Rawiya Kameir

In thinking about the Tunisian “revolution” and the ongoing demonstrations in Egypt, let’s not jump to conclusions. What happened in Tunisia is not a model for the region’s regimes, nor is Egypt the new Tunisia. That would be a nice, clean, easy narrative and a great story, but it overlooks the realities that distinguish each of these countries from the other.

A 14-year-old in Spartanburg, South Carolina shot and killed three family members last week. The boy’s father and great-aunt died on the scene, and his grandmother died at the hospital a few days later. His motivations aren’t clear, but NBC station WYFF4 reports that the weapon in question, a .22 caliber rifle, was given to the boy by his father.

This Indonesian underwater hunter has trained his body to do something incredibly unmammalian: he can spend extended periods of time deep into the sea without any fancy scuba equipment. In this clip from a BBC Human Planet episode, Sulbin the hunter swims down 20 meters—just over 65 feet—below the surface to search for fish on the sea floor.

But why is Hollywood more accepting of fat black women than of fat white women? My guess is it has more to do with social politics than with the entertainment industry: Black women are invisible in America. Despite the fact that women like Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey are among the most public of public figures, black women make up America’s most invisible group.

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), a government-funded benefit to support teens from lower-income households who are furthering their education, is up for debate this week in the British Parliament. And that’s what MP Nadhim Zahawi, representing Stratford-upon-Avon, was discussing when he was rudely interrupted…by his tie.

Last week, the Internet went nuts over the discovery of Chet Haze, Tom Hanks’ son and, apparently, a frat boy rapper supreme. Chet’s newly released “White and Purple (Northwestern Remix),” a version of Wiz Khalifa’s ubiquitous “Black and Yellow,” is a college-themed ode to Northwestern University, where he’s currently a student and minor campus celebrity.

My relationship with my country has been painful and complex for as long as I can remember, but my national identity has always been based on the rejection of tribe/religion/language/race as a marker of Sudanese-ness.

Only a couple of weeks into the new year, and we’ve already amassed a pretty long list of “Worst Parents Ever.” There was the awful mother who forcibly had her five-year-old daughter’s eyebrows waxed on Toddlers & Tiaras, the scumbag father who had his two-year-old son bagging weed, the woman who left her four-month-old baby in a freezing car while she shoplifted.

Real-life superhero Phoenix Jones had his nose broken by a couple of bandits while out fighting crime. Jones, who can be seen in this video wearing a nifty costume fitting for a protector of the streets, was attacked and held at gunpoint after trying to break up a fight in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle.

On last night’s episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and always-insightful Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore tackled the issue of the so-called “sanitization” of Huck Finn. This is old news in the blogosphere but, surprise, surprise, JStew and Wilmore have some important contributions to make to the conversation.

I watched these videos several times over in attempt to figure out why someone, supported only by a barely-there harness, would allow a handful of friends to propel them off the side of what looks like a pretty tall building. Is this all the rage in Russia?

It’s mostly because the network adds another complicated dimension to what are already complicated enough social dynamics. But while there are commonly accepted guidelines for what to do IRL social situations, no such thing exists for Facebook. Here are my suggestions for protocol in responding to common Facebook occurrences.

In this vile news segment from Indianapolis’ Fox 59 TV station, a “journalist” is sent into the streets to search for America’s Next Top Homeless Person.

A Dallas County judge on Tuesday exonerated a man who served 30 years in prison for a wrongful conviction after DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Cornelius Dupree served time for a 1979 rape and robbery, after he was convicted based largely on an eyewitness (mis)identification.

Like anything M.I.A. touches, ViCKi LEEKX is blatantly political. It is, after all, a big shout-out to WikiLeaks. And so there are references to the government and freedom and America, all concepts that fit her narrative as a so-called political artist.

In the beautifully shot short documentary “Undercity,” Duncan takes director/cinematographer Andrew Wonder on a tour of a few of the coolest—and most dangerous—restricted areas of the city. The film sees the two of them jumping third rails and dodging trains beneath the Fulton Street subway station, breaking into the sewer system, and climbing above the Williamsburg Bridge.

But just like Das Racist and Odd Future, Kanye, Drake, and Nicki’s reach goes beyond music. Part of what makes them so appealing is their rejection of the historically acceptable rules-to-being-a-hip-hop-star. They are revealing in ways that most rappers deny themselves. Kanye

YouTube user Jay Herrod thinks there are some things you should know about women. For instance, “Start giving a woman flowers too often, and she’ll think a man is up to something.” And, “Women talk just as dirty as men.” And, “Not all blond-haired women are dumb and stupid.”