OffBeat Buzz

Microsoft: Work and Travel Do Mix

Talk about getting creative. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Talk about Microsoft’s innovative move to start employees’ working time the moment they step into the company bus to work.

According to sources, Microsoft started bus service for employees at Bangalore, India. The bus is obviously equipped with computers and connectivity which allows employees can start work from the bus. Their office hours counts from the time they switch on their computers in the bus. Needless to say, the time they spend working in the bus counts toward their stipulated working hours for the day.

So what gave birth to this gem of an idea? Well, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, but sometimes a crisis can be, too. The crisis in this case was the infamous traffic Bangalore jam. Stuck? Work! Apparently, the management wasted no tie in accepting this idea which was proposed by an employee through their suggestion scheme.

Photographs That Changed the World — Part I

1957. The first day of Dorothy Counts at the Harry Harding High School in the United States. Counts were one of the first black students admitted in the school, and she was no longer able to stand the harassments after 4 days.

Assasination (Yasushi Nagao, Japan) January 12, 1960. A second before the Japanese Socialist Party leader Asanuma was murdered by an opponent student.

Protest (Malcolm W. Browne, USA) 1963. Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam, burns himself to death protesting the government’s torture policy against priests. Thich Quang Dug never made a sound or moved while he was burning.

Death (Hictor Rondsn Lovera, Venezuela) 1962. A soldier shot by a sniper hangs onto a priest in his last moments.

Vietnam War (Kyoichi Sawada, Japan) 1965. A mom and her children try to cross the river in South Vietnam in an attempt to run away from the American bombs.

Vietnam War (Kyoichi Sawada, Japan) 1966. U.S. troops in South Vietnam are dragging a dead Vietkong soldier.

Vietnam War (Eddie Adams, USA) February 1, 1968. South Vietnam police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan shots a young man whom he suspects to be a Viet Kong soldier.

Assasination of Salvador Allende, Chili (Unknown photographer) 1973. A few seconds before Chile ’s elected president Salvador Allende is dead during the coup.

Accident (Stanley Forman, USA) 1975. A woman and a girl falling down after the fire escape collapses.

Hunger in Uganda (Michael Wells, U.K.) 1980. A kid in Uganda about to die of hunger, and a missionaire.