Oh, Canada: Vancouver’s Winter Olympic organizers are blaming human error – quite possibly an overeager mouse-clicking finger — after an e-mail meant for 80 prospective volunteers vying for positions at the 2010 Games was sent to 36,000 people instead.
Thankfully, the message didn’t reveal anything of an unsavoury nature – say, a scandalous love affair between Olympic mascots. No, according to recent news reports, 4,000 phone calls proceeded to flood a call centre, with many of the errant e-mail recipients asking why they couldn’t sign up for a “learning session” mentioned in the e-mail.
Sadly for the keen students, the session was already full with the 80 aforementioned volunteers. For the disappointed thousands, it must have been like trying to get Olympic tickets…
About 42,000 people have applied from around the world to volunteer at the Games, which will need about 25,000 people. Those are pretty good odds, but only 400 people have passed the personal interview stage so far.
There was no word on whether “Speed Interviewing” would be a demonstration sport at the upcoming games.
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Oh, Canada – part II: The City of Toronto is apparently going ahead with plans to install self-cleaning high-tech toilets, even though Seattle suffered a costly failure with them.
The Emerald City spent $5 million on five of the units as part of a four-year trial, but in part because they attracted an unsavoury clientele – prostitutes, drug users and the like — the city spent $500,000 to break its contract. The toilets were then put up for sale on eBay.com for $90,000 each.
However, Toronto plans to charge $1 for each use to deter loitering, and a feature will be added whereby security staff can be called if a toilet visit takes more than 15 minutes. That is one call few of us would want to answer.
On the plus side, the units briefly lock after each use and automatically sterilize their own floors, sinks and toilet seats and bowls.
One high-tech toilet: $90,000. One high-tech toilet that cleans itself: priceless.
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If you’re leaving Canada, meanwhile, listen up: The Aviation Health Institute has recommended that long-haul air travellers wear new, high-tech tights to combat jet lag.
Apparently, the Skins Travel and Recovery tights, which are used by elite athletes in Australia, increase the flow of oxygenated blood back to the heart by up to 30 per cent by putting pressure on specific muscles. Because there is up to 25 per cent less oxygen in aircraft cabins than our bodies are used to, oxygen starvation is a key factor in jet lag.
Interesting. Now Canada should develop a high-tech toque for cabin rage…
