The new Flying Doctors?

What does airline safety have to do with the hospital operating theatre? Well, according to a growing tide of opinion, the rigorous procedures that pilots live by are highly transferrable to the medical arena, which is considered by many to be far behind aviation in the sophistication of its safety protocols.

Read the article by Kate Murphy in the New York Times here

10 tips on how to survive the credit crunch - crisis training

As many companies stare at a bleak future in the current finanical climate, an increasing number are turning to crisis managament training as a pre-emptive measure. Perhaps this is fuelled by the chaotic scenes at Northern Rock last summer? This article gives 10 suggestions on how to avoid similar carnage in your own organisation.

Read the HR Zone story here:

The perils of the stiff upper lip

Brits have long been renowned for their stiff upper lip, and their ability to stay calm at times when any sane person would be losing their head. But now a study by Professor Michael King has linked this phenomenon to unusually high rates of depression and mental illness, and suggests that our inability to express our problems poses a serious health risk.

Read the article in the London Evening Standard here.

Taking the Biscuit

Have you ever sat through a long and dreary meeting, and the most memorable thing was the biscuits on the table? Well, fear not - you are not alone. The quality (and quantity!) of biscuits on offer at a meeting are apparently crucial in securing a deal.

And don't think that you can get away with serving your visitors a plate of economy digestives. The type of biscuit on offer says a lot about your company, and your opinion that your guests will take away.

Read the BBC article here:

docleaf Briefs

A Kansas man got more than he bargained for while remodeling his deck -- a nail shot into his head from a nail gun -- but says he is feeling fine after a doctor removed it with a claw hammer.

One minute George Chandler and a friend were nailing boards and lattice, and the next minute the 60-year-old from Shawnee, Kansas had a two-inch (five-centimeter) nail embedded in his skull and brain. "The gun went off, and I just felt a little sting," Chandler told the Kansas City Star in a Wednesday article on the newspaper's website. "I'm fine, really," he added. "I was very surprised and very lucky."

Chandler said he went to hospital with his hat nailed lopsided to his head. Doctors there told him he barely avoided a traumatic brain injury, as the nail narrowly missed vessels tied to his eyesight, speech and physical movement. Instead of a surgical operation a doctor removed the nail with a claw hammer from the hospital's maintenance department, the paper reported. (AFP)

And finally.... A happily married couple in northern India got the shock of their lives when they learnt they had divorced 10 years ago, the Times of India reported last week.

Meena Verma, a mother of two children, tried to file a case against her in-laws for violence, only to be told by a court in Haryana state that she had been divorced for a decade. Her husband Virender told the Times of India his brother, a lawyer, had apparently forged the divorce a decade earlier, when the couple were contemplating making a similar complaint.

"It seems the divorce was doctored to defeat Meena's possible complaint," he said.

The couple filed a petition accusing Virender's brother, Surinder Verma, and four associates, of forgery. Surinder denied the accusation. (Reuters)