This song, “Lord, I Done Done What You Told Me To Do” echoed through the halls of the White House on Wednesday night.

We sprint around the globe from east to west, beginning with a call from the future: Phil Mercer, BBC correspondent in Sydney (where it's already 2010) describes the fireworks display claimed to be the biggest in the world; Tristana Moore, BBC Correspondent in Munich, muses on similarities between German and American party habits; and Laurie Raimondo, with the Times Square Alliance, describes New York's preparations for tonight's ball drop.

The famed moralist and writer Samuel Johnson was born 300 years old today. Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, gives us his take on what the crusty, eminently quotable moralist might have made of some of our present-day dilemmas.

1784. ÆTAT.- And now I am arrived at the last year of the life of Samuel Johnson, a year in which, although passed in severe indisposition, he nevertheless gave many evidences of the continuance of those wondrous powers of mind, which raised him so high in the intellectual world. His conversation and his letters of this year were in no respect inferiour to those of former years.
--James Boswell, "The Life of Samuel Johnson"

infa'usting. The act of making unlucky. An odd and inelegant word.
--Samuel Johnson, in "Johnson's Dictionary"

This afternoon, President Barack Obama will present 16 people with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian. Among this year's honorees are Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Stephen Hawking, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, tennis legend Billie Jean King, and retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Also receiving a medal tonight is Ambassador Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the largest breast cancer awareness organization in the world. She has just been appointed as the first "Cancer Ambassador" to the World Health Organization and she tells about her work and the award.

Want to watch the awards ceremony? The ceremony with President Barack Obama will begin at 2 p.m. central time and be carried on a live stream at whitehouse.gov.

For a full list of recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, click through.