Apologizes

When Boyle Heights shop owner Arturo Macias hears fellow Latinos use the Spanish word for "wetback," he doesn't necessarily take offense. Macias, who crossed illegally into the U.S. through Tijuana two decades ago, has heard the term " mojado " for much of his life and sees it less as an insult than a description of a common immigrant experience. "As a country of immigrants," he says in Spanish, "in one way or another, we're all mojados . " Macias is very offended, however, when he hears a non-Latino say "wetback.

NAIROBI, Kenya - It was not quite a direct apology and it came at least 50 years late. But the British government's "sincere regret" for colonial abuses of Kenyans during the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s and its agreement to pay $30 million in compensation to surviving victims was the first time Britain has admitted guilt over colonial era abuses, not just in Kenya but anywhere, according to Harvard historian Caroline Elkins. It was also a landmark admission by Britain that its empire was far more violent and sordid than the splendid lyrics of "Rule Britannia" convey, according to Elkins, who was in Nairobi for the announcement.

A 59-year-old great-grandmother who claimed in an Associated Press story last year that she was pregnant with twins admitted Tuesday that she was not. Frances Harris' claim gained widespread attention after the rural Sylvester, Ga., woman and her family told her story the same week that a 56-year-old woman gave birth to twins in New York.

Storms of My Grandchildren The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity James Hansen Bloomsbury: 304 pp., $25 Most scientists rarely experience the luxury of certainty. But we expect them to speak with authority. We expect them to make impossible predictions and judge them on their accuracy. Even more, we expect them to stay above or at least outside public debates. In "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity," James Hansen gives us the opportunity to watch a scientist who is sick of silence and compromise; a scientist at the breaking point -- the point at which he is willing to sacrifice his credibility to make a stand to avert disaster, to offer up the fruits of four-plus decades of inquiry and ingenuity just in case he might change the course of history.

Tepid apology? Thinly veiled insult? You be Daniel Tosh 's judge. A woman's Tumblr post that went viral Tuesday claimed Comedy Central's "Tosh.0" host singled her out during one of his stand-up gigs and said, “Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her?” We're struggling to find humor (or proof of Tosh's humanity) in that one. Faced with Web backlash, the foul-mouthed comedian took to Twitter: “All the out of context misquotes aside, i'd like to sincerely apologize,” he wrote , linking to the woman's post.