Lara Stone: Blackface in French Vogue

Did You know that White people dress or masked as blackface is offensive as it entails racism? That's the controversy now with the October 2009 issue of French Vogue Fashion Magazine as it featured supermodel Lara Stone dressed in blackface.

In the October issue of French Vogue, which is dedicated to "Supermodels," there are no black models. No Naomi Campbell, no Tyra Banks, no Iman, no Alek Wek, no Liya Kebede, no Chanel Iman. Instead, Dutch model Lara Stone appeared in a 14-page editorial in blackface. Aside from the fact that models of many nationalities have gained a greater presence in the fashion industry and should have been used in this magazine, today in 2009 we should all know that white people dressing in blackface is offensive.

Read more on: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/french-vogue-does-blackface-since-when-is-this-ok-525789/

Call For American Math Challenge

Did you know that All American middle school students are invited to join the first American Math Challenge?
Starting November 9 - 16, 2009, qualified students may start signing up for free. And what's more exciting is that each student of the same category can compete with each other online on a 60-second mental arithmetic challenge.

Students can register starting October 12, 2009 by logging on to
www.americanmathchallenge.com. The student with the highest score will be
declared American Math Champion and receive a Minted Gold Medal. Up to three
top students will be chosen to represent the United States as Team Ambassadors
on World Math Day, in March 2010. Last year, more than two million students
from 204 countries participated.

Source: www.reuters.com

What is Fujiwara Effect?

In the Philippines, many of us have heard the term Fujiwara Effect since Super Typhoon Peping came back when it was supposed to be out of the country. This behaviour is called Fujiwara Effect.

But what is exactly the Fujiwara Effect means? The effect is named after Sakuhei Fujiwhara, the Japanese meteorologist who initially described it in a 1921 paper about the motion of vertices in water.

Fujiwhara effect or Fujiwara interaction is a type of interaction between two nearby cyclonic vortices, causing them to appear to "orbit" each other. When the cyclones approach each other, their centers will begin orbiting cyclonically about a point between the two systems. The two vortices will be attracted to each other, and eventually spiral into the center point and merge. When the two vortices are of unequal size, the larger vortex will tend to dominate the interaction, and the smaller vortex will orbit around it.

The effect is often mentioned in relation to the motion of tropical cyclones, although the final merging of the two storms is uncommon. The effect becomes pronounced in these storms when they approach within about 1,450 km (900 mi) of each other and are at tropical storm strength or stronger.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwhara_effect