text:
Simon Amstell: "I spent years trying to get away from 'Popworld' – now I feel grateful"
Before the first lockdown in 2020, comedian Simon Amstell returned from his second ever ayahuasca retreat in Peru, where he drank the psychedelic brew under the guidance of a shaman. When he came back to north London, he was visited by a friend. "And we had a magic mushroom ceremony together, which wasn't something I'd done before," he says. "We sat in a circle, set intentions and put eye-masks on so our journeys would be completely internal – that set me up for the pandemic!"
His experiences of shrooms – medicine, not drugs as he sees them – have partly inspired Spirit Hole, his first stand-up show in four years, which is billed as a "blissful, spiritual, sensational exploration of love, sex, shame, mushrooms and more."
"Previous shows have really focused on the trauma and pain of being alive. I had a show years ago called Numb but this new one is more playful and colourful. I hope it will provide what I feel we all need after the past year – which is a lot of joy and laughter.
"I'm at my most joyful and alive now"
For most people, the pandemic has proved a time of self-examination, but Amstell has been "looking inwards" for decades, always refining his self-deprecatory brand of comedy. Since quitting his role as caustic master of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2009, he has untangled his anxieties onstage, sometimes referring to the mental health issues he has grappled with. His work has been largely autobiographical: BBC sitcom Grandma's House (2010-12) was based on his own family, while the tender 2018 film Benjamin, which he wrote and directed, was an attempt to work through the fear of intimacy he faced in his twenties. However, even with the aid of magic mushrooms COVID-19 was nonetheless challenging. "There's a feeling of safety around the idea that no matter what happens in your life, you can always do stand-up," he muses. "And then COVID came along and said: 'No, not even that.'"
Over Zoom from his home in London that he shares with his partner, Amstell is good fun: far more relaxed than his self-abasing neurotic stand-up persona, and more friendly and open-hearted than his ego-puncturing role on Buzzcocks might have suggested. He punctuates many of his sentences with an infectious yelp of laughter. "I feel like a really weird child now," he says. "You know when you see a toddler running around and they're purely in the moment? They're not interested in what they're going to be doing next week or their regrets from when they were aged one. I feel like I'm at my most joyful and alive now, like a kid running around having a delightful time."
CREDIT: Harry Carr
That said, he's still hyper self-aware and almost provides a DVD commentary of how the interview is going, while offering multiple answers to each question ("Wait! I've thought of a better way of saying this!"), like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Book. His walls are plastered with Post-it notes for forthcoming films and behind him are three toys: a moose he won in a comedy competition, a Fraggle (from the Jim Henson-created '80s kids show) his brother gave him, and a tiny baby doll gifted by Russell Brand. "It was my birthday that night and he said: Do you want this? He'd used it in a sketch where he was breastfeeding it, so now I've got this strange doll covered in milk that had apparently come out of one of his nipples."
Spirit Hole also delves deeper into sex and shame, twin pillars of Amstell's comedy. During his first stay at the ayahuasca rainforest retreat, he found himself purging his body of all the negativity trapped within it.
"So I found myself taking all my clothes off during the ceremony, and I felt pulled to take my trousers off, and as I was taking my underwear off, I could feel the shame being peeled off and out of my body.
"And then all kinds of mad things happened where my finger, beyond my control…" He emphasises that it was beyond his control… "made my way towards my perineum and there was some kind of mad spiritual sex act where it was clear in that moment I had a choice between shame and pleasure if I could just let go and push my finger into the pleasure, then there was all this ecstasy available and I could have this intense ecstatic experience that would extract all the shame from my body."
Whether it's involuntarily fingering himself on psychedelics or simply telling personal stories to a packed-out audience audience, Amstell finds it cathartic to defy the inner-voice that says: "You shouldn't say this out loud."
"Everything I try to do is about slaying that dragon of shame," he says. "It's both incredibly healing and also incredibly funny when I talk about it."
You only realise how powerful this might be when you consider how long Amstell had to remain circumspect about parts of his life. Growing up as the painfully shy eldest of four children in a Jewish family in Essex, he knew he was gay at 13 but didn't come out until he was 21. "In the Jewish religion, if you have a boyfriend, it's very important that he's a girl," he has joked in the past. Coming out to his family sounds bruising – his mother assumed he was joking, his father recommended therapy to cure him, his aunt cried for two hours straight and he wasn't allowed to tell his grandparents. He's still picking out the emotional shrapnel.
"I've only recently managed to heal from all the nonsense that was put into my body at a young age"
"In the past, I've spoken about sex and relationships in a way that suggests it's kind of irrelevant that I'm a boy having sex with boys and tried not to make it the key point," he says. "It felt like it was important to transcend those labels," he continues. "But in this upcoming show, what I'm saying is I grew up in a culture where there were rigid conventions about sexuality and gender and those conventions had an effect, and it's only recently that I've managed to heal from all that nonsense that was put into my body at a young age."
Fame was meant to be the cure to his loneliness and offer a route-map to acceptance. Wildly ambitious, he started stand-up aged 13, but everything he has done, he says, has been an attempt to tell that lost, vulnerable teenager that everything's OK. His second TV presenter gig, for example, was hosting Channel 4's gloriously irreverent Popworld with Miquita Oliver from 2001 to 2006, which once featured an interview where he flirted with Beenie Man, whose lyrics were notoriously homophobic, and concluded the segment by giving the rapper a banana with his phone number on it – not only funny, but also a subtle Bat-Signal to confused, queer teens everywhere that there was nothing wrong with them.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Popworld first airing – which teemed with those surreal water-cooler moments, such as The Strokes being probed by a horse or Amstell interrogating Natalie "You're too beautiful!" Imbruglia with a bag over his head. How does Amstell look back on it?
'Popworld' presenters Simon Amstell and Miquita Oliver. Credit: Channel 4
"I'm quite impressed with that kid," he says, tellingly using the third person. "I'm 41 now, and much more free and open than I was then and yet that 21-year-old managed to be so cheeky and free on that show. And also I feel like a completely different person now who's living a different life. But having spent so many years previously trying to get away from that kind of stuff, I can now look at it and feel very grateful for all the hard work he did and feel impressed with how silly and funny he was able to be despite being quite troubled when not on the screen."
After Popworld came Buzzcocks, where headline-grabbing moments included Ordinary Boy Preston storming off when Amstell read excerpts from his then-wife Chantelle Houghton's autobiography. Amstell got bored and quit: instead of finding the flaws in pop stars, he revealed his own which proved more fulfilling. "My body didn't want to do it anymore," he says of his decision to switch career lanes. "You see people who are still there doing things but their souls have disappeared so there's no joy in it anymore, so I'm scared of not listening to the part of me that knows when it's time to stop something and start something new. You have to keep shedding old skin in order to be reborn as something else. I'm constantly rewriting who I am but sometimes it takes a while for people to catch up with that."
Besides, fame didn't fix him. "What I learned in the end is that my ego is never going to get what it wants, which apparently is a letter from my agent saying: 'Congratulations, everyone died – you won!' he says, using a line he's spun before. He visibly squirms when he talks about Popworld or Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which is perhaps understandable considering it collided with the apex of his angst. When I ask whether the #FreeBritney movement, which chronicles her frequently toxic treatment by the media, made him think of his own Popworld 'Big Ones' interrogation with her where he baffled her by asking: "Have you ever licked a battery?" he filibusts. "Not really. I sort of tried to watch that [Framing Britney Spears] then quite quickly realised there was no way of… I just felt like I didn't really… I couldn't see what was actually… I couldn't really figure out what was going on and it was so confusing to me as a thing. Sorry, I've got nothing intelligent to say on that."
"You have to keep shedding old skin in order to be reborn as something else"
One of Popworld's most iconic interviews was when Amstell, as spoof therapist 'The Si-chiatrist' interviewed The Kooks and berated them about their stage school background and made jibes about frontman Luke Pritchard's then-fresh breakup with Katie Melua. Last year, Pritchard regaled a mind-boggling anecdote to the now-defunct Q magazine that years later, Amstell had told him he once pretended to be Luke to have sex with someone. Is it true?
"That's funny!" cackles Amstell raucously, looking as bewildered as Britney considering whether she's introduced her saliva to Duracell. "I can't think how that would work but I think part of shedding the old skin is not revisiting it too much. But I can't imagine how that would work!"
He doesn't want to dwell on the past, but culture is channeling nostalgia, with Never Mind The Buzzcocks set to return to screens. Was he asked to come back? "I've shed that skin," he laughs. "That skin is on the floor." He shakes his head. "No."
When I later ask another question about the past, he brilliantly deflects by saying "I'll just hide under the table," and bobs his head off camera.
Onstage during his 2019 Netflix special 'Set Free'. CREDIT: Netflix
For someone so beloved, Amstell has relatively few IMDb credits: he values quality over quantity, he notes, starting an answer three or four times. "Even with this interview, I'm trying to achieve a high level of quality for the answer rather than talking mindlessly!" he quips. But essentially if your creative process involves tracking change, that takes time. "Often what I'm interested in is a character going on some sort of journey – so with [my film] Benjamin, he goes from not being able to experience intimacy to being free enough to leave London for love." Rather than feature a boyish tortured soul that is an Amstell doppelganger (in Benjamin's case, played by actor Colin Morgan), his new film, which he's written and will direct next year, has a woman going on an emotional journey as the lead – she's "even more deranged than Benjamin."
Writing for a different gender wasn't a challenge: his script editor and agent are women. "There was one scene where I had my character masturbating in a tree and my agent thought that would be tricky for the average woman to do so I removed it," he says. "But apart from that, I had someone's voice in mind when I was writing her so it didn't feel different."
His stand-up also involves change: it's where he unveils his new improved self, and the reward is the validation of the audience. "In this one [Spirit Hole], I'm going from someone who's terrified of getting older to somebody who feels so joyful about getting older that he's become almost a toddler."
He detested hitting the milestone of 40, presuming life was "just going to be a combination of compromise and regret." He adds: "We live in a culture where if someone says: 'You don't look 40,' that sounds like a compliment but what they're saying is: 'You don't look 40 now but when you do, that'll be disgusting!' But if you can surrender, it's wonderful. You have the sense that time is running out so that awareness of death means you're really conscious about what you're doing with life.
"But yeah, "he pauses, "I didn't like it." How did he solve the midlife crisis? "Easy," he laughs. "I went to Peru, drank ayahuasca and ayahuasca told me to take my clothes off and everything was fine!"
Simon Amstell's new stand-up tour 'Spirit Hole' opens in Margate on September 8
← 5 Tips on How to Do Video Marketing for Your Business?
TOP 15 MOST COMMON CYCLING MISTAKES (AND TIPS TO FIX THEM) →


Money Wise is a financial services business that provides independent financial advice to individuals, families, businesses, trustees and deputies. The task was to rebrand the business and produce subsequent marketing materials. In a market sector that had recently come under extreme pressure and was tarnished with a bad reputation we wanted to reflect the true ethos of the business that would hopefully instil trust in potential customers. With some genuine core values we were able to focus on the people that made the business successful and their beliefs in doing the same for their clients.


Our intensive and rigid material selection, production, and QC testing ensure that all of the CCTV battery pack are assembled to meet or exceed customer expectations.
Since CCTV Cameras are used to save lives, keep track, so they will need high performance of CCTV battery packs to ensure the medical devices are working properly, a small failure would end in big losses. Our rich experiences in cooperation with some of the best CCTV equipment brands help us to serve better also for you.
Q.What is the range of voltage for the batteries?
has capacity from 3000mah,5000mah,8000mah,10000mah, and 20000mah.
Q. Can I custom my CCTV battery packs?
A. Yes, welcome to send us design/artwork.
Q.What can I use a CCTV Battery for?
Q.How long will DNK CCTV battery packs Last?
A.That depends on many factors. In case there is no abuse, the DNK batteries are expected to last 2 to 3 years. Under ideal usage and storage conditions, we expect 4 to 6 years.
Q. Why Your batteries are a little cheaper than your competitor?
DNK Power offers Custom CCTV Lithium Battery Pack Design Services for all of our customers without any charges, You can work closely with our Engineer from the beginning of your device.
10 Years of experience and ISO 9001 Manufacturer ensure that All your CCTV equipment battery packs are made right every time. What's More, we have all the certificates like UL, KC, PSE, IEC.


What better way to start the day than to greet someone "good morning"! Sending a good morning message will undoubtedly make them happy. Several studies show that an increase in happiness increases the productivity of a person. A positive change in attitude can significantly lessen stress in day-to day activities. Less stress means more productivity!
You can help your friend, significant other, colleague, boss, family or even a complete stranger in pursuit of success by sharing happiness in the morning. You can message them on their phone, email them, or share it on several social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. If you're having a hard time coming up with good morning messages, you can easily choose from these fantastic good morning quotes!
You can start conquering the day when you have conquered the snooze button. Wake up and seize the day! Good morning!
The sun is bright and shining, and so are you! Go out and spread some sunshine to the world! Have a great day!
Smile! It's a beautiful morning, but not as beautiful as you. Good morning! I hope you have a beautiful day!
Get up! Stand up! Everything's going to be great today. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic day.
A great day full of opportunities is ahead! Wake up and be ready to grab them. Good morning!
Today is another chance to make your dreams come true. Don't waste it! Good morning!
I wake each morning thinking about you and how blessed I am to have you in my life. You have given me so much happiness. And so, I wish for you a happy morning.
Let the good times roll! Wake up and stretch. Have a good day!
The world is such a wonderful place to be, and today is a wonderful day to be happy. Share the happiness! Good morning!
A good day starts by smiling. Smile and let the world know how beautiful the day is supposed to be. Good morning!
It may be hard to get out of bed, but it is harder to stay in bed knowing how fun the day will be. So rise and shine! The fun starts when you get up!
The moon said goodbye, the sun said hello, I say good morning and so should you!
What do we say to the snooze button? "Not today, not today". Good morning!
Do you know what's beautiful in the morning? Your smile. Show your beautiful smile to the world! Have a wonderful morning.
A productive workday lies ahead if we start early. Wake up now and have a fruitful day!
Fruits are good in the morning. Eat some for breakfast and enjoy a fruitful day!
Don't let your dreams stay in your sleep, wake up and make them come true. Good morning!
Don't let your tomorrows be full of sorrows. Do what you need to do today and enjoy the next wonderful day! Good day!
Great things come to those who feel great in the morning. I wish you a great morning!
Your smile is as sweet as maple syrup on my morning pancakes, or cereal on my bowl. My morning can't be complete without it. So smile, and have a great morning!
Let the world know how happy life can be! Share with them your good morning smile!
Don't feel low, I'm here to say hello! The sun is bright, so seize the day with all your might! Have a great day!
There is no assurance that today is going to be easy. But it doesn't mean it is going to be hard. No need to be scared, all you have to do is face the day with everything you've got. Good morning!
I like mornings best. It's the time of the day when you are given the chance to make another great life moment. Have great morning!
Roll out of bed and do what you have to do! It won't do it by itself. Go on, and have a good morning!
The diva has woken up! The world is sure to have another fabulous day!
The world is ready for you, so get ready for the world! Have a wonderful morning!
Feel accomplished tonight by doing your responsibilities early on today. Wake up and start doing things right! Good morning!
Don't be selfish, share your good vibes to the world! Good morning!
You are the most beautiful thing in the morning. I am sure you are going to enjoy this beautiful day!
Be ready to face this awesome day! Eat some breakfast, do some exercise, and smile! Good morning!
Don't miss a single great thing in the morning! Wake up early and have an awesome today!
Success comes to those who are ready for it. Wake up and start getting ready! Have a successful day!
Don't just wish for an awesome day, make it one! Good morning!
Don't let your dreams go to waste! Use this day to make them come true! Have a good morning!
A good day starts with a good cup of coffee. Drink yours and get ready to have another good day! Good morning!
Every good thing starts by doing something good. Share the goodness you have on this good day! Good morning!
Every day can be awesome if you just let it be. Don't start your day with negativity. Smile and the world will smile back! Have a nice day!
Wherever you are in the world, I know you're going to have one of the best days of your life today if you just get out of bed and start doing the best you can. Good morning!
Do everything extraordinarily well today and I promise you today is going to be fantastic! Have an extraordinary day!
No matter what happens today, always wear your best smile. Don't forget, your smile is one of the best things you can share to this world. Good morning!
Mornings are nice. Everybody is so fresh and hopeful. I hope you are too! Good morning!
You shine brighter than the sun. Your smile is prettier than the rainbow. I hope you continue sharing your colorful smile to the world. Have a fantastic day!


text:
Posted inChina, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, World
HK backs Beijing on British passport retaliation
Pressure rises for people to give up rights to medical services and social benefits if they have foreign passports
by Jeff Pao January 12, 2021 January 13, 2021
British National (Overseas) and Hong Kong passports. Photo: Asia Times
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government will cooperate with the central government's retaliation against the United Kingdom, which will start issuing visas on January 31 for British National (Overseas) passport holders to move to Britain.
"The Chinese and UK governments had reached a consensus on how to handle the BNO passports," Chief Executive Carrie Lam said before the weekly Executive Council meeting on Tuesday.
"If someone unilaterally deviates the consensus, it is reasonable for the other side to take some countermeasures.
"When the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and our country were unreasonably sanctioned by foreign governments, we have no reason to sit down and do nothing."
She said the Hong Kong government had not suggested any countermeasures related to the BNO matter to Beijing, and she did not know of any proposal under discussion.
Lam made the remarks after Regina Ip, an Executive Council member and the chairwoman of the New People's Party, wrote an article on the South China Morning Post on Sunday and suggested that the central government enforce its nationality law to disallow dual nationality in Hong Kong.
Ip admitted that the new route to British citizenship offered by the UK was a slap in the face of the Chinese authorities for enacting a security law. It would facilitate the departure of Hong Kong Chinese with means and would undermine support for Hong Kong.
She suggested that Hong Kong Chinese who acquired foreign nationality of their own free will be deemed to have lost Chinese nationality in accordance with Article 9 of the Chinese Nationality Law.
Ip's suggestions echoed with those raised in a commentary titled "It's time to end dual-nationality and build identity system for Chinese Hong Kong citizens," which was published by HK01.com on December 14.
Pro-establishment lawmaker Regina Ip is escorted away by riot police as pro-democracy supporters shout slogans in November, 2019, a day after the city went to the polls to vote in local elections. Photo: Leo Ramirez/AFP
The commentary said people with foreign passports should not be allowed to enjoy civic rights, including low-cost medical services, public housing, free education and voting rights in Hong Kong.
Ip made a new point by suggesting that Beijing sets a specified cut-off date so that the 50,000 Hong Kong families who had been granted the British nationality before 1997 under the British Nationality Selection Scheme, as well as hundreds of thousands of Canadian and Australian passport holders, would not be affected.
On Tuesday morning, Ip said on a radio program that those who moved to Taiwan would not be affected because the island belongs to China. She added that those who lost their Chinese nationality would still enjoy the right to land in Hong Kong.
Chau Sze-tat, a political commentator and popular YouTuber, said Ip's suggestions were targeting those pro-establishment people, or so called the "blue ribbons," who planned to gain a British passport in the UK and then return to Hong Kong.
Chau said these people would probably give up their emigration plans as they did not want to give up their housing and social benefits.
Besides, people who relied on Hong Kong's low-cost medical services due to chronic diseases might have to rethink whether they should move out, he said.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam says it is reasonable to take countermeasures if one side breaks an agreement. Photo: Isaac Lawrence/AFP
Meanwhile, Lam said Tuesday that district councilors would be required to take an oath to uphold the Basic Law and swear allegiance to the HKSAR when assuming office. She said district councilors should be treated as "public officers" as they were among the 1,200-members of the Election Committee that selects the Chief Executive.
Lam added that the government would submit an amendment of the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance to the Legislative Council soon to implement the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress' interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law in 2016.
On November 7, 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress endorsed the Interpretation of Article 104 that oath-taking is the legal prerequisite for public officers to assume office. Four democratic lawmakers were disqualified due to the oath-taking requirements and were asked to pay back the salaries they received.
Read: Retaliation urged to stem Hong Kong exodus
Tagged: BNO, China, District council, Hong Kong, United Kingdom

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Paolo Odierna (died 1506) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Gaeta (1494–1506).

Biography
On 22 October 1494, Paolo Odierna was appointed during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI as Bishop of Gaeta.
He served as Bishop of Gaeta until his death on 13 August 1506.

References

External links and additional sources
 (for Chronology of Bishops)
 (for Chronology of Bishops)

15th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops
16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops appointed by Pope Alexander VI
1506 deaths

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Positively Dads
E.J. Graff
These HIV-positive gay men fathered children. Here's how you can too.
Aslan1 always believed he would be a father—if not with a partner, then by teaming up with one of his straight, single female friends. But "at the age of 36, I became infected with the [HIV] virus," he said. "I thought my whole world collapsed. Everything crashed with that. I believed that there would be no child." He was gay and single, living in a cosmopolitan city in his southern European country, when a female friend asked him to pair up to make a baby. He had heard that it could be done safely, but when he told her his HIV status, her reaction, he said somewhat morosely, was "very naturally, not very brave." Unwilling to face that rejection again, he spent years trying to bury his profound desire to parent.
Things were different for Brian Rosenberg and Ferd van Gameren, who were already in their forties by the time they began thinking about having kids. Their early years together focused on keeping Brian, who is HIV-positive, healthy and Ferd negative. But once protease inhibitors emerged and Brian's health was stable, the couple decided to focus on enjoying life. They moved from Boston into a one-bedroom Chelsea co-op in New York City, started summering in Fire Island, and hopped around their friends' parties having "a gay old time," as Brian put it.
Dr. Ann Kiessling
After several years, though, all that began to pale. "We started thinking that life had to be more meaningful for us than the next party, the next fabulous vacation." They wanted a family, and all the responsibility, love, and exhaustion that went with it. They tried adoption first, but when one birthmother backed away, their hearts were broken--so they discussed surrogacy. Given his HIV status, Brian assumed that Ferd would be the biological dad--but Ferd wanted to raise Brian's bio children. And so in 2009 Ferd went online and found the Special Program for Assisted Reproduction, or SPAR, dedicated to helping HIV-positive men father children safely. The program is run by the Bedford Research Foundation and its director Dr. Ann Kiessling.
Back in southern Europe, by 2011, Aslan was learning about the same option. He was seven months into a new relationship that seemed as if it would stick—and despite himself, he began to imagine having a family with this man. Coincidentally, an American friend forwarded him an article about Circle Surrogacy, which worked with HIV-positive gay men in the States. "And it gave me, like, a wow, big hope, a new window to plan my life again!" Aslan quickly contacted Circle Surrogacy, which connected him with Dr. Ann Kiessling. "She was very kind and explained all the procedures, that it's completely safe. And this was the start."
But how can HIV-positive men father children?
"How" has both a practical and a technical answer. This article will tell you the practical steps to take, one by one, with some technical information mixed in along the way. Experts agree that it can be done safely. According to Dr. Brian Berger of Boston IVF, over the past 15 years fertility centers have helped conceive thousands2 of babies fathered by HIV-positive men—and not a single woman or child has been infected as a result.
So how can an HIV-positive gay man become a biological father? Let's look at the process, step by step.That's because, apparently, HIV cannot attach to or infect spermatozoa—the single-cell swimmers that deliver chromosomes to an egg. Sometimes the surrounding fluid—the semen, the ejaculate that carries the sperm along, and which is made separately—does include HIV. But sperm is made only in the testes, which are walled off from the rest of the body, heavily fortified against the illnesses or infections that might affect the rest of the body, for obvious evolutionary reasons. Because sperm doesn't get mixed with semen until the very last moment, at ejaculation, it remains safe. And after decades of research, the medical profession has figured out how to use only the uninfected sperm to fertilize an egg.
Step 1: Make sure dad is healthy.
The first, and most important, step is to ensure that the prospective dad is healthy—that his HIV levels are undetectable or nearly so, his T-cell count is high, he's free of other complications or infections, and he is working closely with a doctor to stay in good health. Says Dr. Bisher Akil, a New York City physician who specializes in caring for HIV-positive patients, "Can an HIV-positive gay man become a parent? The answer in 2014 is absolutely yes." In 2014, no one should use his HIV infection to stop from having a full and normal life, he emphasizes. "The only point I make to potential fathers is that they need to take care of themselves and make sure they have their infection under control. The occasional medical problem that might appear, whether or not related to HIV, needs to be treated very aggressively. They need to be compliant with medications and treatment. That's not any different from any father with a chronic illness. Now that they have responsibility of having a child, we want to take them through their lives."
Dr. Akil says that to go forward with insemination, an HIV-patient must have had undetectable virus levels for 24 weeks, and a minimum T-cell count of 200 cells per millileter of blood. Restoring the immune system as measured by T-cell count, says Dr. Akil, takes three times as long as reducing levels of the virus. If the prospective father hasn't been taking care of himself, reaching this could take a couple of years. It can take weeks or months to get the medication dosage just right. Then, after six months of undetectable virus levels, it might take another 12 to 18 months for the immune system to stabilize.
Both Brian and Aslan had been committed to their treatment regimens, so they were immediately ready to move on to the next steps. Although we've numbered these for convenience, these steps aren't necessarily in chronological order.
Step 2: Make sure the sperm is safe.
Brian and Ferd started by meeting with Dr. Ann Kiessling, an award-winning reproductive biologist who has researched HIV and reproduction for thirty years, much of that time while on Harvard's faculty. Kiessling starts by talking to the men involved to be sure that they're taking their health and parenthood seriously "and this isn't just some kind of a lark. That they're in the care of an infectious disease person. That they're being safe and taking their medicine, they're taking care of themselves." After that conversation, the prospective HIV-positive father delivers at least two semen samples (i.e., each independent ejaculation). Bedford Labs washes and cryopreserves half of each one, and tests its other half for HIV.
Here's what Kiessling has found since the emergence of the protease inhibitors: Of the semen samples she's tested from HIV-positive men with no detectable viral load, roughly 15 to 18 percent contain some HIV. That means that 85 percent of a man's semen samples have no detectable virus whatsoever. If a particular sample tests positive, Bedford Labs discards its matching half (safely, of course). But if it tests negative, Bedford Labs sends it on to the fertility center to meet its future life partner. (More details at https://sementesting.org/).
But Dr. Kiessling's testing, while essential back in the earliest days of HIV-positive fathering, is now an unnecessary precaution, says Dr. Brian Berger, director of Boston IVF's Donor Egg and Gestational Carrier program. Dr. Berger said that today's accepted standard of care, as issued by the ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), is simply to wash the sperm with the advanced techniques now in use. Just as the sperm washing gets rid of the other infections and bacteria that might be in the semen, it appears to clean off HIV particles, so long as the prospective father has an undetectable viral load. Just to be safe, Boston IVF's precaution is to select a single washed sperm and, using a glass needle, inject it directly into a single ovum – never directly into a uterus, always in vitro – in a procedure called ICSI, or intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (pronounced "ICKS-ee").
Berger explained, "We're not taking about using millions of cells, we're taking one single cell. And this is a sperm cell that has been washed, that has no semen associated with it, no other fluid. In theory, the chances of transmitting HIV in the lab with a single washed cell, of HIV infecting the developing embryo, and of that infected embryo being capable of infecting a women's uterus--we think that risk is, if not nil, then one in billions or at least millions." After thousands of pregnancies at fertility centers around the country over the past decade, Berger said, "there's never been a single case ever reported where a single sperm injected into an egg (ICSI) has resulted in viral transmission into any woman, or the baby for that matter." He has no objection to working with Kiessling's lab whenever he's asked; surrogacy programs in particular, he says, sometimes use her lab, which he believes may be for psychologically or liability purposes.
Once you've got the sperm clean and available, you need the additional parts.
Step 3: Locate an egg donor and gestational carrier.
Once upon a time, a surrogate mother donated both her egg and nine months in her uterus. That sometimes led to legal and emotional difficulties. Now you select an egg donor and gestational carrier; work with a fertility center to get the two women on the same cycle; have the fertility specialists safely inseminate several eggs in the hope that one or more will conceive and develop into embryos; and implant a viable embryo or two in a gestational carrier, or surrogate, who carries the pregnancy to term.
Boston IVF was the fertility clinic that Brian and Ferd used to put all the elements together. Boston IVF offers a bank of potential egg donors, carefully screened for genetic, medical, and psychological characteristics . Brian and Ferd, however, went through Circle Surrogacy to find both their egg donor and their carrier.
But there are a couple of particular steps you will face specifically because you are HIV-positive. First: will you tell the egg donor? And second: you must tell the gestational carrier, to ensure informed consent. Depending on the route you pick, the agency, lab, or center you are working with will have its own protocol for how to go forward, but the general outline of what happens is the same.
When it comes to choosing an egg donor, everyone's interests are slightly different. Some want a donor with the same physical traits as the nonbio dad. Circle Surrogacy's founder, owner, and attorney John Weltman says he was one of the very first gay men to become a father via surrogacy, 20 years ago; he now specializes in helping gay men and HIV-positive men become dads. Weltman says that what people seek in an egg donor "varies enormously. One woman wanted a happy gene. Another wanted someone who's healthy. You might think you care about looks, but once you read a particular donor's portfolio, you are very taken by her personality."
Circle asks whether women would be willing to be known, and whether they'd be willing to donate to someone HIV-positive. Weltman also encourages clients to meet the donors, without last names or contact information, and to disclose HIV status, so that any future child who does meet the egg donor doesn't have the burden of keeping that status secret.
Brian and Ferd looked at Circle's several hundred profiles of young women 21-29 with carefully screened histories, seeking a sweet and creative woman willing to being known, someday, by the child. When Brian and Ferd met "Karen," they knew she was the one, Brian said. "She was so incredibly cute, sweet, nice, and funny. It's a very awkward situation, meeting someone who's going to give you her egg, and yet somehow it wasn't uncomfortable. We left that meeting knowing: Karen was it." They let her know about Brian's HIV status, feeling that that was only right, and have since stayed loosely in touch by email.
Gestational carrier.
Then comes choosing the woman who will carry the developing embryo during gestation. Circle Surrogacy has relationships with about 40 potential surrogates at any given time, says Weltman, some of whom have agreed in advance to consider carrying a child for HIV-positive men. Circle offers prospective parents the choice of carrier who is most likely to be coming available, and whose legal situation and personality they believe will work best. If the intended parents are interested, he sends a file about those future parents to the surrogate, so that she can decide whether she's interested in meeting them. If they meet and get along, everyone moves to the next step.
Why meet the surrogate? While the choice of egg donor has larger long-term implications, Weltman explains, the gestational carrier is the person with whom the prospective dads are more likely to develop a close relationship. "She will be in your life for a year. She carries your child," Weltman says. "When the child first asks, 'Where's my mommy?' most [gay men] point to the surrogate, the birth mother. When the child gets older, maybe 7 or 9, and starts understanding genetics, then the donor becomes more important."
For those who go through the SPAR process, Dr. Kiessling insists on speaking to the surrogate herself. A gestational carrier has only signed up for pregnancy , not for every medical risk that a wife or girlfriend might be willing to take by carrying the child of someone they love. Since a carrier is trusting others with her life, Kiessling wants to be sure she knows exactly what she's getting into. "I don't want any of the surrogates told that there's no risk to do this," she said. "I want the surrogates to know what we know." Here's what Kiessling tells them: Between the program's founding and 2013, of the HIV-positive men whose sperm Bedford Labs has worked with to date, 163 women have given birth to 189 children—and not a single woman or child was infected. That, however, doesn't mean there's no risk. As she explained, "The statisticians tell me that they can't calculate a risk factor until we get to 400 babies." If there are still no infections at that point she'll be far more confident that the method is truly safe.
At this point, Ferd and Brian considered using both of their sperm, but it turned out that Ferd would have needed surgery to be fertile. He chose not to do it, especially once Brian's samples made it through the screening. And here's where their story gets interesting. On a Friday afternoon, they put down the "sizable" deposit with Circle , and went off to Fire Island for Memorial Day weekend. On Tuesday morning, still hung over, they got a call from their adoption agency—which, unbeknownst to them, had bumped them to the front of the line after their previous adoption possibility had fallen through. A baby had been born in Brooklyn. Did they want him?
The answer was easy: Of course! Within two days, Brian and Ferd were exhausted, delighted fathers of a newborn.
But they didn't want him to be a singleton. And they had already plunked down that huge nonrefundable deposit. Why wait? And so—in the midst of moving to Toronto with an infant, because Ferd's U.S. visa had expired and DOMA hadn't yet been knocked down--they went ahead with meeting Andrea, a carrier in West Virginia, who preferred working with gay men because there was no woman involved to be jealous that Andrea could do what she could not. The two couples—Andrea and her husband, Ferd and Brian—got along fine. They gave the okay.
Step 4: Have a fertility center mix the parts.
Brian and Ferd worked through Boston IVF's Dr. Berger, whose lab used Brian's washed, SPAR-selected sperm, and used the ICSI process, with a single sperm cell per ovum, to fertilize the eggs. The result was several "Grade A embryos," as Brian put it. Having heard from friends whose embryos had failed to develop, the two men and Andrea agreed to Dr. Berger's suggestion that they implant two embryos, just to be on the safe side . According to Brian, Dr. Berger told them that at that time, if one embryo was implanted, chances of a child were about 15 percent; if two, chances were closer to 40 or 50 percent. (Berger says that Boston IVF has been steadily increasing its success rates, and that one five-day-old blastocyst now has about a 40 percent chance of developing.) The day after the implantation, Andrea told them she was pregnant with twins, as she had been the previous time. She was right.
Brian & Ferd's twins Sadie (left) and Ella, seconds after c-section
"Sure enough, at 35 weeks and one day, we got a call," said Brian. Afraid to put premature newborns on a plane, the two men packed a car and drove from Toronto to West Virginia—and drove home a few days later with a pair of baby girls, one three pounds and the other five pounds, colicky, exhausting, and perfect, to meet their big brother—seventeen months older.
Things didn't go as smoothly for Aslan and his boyfriend Zekai. When Aslan started, the pair had been together for only seven months—and so Aslan decided to proceed as if he would be a solo parent. Although Zekai was completely supportive, Aslan explained, "I thought we had to establish our relationship to be more solid" before thinking of it as a joint endeavor. And so once his sperm was readied, Aslan picked a donor and a surrogate, who both went to Boston IVF, their cycles coordinated, for the implantation.
Nothing developed. Three times. Every cycle failed.
The mountainous expense was beginning to dash his hope for a family. He sat down and calculated his costs: Over two years he had spent $200,000 "between the flights to the states, the contracts, the lawyer, the IVF clinic, the SPAR program, it's as much as a house. I didn't know I could raise this sum of money! At this stage, after not succeeding three times, I started to ask myself: What else could I do with all that money?" If he got over his desire to be a dad, he could be well off and travel the world. Was it time to give up?
But Zekai was stubborn, and pushed Aslan to follow his dream. And Circle Surrogacy's John Weltman found another clinic that agreed to work with Aslan at a lower rate—and another surrogate, Christina3. Somehow, Aslan scraped together the money to try one last time.
Wait, why would a stranger agree to carry an HIV-positive man's child?
When I spoke with Christina, I had to ask: Why take that risk, however slight? "Because my sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was nine," Christina explained over the phone from southern Missouri. "Growing up, I always thought I would carry for her. She decided not to pursue having kids. But after I had mine, I decided to do it for someone else." Christina, 29, was upbeat and bubbly on the phone, her voice overflowing with happiness at having been able to give someone such an incredible gift. "Some people do it for the money, which is fine," she said. "A lot of people do it for a friend."
Christina picked Circle for a variety of reasons. She particularly liked the fact that Circle works with gay men, which meant she could give these men an opportunity they'd never have otherwise. Circle's application for becoming a carrier gave her pause when she reached the line that asked whether she'd be open to working with someone HIV-positive. After a few days of pondering, she checked yes. "And I'm glad I did." Being able to give these men a child made her feel profoundly happy to be fulfilling her childhood goal: to bring something good out of her sister's suffering, to offer normal human happiness to a survivor of a terrible illness.
By this time, Aslan was confident in his relationship with Zekai. And so the two men decided that they would both submit sperm samples. Embryos from each of them developed. Christina agreed to implant one from each. And thirty-five weeks later, the men were the fathers of twins.
Christina says she knew the instant they were born which one was biologically related to whom: one of them slight and dark, one of them taller and fair. Aslan says that they knew which was whose the instant they had seen the ultrasound. Both Christina and Aslan agree that the families have become so close they will surely be vacationing together.
When I spoke with Aslan over Skype, he had three-month-old twins crying in the next room. He hadn't shaved for several days, he had bags under his eyes, and he was beaming as if he'd won the lottery. At 49, his life's dream had become reality. "I am smiling, but with black circle around my eyes," he said, "exhausted and happy."
"Both our families are so happy," he said. "The grandmothers are really happy, calling three times a day to see how they're doing. It's a new sensation, to be responsible for two little adorable creatures. They are amazing. They are beautiful, like models."
"We feel blessed," Aslan said. "We are walking around with our heads up, very proud to be dads."
[1] Aslan and his partner's names are pseudonyms to protect their privacy; Aslan's conservative family does not know his HIV status.
[2] In an email to the reporter dated May 28, 2014, Berger explains how he concluded that the number is in the thousands:
These [see below] are a few of the published articles which discuss cycle numbers and live birth rates. From these four articles alone, there are over 700 babies born to HIV discordant couples. There are of course more articles discussing hundreds more babies in the published literature. Furthermore, the number of babies delivered from clinics such as ours that are treating discordant couples, not part of studies and not published, is probably far higher than those in the published literature. Therefore, the estimate of thousands of babies born from treatment at fertility centers with HIV discordant couples is realistic and possibly conservative.
Semprini AE, Fiore S, Pardi G. Reproductive counselling for HIV-discordant couples. Lancet1997;349:1401–2; 200 pregnancies with no HIV seroconversions from more than 1000 AIH treatments of over 350 women
Vitorino RL, Grinsztejn BG, De Andrade CA et al. Systematic review of the effectiveness and safety of assisted reproduction techniques in couples serodiscordant for human immunodeficiency virus where the man is positive. Fertil. Steril.95(5),1684–1690 (2011). - 1,184 couples and 3,900 cycles, employed IUI (compared with 539 couples and 741 cycles of ICSI–IVF), The median pregnancy rate per cycle of IUI was 18.0% (about 700 babies), range (17.7% to 49.7%) of pregnancy rates per cycle encompassed the ranges described for IVF (130 - 370 babies).
Sauer MV, Wang JG, Douglas NC et al. Providing fertility care to men seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus: reviewing 10 years of experience and 420 consecutive cycles of in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertil. Steril.91(6),2455–2460 (2009). The overall clinical pregnancy rate/embryo transfer was 45%; ongoing/delivered pregnancy rate/embryo transfer was 37%. The most frequent obstetric complication was multiple gestation (41%), with 5% experiencing high order multiple (approx 150 babies).
Semprini, A.E., Levi-Setti, P., Bozzo, M., Ravizza, M., Taglioretti, A., Sulpizio, P. et al. Insemination of HIV-negative women with processed semen of HIV-positive partners. Lancet. 1992; 340:1317-1319. Overall a pregnancy rate (PR) and ongoing PR per couple of 45.4% and 36.3% has been achieved with 127 clinical pregnancies, 102 infants born, and 12 pregnancies ongoing with no reported seroconversions.
[3] Christina's name is also a pseudonym, to protect her privacy in a small Missouri town.
Gay Dads Use 'TikTok' To Fight for Acceptance
Kevin and Ivo are fighting to normalize LGBTQ parents through TikTok, a growing social media platform
Gays with Kids
"Are we fearful we're going to turn our son gay?" Kevin DiPalma, a red-bearded man, asks the camera.
"No!" says Kevin's son, Nasim, says
"Are we worried about bullies when he gets to school?" Kevin asks next.
"Yes!" Nasim said.
Thus is the nature of the videos Kevin and his husband Ivo upload to their TikTok account, a widely popular and rapidly growing social media platform among young people.
Within 6 months, the family had 200,000 followers across their social media.
See a complication of some of their videos below!
A Year of "Dadvocacy" with Dove Men+Care
This past year, Gays With Kids has partnered with Dove Men+Care to fight for paid paternity leave for *ALL* dads.
Throughout 2019, we've been advocating alongside our partners Dove Men+Care for paid paternity leave for *ALL* dads. We've encouraged our community of gay, bi, and trans dads, along with our allies, to sign the Pledge for Paternity Leave, and we've been part of the Dove Men+Care and PL+US Day of Action on Capitol Hill as a group of Dadvocates, lead by Alexis Ohanian, spoke with lawmakers and shared their paternity leave stories.
We created six videos of dads in our community sharing their paternity leave stories, numerous social posts, and over eight articles on the topic. We've helped collect close to 40,000 signatures for this vital cause, but the fight continues.
We sat down with one of the Dadvocates who played a huge role in organizing the Day of Action, Vice President / General Manager at Unilever, Skin Cleansing & Baby Care USA Nick Soukas, for a Q&A on his thoughts on and experiences of the day itself.
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="423Z9S1579489345"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DA2YNkTu3nM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Gays With Kids: How would you describe the Day of Action?
<p>Nick Soukas: The Dove Men+Care Dads Day of Action was one of the most inspiring days of my career. Our ongoing commitment to paternity leave came to life with the help of our NGO partner PL+US and a team of Dadvocates, including Alexis Ohanian, Unilever leadership and eight real dads from across the country, all of whom are deeply passionate about affecting policy change in Washington, D.C. Paid Family Leave is a bipartisan issue, that impacts all American families, and while conversations around the issue have been increasing in both culture and politics, it is still not a priority issue for many of our politicians. The powerful stories of the Dadvocates, real fathers who have suffered without access to paid paternity leave, were moving and sparked conversations among politicians across the aisle. Seeing politicians post on social media about the Dadvocates and the meetings we had with them was a clear indicator of how truly impactful these stories were, and how effective they were at placing faces and names to an issue.</p>
GWK: What were some of your personal highlights, most rewarding moments from the day?
<p>NS: The most rewarding part of the day was seeing dads and allies from different backgrounds come together to advocate for a common cause. Everyone involved had a key role to play, and those roles fit together to create a compelling movement that resonated with the Members of Congress we met. It was also extremely powerful to see Dadvocates – some of whom stood side-by-side with their partners and children – candidly sharing their personal stories to these legislators. Coming in as a brand representative, it became clear that we have a powerful role to play in amplifying the millions of voices of real dads who use and trust our brand every day. We sometimes underestimate the role that brands and business with purpose have to affect real societal change.</p>
GWK: What do you think were the main achievements of the day?
<p>NS: The main achievement of the day was the number of intimate meetings we had with key legislators from both sides of the aisle. We ended up meeting with 23 legislators in total, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Bill Cassidy and more. It was powerful and effective to bring our Dadvocates to D.C., leading the meetings with their personal stories – it was clear that these stories, especially those coming from constituents, had a lasting emotional impact on the people sitting in the room.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjE5ODA0Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4MDUwMjMyN30.u0NAo1oRdgWHclaO3OCh3gSmKp399qS0o5Q6InGx9iI/img.jpg?width=980" id="e2410" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="587PWP1579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Nick Soukas speaking on Capitol Hill, alongside PL+US's Founder and Executive Director Katie Bethell, and Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian
GWK: What are Dove Men+Care's next steps to continue advocating for paternity leave?
<p>NS: Our plan is to continue to build support of the Pledge for Paternity Leave until federally mandated policy becomes a reality for all American parents. We saw the Dads Day of Action as an important step in the journey towards this goal. In 2020, we hope to continue connecting with key legislators at both the Federal and Local levels, and inspire individuals, communities and businesses to become advocates for the cause and take action however they can.</p>
GWK: What should our community continue to do regarding next steps? How can folks keep advocating and pushing for change?
<p>NS: The Gays with Kids community adds a valuable voice to the paid leave conversation, as GBT dads and LGBTQ parents are often not brought to the forefront when the issue is addressed by our legislators. For all communities, it is so important to remain active and engaged – actively keeping eyes and ears open about the issue, and taking action however they see fit. There is strength in numbers.</p>
GWK: Looking back on 2019, where and how do you think Dove Men+Care's campaign was most impactful?
<p>NS: Overall, it is clear that the Pledge for Paternity Leave tapped into a barrier that is truly affecting men and their ability to care for others. With nearly 40,000 Pledge signatures to date, the community has created a strong foundation for a movement fighting for paid paternity leave and paid leave policies overall. We continue to foster and engage this community through our Facebook group – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/AdvocatesforPaternityLeave/" target="_blank">Advocates for Paternity Leave</a> – where we will sustain growth in advocacy by providing valuable tools and resources needed to take action. I think the most impactful part of our campaign is in this community, and in their authentic stories. As such, we feel the Pledge has begun to generate the social proof necessary for people to feel comfortable talking about the issue, and feel inspired to take action for change.</p>
GWK: Congratulations on recently becoming a dad! How have you found fatherhood so far and what was your paternity leave experience?
<p>NS: Fatherhood is a unique and personal journey for every dad and my journey was no exception. I was fortunate to have the opportunity from Unilever to take paid leave and I took the full time I was given. Those early moments are so critical in forming a bond with your child, but it's also an important period for parents to build their confidence. Parenting isn't something that you naturally fall into and become an expert in, it requires quality time with your child and your partner. Through my own experience with paternity leave, and through the work we are doing at Dove Men+Care, I want to make sure that no dad has to choose between their job and their family.<em></em></p>
<div><br/></div></strong>
This LGBTQ Children's Book Is About "Everyday Adventures"
"Little Panda's First Picnic," is a children's book that's about an adventure — where the parents just happen to be LGBTQ.
Guest post written by Denise Sensiba
When was the last time you read a book to your child that didn't make a big deal about the parents being LGBT and instead just followed the family on their everyday adventures? Or when was the last time you read a children's picture book that was explaining in detail what a heterosexual couple is? Probably never.
As a parent, prior nanny, early childhood music educator, and current psychotherapist, I have read my fair share of children's books and have always found it to be an enjoyable part of my life. Unfortunately, LGBT families have an incredibly small fraction of the children's books market. The few books that I encountered about same-sex parents did not follow the family as a normal family but focused on nothing more than the same-sex parents. They don't take you on adventures, or teach everyday educational lessons that our children need. Some of these books even deliver a weird message in between the lines saying, "see, same-sex couples can be loving parents." I wondered how that is teaching our kids that there is nothing unusual about LGBT families?
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjE1MDU0NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4Mzg4MzkxNn0.XY0fMXvWRNqQyPU18GQMCpVWjRNMc01D1qwaG-XG8ys/img.png?width=980" id="f9f90" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="JGSSE41579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Denise is a licensed psychotherapist who graduated from an ivy league school. She has spent many years of her career working with children in educational and therapeutic settings. Above all, Denise is a devoted spouse and a loving mother of a little boy who means everything to her. She also is a mom of a puppy that never seems to grow up and a tubby cat that thinks he is the king of the house. Her biggest wish is that her son will grow up with an open mind and a loving heart in a society that needs more of both.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="XHHIT21579489345"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mRtQ4cYuQ9Q?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjEwMDc3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4MTk5NzIwMH0.rxNuRVDd6aZfoQfAlZukzIFIE4ja7pcFWIdvkj3xeus/img.jpg?width=980" id="4044c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="JNO0M81579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>After briefly considering adoption, Matthias and Janno decided that surrogacy was the best path for their family. "The main reason we chose surrogacy was because we wanted to be part of our child's early years," said Matthias. They wanted to be there for their child's development and create a bond as parents right from the beginning.</p><p>But forging ahead with their surrogacy journey was not easy. Commercial surrogacy is not legal in the U.K., meaning it is against the law for anyone to profit from an arranged surrogacy agreement. Only altruistic surrogacy is allowed and it can be a fairly lengthy precess before Intended Parents are recognized as the legal guardians of their child. "We were lucky to be accepted by COTS (<a href="https://www.surrogacy.org.uk/about" target="_blank">Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy</a>) in September 2016 following an initial wait period lasting for about half a year. It took as another year before we were matched with a surrogate and treatment commenced."</p><p>But things didn't go quite as planned after their initial match. Their first transfer resulted in a miscarriage at 7 weeks and then that was followed by a failed transfer. "Due to further medical complications, we needed to find another tummy mummy," explained Matthias. "Along came Katie. With just two embryos left all our hopes were pinned on her and the third attempt. And third time, lucky we were!"</p><p>Their daughter Isabella was born on August 20, 2019.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjEwMDc3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4Njk5NjQ5NX0.pWJcDaYDymEmokRKeqTfInWvv9WkvR0cwGFsllFVCnM/img.jpg?width=980" id="d68ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="UBRWK71579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>"There are no words to describe the feeling when you are holding your baby in your arms for the first time. The rush of emotions and unconditional love, which keeps growing stronger and stronger with each day going by."</p><p>The dads daily lives are now completely different and revolve around Isabella's needs. "Everything takes a lot more time! To catch a train, we used to arrive at a station just minutes before, now we give ourselves plenty of time as babies can be very unpredictable! We have opted for reusable nappies, so the whole house has turned into one big laundry room. Gone are the days of spotless and tidy house! We also spend a lot more time together at home, and have friends visiting us rather than meeting them in town. We do try to have a date night every couple of weeks when Isabella's grandmother comes for a visit and looks after her."</p><p>While the paperwork is still yet to be finalized - they had a November 6, 2019 date set but the court-appointed case worker failed to file her report in time for the meeting so it was postponed - but the couple understand it to be more of a formality. "We are on the home stretch!"</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjEwMDc3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4MDE5Nzc2MH0.7qfei8mq93bH4jawHhqKnBcv2j3SLfRXv9Z3h4xrOI0/img.jpg?width=980" id="e4405" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="L9DOLP1579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>The new family of three continue to stay in close contact with their surrogate Katie and her family, exchanging messages daily. Katie lives in Yorkshire with her husband and three children - twins aged 7, and an 8 year old. "We plan to see them in Yorkshire at the beginning of January. We have become good friends with Katie and this relationship will absolutely continue. We have also become rather attached to Katie's children as have they to us. They are like our extended family!"</p><p>For now the dads are content with their small family but hope to one day add a sibling for Isabella to the mix. And for the future, Matthias and Janno plan to make their relationship "official" by getting married but they're waiting for the day that Isabella and a potential sibling can play a role in their dads' wedding.</p><p>As for advice to other dads considering surrogacy in the U.K., the two recommend joining some of the U.K. surrogacy groups on Facebook to make connections and get information. "There are surrogacy organizations bringing together would-be parents and potential surrogates, but due to the lack of surrogates it may take a long time before you get matched," explained Matthias. "You want to be active and visible on chat groups as a lot of the surrogates follow these groups and it may be easier to strike up a conversation. Potential surrogate will want to get to know you as a person before you move onto talking about sperm and eggs! It's a bit like dating!"</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjUwMTY2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4Mzg5MjA1Mn0.tWoCeiAGnx9C8t87hTlbGpE4RpC3TOoubPVEfqdaBtQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="54640" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="V3YBUR1579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjUwMTY2NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4MTc1NDY4M30.oNmKqjkyI7wzMGHCyewu8Vxupdk5dt_kMTGoKAMNxAE/img.jpg?width=980" id="19d74" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7B74UG1579489345" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Famous Gay Dads and Their Kids!
After Posting a "Boyfriend Application" to Myspace Twelve Years Ago, This Man Met The Future Father of His Daughter


Venezuela Weekly: What Does AMLO's Win in Mexico Mean for Maduro?
Venezuela Weekly: Pressure and engagement—will AMLO change the mix?
The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) as president of Mexico has generated concerns regarding this government's eventual stance with respect to Venezuela. In his victory speech, AMLO suggested his government would effectively move back to the "Estrada Doctrine" that emphasized non-intervention and self-determination. Mexico has been one of the Maduro government's most important critics in the region and a key supporter of the 14 country Lima Group organized to pressure Venezuela. However, on this blog Geoff Ramsey argued that even if AMLO's election means less pressure on the Maduro government, it could lead to more engagement. He points out that under the Estrada Doctrine, Mexico participated in the Contadora Group that promoted peace in Central America in the 1980s, and in the 1990s sponsored peace talks between the Colombian government and guerrilla groups. In any case, AMLO does not actually assume the presidency for another five months.
Out-going president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos publicly called on President Donald Trump to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop supporting the Maduro government.
The Swiss government added 11 Venezuelan officials to their sanctions list.
In an interview with BBC Mundo I suggested that international pressure would be ineffective without an organized opposition inside of Venezuela, and that that international pressure needs to be accompanied by engagement.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced elections for municipal councils, for December 9, 2018. However, the principle opposition parties will not be able to participate including Leopoldo López's Popular Will party (VP), the Popular Justice party (PJ) and Democratic Action (AD). In December 2017 the Natoinal Constituent Assembly (ANC) decreed that parties that do not participate in an election, are thereby excluded from the following election. This requirement is neither in the Constitution nor Venezuela's electoral law. 30 new parties will be given the chance to be legalized, by going through a signature process in which, over the course of one weekend in August, they need to get the signatures of .5% of the registered electorate in 12 or more states. These 30 parties are in addition to the 15 who can run in the municipal council elections because they participated in the May 20 presidential elections. The CNE is opening the Electoral Registry for enrollment for one month, from July 23 to August 23.
On July 9, political prisoners in the Helicoide—the hilltop Caracas prison used by Venezuela's intelligence police (SEBIN)—rioted to protest abuse, for the second time in three months. Some of the prisoners have actually had signed discharge papers for two years, but have nevertheless not been released. Their demands centered around having their cases reviewed and actually brought to court. Two of the prisoners were moved to a jail in the interior. The rest are still holed up, unable to communicate to the outside.
The Venezuelan Program for Action and Education in Human Rights (PROVEA), Venezuela's leading human rights group, said so far this year there has been 85 cases of "state kidnapping," by which they mean arbitrary detention. 38% of these people were temporarily detained, 26% had signed release papers that had not been honored, and 59% have not been formally accused but remained jailed. PROVEA says these arbitrary detentions are a form of "state terror" insofar as they seek to generate fear in the population as a form of control.
Research done in the Luis Razetti Hospital in Barcelona, Venezuela reveals the extent of the hunger in Venezuela. So far this year 49 people have died due to nutritional deficiencies, 80% of these have been infants under 5 months of age.
Public transportation is in crisis, with many lines being covered by cargo trucks not fit for public transportation.
The Organization of American States and the Pan American Development Foundation have signed an agreement to collaborate in the protection and local integration of Venezuelan migrants.
Colombian migration authorities are expecting to regularize 442,000 Venezuelans in Colombia with a "special permanence permit" (PEP). This will be in addition to the 180,000 who already have a PEP.
Brazil has received over 24,000 refugee applications from Venezuelans so far this year.
President Nicolás Maduro announced on July 16, the launching of the "Gran Misión Cuadrantes Paz" (Peace Sectors Mission) This will include the division of the national territory into 2,144 areas in which the National Bolivarian Police will operate.


text:
MarketingService
Black Friday is for the kids, SAS Canada finds
Gary Hilson
It looks like most Canadians are still doing a lot of their Christmas shopping in-store, but digital technology is shaping the expectations they have for their bricks-and-mortar experiences, a new report by SAS Canada has found, while young people are more likely to take advantage of Black Friday.
According to the report, 85 per cent of Canadians surveyed favour shopping in-store for their holiday gifts, compared to 59 per cent and 70 and per cent of their British and American counterparts, respectively.
The 2016 SAS Holiday Shopper Survey also found that online shopping is now as prevalent as in-store buying, and that most gift buyers will use both channels. Seven in 10 shoppers say they will visit stores, while an equal percentage plan to buy online.
But shoppers are fickle, which means despite a global uptick in e-commerce, retailers need to leverage the power of technology and high performance analytics to understand customers personally, delivering real-time deals and recommendations both online and in-store if they are to be competitive, the survey says, as Canadians have no patience for retailers who find themselves short of inventory.
Whether it's online or in-store, Canadians will follow the merchandise, so retailers need to be equipped with the right volume of each product in stock during the holidays, researchers found. Half of Canadians surveyed said that if a brand or item they wanted to purchase was not available in-store, they would go to another store to find it, and if it was out of stock online, 59 per cent said they would go to a different website to snag the gift they wanted.
For our neighbors south of the border, Thanksgiving is for turkey, not shopping – unless you're a millennial, the survey discovered, as nearly four in 10 U.S. shoppers find it to be at least somewhat negative when a store decides to open on Thanksgiving Day, and only 15 per cent plan to venture out after their turkey dinner. It's younger shoppers who are much more likely than their older counterparts to venture out to the mall.
In the United States, Black Friday is still the most popular shopping day of the holiday season in the U.S., edging out Cyber Monday (28 per cent versus 22 per cent). This is slightly lower than last year, when 35 per cent of shoppers planned to shop on Black Friday, and 32 per cent planned to shop on Cyber Monday.
Shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become increasingly popular days for Canadians as well: both are up from last year, at 22 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
But while Canadians may still prefer to do their holiday shopping in store, they research gift ideas online, with 29 per cent of survey respondents saying they use online retailers' product suggestions to find ideas for gifts to give, and more than half of shoppers go through with purchasing an item suggested by online retailers at least some of the time. Despite this affinity for online research, retailers still have some work to do when it comes to providing useful product recommendations, researchers found, as 44 per cent of shoppers felt that retailer's product suggestions based on previous searches or purchases were not very accurate.
Regardless of where they are shopping, Canadian are looking for more personalized communications across the board, with 66 per cent of survey respondents saying they prefer personalized emails from companies they do business with, and 48 per cent saying they like promotional emails and offers in their inbox from companies related to their lifestyle and interests.
The SAS research lines up with recent research from Salesforce, which found that customers want to be treated like people, not numbers, so while connected customers are entrenched in technology, they are still looking for personal relationships with companies.
The Saleforce and SAS research also illustrates that technology is redefining consumer behaviour, and that they expect retailers to quickly adapt to their changing preferences or risk losing their business.
Personally, we think there could be another, simpler reason Canadians want to do their shopping in a mall instead of in front of the computer: It's an excuse to eat at the food court.
SAS Canada
Gary Hilson is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has written thousands of words for print and pixel in publications across North America. His areas of interest and expertise include software, enterprise and networking technology, memory systems, green energy, sustainable transportation, and research and education. His articles have been published by EE Times, SolarEnergy.Net, Network Computing, InformationWeek, Computing Canada, Computer Dealer News, Toronto Business Times and the Ottawa Citizen, among others.
Artificial Intelligence for sport wearables
CIX: Fresh crop of Canadian startups puts a new spin on farming and finance
Howard Solomon - January 30, 2023
Shopify launches Collabs to connect creators with brands
Tom Li - August 17, 2022
eBay to support FedEx on its in-platform label printing service
Tom Li - May 18, 2022
Shopify announces 0% revenue share model for developers, and more from Unite...
Pragya Sehgal - July 2, 2021
More from Gary Hilson
West coast skin care company leverages cloud to support U.S. expansion
Gary Hilson - February 2, 2017
Canada a bright spot for tech investment in 2016
Waterloo media startup snags Vice Canada CRO
Gary Hilson - January 30, 2017


text:
Klikátko (angl. clicker) je jakékoliv zařízení, které vydává klikavý zvuk, zejména na podnět jeho uživatele. Může být rovněž doplněno o počítadlo, které zaznamenává počet stisknutí, například páčky.

Malá klikátka do ruky se využívají například při výcviku zvířat. Většinou sestávají z kusu tenkého kovu, který je umístěn v kovovém obalu a je mírně zahnutý. Stlačením se tato část prohne a vydá hlasité kliknutí. Uvolněním se celý proces opakuje.

Klikátka s počítadlem (angl. spíše hand counter) se používají k usnadnění počítání opakujících se jevů či zaznamenání množství libovolných objektů, například při dopravních průzkumech či v mikrobiologii. Do povědomí české veřejnosti se dostalo v reklamě na parfém od fy AXE.

Přístroje


Hello I agree you will likely want destruction as a ranged option(archery is another choice but destruction seams more fitting to me) and at least pick 1(maybe 2) of your choice of elements depending how high you want to level up your build. Restoration might be something to consider it healing and fighting undead seams like it could fit in at least Role play wise but of course it is your build just food for thought.
Oh, also, you could replace magic resist 3/3 and the tower stone with the atronach perk and the atronach stone. Personally, I like magic absorb more than magic resist when you get it that high, but again, that's more an option than something that's strictly better.
Awesome build, man. I'd greatly recommend giving one of the scimitars a drain stamina enchantment to spam power attacks. There's also the option of adding destruction to the build for a ranged option, but more importantly, to take augmented fire/frost/shock and fire/frost/storm enchanter to use with a chaos damage enchantment. It'll benefit from all six of those destruction perks and all three of the enchanting perks. It's the most damaging enchantment you can add to a weapon. That's not required or anything though, just an option to consider.
I'd also recommend getting rid of great critical charge and bladesman perks- critical damage in skyrim is actually quite puny and only adds damage based off of a fraction of a weapon's base damage.
Thanks! I Really appreciate your suggestion and complements.


Are you cutting the cheese?
You can hit it off with me from the first day.
"I never have been bitten by Mamushi."
You don't dissapoint me. = You are reliable.
Take a break! You look so tired.
Are you taking a break again?
I'll beat you again this year. No sweat!
Really Akiko: Companion Book to "Virtually Akiko"
The Real Akiko: "I Never Met a Man who Didn't Like Me"


Deep Muscle Synergy Blend: Blended with pure ★ Wintergreen (Gaultheria Procumbens) ★ Peppermint (Mentha Piperita) ★ Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus Globulus) ★ Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora) Characteristics: This blend combines powerful analgesic oils designed to mitigate pain and discomfort. This is a powerful oil and should be diluted with a carrier oil prior to application. Natural therapeutic solution to the challenges of muscle discomfort. Eases achy joints and sore muscles. Its effects are deep, cool and penetrating with lasting therapeutic results.
Whole Heart Living All ingredients are non-GMO, Organic, and Vegan. Harness the healing power of pure hemp oil to promote feelings of calm and well-being, easing anxiety and pain with just one gummy bear! Great Tasting Edibles - Natural Fruit Flavors and Rich Hemp Flavor 100% Satisfaction Guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund your entire purchase, no questions asked Q. What exactly am I getting in my order? A. Each bottle of Pure Bio Hemp Gummy Bears contains 20 gummies. Why so few? That's because ours are extra-concentrated, with each gummy containing 25mg of Hemp. Many lower-quality hemp gummies on the market contain only 10mg (or less) of Hemp Extract. So they can give you a bigger bottle that looks like "more" but often if you do the math, contains less Hemp Extract - instead you're paying more for sugar and fillers. Q. What makes our Hemp Gummy Bears different from other hemp gummies? A. Take a close look at our ingredients: all organic ingredients, natural flavors and colors are from fruit juice. No junk preservatives or red 40 or artificial anything. Our hemp extract comes from super-purified organic industrial hemp that preserves the terpenes and health benefits of hemp while removing all psychoactives.
Do everything you do without pain This powerful blend of essential oils has inherent, natural compounds that have a cooling and soothing effect on pain, sprains, stiffness and tense muscles. Injury, surgery, inflammation, occupation, stress and exercise can cause back pain, neck pain, knee pain, foot pain, hip pain, and pains in any other joints and muscles of the body and require us to seek some form of pain management. The body has a natural ability to fight inflammation that can be the cause of muscle and joint pain. An improved blood flow and better circulation helps the body identify the areas that cause pain and discomfort, and supplies those areas with nutrients and agents to combat what is out of order. The plant extracts in this blend promote this approach of the body's self-mending abilities. Join your family and friends and partake in an active lifestyle without fear of pain. Suggested Use:Bring this handy roll-on bottle with you wherever you go in purse, briefcase or backpack and apply often thoughout the day. Hold the bottle upside down and roll the metal ball on forehead, temples, the back of your neck, or any areas on your body that feel tense, sore and in pain.
The Chattanooga ColPac Cold Therapy Pack provides instant pain relief to treat fever, bruises, sprains, strains, and helps to manage swelling. It delivers up to 30 minutes of soothing relief. Simply apply immediately after an injury to control the inflammation of soft tissue. The patented design of the Chattanooga ColPac gently delivers soothing cold therapy and stays pliable during treatment. Each blue vinyl Chattanooga ColPac is latex-free and is filled with non-toxic silica gel, so it's safe for all ages to use. This cold therapy pack is extremely durable, and is commonly used in team sports and safety kits. Recommended the most by Physical Therapists and Sports Trainers, every Chattanooga ColPac is backed by a one-year warranty.
NATURAL Inflammation Remedies! REDUCE Inflammation in the Body FAST!


text:
How Fast Fashion Dumps used clothing to Africa and Asia
Posted On : November 12, 2021
Nairobi Fashion Hub
The fast fashion industry has boomed tremendously in recent years – with Western countries leading the world in consumption and secondhand clothing exports, which are clogging developing countries and landfills with used clothing.
Fast fashion aims to provide consumers with cheap, fashionable garments that are produced quickly and up-to-date on high-fashion trends, often at the expense of laborers and the environment. While social media has certainly accelerated the trend cycle and given consumers increased access to low-priced, fleeting clothing, American overconsumption is not a new fad. It's been around for decades, and it's been inching the world closer to irreversible climate damage as Americans donate their clothing and buy more at increasing rates.
A major point of contention at the United Nations Climate Conference which comes to an end on Friday in Glasgow, Scotland – is the divide between wealthy and developing countries. And just as there is an increasing divide between countries that became rich from fossil fuels powering their economies and poor countries being told those fuels are now too dangerous for the planet, the fast fashion industry is exposing a chasm between wealthy countries exporting used clothing and developing countries becoming textile dumping grounds.
Currently, the U.S. leads the world in secondhand clothing exports. In 2018, the U.S. exported nearly 719 million kilograms (1.58 billion pounds) in secondhand clothing, over 200 million kg higher than its runner-up, Germany. These exports end up in secondhand markets around the world, particularly in the Global South, and often at a rate and volume higher than its recipients can handle.
This problem is especially pronounced across Africa, which counts six of the top 20 countries for secondhand clothing imports – Kenya, Angola, Tunisia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda – and South Asia, where Pakistan and India receive the highest and second-highest volume of secondhand clothes worldwide.
Specifically in Africa, secondhand clothing from Western countries clogs local markets and landfills. The textiles travel from retail secondhand stores to private third parties and containers and are eventually sold to overseas entities, which upcycle or revamp the clothes before reselling them according to Sarah Bibbey, the co-founder and acting director of Make Fashion Clean, a non-profit organization working to make denim consumption more sustainable globally.
In Ghana, these clothes which are called Obroni Wawu in the Akan language, or "Dead White Man's Clothes" are purchased in bales by market traders who do not know what is in them for $25 to $500 each before being repaired and revamped as necessary and eventually making their way to Ghanian secondhand markets. However, the increasingly poor quality of fast fashion clothing makes it difficult for upcycles (people who revamp and recycle used clothing) to give these clothes a new life, forcing them to be discarded at landfills which, in turn, has detrimental impacts on the local environment.
"Our landfills (in the U.S.) are equipped in such a way that they can process chemicals and they can kind of be contained whereas in other countries, including Ghana, it's not the same level of infrastructure around the landfill," Bibbey noted.
In terms of deciding where the clothes go after Americans discard them, power dynamics and colonial histories play a role in where secondhand clothes are diverted to.
"Any country that is […] a formerly colonized country, or country that's not a global superpower, is going to be more vulnerable to clothing dumping in general," Bibbey said. "So any country that we know of is going to be more vulnerable to that just because the political power that they have in the global arena is not the same as the political power the U.S. has in the global arena – so that's the most important thing, I think."
While resistance to Western clothing dumping has taken root in East Africa, the U.S. has leveraged its global influence and financial aid to ensure that it can still export secondhand clothes to African markets.
In 2017, the East African countries of Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Burundi tried to phase out imports of secondhand clothing and shoes because of the way they undermined domestic efforts to develop their own textile industries. The countries sought to ban these imports entirely by 2019.
However, in March of 2017, the Office of the United States Trade Representative threatened to remove four of these six East African countries from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, a preferential trade deal intended to lift the trade and economic growth across sub-Saharan Africa. Burundi and South Sudan had already been expelled from the trade deal under accusations of state violence.
A combination of factors makes the U.S. a hotbed for fast fashion consumption above consumers in other wealthy countries. While Americans of all income levels contribute to the fast-fashion crisis, Charlotte Tate – the Labor Justice Campaigns director for Green America, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promotes ethical consumption points to America's model of capitalism and wage stagnation as some of the factors driving American overconsumption.
"I think one thing that's unique to American capitalism is how much we prioritize working to make more money and then you have more money to spend," she said. "And another factor to consider is fast fashion is much cheaper than higher-quality goods. When you look at wages over the past few decades, they've really stagnated. And as Americans have become more productive, the wealth of productivity hasn't been distributed evenly. In that case, you know, it would be really challenging if you're not making enough money to make ends meet to then also buy higher quality clothes."
But consumers that don't have the means to buy higher-quality goods are not the only group lining up at fast fashion stores. Americans of all income levels consume fast fashion, and higher-priced clothes don't necessarily equate to more sustainably, ethically produced clothes.
Bibbey also highlights the culture around clothing donations as part of what fuels overconsumption and clothing dumping in the U.S., as consumers buy too much with the idea of being able to donate their clothes later.
"People might hear that their clothes ended up somewhere and they might think that that's always 100% a good thing, just because there's that mindset of American saviorism that we have here," Bibbey said. "We get the idea that that's a good thing, even when we see in reality it's putting local artisans and local clothing makers out of business because they're competing in a sense with this influx of secondhand clothes."
But Tate says that American consumers are not the principal blame for the fast-fashion dumping crisis.
"I think that corporations know that they're producing cheap clothing that won't last long and that often can't be reused – and they've known it for a while," she said. "So I would say a bulk of the responsibility falls on corporations and our practices, and then also to some extent it would fall on our government that has the power to regulate, that maybe hasn't."
Because of the unique intensity at which Americans consume and dump clothes – with news reports citing a fivefold increase in the amount of clothing Americans have purchased over the past three decades and an average of only seven uses per item – the U.S. requires unique solutions to the global fast-fashion crisis.
With the U.N. Climate Conference coming to a close, coming up with solutions to these pressing environmental problems is a top priority, advocates say. And, just as the blame for this crisis cannot fall solely on consumers, environmental activists say solutions need to be sought beyond the consumer level, too.
On a smaller scale, Bibbey points to upcycling both in the U.S. and in developing countries as a way to mitigate the impacts of fast fashion on the environment, highlighting Make Fashion Clean's partnership with the Ghana-based MFI Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to upcycling clothes in partnership with local artisans in Ghana, as an example of this. But they say the more global, overarching solutions still need to be "studied" and "examined."
"Consumers have a lot of power, so while they're not directly responsible for some of the problems facing society today, they do have a lot of power to change market demands and to change their shopping habits," Tate said. "We have found that when consumers speak and reach directly to corporations, they do change their practices. Collective action is very powerful. So, if we all act and change our practices, we do have the power to reform."
Content courtesy of US News


This interactive retreat is designed to provide a quiet space for spiritual growth, learning and reflection. Join others who also seek to grow and learn. Group discussions will be an important part of this weekend as we share our experiences and knowledge in a non-judgmental and safe space.
Open you mind, and your 6th sense, to try to connect with your spirit guide(s), discover your life's purpose and recognize spirit messages you may already be receiving. We will be including three guided meditations during the weekend so bring a mat, pillow or blanket so you can relax and connect with your higher self.
Spirited Events by Jofa is happy to announce several upcoming events with William Stillman.
$55 per person for reserved seating admission and a special "VIP Meet & Greet" where you will meet William and received a signed copy of his book, "Under Spiritual Siege".
Additional events with William Stillman will be coming soon!
Spirited Events by Jofa is happy to announce several upcoming events with Dana, Clairvoyant.
Additional events with Dana will be coming soon!
Join Spirited Events by Jofa, along with Steve and Pam Barry from the Gettysburg Ghost Exchange, for a paranormal adventure at the Baladerry Inn in Gettysburg! Check out the EVENT BROCHURE for more details.
Whether you stay for the night or just join us for the evening, you will spend time with others who share your interest in the paranormal.
Gettysburg Ghost Exchange will be bringing various types of paranormal equipment for you to try. If you like it, you may purchase it on Sunday at their store!
The historic BALADERRY INN is reported to be a former field hospital for the Army of the Potomac during the Battle of Gettysburg. During the entire night, the group will have the opportunity to explore the inn in search of paranormal activity. Reports of past activity include full bodied apparitions, great EVPs, beds shaking in the middle of the night, disembodied voices, doors locking on their own and lights going on when no one is in the room.
Grab a friend or family member, bring an open mind and leave with an experience to remember!
Overnight Event Fee Includes: 1 night stay at the Baladerry Inn, breakfast Sunday morning, and paranormal exploration of the Baladerry Inn.
Don't forget to check out our website for other Upcoming Events !
We're working on other new events to be announced soon!


Greetings from Rabat, Morocco! We landed yesterday afternoon in Casablanca, and immediately made our way to Rabat. Our flights were uneventful. We had a 5 hour(!) layover in Paris and were surprised to see no additional security presence in the airport. It felt like just a normal Tuesday morning in any international hub.
Our drive to Rabat was also fairly uneventful. Through a glitch in the GPS we started the trip on the N1 versus the more ideal A3. And what's the difference between the N1 and A3? A3 is highway, while N1 is colorful surface road. While the traffic moved fairly quickly on the N1, you've got distractions like folks herding sheep or pedestrians walking across the road, which slows everything down. Still, by some minor miracle we traversed the city at night and found our hotel.
We totally cheated and ordered room service for dinner. Yet, thanks to the exchange rate our extravagant meal was all of $15.00. Try that at your next luxury hotel and tell me how that works out for you.
Today was spent walking throughout Rabat and taking in its main sights. We started by touring the ruins at Chellah, an ancient city which is right next to Rabat. The only people we saw were guards and folks working on the grounds. Other than that, the site was all ours. Unlike some historic ruins, at Chellah you can get up close and personal to the whole thing. You can effectively walk among the ruins that you're admiring, rather than just observe them from a safe distance.
If the remains of the city weren't enough, there's a stork population that now calls the site home, and they're equally interesting to observe. Who knew storks were so loud? They make a sort of clapping noise that is delightfully eerie. Definitely an awesome site.
We hit the other main attractions in the city, including the Medina, Kasabah and the Hassan Tower (which is ensconced in scaffolding, which was a shame). Oh, and of course the museum at the Kasabah was closed, that's so typical for me. Shira got off the hook with that one.
We're finding the city to be safe and welcoming. Being a pedestrian requires a certain level of boldness, as cars will yield to you in an intersection, but only after you've stepped in and started walking. I rely on a technique I first started using in Italy of simply standing with a local and crossing when they cross. I figure they must know what the heck they are doing.
Another quirk of the city: like Ecuador, this appears to be a BYOTP bathroom situation. That is, Bring Your Own Toilet Paper. At Chellah, they had a couple of ladies who would provide a roll of toilet paper for a nominal fee, but in other locations, it's expected you'll have your own. Not terribly difficult to deal with, but good to know before you have to go.
I have to say, I'm loving the architecture of Rabat. It's all towers and castle walls and such. My inner toddler just thinks the buildings are so cool.
It's time to go find some dinner. Between Shira's high school French, and my hand gestures, how hard could that be?


Rowe Pottery is proudly made in Cambridge, WI since 1974. Each piece of pottery is hand-shaped and hand-decorated by the dedicated artisans using traditional methods and techniques. Find beautiful serving pieces, pie plates, lamps, Christmas collectibles, custom pottery and more.


When you're injured in a fall on someone else's property, is it your fault, or is it the property owners? According to personal injury attorneys, that all depends.
If the accident was the result of a lack of maintenance in a public location, such as a crack in the concrete that catches your shoe and takes you down, you may have grounds for going after the property owner for medical expenses or other expenses related to your injury.
If you are on someone's property and are injured due to no fault but your own — you took a wrong step, you weren't watching where you were going and tripped, that probably is not going to be the property owner's problem. But if you trip over your neighbor's dog, you might have a case.
An Atlanta personal injury lawyer can help you sort through the facts of your situation to determine whether or not there is grounds for a suit. Many factors play into the decision: how bad is your injury? Do you know the property owner? Were their extenuating factors? Were you on property as part of your work? These factors make a difference in whether or not you have a case.
When you are injured on someone's property, it's important to gather as many facts about the situation at the time of the accident as possible. If you are too hurt, ask a friend or relative to take some pictures of the accident scene. Be sure to get photos of any swelling or bruising, and keep detailed medical records.
An Atlanta personal injury lawyer likeDavid Van Sant works hard for victims of accidents. There are times when you are injured due to no fault of your own. When that occurs and you need assistance with medical bills, you are suffering from lost time on the job, or you believe the accident could have been prevented but was caused by the negligence of others, you need an attorney's help.
Contact the Law Offices of David Van Sant for assistance with personal injury accidents and legal help.