Last Lecture Professor Died

Professor Randy Pausch who gave the "Last Lecture" died this week at the age of 47. My heart sank when I heard the news even though as one of the millions of audience of his lecture I knew it's coming. My prayers go out to his family.

His lecture is inspiring and touching. It makes me think what are the most important things in my life.

What's in a Name?

Here are several songs that gave me the inspiration of this blog name "Spread Your Wings". I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I Believe I can Fly
by R. Kelly.


Breakaway
by Kelly Clarkson



The Wind beneath My Wings
by Bette Midler

Google Does Good

Being a juggernaut in the tech industry, Google's "Do no evil" credo is often questioned and sometimes ridiculed by competitors and bloggers. Google doesn't have squeaky clean image, but nobody can deny its innovation and influence. I am glad to see Google is using both to do good with this mashup service: Google China Releases Holiday Mass Migration Map

Like some Chinese words that took root from Western language, sardine is a word many Chinese understand and readily accept into their vocabulary. They know how it feels to be one of the sardines on a subway or a bus in a heavily populated city like Shanghai. They know it only gets worse close to the holidays, espeically Chinese New Year. All the migrant workers who toiled in the big cities for an entire year take their only trip of the year back home. With this year's blizzard that has wrecked havoc in most part of southern China, the trip home this year becomes longer than ever.

Google China built the Holiday Mass Migration Map within a day after the idea first emerged. It aggregates weather, railway and road condition, ticket information on Google Map. China Web 2.0 Review gave a good review of the site, acknowledging its innovation, in the meantime pointing out the mashup's apparent web 1.0 style.

I applaud Google China's effort to see and understand the needs of the people. After all, who needs technology if it cannot do us good?

Talk the Talk

In any heated political campaign, it is no surprise that a candidate targets his or her message to a group of voters. Sometimes it means speaking their language.

In this recent Mitt Romney TV ad campaign, Craig Romney promotes his father in Spanish. Here is the YouTube clip:

A Reporter, A Legend

Starting a new blog is on my new year's resolution list. But where do I begin?

I cannot get my mind off of a book "Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life" I read over the holidays. Peter Jennings was the long time anchor of ABC World News Tonight. To his friends and colleagues, Peter is "larger than life". To me, he is not only the image and voice of American television, to some extent, he is the icon of America as I saw it.

When I arrived in USA more than 10 years ago, I was lost in this foreign land. The least I needed to do was to adjust to the newly discovered American accent. The harder task was to figure out what this new country is all about and where I would fit. Peter was my conduit of information then.

The reason I started watching ABC World News Tonight was because of its name. It seemed to be more about the world than any other news program at the time. I was also drawn to the program because of its anchor person, Peter Jennings. Like many viewers I found news delivered by Peter understandable and trustworthy. Throughout the years, Peter continue to be my source of information especially in times of difficulty. Sadly he died of lung cancer in 2005.

This new book, through the narratives of his friends, family and colleague, allows me to see the many sides of Peter Jennings: his insatiable curiosity in the world, his persistence in bringing news worth reporting to his audience, his enthusiasm for his work... What touches me the most is his deep and sincere interest in people. I think that's what made him so great.

Here is Peter, whom we deeply missed: