Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Author: Thang Nguyen 555
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CV or Eulogy version? Who and what are you? …so, this is Christmas…and what have you done? Giving or taking, contributing or exploiting? In “This is for Everyone”, Tim Bernes-Lee recounts his discovery (HTML) that places platform in everyone’s hand, “solidly” and “intentionally” (not just grab everyone’s attention to monetize). What a romantic and a…
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At work, at play or at home, one brings his/her whole being, warp and weakness, to bear. Therefore: You play long; they play short (Bill Clinton made an observation that in one’s life career, a worker has to switch jobs 7 times. Of late, I overheard 4-years was a good “run”. Do the math!). You…
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Have you noticed first slowly, then suddenly, certain things just disappeared? Hardback, softcover, large print, vinyl and boombox…just to name a few. Monuments stay. Libraries and cathedrals stay. Millionaires used to leave behind endowments for library to spread and strengthen literacy and civic education. On this note, I call on Tik Tok, Meta and Netflix…
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In ancient times, messengers/couriers had to run distance, arrive exhausted and get killed . Message-received more than often turns out different than message-perceived. Try it the next time you have a party, after a few drinks. Start a gossip, see how it takes on a life of its own unrecognizably at the other end. Even…
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It’s been fifty years since, yet that US-shaped cake with red-white-blue icing still lingers somewhere in my memory: all typewriters stopped, and all Child Welfare staff joined in “Happy Birthday”. Placing unaccompanied minors into foster care to them was just a job. To show me, unpaid interpreter, some humanity was extra. The 322-22 highway curved…
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From zero to 1. Disruptive behavior e.g. move fast, break things. West Coast upending East Coast, Palo Alto Rte 128. Tear-off jeans displace upscale jeans. “Stop-out” is the new “drop-out”. Who needs college! College? it’s where they teach you to question where technology is heading, whether it’s serving the need of humanity (the majority) or…
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Paul Tournier said, “Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets”. Those moments when we felt more like Fredo than Michael Corleone. Fredo, played by Cazale, half Irish, half Italian was at one time in a relationship with Meryl Streep (also in the Deer Hunter where she played a Vietnam draftee’s bridesmaid in a Slavic…
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A Purdue graduate has designed a robot that can cut through the Rubik cube chase in a blink of an eye. That’s 51 years’ worth of twist and shout, frustration and triumph. Next gen is with new promises albeit working at greater speed. Daughters, all futures. Dad past. Julie Kim Le’s showcased in split-screened reproduction…
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Our elderly statesman, former President Carter, once told Charlie Rose he still regrets not sending enough choppers out on Eagle Claw, the Iranian hostage rescue. In the same vein, I couldn’t forget Operation Frequent Wind whose choppers couldn’t be rid of quickly enough. Those who don’t act also have regrets. But perhaps less than those…
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A lifetime of interaction reduced to just a name on grave marker. Something is hollowed out, a vacuum unfilled. While living, we gave so much weight to feelings: anger, humiliation, humor, humility, assigning ill intention, assigning blame, false accusation, second-guessing and self-projection. Just stressed out. Just figuring it all out. Then understood, finally (no finality…
Thang Nguyen 555 