens to amass wealth.

Greater good for the greater number of people is the European motto. Greater good for the fewer at the expense of greater number of people is ours.

I am glad that our president is taking this discussion nationally.