How a beauty queen was helped by Nelson Mandela to catch up on her lost education. The story of Peggy Sue Khumalo and a changing South Africa.

When beauty queens are crowned, what are they going to take away as a prize?

Peggy Sue Khumalo, winner of Miss South Africa, had a steely certainty about what she wanted: the university education that she'd been denied.

Unconventional perhaps. But Peggy Sue, who grew up in the grinding unfairness of apartheid, has spent a lifetime defying other people's stereotypes.

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The South African queen

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Winston Churchill

list of quality insults

When insults had class - Sticking in the daggers - on Bore Me

President George W. Bush has described today's Iraq as a "young democracy." He even boasted at one point that the advance of democratic institutions in Iraq is "setting an example" that others in the area would be "wise to follow." But when it comes to one of the most basic tenets of democracy - freedom of speech and the press - Iraq is not setting an example that even the youngest of democracies would be wise to follow.

New laws in Iraq criminalize speech that ridicules the government or its officials, and any journalist who "publicly insults" the government or public officials can be subject to up to seven years in prison.

In Iraq, freedom to insult - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

n the days since the killings in a schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., the tone from the grieving Amish community has been not of despair or revenge, but of forgiveness.

A relative of 13-year-old Marian Fisher, one of the children shot by Charles Carl Roberts, 32, extended an invitation to Roberts' widow to attend the girl's funeral. The Amish woman told a reporter, "It's our Christian love to show to her we have not any grudges against her."
...
Still, anyone who has ever set out on the winding road to forgiveness knows it is easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk. This week the Amish have offered all of us a superb lesson on how to make the talk and the walk intersect.

Forgiving the unforgivable | Chicago Tribune

this applies to everyone here.

YouTube - White & Nerdy

“That society which has the least resistance to the uninterrupted flow of ideas, diversity, concepts and competitive signals wins,” says Nandan Nilekani, C.E.O. of the Indian tech giant Infosys. “And the society that has the efficiencies to translate whatever can be done quickly — from idea to market — also wins.”

The old left thinks free trade is something that benefits only multinationals. In fact, it is now critical for small businesses and individuals, who can now act multinationally. They are the ones who create good jobs.

Last week, I was in Nebraska, where I met Doug Palmer. He and his partner, Pat Boeshart, make insulated concrete forms for buildings. The traditional way to insulate concrete with foam is to make the foam and then truck it around the country to building sites to be attached to concrete. Mr. Palmer’s company, Lite-Form, found a Korean machine that, when combined with devices added by his firm, can make the foam and concrete together on site, saving big dollars in trucking. Today, Mr. Palmer’s South Sioux City company imports these machines from Korea, attaches its devices and exports them to Kuwait. His company has an Arabic brochure that tells Kuwaitis how to use the device. The brochure was produced by a local ad agency owned by the Winnebago Indian tribe of Nebraska. The agency was started by the tribe’s economic development corporation. Midwest Indians publishing Arabic brochures for Nebraskans importing from Koreans for customers in Kuwait ...

“Protectionism scares me,” said Mr. Palmer, who has 28 employees. “If we put up a moat and keep doing what we’re doing, thinking we’re the smartest in the world, we’re going to die. We have to have that flexibility to barter and trade.”

Big Ideas and No Boundaries - New York Times

This is a tale of two predators. The first is a congressman who befriended teenage pages. He sent them cajoling instant messages asking them to describe their sexual habits, so he could get his jollies.

The second is a secretary, who invited a 13-year-old girl from her neighborhood into her car and kissed her. Then she invited the girl up to her apartment, gave her some vodka, took off her underwear and gave her a satin teddy to wear.

Then she had sex with the girl, which was interrupted when the girl’s mother called. Then she made the girl masturbate in front of her and taught her some new techniques.

The first predator, of course, is Mark Foley, the Florida congressman. The second predator is a character in Eve Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.”

Foley is now universally reviled. But the Ensler play, which depicts the secretary’s affair with the 13-year-old as a glorious awakening, is revered.

an interesting take

Mark Foley, the Vagina Monologues and Morality - A Tear in Our Fabric - David Brooks - New York Times

Scientists have evidence behind what many tea drinkers already know - a regular cuppa can help you recover more quickly from everyday life stresses.

The study of black tea - instead of green or herbal varieties - found it helps cut levels of the stress hormone cortisol circulating in the blood.

They found people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a tea substitute.

ok you Americans win Nobel prizes for Physics but we Brits understand the importance of a nice cup of tea 8-)

BBC NEWS | Health | Black tea 'soothes away stress'

For nearly 40 years Neil Armstrong has been accused of fluffing his lines during his first steps on the Moon.

On tapes of the Moon landings, he appears to drop the "a" from the famous quote: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

But new analysis of the tapes has proved Mr Armstrong right after all.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Armstrong 'got Moon quote right'

In 1993, at a time when New York City was racked with police scandals, a new city law created the Civilian Complaint Review Board so that accusations against police officers could be handled by an independent agency. Cases would be investigated and then sent to the full board, which would recommend punishment when wrongdoing was found.

Buried deep in the law was an unusual option for the accused and the accusers. It called for mediation, a clearing of the air in which both parties would meet face-to-face in a room with a mediator but without lawyers, to explain themselves and, sometimes, vent their anger. If mediation worked, the case would be closed, the allegation erased.
...
Commissioner Kelly said he hoped the trend toward more mediation continued.

“I like the concept of mediation,” he said. “I think it’s win-win for both the public and for police officers who receive complaints. It gives everyone an opportunity to express their position.”

cool
the talking cure rather than the conflict of a full legal battle

Settling Disputes Across a Table When Officer and Citizen Clash - New York Times