17 | April | 2012 | FiftyFourandAHalf

Daily Archives: April 17, 2012

April 17, 2012 · 0:00

Back from Beyond

As you may know, today the Shuttle Discovery took its last flight, from Florida to here in DC, where it will go on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.

But first it did a victory lap around Washington, DC. From my office perch across the Potomac, I had a window on the flight. These pictures were taken by my colleague, Julie Pearce.

From my office window. Photo credit: Julie Pearce

And this one:

Photo credit: Julie Pearce

And yup, I’m a lucky girl; I get paid to sit here.

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Filed under Real Estate, Technology

Tagged as Seriously Cool, Space, Technology, Washington

April 17, 2012 · 0:00

To Infinity and Beyond

Monday, Dr. Jim Yong Kim was formally elected to be the next president of the World Bank. He will take office in June.

Now in recent years, the World Bank has become a wee bit politicized. And that was even before Paul Wolfowitz became president 10 years ago. But the mission, the real mission of the World Bank is to reduce poverty and help the people in the less developed world develop. Dr. Kim is the first president of the World Bank who has worked towards ending illness and its impact on world poverty. And as our own debates here in the US have shown us, an enormous factor in perpetuating poverty is “mortality and morbidity” — sickness and the toll it takes on society.

Jim Kim is a doctor and anthropologist who has spent his life helping fight poverty and disease. He co-founded Harvard’s Partners in Health to help get healthcare to folks in developing countries. He was the head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Program, President of Dartmouth University and now President of the World Bank.

Not to mention, a seriously cool rapper: