A good friend of mine just sent me a link to this amazing and moving video on really achieving your childhood dreams by Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who passed way from pancreatic cancer on the 25th July 2008. The inspiring lecture was delivered by Randy at Carnegie Mellon University on the 18th September 2007. Its been on YouTube by over watched almost 7 million times!
Monthly Archive for August, 2008
Kenya was majestic at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China by bagging a total of 5 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze Medals! This outstanding performance resulted in Kenya in being the most successful African country in the Beijing Olympics and an impressive 15th place position in the overall country standings. This fantastic outcome could have even been better if many of the promising Kenyan Athletes who did not win medals had lived up to the expectations that many had of them. However, I salute the performance of all the outstanding and world-class Kenyan Atheletes who made such a high impact presence at the games and have left and indelible mark that reaffirms Kenya’s pedigree on the global sporting arena. It also shows that after destructive post-election violence earlier this year, Kenya has risen from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix with a positive and rewarding demonstration of resilience and recovery – who could have guessed! Asanteni sana and Congratulations!
You really have to hand it to China. The Beijing Olympics will set a new standard in terms of execution for all future games. From the amazing opening ceremony to the stunning sports facilities and clockwork methodology, the Beijing Olympics have demonstrated why the West is running scared of the Chinese Dragon – these guys are really really good. Which brings me to my next point, the Chinese Olympics Illusions. The illusions I speak of started at the opening ceremony when the cute little girl who sang was actually lip-syncing whilst the real singing girl who was not considered cute enough was hidden in the background. The illusions continued when we found out that the spectacular fireworks display at the opening ceremony that was televised was actually a computer generated spectacle. Finally, we find out the Chinese women’s gymnastic team may have fielded girls under the age of 16 years old which is the minimum age for one to participate at the Olympics – He Kexin is only 14 years old apparently and she won a gold medal at the uneven bars last week. The impression I am getting from all of these illusions is that if China will do anything to win and be seen as winners with the Beijing Olympics, what are they capable of as an economic juggernaut that is creating a new world order? I guess pretty much anything and thats not an illusion!
Just found out that Telkom Kenya has finally re-branded as expected since it was acquired by France Telecom. Everyone was expecting Telkom Kenya to be re-branded as Orange, France Telecom’s global brand. However, the new branding as above indicates strong touches of France Telecom’s and Orange’s colour and overall presentation. Personally, I think it looks excellent and even their web site has (finally!) been given a decent work over – however, for some reason, lots of links are still pointing to the old web site which makes for an inconsistent and confusing online experience. During the launch of the new branding yesterday, Telkom Kenya also announced new broadband bundles that have pretty decent pricing. Looks like the telecom wars in Kenya are getting started!
It was very refreshing to find out today that Jason Dunford from Kenya won his heat during today’s men’s 100 meters butterfly at the Beijing Olympic’s and in the process broke the Olympic Record that was set by Michael Phelp’s 4 years ago at the Athens Olympics. Jason had the Olympic record of 51.14 seconds for a brief period of time before it was eclipsed by Milorad Cavic of Serbia in a time of 50.75 seconds. Nevertheless, I am sure lots of us in Kenya (and beyond) are routing for Jason and hope he will win at least a medal in the finals if he makes it through the semi-finals tomorrow. Make it happen Jason!
Michael Phelps, I just learned has already won 3 Gold Models at the Beijing Olympics (already) out of a possible 8 Gold Medals by the time the games are over (if he dominates his remaining races as much as everyone out there expects him too!) . In the process, he broke his own world record in the 200 metres freestyle and led the field effortlessly in what appeared to be a walk in the park for him. This guy is real hero! Here is the full story from Yahoo! Sports.
Amazingly, last year on April 8th, Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel became the first man to swim the entire length of the Amazon River from headwaters in Peru to the Brazilian port city of Belém: 3,274 miles. It took him 66 days with a support crew of near twenty people following him in a boat for protection. Here is the full interview he had with Tim Ferris of the Four Hour Work Week Blog.
This is an article from Businessweek Magazine showing just how global outsourcing has gone with Mom-and-Pop businesses in the US doing it. Here is the full story
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