The Absolut vodka company has apologized for an ad campaign that showed the southwestern United States as part of Mexico. The ad, used only in Mexico, shows a map of the Americas prior to the war of 1848, with California and the Southwest as part of Mexico. After a campaign by conservative U.S. bloggers, Absolut apologized this week, saying the ad was not intended “to offend or disparage” the U.S. but simply to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”
An 8-year-old Colorado boy has been suspended from elementary school for sniffing his marker in writing class. Eathan Harris was punished for smelling the Sharpie marker, says principal Chris Benisch, to send a warning about inhaling solvents, which is “really, really, seriously dangerous. We’ve purged every permanent marker there is in this building.” Toxicologists, though, say Sharpies are nontoxic and cannot be used to get high. Harris says he sniffed the marker only because “it smelled good.”
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