Wheat prices soar as Russia-Ukraine tensions flare
Global inflation is finally coming down, but heightened geopolitical tensions could mean that food is about to get a lot more expensive.
2023-07-20 02:20
Keep a watchful eye on your doorstep with a Google Nest Doorbell for its lowest price yet
SAVE $60: As of Oct. 19, get the Google Nest Doorbell for just $119.99. That's
2023-10-20 01:59
Arnold Schwarzenegger's granddaughter is more obsessed with his pets than she is with him
When it comes to Arnold Schwarzenegger's grandchildren and his love for animals, it turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
2023-10-01 04:21
Australian castaway's dog gets new life with 'second dad' in Mexico
Bella, the dog who survived more than two months at sea on raw fish and rainwater with stranded Australian sailor Tim Shaddock, has found a new life in Mexico with a...
2023-07-22 01:51
Eli Roth's 'Thanksgiving' trailer is a feast of holiday-themed horror
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2023-10-05 14:58
Ashley James: ‘We have a totally warped idea of what a mum should be’
Ashley James says there’s “a total lack of understanding” about feeding babies – and that mothers who pump shouldn’t have to hide away. “With pumping, people should feel confident, just like with breastfeeding, to do that anywhere,” says the DJ and influencer. “If anyone were to have a problem with that, they need to address some deep-rooted issues of why feeding a child would be a problem.” James, who has a two-year-old son, Alfie, and a four-month-old daughter, Ada, with partner Tommy Andrews, argues there’s a huge lack of knowledge about how all-consuming feeding a child with breast milk is – from the hours spent feeding or pumping (an estimated eight to 12 times a day, up to 45 minutes each time for newborns) and “also the fact that you can’t just leave your child”. The 36-year-old says: “People don’t really know about engorgement, mastitis, blocked ducts, supply issues, and all the reasons that people choose to pump.” For example, going back to work. “[People think] ‘Oh just give them a bottle or pump in the morning, and then they’ll be fine’. There’s a total lack of awareness.” The former Made In Chelsea star, who hit the headlines after breastfeeding Alfie live on the Jeremy Vine Show in 2021, is currently using a pump alongside breastfeeding Ada for her to have the option of a bottle, too. “I ended up having to breastfeed [on TV] and there was this really weird backlash – people saying it was attention seeking. [Which is] funny to me. Let’s say that was my plan, I’m a total narcissist and I’d decided this was going to be my chance to get publicity… how would I have managed to convince my three-month-old baby to feed at that exact moment? “Who would I want attention from? Is it because our ‘boobs are for men’ and therefore I’m hoping that men might look at my boobs, because I’ve never wanted that, but I especially don’t want that when I’m feeding my child. I think we have this totally warped idea of what a mum should be. “We are always told, they’re the most important years of a children’s life, those early years, and it’s so formative, but yet I feel like we expect mums to almost keep their children hidden away, but then we expect them to thrive.” On Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch last month, James used an Elvie Stride breast pump live on air – unbeknownst to viewers and crew. The discreet hospital-grade, hands-free, electric device can be worn under clothing to pump milk without anyone noticing. “I was worried about having blocked ducts and didn’t want to go back to that horrible situation of having mastitis again,” she says. James had the condition when breastfeeding her son two years earlier. “I just wanted to get on with my job, but I needed to deal with the engorgement issue. “It was almost behind the scenes. I was having this huge [issue] with my health – but us mums tend to just get on with the job. “In terms of pumping, I don’t know why we feel like as a society that any form of feeding should be done in private, especially if it’s not bottle feeding. Hats off to all the people who exclusively pump because it’s so constant. She believes it should be celebrated as much as breastfeeding because “it’s really hard to manage, people don’t know the logistical nightmare of it all. “You just don’t see anyone pumping, but you know that people are doing it. So why is it that people are stuck at home? “Obviously lots of people who are trying to feed have to go back to work, for various reasons – maternity pay or maternity leave not being long enough,” she adds. In fact, James started working again, on photoshoots and TV, just five days after the birth of Ada. “I’m self-employed, I don’t get maternity leave – you do what you have to do,” she says. These days she shrugs off negative comments online, but James has experienced real-world shaming for public feeding too. “I was in a children’s attraction in London, breastfeeding Alf, and a member of staff came up to me and asked me to move into the loos. I was like, this is a child-friendly attraction space! “[I said] ‘No, would you eat in a public loo?’. I don’t even want to go to the loo in a public loo, never mind feed my child there!” Ashley James is an ambassador for Elvie. Find out more information about the Elvie Stride at elvie.com. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Host Maya Jama’s glamorous Love Island outfits cost over £10,000 Do you need to watch what you eat when you’re breastfeeding? Sten dos: What you need to know about the quirky wedding trend
2023-08-01 21:26
Mum’s husband fired from family business after she roleplayed with reborn dolls
A woman who turned to roleplaying with hyper-realistic dolls “to help (her) cope” with the death of her first baby – and continues to do so with her husband and two rainbow babies – has said her husband’s parents disapproved of the hobby and fired him from the family business as a result. Christina Keeler, 38, a stay-at-home mum and YouTuber, from Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, USA, fell pregnant with her first “miracle” baby in 2015, despite having endometriosis and being told she would not be able to conceive in her 20s. She suffered a miscarriage, but after watching a documentary about so-called reborn dolls, she had a “lightbulb moment” and realised getting a hyper-realistic doll would be the “perfect solution”. Christina’s husband Bill, 43, was “hesitant” at first but became supportive after he saw how much it “helped (her) grief”. The couple went on to have two “miracle” daughters, Grace, six, and Joy, four, who now help feed, change and dress the family’s five reborn dolls – which cost between £1,560 and £3,899 each – in their “nursery” complete with “a crib and a wardrobe”. The family often take the dolls out in public, and have shared their journey on YouTube – where Christina documents people’s reactions to her dolls and birthing videos. Some silicone dolls come in a fake womb which allows a Caesarean section to be performed at home. But Bill’s family were “disgusted” with the hobby, to the point where they gave him a choice to stop having the dolls or leave the family business. He refused to shut down the YouTube channel and did not want Christina to give up her hobby, so he was fired. She fell pregnant with her first baby in 2015, a year after her mother died of cancer. The couple were “elated” about the pregnancy because Christina had been told in her twenties that she would not be able to conceive because she has endometriosis, but she miscarried at eight weeks. Christina told PA Real Life: “When we lost the baby it was so devastating, I remember lying in the hospital bed after they had taken the baby out of my belly, and screaming for my mum and wept wanting to cuddle my baby.” She “really struggled” with the grief of losing her mother and her baby so close together. She explained: “This feeling of sorrow just never went away, it was so painful that I never talked about it again.” Despite having her two “miracle” children Grace and Joy, Christina still longed to hold her first baby, and after watching a documentary about reborn dolls, she wanted to get one to see if it would help her grief. She said: “I felt so blessed to have two healthy girls, but that feeling of missing the first baby never quite went away. “When my youngest was around two years old, my husband and I came across a documentary about reborn dolls. “And he was like, ‘That’s really weird’, and I played it off that I thought the same, but actually I really wanted one to help me cope and I thought it would be the perfect solution.” After persuading her husband, Christina ordered her first lifelike doll, Hannah, costing her around £155. She said: “I told my husband and he was not on board at all, he was hesitant, but after explaining my reasoning, he was much more understanding and more accepting.” When the doll arrived, Christina instantly felt like it helped with her mourning. She said: “It helped me therapeutically because for the first time ever when I got my first reborn doll, I was able to talk about the loss of our baby. “And since then I have healed tremendously from that loss because I’m able to talk about it and share my story and help others – it helped my grief, for sure.” Christina now has a collection of five dolls called Carter, Cadence, Quinn, Isabella and Sammy, which she loves to dress, cuddle and feed. She takes the dolls out in public and people often mistake them for real babies. She said: “We have a nursery for them with a crib and a wardrobe. I check on them throughout the day, and on other days, especially when the girls want to get involved, I pick out an outfit for them, bring them to breakfast, get them to feed them a bottle, change them. “If we’re running errands we often take them out with us and put them in a car seat and stroller.” Christina and her family have been sharing their experiences on YouTube, where they are known as The Reborn Family. She said: “I make videos about people’s reactions to my dolls, as well as vlogs and birthing videos – I have some silicone reborn dolls which come in a womb and you perform a C-section on it at home, to give birth to the baby.” Despite her immediate family being supportive of the hobby, Christina admits not everyone in her wider family understands. She said: “My husband’s family were, and still are, disapproving of the reborns, even though they can see how much they helped me. They were disgusted. “We moved from California to Pennsylvania because my husband was next in line to take over the family business because they were about to retire, and they asked if we would like to do so and we agreed. “When they were on vacation they came across our YouTube channel, and they called us up and they were mortified and so embarrassed, and said we were ruining the family name.” When Bill’s parents came home, they gave him an ultimatum to stop having the dolls. Christina explained: “Bill said that he was not going to quit his job, and didn’t want me to stop having reborns because they were so therapeutic for me at the time, and his dad said, ‘Well, then you’re fired’.” My husband’s family were disgusted, they said we were ruining the family name Bill’s father was contacted by PA Real Life for comment, but he had not responded at the time of publication. Even though her reborns have caused tension in the family, Christina cannot see herself giving up her hobby any time soon. She said: “Reborns continue to help me with my grief, and I love sharing content with other people who have lost babies, and they can also really help people with dementia, people who are infertile, people with anxiety and depression, I wouldn’t want to stop this.” Read More Teenager who thought she was pregnant diagnosed with ovarian cancer Woman praised for response to parents who asked her to swap first class seat with their child Barbie vs Oppenheimer: Greta Gerwig makes history with biggest box office opening for a female director Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live
2023-07-24 19:24
UK Consumer Confidence Posts Sharpest Drop Since Start of Covid
UK consumer confidence fell the most since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as cash-strapped households felt the
2023-10-20 08:17
10 of the best machine learning courses you can take online for free
TL;DR: A wide range of machine learning courses are available for free at Udemy. Advance
2023-06-11 12:17
A crispy roast potatoes recipe could be the key to life on Earth
A chemical reaction that gives food flavour could have helped evolution, one study suggests. According to New Scientist, the Maillard reaction is when the temperature between sugars and amino acids rises above approximately 140°C. It often occurs in food such as toasted bread, meats and roasted vegetables. Caroline Peacock at the University of Leeds wanted to explore whether it could happen at lower temperatures. To do this, scientists added iron or manganese minerals to a solution made up of sugar glucose and the amino acid glycine. When the substance was incubated at 10°C, the process was sped up by around 100 times. The temperature is said to be similar to the seabed at the edges of continents. Peacock and the team discovered that the Maillard reaction also occurs on the ocean floor, where iron and manganese minerals are often found. If this is the case, it could cause the carbon in sugars and amino acids to be stored in "large, complex polymers that microbes find harder to ingest," Peacock said, as per the publication. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "If you can get your carbon through the 1-metre danger zone [at the top of the sea floor], where carbon generally is attacked and degraded and turned back into carbon dioxide by microbes, that will lock it away from the atmosphere," she explained. The team estimated that the minerals could lock away roughly 4 million tonnes of carbon every year. If this process didn't exist, the atmosphere could have warmed by a further 5°C over the past 400 million years, the study suggested. "This process has such a profound impact on atmospheric oxygen," she says. "Because complex life forms require higher levels of oxygen, as they’re more energetically demanding, we think it’s reasonable to surmise this process had a hand in creating conditions required for complex life." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-05 00:20
Japan Short of Paternity Leave Goals Despite Higher Numbers
Japan is far from reaching the paternity leave goals laid out by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, even though
2023-07-31 17:59
Secret spots on Croatia's famous Dalmatian coast
The southern coast of Dalmatia is classic Croatia. Between Split and Dubrovnik lie some of the most visited places in the country. But while tourists crowd the honeypot destinations, there are plenty of lesser visited spots. Here's where to go.
2023-10-03 20:55
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