Australia: Supersize my ambulance

Australia’s obesity crisis has forced health officials to revamp their fleet of ambulances to cope with a sharp rise in overweight patients.

Studies estimate that 67% of Australian men and over half of all women aged over 25 are overweight or obese.

Super-sized vehicles have been introduced and new air ambulances will be remodeled to carry heavier people weighing up to 220kg…
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USA: “The Day I Got Deported From the US”

There is a very interesting description of what an UN Aid worker had to experience when he tried to enter the US with his EEC passport.
Also read the comments - even more insights…
The story is at the The Road to the Horizon blog.

Happy Birthday Harry Belafonte

You won’t believe it but it’s the great man’s 80th Birthday today. So we wish you all the best and a great thank you for all what you have done in your life so far. And - as you can expect we are not talking necessarily about Calypso here….Harry Belafonte is to most people probably best known as the handsome singer who popularized calypso music in the US in the 1950s. But Harry Belafonte has done so many more things - a lengthy career as an actor, producer and music composer but more importantly is his longstanding work as an activist in the fights against racism, violence and world hunger. Being the first black performer to win an Emmy and…

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2006 Turing award: ACM for the first time laureates female engineer

After more than 40 years of existence the Turing Award aka the “Nobel Prize in Computing” for the first time today was awarded to a female engineer. Frances E. Allen, received the USD 100,000 price for “…pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution…” . Frances E. Allen has been working in the field of computing and Information Technology since the days of punch cards and is currently with…

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Second Life: Best quote on what it is

We documented some background information on Second Life a few weeks ago. Now Robert Scoble has provided us with the best definition from an interview he has done last week at LIFT show in Geneva:
He was interviewing Sister Judith Zoebelein, who manages the Vatican’s Web site and asked her:
“… do you think we’ll soon go [...]

Quote of the day: UN and Nations

This quote is attributed to Carlos Romulo former president of the UN General Assembly:

“…If there is a problem between a weak nation and another weak nation and the UN takes action, the problem disappears.
If there is a problem between a strong nation and a weak nation and the UN takes action, the weak nation [...]

WEF: Remember when you made your first $10m?

In one of its blogs the BBC today provides an interesting snippet from a conversation overheard at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

…Two friends talking: “Good call that we stopped him for a chat. He doesn’t know it, but I made my first $10m off one of his companies.”
The speaker has just parted company with [...]

CNNMoney: Darwin Award for Businesses

With its great list of “101 Dumbest Moments in Business” CNNMoney provides a good overview on the 2006 “biggest boors, buffoons, and blunderers” in businesses. Some companies even managed to get more then one entry on the list. When you read through the pages…

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Music: “Superstition” on Sesame Street

Back in 1973 22 year old Stevie Wonder played his famous song “Superstition” on Sesame Street together with Ray Parker Jr. on the guitar, Anthony Jackson on the bass and Olie Brown on the drums. Watch this great moment of TV history online…

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations

Today throughout the US celebrations will be held to honor Martin Luther King Jr. who was murdered 1968 in Memphis. Many things have changed since the march to Washington and his famous speech in 1963, but with the deterioration of civil rights throughout the world’s leading nations latest since 9/11 it is good to be reminded that there was a time not so long ago when people stood up for their rights and did not indulge in indifference to such changes.

A video of his famous speech is available online in full length (link below)…

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