Race row erupts as Bonds Baby Search turns nasty
THE search for the ultimate cute baby has descended into nastiness after mothers angry at a voting glitch started to launch cruel and racist attacks on other people's children.
The taunts transformed the Bonds Baby Search - all chubby cheeks and cuteness overload - into sheer ugliness as angry mothers took to the company's Facebook site.
Pippa Taylor was floored when someone posted a comment on a picture of her Eurasian daughter Lilli, saying "Bonds Australia not Asia".
Classy. And bear in mind that wasn't even a "full" Asian baby.
Iran says London 2012 logo racist: report
Iran's national Olympic committee have written to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) making an official complaint about the logo and are threatening to boycott the Games.
The jagged, multi-coloured emblem, which reportedly cost £400,000 (nearly $650,000), features four bold numerals representing 2012, with the signature Olympic Rings emblazoned within the digit zero.
But Mohammad Aliabadi, head of the national Olympic committee in the Islamic republic, said the logo was undermining the event and accused the British organisers of indulging in "racism," ILNA reported.
"Unfortunately, we all are witnessing that the upcoming Olympics ... faces a serious challenge, definitely spawned out of some people's racist spirit," Aliabadi said in a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge. "The use of the word Zion by the designer of the Olympics logo ... in the emblem of the Olympics Games 2012 is a very revolting act," he added, warning that if Rogge did not act, the logo would "affect the participation of several countries, especially Iran, which insists on following principles and values".
Zion is a biblical that often refers to the city Jerusalem.
Sure, the emblem does look like "Zion", but only provided you read it in a zig-zag fashion and rotate several of the characters. In other words, it doesn't look like "Zion". Even if it did, how that is "racist" is beyond me. Seriously, don't Iran's government ever take a break from being douchebags?
Pakistan has abdicated its responsibilities
Pakistan has lost another brave heart. Two months after the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, my father, was assassinated for speaking out against Pakistan's cruel blasphemy laws, Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead by unknown assailants. Bhatti was one of Pakistan's progressives.
Under his guidance, the government introduced affirmative action for minorities – 5% of all federal employment – and designated 11 August a holiday to celebrate minorities. He banned the sale of properties belonging to minorities while law enforcement authorities took action against them. He launched a national campaign to promote inter-faith harmony through seminars, awareness groups and workshops and was initiating comparative religion classes into schools and universities.
Bhatti introduced a prayer room for non-Muslims in the prison system, and started a 24-hour crisis hotline to report acts of violence against minorities. He began a campaign to protect religious artefacts and sites that belong to minorities. This is the man we have lost.
Taseer and Bhatti's murders are a grim warning to those who dare to speak out against injustices.
Malawi row over whether new law bans farting
Two of Malawi's most senior judicial officials are arguing over whether a new bill includes a provision that outlaws breaking wind in public. Justice Minister George Chaponda says the new bill would criminalise flatulence to promote "public decency".
"Just go to the toilet when you feel like farting," he told local radio. However, he was directly contradicted by Solicitor General Anthony Kamanga, who says the reference to "fouling the air" means pollution.
"How any reasonable or sensible person can construe the provision to criminalising farting in public is beyond me," he said, adding that the prohibition contained in the new law has been in place since 1929.
The enforcement of this law would be the most intriguing. I wonder if "silent but deadly" would receive the same punishment as "loud and proud".
Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer's
Being bilingual does nothing to prevent Alzheimer's disease from striking. But once the disease does begin its silent attack, those years of robust executive control provide a buffer so that symptoms don't become apparent as quickly, Bialystok said.
"They've been able to cope with the disease," she said. Her work supports an earlier study from other researchers that also found a protective effect.
What is it about being bilingual that enhances that all-important executive control system?
Both languages are essentially turned on all the time, but the brain learns to inhibit the one you don't need, said psychology professor Teresa Bajo of the University of Granada in Spain. That's pretty constant activity.
That's not the only area. University of British Columbia psychologist Janet Werker studies infants exposed to two languages from birth to see why they don't confuse the two, and says bilingual babies learn very early to pay attention better.
I knew all those hours studying Klingon would pay off.
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