(via desperatelyseekingdaniel)

nationalpost:

Michael Rafferty guilty of first degree murder in Tori Stafford case
Michael Rafferty was found guilty of first-degree murder, sex assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping Victoria (Tori) Stafford. He is guilty of all counts charged against him.

The Grade 3 student was last seen outside her elementary school on April 8, 2009 in Woodstock, Ont., west of Toronto.

There will still be a sentencing hearing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday where there will be victim impact statement.

Rafferty had no reaction from the prisoner’s box. The conviction carries an automatic life sentence.

mohandasgandhi:

Most armed country in the world: The U.S. has 90 guns per 100 people

Are U.S. gun rights being trampled? No.

shortformblog:

Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi dies at 60

He outlived the Libyan regime: In the late 1980s, al-Megrahi, the security chief for Libyan Arab Airlines, worked covertly for Libya’s Jamahiriya Security Organization, giving him knowledge of the weaknesses that many airliners have — which allowed him to know how to place a suitcase bomb on an airliner. That plane, Pan-Am flight 103, exploded, causing the deaths of 270 people over and around Lockerbie, Scotland — one of the worst terror attacks in history. While there is some question as to whether al-Megrahi was innocent (he was linked via forensic evidence after an international manhunt), he was convicted in the bombing, which also played a role in the eventual demise of Pan Am airlines. All that would be surprising on its own — but in 2009 came another surprise, when a Scottish court allowed al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal prostate cancer, to return home to Libya. He was expected to live three months. He lived almost three years — long enough to see the demise of the Gaddafi regime which he’ll forever be associated with. (photo by Manoocher Deghati/AFP/Getty Images)

thedailyfeed:

Did you know that the average dollar bill is so hard-working, it has a lifespan of only about 18 months? In today’s history page, we bring you the long, winding story of American money.

What our early $1 bills lacked in utility, they made up for in color and dramatic graphics. The Bank of Germantown in Philadelphia, for example, released an orange-and-black $1 bill that depicted a group of sailors in a small boat trying to fight off the advances of a polar bear. Other mid-19th-century local bank notes bore portraits of mythological figures, children or even Santa Claus. There was still no national currency when the Civil War broke out in 1861, so Congress approved the issue of $150 million in national “demand notes.” These came in denominations of $5, $10 and $20, and the U.S. government used them to pay for war expenses and the salaries of military personnel. Union bills had distinctive green ink on their reverse side (which contrasted sharply with Confederate currency’s blank reverse side) — and they became popularly known as “greenbacks.”

They are lovely, however would it not then make more sense (pardon the pun) to use coins instead of bills, if the bills have such a short lifespan? 


Although, I do admit, looking at American dollar-bills can be fun. :) 

(via desperatelyseekingdaniel)

globalvoices:

In her first national address Joyce Banda told Parliament that her government will repeal laws that discriminates against people based on sexual orientation. 

Malawi will be the first country in Africa to lift ban on homosexuality since 1994. It is outlawed in 38 African countries and it can be punishable by death in Mauritania, Sudan, and northern Nigeria.

Read more

verbalresistance:

Aishwarya Rai is known as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is a successful Bollywood star who found international fame because of those stunning good looks. However, her post-baby body has fans in India criticizing the 38-year-old star.

Aishwarya Rai has been criticized for her pregnancy weight gain, after having given birth to her baby girl in November … [Previously she] has been hailed as one of the most beautiful women of all time. She won the title of Miss World in 1994.

Aishwarya Rai gave birth to her first daughter in November of last year. Like many other mothers, she gained weight. But, even with her celebrity status, Rai has said that she is in no hurry to drop the pounds. She simply wants to “enjoy motherhood.”

Critics have not been so lenient.

One website posted a video entitled “Aishwarya Rai’s shocking weight gain,” documenting Rai’s baby-body in photos, with elephant sound effects played in the background. The video has been shared more than 500,000 times, according to the Guardian.

Commenters poked fun at the once svelte Miss World 1994. “She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty to look good and fit,” said one. “She needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size zero weeks after their delivery,” wrote another.

Some think that the backlash Aishwarya Rai has had to face in regard to her pregnancy weight gain sheds light on an overarching issue in Indian culture - the attitude towards women and motherhood.

“There is a glorification of motherhood in India and Indian cinema,” cinema professor Shohini Ghosh told the Guardian. “But people are confused because they don’t know whether to glorify Aishwarya in her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway model.”

Ghosh said that India’s beauty ideal is constantly shifting, but right now Western celebrities are the top paradigms.

“The role models being held up are Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham,” show-business columnist Shobhaa Dé told the Guardian. “But our body frames are different - we have wider hips and curves - so this whole business of looking desperately skinny two weeks after giving birth is a western import.”  

“Aishwarya is like a goddess. She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation on her to look perfect at all times,” Dé added.

Rebecca Gelles of SIT Graduate Institute explained the shift as such, in an essay entitled, “Fair And Lovely: Standards of Beauty, Globalization, And the Modern Indian Woman”:

“India is a society undergoing a dramatic increase in its Westernization, partially caused by the opening up of its economy to international businesses, a step taken by the government in order to promote the growth and development of the Indian economy. This Westernization has not only affected what businesses operate in India, but many aspects of urban Indian culture,” wrote Galles.

“It might appear that Western society is more empowering for women than Indian society.  In this, case, it might be assumed that adopting Western standards, for beauty, sexuality, or anything else, would be empowering for Indian women. This is a dangerous assumption, even if we take at face value the claim that women are by and large more liberated in Western society than in Indian society. For one thing, even if a society as a whole treats women better than another, this does not mean that each aspect of that society‟s culture is more beneficial to women.”

Of course, Aishwarya Rai is not the only actress to face such recoil. Western celebrities have faced harsh criticism during pregnancy as well …

Read More: IBT

The fact that an evolving post-colonial Indian culture, has been shaped by a westerly-influenced fair-skinned bias, is something rather more established; both in the experiences of probably any Indian you’ll speak to, as well as increasingly documented.

The article sheds light on another regrettable facet of imported beauty ideals, as a result of an increasingly modernising and growing India, within this globalised world. It’s an aspect of the culture which is evolving in manner that’s not entirely organic - but a culture influenced by western standards of beauty and progress.

This was arguably something slowly absorbed into Indian culture, starting from the times of the colonial British overlord (seen in the fair-skin obsession). Then, to a more recent silent cultural influence, exacerbated in the modern self-positioning of the West as this self-declared bastion of progressive equality - as an ‘end point’ to aspire to, in a myopically linear narrative of development and progress.

Unfortunately, as this article details somewhat, it’s a regrettable state of affairs when you end up absorbing some of the more negative aspects. It’s another example of how paternalistic interpretations of ‘liberation’ can be problematic, in sometimes negatively influencing local culture, rather than helping.

(via fuckyeahsouthasia)

(via aseaofexplodingtragedies)

audreybananahammock:

Seriously though, fuck people who have a problem with child leashes. They are the greatest invention for parents with young children.

I’d rather see a child with a cute little monkey backpack leash running around on the sidewalk (SAFE from getting lost or running into the street, with more freedom than holding their parent’s hand), than a four year old in a stroller with their feet dragging under the wheels.

LEASHES4LIFE (or at least until they’re able to walk freely without getting lost of putting themselves in danger).

*And the answer is always no. No, you cannot touch a stranger’s child. Period.

^ Yes!

(via crazymagicalbroad)