Monday 26 December 2016

Barbie gets a makeover

Barbara Millicent Roberts has an unmistakable look. The doll, also called Barbie, was in 1959 either fair or brunette, before jettisoning her dim locks for a long, outlandishly smooth brilliant mane. However, even in the good 'ol days, Barbie was remarkable for her flexible appendages, vast yet-perky bosoms and, obviously, little midriff.

Facially, her advancement has been practically steady: 1969's eyeliner flicks and pixie nose implied Barbie resembled Bewitched's Samantha. By the late 70s, she was bearing splendid white teeth and in the late 80s/mid 90s her officially enormous students practically multiplied in size; who knows why.

Figure-wise, nonetheless, little has changed. In 1998, Mattel gave its most recent doll, Really Rad Barbie, slimmer hips, a more extensive waistline and littler bust, so Barbie would "have to a greater degree an adolescent build". What's more, in 2000 she procured a tummy catch. Advance, most would agree, has been moderate.

However, there is trust: in 2016, Mattel recognized its "obligation to young ladies and guardians to mirror a more extensive perspective of excellence" and gave Barbie an all out reevaluation. Jawlines were diminished, thighs thickened, skin tones helped and obscured. The Fashionistas go included three new body shapes (tall, stunning, petite), seven skin tones, 22 eye hues, 24 hairdos and 14 "confront shapes".

It's anything but difficult to be skeptical – assorted qualities is useful for business – and it might be some time before kids play with something besides the white, light, thin doll that has exemplified western magnificence standards for so long. Be that as it may, when they do, at any rate there's a taller-than-normal, conceivably blended race Barbie with a supercool undercut simply holding up to take the show. Leah Harper

Taiwan votes in favor of Tsai Ing-wen

A supporter holds a photo of Taiwan's first female president, Tsai Ing-wen

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A supporter holds a photo of Tsai Ing-wen. Photo: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images

In a year that saw America pass on the opportunity to choose its first female president, there was better news from Taiwan: Tsai Ing-wen rose to control as one of the uncommon independent female Asian pioneers to have prevailing through diligent work as opposed to family associations. In January, she was chosen Taiwan's first female president, turning into the most intense lady in the Chinese-talking world.

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Her Democratic Progressive gathering's avalanche win was supported by youthful voters disappointed with stagnant monetary development and rising imbalance, and frantic to state their nation's character. Taiwan, an island of 23 million individuals around 100 miles off the Chinese drift, has its own administration, coin and military, yet is seen by China as a maverick area. Most countries, careful about culpable China, decline to have formal strategic ties with it. Nonetheless, US president-elect Donald Trump talked with Tsai on the phone in December, breaking many years of US outside approach convention.

Tsai, a law teacher and LSE graduate, came to control on the back of the Sunflower Movement of 2014, when understudies involved government structures and thousands rioted to challenge at an exchange manage Beijing.

It has, be that as it may, seen China strike back by solidifying strategic ties and supposedly confining tourism to press Taiwan's battling economy. Furthermore, as Tsai has strolled the precarious line between open desires on autonomy and expanded occupations and thriving, her endorsement rating has plunged. In any case, the president, who has been known as the "Angela Merkel of the east" for her quiet, scholastic style, shows up resolute. "We need to make Taiwan an Asian tiger by and by," she wrote in the Economist in November. "My arrangement for 2017 is for Taiwan to recharge its part as a pioneer." Nicola Smith

Puddlewatch makes a sprinkle

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#Drummondpuddlewatch: the Periscope impression that is making a sprinkle

The main week of 2016 appears like a totally better place. For proof, take a gander at #DrummondPuddleWatch: a livestream of a vast puddle in Newcastle. On the off chance that this happened now, we would treat it in an unexpected way. We'd grind our teeth about fizzling foundations, dismally share overcooked thinkpieces about how the puddle was Brexit's blame, prepare ourselves for the unavoidable minute when president-elect Trump would call the puddle "tragic" on Twitter.

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In any case, back in the radiance days of early January, #DrummondPuddleWatch was a treat: a pooch in the play area, the primary look at snow. There was genuine delight to be taken from the different ways individuals endeavored to cross the puddle: on tiptoe, by means of an island-bouncing procedure utilizing a close-by light post, or crushing through in any case. It was the most essential identity test, separating individuals into shifting layers of alert; without a moment's delay amazingly ordinary and staggeringly invigorating. It felt breathtakingly British then, and it feels marvelously honest at this point.

At its top, around 20,000 individuals were watching the puddle on the web. A little while later, individuals carried lilos and surfboards with them. A group shaped. Around a puddle. It felt like a minute in time, shared by all. One day, we'll sit our grandchildren down and inform them regarding the time 20,000 individuals viewed an old woman jump a puddle, and they will have a hard time believing us. "What's a puddle?" they'll ask through a gas cover in the solid fortification they've never left, and we'll be lost for words. Stuart Heritage

106-year-old Virginia McLaurin hits the dance floor with the Obamas

President Barack Obama observes first woman Michelle Obama hit the dance floor with 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin at the White House

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Virginia McLaurin with the Obamas. Photo: Pete Souza/The White House

At the point when Virginia McLaurin, matured 106, went to a White House gathering in February, she wasn't certain on the off chance that she would meet President Obama. "We were holding up and I continued asking, 'Where is he? Am I going to see him?'" she says, talking from her home in Washington DC prior this month, apologizing for being in need of a hearing aide.

McLaurin, conceived in 1909, experienced childhood with a sharecropping ranch in South Carolina. She was utilized to one passageway for white individuals at the front of a house and another at the back for dark individuals. "I didn't think I'd ever live to see a dark president," she says. "What's more, I truly didn't think a destitute individual like me would get an opportunity to go to the White House."

McLaurin, referred to locally as Ms V, is a dynamic group part: despite everything she volunteers up to 40 hours a week at an extraordinary needs school and Sundays are for chapel. When she said she needed to meet the Obamas, a neighbor reached White House staff and she was welcome to a Black History Month occasion.

"When I drew near to him, I was so energized, I just got him," she says. Video footage demonstrates McLaurin, in a coordinating blue coat and skirt, tossing her arms open, yelling, "Hello there!" and catching hands with Obama. "I got her, as well," she says of the primary woman.

In the video, the president jokes that McLaurin ought to back off; Michelle Obama says, "I need to resemble you when I grow up." When McLaurin answers, "You can" and squirms her shoulders with energy, the three are driven in some move ventures by Michelle.

As they assemble for a photo, the principal woman shouts, "Take a gander at those nails!" McLaurin reviews they were an indistinguishable blue from her suit and that her "fiftysomething" granddaughter had painted them. "You'll see I had on boots. That was on account of I didn't have any shoes. However, I thought, 'I couldn't care less, I'm going in any case.'"

At the point when the video became a web sensation, individuals knew about McLaurin's volunteering and poor living conditions, and she got gifts to a Facebook page set up by her neighbor. She could move into a more agreeable flat in April, a couple of weeks in the wake of turning 107. "Wherever I go, individuals embrace and kiss me and need my photo," she says. "All my delight turned out when I met the president. It implied such a great amount to me." Candice Pires

The Archers sparkles a light

The Archers' Rob and Helen Titchener

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The Archers' Rob and Helen Titchener. Photo: Pete Dadds/BBC/PA

Paul Trueman has been an enthusiast of The Archers for over 10 years, yet toward the begin of this current year, similar to a huge number of different fans of the long-running Radio 4 cleanser, he got himself seized by one specific storyline.

Helen Titchener, conceived an individual from the main cultivating family, now wedded to a manipulative harasser named Rob, was being dragged always under his injurious control. Companions began spotting wounds. Presently she was pregnant, and progressively afraid for her young child.

Among the cleanser's dedicated fans on Twitter, Trueman noted, "There was a considerable measure of, 'Why wouldn't we be able to accomplish something? This is horrendous.' Then a thought flew into my head. On the off chance that she were genuine, we could raise money to get her out of there. So I believed, that is the thing that we ought to do. We ought to begin a raising support page for an anecdotal character" – with the benefits going to help genuine casualties of abusive behavior at home.

Inside two or three hours, Trueman had set up a page on the JustGiving site in help of the philanthropy Refuge, with an ostensible focus of £1,000. "I thought on the off chance that we were fortunate we may achieve that in a month."

That was around 9pm. His telephone pinged five minutes after the fact, the main ready that somebody had given cash. By midnight, he had passed his objective. "What's more, my telephone didn't quit pinging for the following six months. It was bonkers." He didn't kill the warnings, "somewhat in light of the fact that I cherished getting them. It was simply fabulous, a tad bit of a medication."

Inside 48 hours, the aggregate passed £20,000; it was £45,000 before the end of the principal week. Most effective, for Trueman, were the remarks from those giving, numerous unknown.

"To the philanthropy that spared me and my kids, endless thanks.�

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