Etc...

Forget something, did we?

From Mersin, a small port city in southern Turkey, comes news that Sukru Hati may be on the verge of joining the Army. So what, you ask? Well, only that if it happens, he probably will be the only grandfather in the enlisted ranks. Hati, you see, is in his 70s - a good 30 years past the point when male Turks are expected to have completed 15 months of mandatory military service. Alas, for him, that fact that he didn't was discovered late last week when he applied for free, government-provided healthcare. It turns out that he was supposed to have reported for basic training in 1954 . But, he explained to journalists, he was too ill at the time to have performed his duties. That cut no ice with the authorities, who had him arrested. Now they're deciding whether he finally will have to don the uniform of his country.

Companies that make, not billions, but a difference

The current edition of Inc. magazine carries a list of 100 "street smart" companies that are helping to transform inner-city neighborhoods and the people who live in them. Top-ranked this year is Mosaica Education, a New York educational services company that operates charter schools in eight states and the District of Columbia. The list is a joint project of Inc. and the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a national not-for-profit organization that identifies what founder Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor, calls companies that are "powerful engines for social change" This year's leading street-smart companies, their locations, and types of business:

1. Mosaica Education (New York) Charter schools
2. Intercosmos Media Group (New Orleans) Web hosting
3. Tech Valley Communications (Albany, N.Y). Internet, phone services
4. 180s (Baltimore) Makes ear warmers, gloves, and sunglasses
5. The Piston Group (Detroit) Makes auto parts

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