In his video message during the high-level segment, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called upon the scientific community to help make sense of the complex and interconnected challenges --including climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy insecurity -- that threaten human well-being and civilization as we know it.

UNESCO: World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

We saw a number of Electric Imp demos and appliance ideas at the booth including a simple hand-held "detonator" toggle switch with LED, seven-segment counter, water level sensor, servo-controlled gauge, RGB light, power socket, Christmas light, power monitor, toy washing machine, 16x16 LED display and receipt printer (the latter two being combined to show the avatars and tweets of anyone mentioning the Electric Imp) -- all Internet aware.

ENGADGET: Hands-on with the Electric Imp at Maker Faire (video)

Its most popular model, the Chevy Beat, a mini-hatchback, only has around 6% market share in that entry-level segment.

FORBES: Hyundai Shows Up General Motors As Detroit's India Problems Continue

At the opening of the High-Level Segment on 4 July, Ms Bokova called for a new global solidarity compact.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

In 2013, we will continue to take additional actions at our SANYO Semiconductor Products Group to reduce the break-even level and return this operating segment to profitability.

FORBES: ON Semi Q4 Edges Ests

The Alliance Support for High Availability segment engages Microsoft Certified Support Center high-availability providers to offer service-level commitments based on system availability.

CNN: Microsoft hopes to soothe customers with support plan

For Q2, the company expects non-IFRS operating margin for that segment to be at or below the Q1 level.

FORBES: Nokia Says Q1 Phone Sales Disappoint; Shares Fall Hard

But I'll also ask people who have struggled out there in the trenches to help people, to volunteer in their communities, who understand these problems at that level, which obviously is lost on a lot of -- a lot -- a big segment of Washington.

CNN: McCain vows to have Democrats in Cabinet