Heroes

"Hero: n., 1.a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. 2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal".

When you think of heroes, what typically comes to mind are soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save their comrades or New York Firemen who, without concern for their own safety, entered the World Trade Center buldings to save the lives of those trapped inside. These are indeed heroic acts, but there are other heroes in this world...A lot of them, like Brooksley Born, are of the unsung variety.
Until now that is...Check out this Frontline Special on the history of the economic meltdwn we are experiencing now.

Even after saying "I told you so" in the late '90's, she was still ignored...then villified and eventually run out of town. But she never gave up...and she was right the whole time.

There's also an Interviewwith her on the Frontline site.

Tom Hanks, your staircase is ready

Or, how to battle obesity.
Would you take the stairs rather than an escalator if it were more "fun"?
Well, some people in Stockholm wanted to find out, so they created the The Piano Staircase. Not too surprisingly, more people chose the stairs over the escalator.
Honestly though, if you were to put one of these in Grand Central Station, the resulting sound would be one, big irritating mess of notes.So it's back to the escalator and a big bag of chips to munch as you slowly ascend.

This just in: A local resident in Stockholm, Sweden was severely injured when he tried pounding out Chopin's "Polonaise" on the stairs in the Odenplan.