Conan's official press statement, scattered with goodies throughout.  One of the best I've ever seen, done with class by a classy guy being put in a shitty situation by management all too willing to accommodate Jay Leno's sudden change of heart at The Tonight Show's expense.

It starts on a good note with the salutation:

People of Earth:

Takes a subtle shot at Leno's meager 10pm ratings:

It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule.

And gets to the meat of it:

For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

Bravo, Conan.

My 2-year-old daughter surprised me recently with two words: “Daddy’s book.” She was holding my Kindle electronic reader.

Here is a child only beginning to talk, revealing that the seeds of the next generation gap have already been planted. She has identified the Kindle as a substitute for words printed on physical pages. I own the device and am still not completely sold on the idea.

My daughter’s worldview and life will be shaped in very deliberate ways by technologies like the Kindle and the new magical high-tech gadgets coming out this year — Google’s Nexus One phone and Apple’s impending tablet among them. She’ll know nothing other than a world with digital books, Skype video chats with faraway relatives, and toddler-friendly video games on the iPhone. She’ll see the world a lot differently from her parents.

Fascinating article from Brad Stone stating that, quite simply, the unflagging rate of tech advancement is creating mini generation gaps whereby these mini-generations can be identified and grouped by what technology they grow up with during formative years.  Makes perfect sense, because more than once I've observed that young kids today are familiar with an iPhone in a way that kids of eight years ago are not.  My son, now 5, tries to touch, swipe and pinch the screen of every mobile phone he comes across.  Eight years ago, kids would have been introduced to a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone or something from Nokia and then introduced to an iPhone.

Another thing I think about: what will tech look like when my son is 16?  How many disruptive technologies will come down and displace the things that, by today's standards, are considered contemporary?

And perhaps the biggest question of all: speaking from psychological, cognitive, sociological and developmental perspectives, what long-term effect will all this technology, replete with its 'information anywhere' capability, have on people?  Today, we see all sorts of psychopharmaceutical drugs aimed at what we now consider mainstream psychological conditions: anxiety, ADHD, depression.  It's interesting -- and not just a little scary -- to consider what we'll be 'treating' 15 years from now as a result of people being overstimulated, forced to multitask beyond what the human mind can reasonably do (some argue we're there already) and rely on technology for everything: information, answers, directions, social consensus, morality.

Even as a tech geek, I reel sometimes.  As a guy who used to read a book a week but now struggles to get through one a month (most of my reading is web reading, which, arguably, is more convenient due to its more fragmented nature), I wonder where this is all going.

I know -- I think I'll check out a Kindle.  If, of course, the Apple tablet disappoints.  Then -- yes, then -- I'll get back to reading at a tyrannosaurid rate.  Right?

Good guidelines for these times:

My first-order response is that my most important advice comes by example and I have little idea what kind of message is actually being received.  Keep in mind that children often respond to your strengths with niche-finding strategies, and thus deviation, rather than copying strategies.

Otherwise, a long time ago I told Yana to take calculus and statistics; even if she hates them she'll know what side of that divide she stands on.  I am encouraging of learning languages, driving modest Japanese cars, and ordering the most unappealing-sounding dish on the menu of a good restaurant.  On investing it's buy and hold all the way.  Use TimeOut guides when you travel and when you are eating in third world countries avoid walls.  I'm not a big fan of debt; debt is worth it only if you're earnings-obsessed and I don't recommend that for most people.  Don't expect to be too happy, that is counterproductive.  I've mentioned that future job descriptions may be quite fluid and unpredictable from today's vantage point.  Being "good with people," combined with smarts and a focus on execution, will never wear out.  The reality is that I hardly have any useful advice.

I haven't read a story that makes me this angry for quite some time. This is what sociologists talk about when people lose every vestige of who they are for the sake of consumerism and the need to put things above all else. As evolved as we think we are, this is what we're capable of in our absolute, whitewashed mindlessness. At least the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, as despicable as they are, are thought out and reasoned and planned, however poorly and cruelly. This is just slackjawed indifference to human life. The NY Times:

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order. Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. Someone taped up a crude poster: “Blitz Line Starts Here.” By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless. Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him. Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying to hold the doors were also hurled back and run over, witnesses said. Some workers who saw what was happening fought their way through the surge to get to Mr. Damour, but he had been fatally injured, the police said. Emergency workers tried to revive Mr. Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, at the scene, but he was pronounced dead an hour later at Franklin Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream.

First, that particular Wal-Mart should have never opened its doors when the crowd was already unruly a full 90 minutes before the store even opened. Second, the police should have stayed for crowd control purposes well into the opening minutes, because if idiots like this can't control themselves at 3:30 AM, it's not going to be any better when the doors open at 5 AM. Valley Stream police, what was your logic not to stay and control what was already a volatile situation? Third, anyone who participated in the "blitz" yesterday should be completely and utterly ashamed of himself: your behavior is a sparkling example of everything that's wrong with people today. I won't even get into the groupthink and mob mentality angles of all this; it's all too apparent anyway.

Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said they were shocked. One of them, Kimberly Cribbs of Queens, said the crowd had acted like “savages.” Shoppers behaved badly even as the store was being cleared, she recalled. “When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”

Kill another human being to save a few bucks on a shitty LCD? This is the best our country can do in the midst of the most severe economic and behavioral correction since the Great Depression? Because things are tough right now, this gives us a license to release our pent-up frustrations in the most inexcusable way possible? Black Friday indeed.

Tell me if you can detect the parallels between McCain's erratic, ridiculous campaign and the story of Ashley Todd, 20, who claimed she was assaulted by a black man who carved a "B" in her face (which stands for 'Barack') because he saw a GOP sticker on her car.

A campaign worker who claimed she was the victim of a politically-motivated attack in which she was beaten, kicked and cut, now admits that she made the whole story up. According to Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard, Ashley Todd, 20, told investigators today that she "was not robbed and there was no 6'4" black male attacker." Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield Wednesday night and that the suspect began beating her after seeing a John McCain bumper sticker on her car. Todd claimed that the mugger even cut a backwards letter "B" in her cheek. But today investigators say Todd confessed that the attack never happened.

Classy.