Global Quickies: ‘Happy’ Dancers Sentenced to Jail, A Boy Gets Justice, and Cyclists Defend ‘Naked’ Uniform

IRAN
The young men and women who were arrested in May for posting a video of themselves dancing to Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy” have been sentenced to six months in prison and 91 lashes. The sentences are suspended for the moment, but could be carried out any time in the next three years.

MEXICO
Several members of a Mexican family, including the mother and grandparents, have been jailed for 30 years for gouging out the eyes of a five-year-old during an “end of the world” satanic ritual in 2012.

NIGERIA
It’s been five months since over 270 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. Some have escaped but none has been rescued. The Huffington Post has a good summary of what has happened since.

UK
A cloud and a piece of fried chicken (wrongly) predict the Scottish independence referendum results.

NIGERIA
At least 67 people died when a church building collapsed in Lagos last week. The building belonged to the country’s best known televangelist, and the church has been accused of being hostile and preventing rescue officials access to the site.

COLOMBIA
A Colombian women’s cycling team has said that it will not stop wearing its flesh-coloured uniforms. The uniforms, worn by the team on the Tour of Tuscany were called “unacceptable by any standard of decency” by the president of the International Cycling Union. (mildly NSFW).

Featured image: Iranians dancing to Happy

Daniela

Born and raised in Mexico City, Daniela has finally decided to abdicate her post as an armchair skeptic and start doing some skeptical activism. She is currently living in Spain after having lived in the US, Brazil and Italy. You can also find her blogging in Spanish at esceptica.org.

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6 Comments

  1. Daniela,

    The clouds and the fried chicken were wrong! I’m shocked, shocked I say. What can we relay on without the prophetic powers of condensed water vapor and bird meat fried in oil? ;)

      1. A friend nursed the Patriots through the entire 1986 season, including the playoffs, by holding an unopened bag of Cheetos to his head at every critical point in every game. Then, during the Super Bowl, he broke down and ate the Cheetos. Result: the worst drubbing in Super Bowl history (to that point, no longer true thanks to later efforts by Buffalo (wings) and Denver (omelets).) We were toast! We were scrod! What’s worse, one of the star players for the Bears was the legendary Refrigerator Perry.

        Never underestimate the predictive powers of crispy food products!

  2. What the hell is “flesh” colored? The photo quality isn’t that great, but in the pic of the six cyclists, I’m counting six different colors of flesh, none of which is indistinguishable from the uniform’s colors.

    1. Yeah, the first time I saw a picture of the uniform I did think it was made to make them look naked on purpose. I guess it depends on how the light hits and where the cycling pad makes a shadow.

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