Sunday night Nina Davuluri, Miss New York, was crowned the winner the 2014 Miss America Pageant. She is the first contestant of Indian descent to be crowned Miss America.
When her win was announced, Twitter immediately exploded with hateful tweets, with people calling her Arab.
Read the whole story at BuzzFeed
Science is all around us, and nearly everyone can get involved -- from conducting a critical lab experiment to strolling through a natural history museum to simply browsing through a book on the Big Bang.
Whether you're a science nerd or a Nobel-prize winning scientist, we wanted to highlight YOU doing or simply enjoying science. So we asked readers to share their "science selfies" -- and here are our favorites. Click through and see if you can spot the girl who caught a bat... or the guy holding a real human brain!
Please share your own science selfies by adding them to the slideshow below.
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"Catching crayfish in Scotland."
"For all of my fellow bird nerds out there!"
"When our scientists' hands are busy with science, they get some help with their #scienceselfies." Here, physicist Farid El Gabaly aligns a battery electrode sample for analysis with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Celebrating Halloween at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA.
Junior high students experiment with fire in science class.
"I analyzed assimilable organic carbon in drinking water samples! "
A behind-the-scenes look into a quarantine area!
Posing like Einstein at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA.
"This is how I spend my holidays, in Costa Rica catching bats +beach time in between!"
"Spent a day doing field work electrofishing for research! A brook trout we caught!"
"Me doing a basic drug extraction!!!"
"Medicine is a science, and therefore I present Jack Sexton, CRNA!"
"Talkin bout autopsies all day."
"Nearby and in the distance exploration. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. ? Carl Sagan." Taken at the Liberty Science Center.
"Love my job." At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
"Data data data data data today's data data data."
"My kiddos a few years back @ Spark!Lab in DC."
"This #realtimechem video summarizes a standard day in a synth chem lab."
"Oh hi I just extracted a human brain."
"Inside a faraday cage with a human brain."
This is what a lot of science actually looks like... "Reading/correcting the Methods chapter of my student's PhD thesis."
"Imaging my cells on the fluorescent microscope."
"This weekend was spent playing with crayfish and an ROV. The ROV before use."
Taken at the Washington University in St. Louis: "@WUSTLdbbs and @WUSTLmedschool have lots of #scienceselfies."
"I'm a bookworm, a scientist, and world traveler."
In a science classroom.
Subscribe window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'autosized-1r-organic',container:'taboola-autosized-1r-organic'});_taboola.push({mode:'autosized-1r-sc',container:'taboola-autosized-1r-sc'});window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({flush:true});SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Vice President Joe Biden says a shooting Monday at the Washington Navy Yard is a "God-awful reminder" of the need for Americans to stay vigilant.
He says he's confident the nation will get to the bottom of the situation.
Biden says the situation is still unfolding, but that his heart and sorrow goes out to all those affected. He says the tragedy is almost unthinkable.
The shooting rampage in the heart of a U.S. Navy left at least 12 people dead. One shooter was killed, but police were looking for one other possible gunman.
Biden spoke at a port in Savannah during an event highlighting the need to invest in U.S. infrastructure. He was being briefed Monday by his national security team as he visited South Carolina and Georgia.
Also on HuffPost:The Affordable Care Act is more unpopular than ever, with those who disapprove divided over whether the law should be reformed or scrapped, according to a Pew Research/USA Today poll released Monday.
Forty-two percent of Americans approved of the law, while 53 percent disapproved. That's the highest rate of disapproval that Pew has found since the law's passage in 2010. Attitudes among the uninsured were somewhat more positive, with 49 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, also released Monday, found similar opposition, with 44 percent of Americans calling the health care law a bad idea and 31 percent calling it a good idea. NBC posted a range of respondents' explanations for their opinions, from fears about "death panels" and rising costs, to happiness that preexisting conditions are covered and young adults can be covered by their parents' insurance.
HuffPost Pollster's average of all available public polls puts disapproval of Obamacare at about 53 percent.
In the Pew survey, those who disapproved of the health care law split on what lawmakers should do next: 27 percent of all respondents said lawmakers should try to make Obamacare work as well as possible, and 23 percent said they seek to make it fail.
"This strategic question is a particular point of conflict within the Republican Party," the Pew report says. Republicans as a whole were just slightly more likely to want the law to fail than to want it improved, while 64 percent of tea party Republicans wanted the law to fail.
Americans were almost evenly split on which party they trusted more to handle health care. Forty percent said they believe the Republican Party would do a better job dealing with health care, while 39 percent preferred the Democrats. It's the first time a Pew poll has found the GOP ahead on health care since at least 1990. While the size of Democrats' edge has varied widely in the past, a December 2012 poll put them 10 points ahead of Republicans on the issue.
More than three years after the Affordable Care Act was passed, 34 percent still said they didn't have a good understanding of how the law affects them. Just 51 percent knew that a health insurance exchange will be available in their state. Awareness of the exchanges was significantly higher in states that chose to run their own exchanges or partner with the federal government than in states where the exchanges will be run by the federal government.
The NBC/WSJ poll similarly found that only 30 percent said they understand the health care law "very well" or "pretty well."
"As it turns out, that 30 percent has more positive opinions about the health-care law (42 percent good idea, 45 percent bad idea), versus the 34 percent who don't understand it very well (17 percent good idea, 44 percent bad idea)," NBC's Mark Murray wrote.
The Pew/USA Today poll surveyed 1,504 adults between Sept. 4 and Sept. 8, while the NBC/WSJ poll surveyed 1,000 adults between Sept. 5 and Sept. 8. Both used live telephone interviews.
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By Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The World Bank, faced with a tight budget and greater competition for development funds, aims to become more selective in its lending, focusing on fragile states, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and other areas where it can have the greatest impact, according to a draft strategy paper obtained by Reuters.
The 42-page paper, presented to the bank's executive board last week, is the first major strategic review under World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.
It offers the first concrete details of how the World Bank plans to fulfill his twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of the population in each country.
However, the strategy paper is still vague about what exact programs the bank will cut or bolster, and how it will change its budget to reflect new priorities and falling revenue.
When asked for comment, World Bank spokesman David Theis declined to elaborate further on the plan.
Founded after World War II to help rebuild Europe, the World Bank later focused on lending money to developing countries in order to improve the lives of poor people.
The global lender is praised for its worldwide reach, stringent standards and long-term focus. But it has also been criticized for avoiding risks, delaying approval of projects, not responding enough to what countries want, and focusing more on pushing money out the door rather than program outcomes.
Kim, who came to the helm of the multilateral development institution a little over a year ago, has launched a major reorganization to change all that, driving an emphasis on flexibility, measurable impact, and evidence, or what he calls "the science of delivery."
The draft strategy acknowledges the World Bank has become less important to the growth of many middle-income countries, which can rely more on private funding and bilateral loans from emerging markets like China.
The World Bank also admits it has limited funds to tackle the needs of the developing world, where new infrastructure projects alone will require $1.5 trillion in funding a year.
Instead, the World Bank wants to reposition itself as a "solutions" bank, offering not only financing but also its knowledge of how to solve common development challenges.
"The World Bank Group's role in knowledge, convening and global advocacy has increased relative to its role in providing finance," the paper said.
Keeping the bank relevant means focusing on areas where other donors are reluctant to go, such as fragile and conflict-affected states, by 2015 home to half of the world's poorest people.
The World Bank said it also plans to use its projects and global presence to share data and promote better policies in areas like climate change.
To help address countries' needs and better coordinate development policies, the bank also plans to work more closely with other development agencies like the United Nations and with philanthropic organizations.
And it wants to promote more private-public partnerships for basic services like health, education and housing - to the consternation of some non-profit organizations that argue such programs have mixed records for helping the poor.
BUDGET CUTS
As part of the new strategy, the World Bank also plans to make some cuts to its budget. Operating in fragile states, collecting data to measure countries' progress, and ensuring a global presence have strained the bank's administrative funds.
And less lending to middle-income or stable countries also means less revenue, as the bank has made money from interest-bearing loans.
"Maintaining a minimum scale of operations is important if the World Bank Group is to influence the policy agenda and support clients in delivering effective development solutions," the paper said.
"Although the World Bank Group does not face immediate financial concerns, its financial capacity will need to be strengthened," the paper added.
The bank said it will have to be selective in what it does and make cuts to certain programs, without specifying further. It is also considering relying more on fees for advisory services and on money from trust funds, or earmarked funds from governments for specific projects.
Trust funds already account for one of every 10 dollars the bank disburses to governments, according to the paper.
The new budget will be implemented for the next fiscal year, which begins in July 2014, and may be one of the thorniest issues for the bank to resolve as it decides which departments and programs must shrink.
Changing the bank's internal culture may also pose a threat to the success of the new strategy, according to several outside analysts who reviewed the paper.
Part of the new focus means integrating the work of the bank with the activities of its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which insures investments in difficult environments.
The three agencies work with different clients and may have different approaches to specific projects, creating conflicts of interest.
The details of how the bank will change its internal organization to align with the new strategy will be presented later in an "Implementation Paper."
For now, the draft strategy will go to the governments of the World Bank's members for approval, before being formally presented during the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in early October. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Best news out of London Fashion Week so far? Peter Pilotto is partnering with Target!
That's right, the London-based design house used its Spring 2014 runway show this afternoon to drop the news that it's designing a line to be sold across the US and Canada at Target. The collection, which will feature women's apparel, accessories and swimwear, will debut Feb. 9th, 2014, and be mostly priced under $60.
Yup, you're going to want to queue up early for this one, folks. Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, the brand's designers, have mastered the art of printed, daring silhouettes and have landed the likes of Kerry Washington, Miranda Kerr and Selena Gomez on best-dressed lists. We can't wait to see what the duo dreams up for Target's spring line, since, unlike their usual pricey fare, we'll actually be able to afford these pieces. (If we have any more money left after purchasing the fall Phillip Lim for Target line, that is.)
And don't think Peter Pilotto's forgotten its international customers; a handful of the pieces will be available on Net-A-Porter.com. So get ready to fight your way through the Target aisles -- or the e-commerce sphere -- come February.
See some stars in Peter Pilotto to get an idea of the brand's aesthetic:
More, more, more:
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