Brazil's racist black hair song: In a record-setting amount of compensation for a racist act in Brazil, Sony Records will fork over $1.2 million (about $656,000 in American dollars) in retroactive compensation back to 1997 for the release of the song "Veja os Cabelos Dela (Look at Her Hair)," the Huffington Post reports. Check out the hateful lyrics here. The song is bad, but is it much worse than what U.S. artists have been saying for years about women and their bodies?
Where are the black lead roles? Shonda Rhimes says that the country has been ready for African-American leads for years; the only problem is that "people have failed to cast the actors that they should have been casting."
Mississippi governor pardons more than 200: Haley Barbour announced last week that he had granted pardons to five convicted murderers who had worked odd jobs at the governor's mansion while in custody. On Tuesday, his last day in office, he pardoned 193 criminals. The total number of full pardons Barbour granted during his two terms is 203. The Associated Press has a good rundown on many of those pardoned here.
In moderation, marijuana less harmful to lungs than cigarettes: According to research published in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, smoking two to three joints per month isn't harmful. "Tobacco takes you down that road toward breathlessness, but low to moderate levels of marijuana don't," said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, a co-author of the study.