The 3D animated film voiced by the likes of Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven and David Tennant is due in theaters April 27. The groups that came out against the scene include Lepra Health In Action and the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations.
In the trailer the Grant-voiced Pirate Captain lands on a ship demanding gold, but is told by a crew member: “Afraid we don’t have any gold old man, this is a leper boat. See.” After issuing the explanation, the sailor’s arm drops off.
Leprosy groups expressed concern that the scene could increase the stigma and discrimination felt by people suffering from leprosy.
The filmmaker will alter the scene “out of respect and sensitivity for those who suffer from leprosy,” Aardman said in a statement.
As he waited for his new son to arrive in the delivery room, U.S. Air Force Sgt. Charles McDaniel didn’t pick up a magazine or grab the TV remote. Instead, he filled the room with a freestyle rap to the cadence of the fetal monitor, MSNBC is reporting:
McDaniel, an Air Force staff sergeant based in Aviano, Italy, noticed that the monitor, which had slipped out of place, was pulsing in a rhythmic beat. While waiting for medical staff to fix the problem, the father-to-be decided to distract his wife, LaQuita, from her contractions with a little freestyle rap.
“I just, you know, started singing,” said McDaniel, 32, who hails from Houston.
More precisely, he launched into a riff on contractions, cervical dilation and other delivery-related issues, all with the aim of welcoming son Kingston Josiah into the world.
McDaniel’s new-baby rap video had been viewed more than 150,000 times on YouTube as of Thursday morning.
The Disney theme parks will let their male employees look a little more like one of Snow White’s seven dwarves — at least when it comes to facial hair.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Walt Disney Co. announced that male employees will be allowed to sport beards and goatees after a 60 year ban.
The new policy, which takes effect Feb. 3, eliminates a facial-hair ban that has for decades been a source of grumbling among some of the company’s male theme-park workers.
Disney’s new policy restricts any facial hair to no more than a quarter of an inch in length. And the company says any chin whiskers “must create an overall neat, polished and professional look” and must be fully grown in and well-groomed.
The reversal comes 12 years after the Magical Kingdom first allowed male workers to have mustaches, a decision made in 2000.
Brittany Hinson breastfeeds her 4-month-old son, Kennedy, during a nurse-in in front of the Super Target store Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011, in Webster. Hinson participated in the event in support of breast feeding and in support of a local woman, Michelle Hickman, after she was approached by Target employees for breastfeeding in the store. “It’s not like she was walking around topless, ” Hinson said. “She was sitting down covered up.” The nurse-in was one of more than 100 planned in at least 35 states. (Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle)
Breastfeeding moms gathered around the country today, including about 50 in the Houston area, for “nurse-ins” in support of a Texas woman who says she was harassed last month while nursing her infant son at a Webster Target store.
The nursing flash mobs were planned in 35 states after women heard about the case of Michelle Hickman, who says employees made her feel uncomfortable when she fed her son at the store while Christmas shopping last month.
“I’ve gotten way more support than I imagined,” Hickman said today outside the Webster store.
The beauty of the protest, she added, was that nursing moms around the country could easily join in the action.
“This is something they can participate in from their own home, their own town. They don’t have to travel with a brand-new infant. They can go to the Target right up the road and support me.”
LaFromboise said that store employees will “feel proud to support” the women who join the protest. “Guests who choose to breast-feed in public places in our stores should feel welcome to do so.”
This isn’t the first time moms have been irked by Target’s attitude toward breastfeeding, BabyCenter blogger Betsy Shaw points out. In 2006, a woman was shooed from the fitting rooms for nursing her baby. Target made a public statement in response to that incident.
This time, Hickman hopes the stores will do more to educate their employees about women’s right to breastfeed and to create a friendlier environment in their stores.
Here, moms gather in front of the store after their protest:
(Cody Duty / Chronicle)
In this video, Hickman talks about why she counts the event a success:
Angelina Jolie is a leftie. Apparently so is Kermit the Frog. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
In my family, I was nicknamed “Leftie” for all the wrong reasons. It meant I was awkward, clumsy and sure to score poorly on those handwriting assignments in second grade.
My sister had to cut construction paper for me when we did art projects, because the left-handed scissors never seemed to work. And I got chosen last for softball because my swing was so bad my classmates assumed an automatic out.
If only I’d had this list for ammunition then. Turns out awkward lefties often grow up into very attractive, and very successful, people (they also may be more prone to mental disorders, but we’ll ignore that for now). Check out these A-listers who happen to be southpaws. Makes me think the nickname “Leftie” isn’t much of an insult after all:
Atos CEO Thierry Breton won’t be emailing you anytime soon. (Photo: Hannelore Foerster/Bloomberg)
Imagine your workplace without email. That fantasy (or nightmare) will soon be reality for thousands of people who work for information technology firm Atos.
The company, which has offices in the Houston area and in Norwalk, Conn., manages IT for the Olympics. Its clients include oil field services firms Schlumberger and Baker Hughes.
ABC news says Atos found that most email messages turn out to be a waste of time:
CEO Thierry Breton of the French information technology company said only 10 percent of the 200 messages employees receive per day are useful and 18 percent is spam. That’s why he hopes the company can eradicate internal emails in 18 months.
Breton, who served as French finance minister before heading up the IT company, told the Wall Street Journal he hasn’t sent a work email in the three years he’s led the firm; he expects employees to focus instead on communicating via instant message or through an internal social network akin to Facebook.
“We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives. At Atos we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.”
