“I’m a Spalding Gray in a Rick Dees world!” – Homer Simpson I’ve had lots more thoughts about the coming-together of America in the few days since my last post on it. My brother is in town and so we’ve been seeing the sights together–the commercial district of San Francisco, the commercial district of Palo…more
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I’ll make them mindless drones like the ones before.” -Poem on the Statue of Liberty (2003 update) one of the most compelling promises of the technological revolution is…more
i feel bad lots of times because of the way i am being largely selfish with my gifts. it’s true, my first concern is myself. fortunately that is becoming less so as God proves his providence and i learn to trust, but i suspect it will always be the case. what i didn’t realize before my friend’s email was that, despite my eternal selfishness, there ARE things that i CAN do, and these include using my unique (read: acquired through undeserved selfish means) gifts.
this morning, for the first time in years, a prize tumbled out of my cereal box and into the bowl. it had been such a long time since that last happened that i actually shouted out loud in excitement. now realize, this prize was nothing more than a “jungle book” bobblehead doll, retail value ~$0.10….more
What distinguishes information from knowledge? Steven Johnson, Sony Ericsson Clicker, Xerox and Google weigh in.
just saw a piece on PBS about Fred Rogers. a painfully rational guy like myself doesn’t show emotion often, but i am unashamed to say that i teared up when i saw him speak again. i will forever underestimate and underappreciate the positive influence this man and his show had on my life. if i…more
right now “married by america” is on in the background–yeah, the show where people agree to marry the person who gets the most telephone votes during primetime. i heard a quote from one of the women’s mothers that just didn’t sound right to me: “Well, I trust America–they’ve never made a wrong decision before”. that’s…more
this harvard biz school research found that a good reputation on eBay was worth a 7.6 percent higher selling price for the same set of 200 items. this is nice, quantitative support for a trust-based system of identities. it makes me remember the Visa check card advertisement, where Kevin Bacon runs around trying to find…more
today’s NY times column by Nicholas Kristof , my favorite columnist, cites the recent Gallup findings that 46 percent of Americans describe themselves as “born-again” or “evangelical” Christians. moreover, almost twice as many Americans believe in creationism than in evolution (48 to 28 percent) despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. i guess what worries…more