Sideswipe

For $10, your prison visiting room photo can be turned into a digitally enhanced holiday snap (refer to article below)

For $10, Friends Beyond the Wall takes your prison visiting room photo, crops you and your loved one out of it and digitally inserts you into one of dozens of exotic backgrounds. Instead of standing in front of a block wall, you can be seen leaning on your Jaguar, lounging in a gazebo in the woods or taking a virtual honeymoon in Morocco. (Source: Wired News)

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An excerpt from a blog written by a dispatcher from the London Ambulance Service called Nee Naw, the sentiments of which hold true within our beleaguered ambo service.

* The louder you shout, the quicker the ambulance will come.

* The quicker you speak, the quicker the ambulance will come.

* The ambulance cannot possibly leave the ambulance station until you hang up, so it is imperative to hang up as soon as possible, even if the call-taker is trying to tell you something. Hanging up several times will make the ambulance come twice as fast.

* There is only one person who works for the ambulance service. That person takes the call and then jumps in the ambulance. If you call back, the person you speak to will know exactly which of the 2000-plus calls that day you are talking about without you giving them irrelevant details such as the address.

* The Nee Naw Service has an ambulance parked at the end of every road, enabling it to reach any location within 30 seconds. If it takes longer than this to reach an emergency, it is the result of incompetence and slacking.

* If you don't know the answer to a question, provide an irrelevant piece of information instead: Is she conscious? She's a black woman.

(Source: neenaw.co.uk)

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Unicef has produced a short Smurfs movie in which the Smurf village is bombed into rubble, leaving behind dead and dying Smurfs in a scene of devastation. The video is part of a Belgian public education campaign on the ravages of war and an initiative to raise money for rehabilitation of former child soldiers. The adult-only short film opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Then, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky, felling the tiny Smurfs with blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs. The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children ... " The ad-man responsible told the Telegraph: "We wanted something that was real war - Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head - but they [Unicef] said no."