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A few months ago, in an office near Guatemala City, a woman known as a searcher spread out a large map across her coffee table. The map was dotted with about 250 tiny, hand-drawn circles, each one representing a place where the searcher had tracked down a birth mother who had placed a child for adoption. Sometimes she found a birth mother after knocking on a few doors in Guatemala City. In other cases, she traveled for three or four days to remote indigenous areas in Guatemala or farther afield to Nicaragua, Honduras or El Salvador.
I heard about the searcher, who because of the sensitivity of her work asked me to identify her by the first initial of her name, S., more than a year ago on an adoption listserve. That is when I began scouting to find my own daughter's birth mother. One reason my husband and I chose to adopt from Guatemala more than three years ago was that we knew families who had met their children's birth mothers at the adoption finalization and had a continuing exchange of photos and letters and, in some cases, made occasional visits to them in Guatemala.
In our situation, though, the potential for an open adoption proved to be more complicated. Before we went to Guatemala to adopt our daughter Lucia, we told our agency we hoped to meet her Guatemalan mother. But it was never clear that she was given the option of meeting us. An agency representative in Guatemala did tell us that the birth mother wanted us to send photos of Lucia. But months after we mailed them, the photos sat in the representative's office. The birth mother had moved, and no one, it seemed, knew how to find her.
Like a growing number of parents, I was inclined toward some form of open adoption in part because of the experiences of adoptees born into closed, secretive domestic adoptions in the 1950s and '60s, as well as those adopted internationally. Many of these adoptees say they yearn for more information about their genes and their birth families: What does my birth mother look like? Do I have biological brothers or sisters? Why was I placed for adoption? I knew too that adoptees like Lucia, whose ethnicity and skin color are different from their parents', may crave seeing themselves reflected in blood relatives.
Some of these issues have diminished in domestic infant adoptions, where today a vast majority of adoptive and birth families have had contact with one another, according to Adam Pertman, author of "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming America" and executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, an education, research and public-policy organization. And there is increasing evidence that openness is a good thing.Continue reading the main story
In a 20-year longitudinal study of domestic adoptions, Harold Grotevant and Ruth McRoy, professors at the University of Minnesota and University of Texas at Austin, respectively, found that birth mothers in open adoptions experienced less adoption-related grief than those in closed adoptions. And all of the adopted teenagers in the study who had continuing, in-person contact with their birth families wanted those relationships to continue.
For many reasons, though, creating openness at the outset of an international adoption is often difficult — and sometimes impossible. In part it's because birth mothers typically face great stigma, and while there are increasingly exceptions, many adoption agencies offer little or no help for parents who want to initiate these relationships. Instead, searching for birth families 2 or 10 or even 30 years after the fact has become an imperfect alternative.
As I contemplated whether to search, I scoured listserves dedicated to adoptive parents who had searched or were considering doing so. They debated when to do it: while your child is an infant or a toddler and when a relationship with a birth mother has a chance to become a natural part of your child's life? Or later, when your child is old enough to express whether she has any interest in finding her birth family?
Meanwhile, I knew that some adoptees argue that parents shouldn't search at all; the decision should be left to adoptees, when they become adults. "There is so little we have control over in the process of adoption; searching is one of them," says Susan Soon-keum Cox, vice president for public policy and external affairs at Holt International Children's Services, who was adopted from South Korea in the 1950s. Cox was in her 30s before she searched for her birth family. As it turned out, her birth mother died just before the search, but Cox eventually met two half-brothers whom she sees when she goes to South Korea for work and corresponds with by e-mail a couple of times a year with the help of a translator. Until the search, her brothers never knew of Cox's existence. "Imagine how that made them feel," Cox says. "But can we have a conversation about that? Never. We are very fond of each other, but it's polite." Being in touch with her birth family, she says, "is a great blessing in my life, but it is also emotional. It's not just the search, but the day after and the day after and how you navigate the complexities of the relationships."
While Cox found her birth family after placing a single newspaper ad, searches are often much more difficult. In indigenous regions of Guatemala, for instance, after decades of government violence and discrimination, as well as increasing controversy about placing children for foreign adoption, outsiders are sometimes unwelcome and information is not easy to unearth. And if searching is difficult now, I, like many parents, feared it would only grow more so as time went on, and our fragile trail of leads ran cold. Worse, there might be no birth mother left to find: indigenous women, like Lucia's birth mother, have shortened life expectancies because of poor health care and other problems. By doing nothing, in other words, I might be making a decision for Lucia.
That idea, along with the image of Lucia's birth mother longing for photographs, tipped it for me last year. When Lucia hadn't yet turned 2, my husband and I sent our paperwork to S., the searcher in Guatemala. I enclosed a packet of photographs of Lucia and a letter telling her birth mother that Lucia was safe and healthy and deeply loved. I also wrote that we would be happy to send pictures regularly — if that was something she wanted.
My hope, in part, was to gather bits of Lucia's first chapter of life: photographs (in addition to the two tiny photos we have of her birth mother — one an ID picture and another from the DNA test she and Lucia underwent for the adoption), some medical history, perhaps insight into her Guatemalan mother's and father's personalities, as well as the circumstances around Lucia's adoption. My other motivation for searching was to try to create a pathway for continuing contact, so that Lucia could have the option of a relationship later on. In all of this, I was making an educated guess, based on earlier generations of adoptees, that Lucia would, in fact, be curious. But it was also entirely possible she wouldn't want to know. It was possible she would wish I had left the information unturned.
In some cases, searching not only doesn't answer questions; it also raises ones that parents and children aren't prepared for. That's what happened to a New Jersey mother named Cece. For the past few years, Cece's 11-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, has periodically released Mylar balloons into the sky to China with messages to her birth mother. "I love you," one of them read, "and I want you to know I'm happy. My parents love me." But one evening two years ago, Elizabeth emerged from an adoption therapy group telling her mother that many of the kids there — most of whom were adopted in the United States — had met their birth mothers. She desperately wanted to meet hers, too; she begged her mother to search. Through a network of contacts, Cece, who asked me to use her and her daughter's middle names, found someone in China to place an ad, with Elizabeth's birth date and a baby photo, in the newspaper of the province where Elizabeth was abandoned. "I had this image we would have this wonderful relationship, and if they needed help, of course we would," Cece says. Instead, a man came forward claiming to be her birth father and explaining that he had had an affair with the birth mother, resulting in Elizabeth. The birth mother, he said, died less than a year earlier. Then the story grew more tangled. After the man agreed to a DNA test, the results showed that he was not the father. Upset by the news, he stopped responding to Cece's searcher. Was he a fraud hoping to extract money from Cece? Or had the birth mother had another lover? Or was there a different story altogether?
Cece eventually came to feel that she was glad she searched, in part because her willingness to do it seemed to comfort Elizabeth. But immediately after the DNA results, when Cece was struggling with what to tell her daughter, she wondered whether scouting for Elizabeth's origins was a bad decision. "I wished I had never done it," she told me at the time, "and we could be happily sending balloons up and feeling hopeful and good."
In an essay called "Walking Down the Village Path," which has circulated on adoption Web sites, Jane Liedtke, the founder and C.E.O. of Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, warns that even nosing around for details of a child's roots — whether it's visiting an orphanage or the spot where a child was abandoned — can uncover information that parents never anticipated or wanted. "It's not another sightseeing stop on an itinerary," Liedtke writes. "This is not a walk for curiosity seekers. This is not an entitlement as an adoptive parent. . . . This is a life we're talking about — your child's life." As Jane Brown, an adoption social worker in Scottsdale, Ariz., puts it, once you open the box, "you can't always seal it back up."
While my husband and I wanted as open an adoption as possible, some parents are drawn to international adoption for the opposite reason. Not only is an "unknown" birth mother unlikely to reclaim her child across oceans (in fact, disruptions of U.S. adoptions are also rare once the adoption is legally finalized), but she can also seem like less of an emotional danger — as if physical distance creates psychological distance.
But in the last decade — in addition to search services for adult adoptees — an industry has sprung up catering to adoptive parents who do want contact. Virtually every country from which children have been adopted has at least a couple of searchers and in some cases more than a dozen, with fees ranging from a few hundred dollars to $2,000 or more per search. In Guatemala alone, more than 350 parent-driven searches have taken place since the late 1990s, and parents have initiated at least 2,000 searches in former Soviet bloc countries.
Even in China, the country where it is probably hardest to search because children are typically anonymously abandoned, there is talk in the adoption community of starting a voluntary DNA database of children adopted from China. The database would, among other things, help connect adopted birth siblings to one another and perhaps one day link children to their birth parents.
But do birth mothers want to be found? Though many parents told me adoption agencies discouraged them from looking for birth parents, saying, among other things, that they could put birth mothers at risk, searchers I spoke to in India, Guatemala and Russia offered a different perspective. Tony Carruthers and his five colleagues have performed more than 600 searches in Russia. He says that they never initiate contact with the birth mother by phone or letter. (He had heard about two cases when search letters read by birth mothers' family members — who didn't know of the adoption — resulted in the woman's being beaten or thrown out of the house.) "We have never compromised a birth mother," he says. And in S.'s eight years and 261 successful cases, she knew of only one time a birth mother was harmed; her husband mistook the searcher for someone connected to her ex-boyfriend and beat her.
When S. does show up bearing news and photographs of a child a mother hasn't seen in 2 or 8 or 20 years, she says, women have varying responses — shame, happiness, pain and, often, relief. "Many say there hasn't been a day they haven't thought about their child," she says. Only 8 out of the 261 birth families S. has found wanted no further contact with adoptive parents, usually because the birth mother's family or new husband didn't know an adoption had taken place.
When Marcy, a Chicago-area mother, hired S. to search three years ago, she had no idea how her son's birth mother would react. Like many adoptive parents, Marcy wanted to meet the woman at the time of the adoption. But despite requests to her agency and to the Guatemalan lawyer assigned to the case, the two women were never connected.
Meanwhile, the birth mother, Alma, had been wondering what had become of her son, or even whether he was alive. For years, rumors have circulated in Guatemala that some adopted children are harvested for organs, and a neighbor told Alma that her son was probably dead.
Then S. brought her Marcy's letter about her son Reed: "I am writing for several reasons," the letter began. "First, so you know that he is well and very much loved. Second, to make sure that you and your family are well, and third, to know if you would like to stay in contact with our family. . . . We think that as Reed grows up, he will want to know more about his family in Guatemala, including where his personality and his talents come from. We consider you part of our family, even though we have never met." Included in the package were several photos of Reed, who was 2 at the time, with a head of soft, dark hair and gleeful eyes with lashes that practically curl onto themselves. "When I saw the pictures," Alma told me by telephone through an interpreter, "I started to cry. I could see that he was very loved. And it really filled my heart with happiness." A year later, Marcy and her husband traveled to Guatemala, where they were adopting another child, and spent six hours with Alma, her mother and two of Alma's children. The two women talked about their children and looked at a photo album Marcy had brought of Reed, who, Alma said, looked just like his birth father. As Marcy told me: "There was that initial big feeling of, This is the person who brought your child into the world. But there was nothing about that day that was awkward for me. We came to trust each other in a new way after that."
Following the visit, the two families began e-mailing or talking every couple of months with the help of a cellphone that Marcy bought Alma and a network of friends and professionals to translate.
Not all relationships go so smoothly, though, and several searchers told me they are frustrated by adoptive parents who vanish after the initial contact. In some cases the parents, or their children, are uneasy with the facts a search uncovers — adoption corruption or alcoholism or a birth mother who abused her child. But other parents simply get what they need and don't want more. "We get phone calls from birth mothers begging for some more photos or news of the child, but the adoptive parents do not respond," says one searcher in Russia.
Even with the best of intentions, parents on both sides often struggle to bridge the enormous gulfs that are inherent in most international adoptions. "Usually they are very quiet," S. says describing birth mothers during their meetings with adoptive families. "I need to keep reminding the birth mother that she's entitled to ask questions." S. recounted a recent reunion between a birth mother and her 12-year-old daughter. The girl sang her a song and talked about her ambition to be a singer. Then the girl asked her birth mother what she dreamed of being when she was a young girl. Confused by the question, she told her daughter she dreamed about her two weeks before the visit. "I had to explain to the girl that the birth mother couldn't answer a question like that," S. told me. "People here at that socioeconomic level don't really think in terms of dreams and ambitions."
One recurring theme among adoptive families searching for birth families is money. I thought about this before ever contacting S. What would I do if Lucia's birth mother asked for help? Would I say yes, but only under certain circumstances? Or would I simply offer to help, regardless of whether she asked? Also, was it possible that my money could encourage another woman in the community to relinquish her child in hopes of receiving financial support from an adoptive family one day? If I said no, how would I answer Lucia if she asked why I hadn't helped support her birth mother?
"Some birth mothers would never accept any money from adoptive families," S. says. "And adoptive families can say no if birth families ask. But if we're talking about what they need, money is what they need." When one family gave a birth mother whom S. had found $200, she bought a TV set with it, infuriating the adoptive family. "But to her it was a gift she could spend however she wanted," S says. "And if she spent it on two months of food, after two months she'd have nothing left."
S. says she works with about 100 families who provide support to birth families, usually by paying for the education of other children in the family. (Public school in Guatemala, which costs about $5 for enrollment and another $150 annually for school supplies and uniforms, is out of reach for many birth families.) Also, at least a half-dozen adoptive families are now building houses for birth families in Guatemala, including Marcy and her husband, who recently completed a house for Alma. For years, Alma, her mother and children have lived in a one-room house with a dirt floor and no running water or electricity. Next month, they will move into a new, concrete one-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
Not surprisingly, though, money can also sour relationships, as it did for years for Belle and her daughter's birth mother, who met when Belle first adopted her daughter in Guatemala. It wasn't long after that that Belle, who asked me to use her nickname, learned that her daughter's birth mother had ambitions of finishing her high-school equivalency — an aspiration in stark contrast to those of many Guatemalan birth mothers, who are illiterate or read only at a first- or second-grade level. When she asked if Belle would help out, Belle said yes: Here was a chance to put more than Band-Aid on a family's poverty; here was a chance to change a life.
Belle hired S. to handle the logistics of paying the school tuition. But less than 24 hours after S. put down the deposit, the director of the school telephoned S. and told her the birth mother had returned to withdraw the money. "I remember my heart just falling," Belle told me in the living room of the house near Boston where she lives with her husband and two children. "This image we had of a wonderful determined woman who was our daughter's mother who we hoped to help, and this idealistic and hopeful story took a very bad turn." Belle was angry and bereft not only at the loss of trust but also at the loss of her image of the birth mother of her 9-month-old daughter. "It was wonderful to think of our daughter's birth mother in this certain way," Belle said. Letting go of that, she said, was one of the challenges and risks of having the relationship.
It took Belle four months to write a letter to the birth mother. The first version included the phrase "we forgive you." "But that felt like a terrible thing to say because of the power dynamics between us," Belle says. Finally she wrote that she simply wanted to remain connected. When S. went to deliver the letter, the birth mother had moved. Until then, Belle hoped that her daughter would eventually have a relationship with her birth mother. Instead, it seemed Belle would be left with only a painful story to share with her.
Then three years later, after Belle's sustained efforts to find the birth mother and with the help of a Guatemalan adoption lawyer, the two women did reconnect. Neither mentioned what had happened, and initially they kept any talk of money out of their letters and e-mail messages.
But when the birth mother later requested money for an emergency, Belle and her husband decided to help, this time without strings attached. Now they send about $1,000 a year for housing costs, food or whatever else she and her family need. "People who live in desperate poverty often have to hustle, and I didn't want her to have to hustle us," says Belle, who has worked with poor communities for years. "I wasn't comfortable with trying to control this woman's choices while trying to build a real relationship."
This summer, in New York, as a woman named Mary and I sat watching her 7-year-old daughter, Bekele, in a double-dutch jump-roping class, she told me the story of Bekele's adoption. In 2003, Mary adopted Bekele, then 4, from an Ethiopian orphanage, seven years after Mary's oldest daughter, Chengyun, arrived from China. (Mary asked me to use her and her daughters' middle names.) Though Bekele barely spoke English at first, soon words were spilling out of her mouth. As it turned out, she had a lot to say. She told Mary about her memories of life in Ethiopia — the day a lizard crawled down her shirt, how she cried at the orphanage. And then one day she told Mary she had an older sister, Temame, in Ethiopia, whom she was worried about. She also said her mother took her to the orphanage when she was 3, which Mary would later learn followed the death of Bekele's father. Now Bekele wanted to find her Ethiopian family, 7,000 miles away.
Mary, a warm and easygoing woman who resembles an earthy Carly Simon, hired a searcher in August 2005. Several months later he called Mary with his report. Temame, who was 13, was alive. So was her mother, though she was ill with AIDS. The searcher also explained that since Bekele's father's death, the family had plunged into deep poverty.
A few weeks later, Mary arranged with a translator to talk to Bekele's birth mother by phone. She already had some hint of what might unfold. The searcher had told Mary that the mother wanted Mary to adopt Temame. Mary was a single mother living on a teacher's salary; her oldest daughter's college tuition was looming; she wasn't planning on adopting again. And there was the overwhelming unknown of adding a teenager to the family — a teenager who would be leaving both her mother and her country. Mary explored alternative possibilities with the searcher: Were there relatives in Ethiopia who could raise Temame so that she could stay in her country? Could Mary pay for her education at an Ethiopian boarding school?
During that first phone conversation with Bekele's birth mother, Mary told her about how well Bekele was doing in school and how much she loved her. But Bekele's Ethiopian mother kept turning the conversation to her other daughter. Finally she said, "Will you adopt Temame?" The question hung in the air. Looking back on that moment, Mary says she had an image of a woman in a sinking boat handing her a child. "You don't say, Sorry, it's not a convenient time right now," she says, though in the coming weeks Mary would wonder how well her own boat would hold up. But when the question was asked, Mary went on instinct: "It would be my honor," she said.
In the next months, Mary would have an adoption agency representative and others talk to Temame and her mother to try to make sure the family understood what the adoption would mean for them. Mary would talk to her own daughters about the prospect of another sister: Bekele was overjoyed at the idea of reuniting; Chenyung, who knew that another child would diminish her mother's time, was unhappy.
It has now been nearly four months since Temame became part of Mary's family, and it is still too early to say how it will all play out. But when I spoke to Mary this month, she was optimistic. Temame is in eighth grade learning English, making friends and staying in touch with her mother in Ethiopia. Chenyung is adjusting, too, and finds ways to get the one-on-one time she needs with her mother. It is Bekele, Mary says, who struggles the most with sharing her mother with an added daughter in the house. All the dynamics, of course, could be turned on their head in the coming months and years. "I thought that whatever road it took us down, we'd figure out how to handle it," Mary says, looking back on her decision to search. She adds with a small laugh: "I obviously had no idea how emotional and complicated it would become."
Such instances of "found" siblings — whether they are loved and with their families or languishing in orphanages — aren't altogether uncommon. And I knew it wasn't entirely far-fetched to imagine that if we found Lucia's birth mother we might be confronted with a similar predicament. What if Lucia's birth mother was pregnant and wanted us to adopt another child? We had no plans to adopt again (Lucia is our second child), particularly from Guatemala. Though we had concrete reasons to believe our daughter's adoption was legal, there have been increasing reports of payments to birth mothers and other corrupt practices. But if we could be certain everything was ethically aboveboard, would we adopt Lucia's biological sibling? Or would this instead be a chance to support Lucia's birth mother, financially or in other ways, so that she would keep her child? Then again, poverty isn't at the root of all adoptions. If there were other circumstances at play, what would be best for that child? And what would be right for my own family?
The most disturbing search situation may be the one that reveals that a child was stolen. When Desiree Smolin and her husband, David, adopted their daughters, Manjula and Bhagya, from India, they quickly learned something was amiss. Within six weeks of arriving in the U.S., the adolescent girls, who were clearly angry and traumatized, said that they were stolen from their parents. During that first year, the Smolins, who also have five sons, weren't sure what to believe; other adoptive parents told the Smolins that the girls were probably fabricating the story as a way of dealing with their relinquishment; that older children were unlikely to be stolen; and that looking for a birth mother could put the woman's life at risk. The Smolins say they repeatedly pushed their agency to investigate the adoption. Then they found an advocate in India who offered to search. Within a few months, she had located the birth family and confirmed the girls' alarming story. As it turned out, the girls' mother had been duped into placing them in an orphanage for education, and the girls were then slated for adoption. And though both daughters, now in their late teens and early 20s, have returned to see their Indian family, neither one feels that India is home any longer. For their part, Desiree and David Smolin have become outspoken adoption-reform advocates.
Desiree argues that searching can be one way to expose corruption. And in some cases, she says, parents have a moral imperative to do it. She notes a case earlier this year in which Samoan parents were tricked into placing their children for adoption. Writing on an adoption listserve and later in an e-mail message to me, she said: "If you are an adoptive parent of a Samoan child adopted through this agency and you see the press reports of Samoan parents crying and begging for the return of their children — do you not have an obligation to both the child and first parents to birth-search and re-establish contact?"
Several weeks after I sent the photos of Lucia and a letter to the birth mother last year, S. sent me a long e-mail message, describing her efforts to find Lucia's Guatemalan mother, including the various addresses she had visited. In 314 searches, S. has located 261 birth families. We were unfortunately in the minority; she could not find Lucia's. "I will keep the search open," she wrote, "for as long as I keep doing this job." In two cases, she told me recently, she found birth mothers long after her initial search for them.
While I didn't count on it, it was certainly possible we would find Lucia's birth family sometime in the future. For now, I would wonder how much Lucia would or wouldn't care. Searching by adoptive parents remains too new to know anything significant yet about adoptees' reactions to these searches and the relationships that sometimes unfold. In any case, their responses, like adoptees' life experiences, are unlikely to be monolithic.
At the least, my husband and I could tell Lucia we did everything we could to find her birth mother. While it wasn't my motivation for searching, the act of doing so was a way — not the best or the only way — of telling our daughter that we recognized her past. She has a first chapter and a heritage that doesn't include us. As adoptive parents, my husband and I do believe that love matters most. But we know that blood matters, too. And if one day Lucia searches for her blood connection, we will encourage her. But before she heads out the door, I'll probably have words of advice: Think hard about whom and what you may — or may not — find.Continue reading the main story


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"Our first trek was out to Rodeo Drive. An unseasonably warm day had us overly-toasty from the outset – we were dressed completely inappropriately due to a crappy weather forecast. So, in my leggings and $5 top, I wandered down Rodeo Drive; we were actually passed by a couple being preceded by not one but TWO nannies to deal with their dead-silent, stroller-bound twins. Why in the name of all that is sane, would you feel the need to PAY someone to push the pram holding your own children?!
Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Tiffany's… I felt like I wasn't even fit to breathe the same air. I do wonder how they live, the other side, the rich and famous. There are times I think I'd give my own arm for the chance to swan around a fabulous party in the perfect gown and jewels, just for the night… there are probably more times that I wouldn't trade in my life for anything else…
Anyway, we didn't last long in that shiny Golden Triangle."
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Apple Pie
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Beer soothes the skin. It also creates a much better lather. You won't smell like beer at all.
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A gentle soap for any kid at heart. Kids cannot wait to use these.
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Saponified olive oil, phthalate-free fragrance oils, oats, honey.
$5 per approx. 2 1/2 oz.


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My mother has lived here for over a year now. Chandler has been a blessing to us. The staff is very caring and helpful. It was a big change for my mother to move and they were patient and encouraging to her. They offer plenty of activities and fun things for the residents to do. I often eat a meal with my mom and the food is delicious. So thankful for Chandler!
We are Bowling Green's premier provider for assisted living. A highly compassionate and trained staff is available 24 hours a day to meet your needs. With your choice of spacious, private, studio, one, or two bedroom suites; we have the right suite for you. Sit and reminisce in your courtyard while listening to the soothing sounds of the fountain. Meet some friends for ice cream or a milkshake in the ice-cream shop. Set aside some time to get your hair done in the beauty/barber shop. Or simply enjoy some the many Life Enriching activities held throughout each day. Experience assisted living as it was meant to be.


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Cosmetics and toiletries
People sometimes worry about whether chemicals in common products such as cosmetics or toiletries could cause cancer. Cosmetics and toiletries are personal care products, and include moisturisers, make up, deodorants and toothpastes. But there is no good scientific evidence to show that that these products affect the risk of cancer.
How do regulations help protect us in the UK?
There are strict safety regulations in place in the UK and EU for cosmetics and toiletries. Some substances are banned and others are subject to restrictions. For example, they may only be present in limited amounts or may only be used in 'rinse-off' products. As well as this, manufacturers must ensure that their products are safe for use before they can be sold.
You may have heard rumours that deodorants and antiperspirants could cause breast cancer. But these concerns were started by an e-mail hoax. There is no convincing evidence that antiperspirants and deodorants cause breast cancer.
Why are the claims about deodorants and breast cancer wrong?
The original e-mail claimed that antiperspirants stop your body from sweating out poisons. It suggested that these toxins build up in the lymph glands under the arm and cause breast cancer.
But the details of this are wrong. Breast cancers start in the breast and only later spread to lymph glands. Your body also has several ways of getting rid of toxins, and while sweating is one of them, it is a different system to the lymph glands.
Parabens and breast tumours
Parabens are chemicals found in some deodorants. They are similar to oestrogen, the human hormone that can increase the risk of breast cancer and some other cancers at high levels. But parabens are much weaker than oestrogen itself and any effects are likely to be overwhelmed by natural oestrogen produced in our body, or similar chemicals found in our diet.
A small study found traces of parabens in some breast tumours. Finding parabens in tumours is a far cry from saying that they cause breast cancer. To do that, scientists would need to compare levels in breast tumours to "safe" thresholds, to levels in healthy body cells, or to levels in healthy people without cancer.
In fact, breast tumours have large blood supplies and are likely to contain traces of anything that finds its way into our bloodstream. The study didn't show that these parabens came from using deodorants rather than intake from food or any other source. And besides, most modern deodorants are parabens-free.
A recent review of the evidence surrounding parabens and breast cancer found that parabens can encourage human breast cells to behave like breast cancer cells, by moving about and invading tissue, avoiding cell death, and suppressing the work of a drug commonly used to treat breast cancer. But there are hundreds of other environmental chemicals that are found in human breast tissue, so it's hard to be sure that parabens can cause cancer alone.
Aluminium in deodorants
There is no good evidence that aluminium in deodorants could increase the risk of cancer in animals or humans. This was confirmed by a review of all of the available evidence in 2014 that found no link.
A small study in 17 women with breast cancer was quite widely reported in the news in 2007. It found higher levels of aluminium in the part of the breast nearest the skin, and the authors speculated that aluminium in deodorants might cause breast cancer.
But the design of this study was not strong enough to draw that conclusion. For a start, it looked at a very small number of women. And the researchers did not compare levels of aluminium in these women's breasts to levels in other parts of their bodies, or to levels in women who do not have breast cancer.
Furthermore, a larger study of 176 women in 2013 showed no significant differences in levels of aluminium in normal areas of the breast to the level in the tumour.
So, there is no strong evidence for a link. You can read more about aluminium, deodorants and breast cancer on our Science Update blog (although it's worth noting that that blog post was written in 2007, so it doesn't include details of the 2013 study mentioned above).
Some cancer units advise women not to use deodorants containing aluminium salts before going for breast screening. This is not because aluminium salts are dangerous, but because they can obscure the results of screening tests. This can make breast cancers harder to detect.
Links have been suggested between hair dyes and a variety of cancers including bladder cancer, breast cancer, leukaemias and lymphomas. But there is no clear evidence that hair dyes could cause any of these cancers.
In 2008, the International Agency for Research into Cancer (IARC) said that hairdressers "probably" have a slightly higher risk of cancer because they are regularly exposed to certain chemicals. They can reduce their exposure to these chemicals by wearing gloves.
There's not enough evidence to say for sure whether people who use hair dyes themselves have a higher risk of cancer as a result. From the evidence that's available at the moment, it seems there is no significant link between personal use of hair dyes and bladder cancer, even when using permanent dyes or using hair dyes frequently for a long time. And if hair dyes are linked to any other type of cancer, the increase in risk would only be very small in comparison to other risk factors.
Putting any risks in perspective
The biggest risk factor for bladder cancer is smoking, which causes 45% of UK bladder cancer cases. If you smoke and want to reduce your risk of bladder cancer, as well as 14 other cancers, the best thing you can do is is stop smoking.
Taking precautions
If you use hair dyes and are concerned, you could dye your hair less often, wear gloves and make sure the room is ventilated.
Improved safety over time
In the 1970s some hair dye ingredients were found to damage DNA and cause cancer in the lab. But since then, the use of these chemicals has been discontinued and modern dyes are thought to be much safer. Cancer can take many years to develop – so it could be that the link we are seeing now between working as a hairdresser and cancer is because of exposures to these older chemicals many decades ago.
In 2006, the EU Commission announced that it would ban 22 different hair dye substances which do not have adequate safety files. This is a reassuring move for consumers as it means that only dyes that are proven to be safe will be available.
Cosmetic body and talcum powders often contain a mineral compound called talc. Several studies have looked at talcum powder use and ovarian cancer. While on the whole studies have seen a modest increase in the risk of ovarian cancer in women who use talc on their genitals, the evidence isn't completely clear.
Scientists are trying to see if there is a real link, but for now we can't be sure whether or not talc itself could cause ovarian cancer. However, even if there is a risk it is likely to be fairly small.
Stronger studies don't find a link
The majority of studies that have found a link between talc and ovarian cancer relied on people remembering things they did a long time ago. The most recent study of this type found using talc on the genitals increased the risk of ovarian cancer by 33%.
But these studies also have important weaknesses. People may not accurately remember how much talc they used in the past, and women with ovarian cancer may be more likely to remember using talc than women who don't have cancer. This might skew the results.
Scientists can avoid these problems by using studies that start with a group of healthy women and follow them up over time, to see if those who use talc go on to develop ovarian cancer in the future. So far, there has only been one of these studies looking at talc and ovarian cancer – and it didn't find a link with ovarian cancers overall.
The risk of ovarian cancer doesn't increase when women use more talc
If something truly causes cancer, you would expect people who are exposed to more of that thing to have a higher risk. The evidence isn't entirely clear, but the better quality, larger studies haven't confirmed a similar relationship for talc use and ovarian cancer.
Using diaphragms (contraceptive caps) or condoms dusted with talc does not increase the risk of ovarian cancer
Talc from these contraceptives will be placed closer to a woman's ovaries during sex than it would if simply applied to the genital area. So the ovaries would be exposed to a higher concentration of talc. But studies haven't found an increased risk of ovarian cancer in women who used talc on diaphragms.
Direct application of talcum powder to the lungs does not cause cancer
Talc is used in a medical technique called pleurodesis that can help relieve symptoms of some lung problems. Doctors apply sterile talc directly to the lining of the lungs in this technique. And there is no evidence that this direct application of talc to the body causes cancer.
How could talcum powder cause cancer?
Before the 1970s, talcum powder was often contaminated with asbestos fibres which are known to cause cancer. But since then, all home products containing talcum powder are legally obliged to be asbestos-free.
Some scientists have suggested that talc particles could travel to the ovaries, irritate them and cause inflammation. Low-level, long-term inflammation may increase the risk of some types of cancer. But so far, it doesn't look like using anti-inflammatory drugs can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. And the evidence around whether talc could travel in this way is weak.
Putting any risk into perspective
The ovarian cancer charity Ovacome have produced an excellent factsheet. They make a really important point that puts any potential risks from talc into perspective:
The evidence for a link is weak, but even if talc does increase the risk of ovarian cancer studies suggest it would be by around a third. This is a modest increase in risk and ovarian cancer is a relatively rare disease. Increasing a small risk by a third still gives a small risk.
Ovarian cancer risk is affected by many things
As with most cancers, the risk of ovarian cancer increases with age. And women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer may also be more likely to develop ovarian cancer. If you think you might have a family history of cancer, it's a good idea to talk to your GP.
Childbearing and hormones are also believed to play a role in ovarian cancer. Risk of ovarian cancer is lower the more children a woman has. And taking hormonal medications, such as the contraceptive Pill or Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), can also affect the risk.
Smoking also affects the risk of ovarian cancer, and unlike age or family history, it is something we can control. For help to stop smoking, visit the NHS Smokefree website or speak to your doctor or pharmacist.
There have previously been concerns that lead in lipstick could cause health problems. But in the EU, lead is banned from lipstick and other cosmetics. There is no good evidence to suggest that wearing lipstick could affect the risk of cancer.
Rumours that moisturisers could cause skin cancer make the rounds occasionally. Some claims are based on a single study that found that, in mice already exposed to high doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, moisturising creams could increase the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer.
But that is a long way from saying that using moisturiser increases the risk of cancer in humans. We wrote a blog post at the time to explain what the scientists actually found and what it means for us.


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Saxo Bank continues to be recognised for unrivalled FX offering
Saxo Bank awarded multiple accolades by FX Week, Finance Magnates, HFM Asia Hedge Fund Services and Global Finance
Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, today announces that it has won Best Prime of Prime House in FX Week's Best Banks Awards and Best Forex Broker and Best Prime of Prime/Retail Liquidity Provider in the Finance Magnates Awards.
Recognized by industry experts as benchmarks for the global foreign exchange industry the awards are indicative of Saxo's continued status as a market leader in FX. These award wins follow other recent accolades for Saxo Bank for its FX expertise including "Best Overall Boutique Prime Broker" in HFM Asia Hedge Fund Services and "Best FX Provider in Denmark" in Global Finance's World's Best FX Providers awards.
As one of the early innovators in providing FX trading solutions, Saxo Bank launched its first FX trading platform in 1998. Today, Saxo Bank's FX platforms and innovative technology driven prime brokerage caters to retail clients, direct institutional clients (including White Label clients) and retail aggregators.
Aiming to lead the way in reforms of the FX industry, Saxo Bank has recently focused on enhancing its FX offering in three areas: Pre-Trade Margin Controls, Order Driven Execution and multi-site cross-collateralization.
Commenting on the various award wins Kurt vom Scheidt, Global Head of Foreign Exchange at Saxo Bank, said,
"We are delighted to have been recognized once again as a technology driven leader in the industry. Our full suite of services for FX clients is being continuously enhanced around our core pillars: market access, liquidity, and technology wrapped in innovative and stable services delivering best execution for our clients. These four prestigious awards wins are testament to this continued commitment and we look forward to delivering further upon this vision into 2017."
Saxo Bank Group (Saxo) is a leading Fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment and delivering 'Banking-as-a-Service' to wholesale clients.
For 25 years, Saxo's mission has been to democratize investment and trading, enabling clients by facilitating their seamless access to global capital markets through technology and expertise.
As a fully licensed and regulated bank, Saxo enables its direct clients to trade multiple asset classes across global financial markets from one single margin account and across multiple devices. Additionally, Saxo provides wholesale institutional clients such as banks and brokers with multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services and trading technology, supporting the full value chain delivering Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS).
Saxo's award winning trading platforms are available in more than 20 languages and form the technology backbone of more than 100 financial institutions worldwide.
Founded in 1992 and launching its first online trading platform in 1998, Saxo Bank was a Fintech even before the term was created. Headquartered in Copenhagen Saxo today employs more than 1500 people in financial centers around the world including London, Paris, Zurich, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.


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Is it something in the air? Or is it simply that people just couldn't maintain that on-edge waiting-for-the-next-horror-to-happen feeling any longer? Or maybe all those positive economic signs that didn't seem to be having any effect on normal folks finally trickled down? Or what?
All I know is that I've been turning up every day at the incubator, working on my various projects, talking to everyone who came in, passing out a few flyers each day, and so on and so on and so on.
There hadn't been a whole lot of results. Enough to keep me motivated to continue for another month, but that's about all.
Still, any day the buses have been running (except for one when the sidewalks were very icy and slippery), I came into the incubator and manned the place.
Then this week, instead of positive things that did nothing to pay the rent, positive things that WILL pay the rent began to happen on a regular basis, like one or two per day. Alteration jobs, commissions, opportunities to teach. Pocktorian Textiles is getting a bit of attention, getting noticed.
I'm still waiting for my other designers, but now I have much better prospects of providing them with a way to develop their skills and make a living.
I'm still waiting to sell the things of our own design, but even prospects of that are better. A commission turns out to be an "invitation" to develop an item for my line that had been in my mind for some time.
I may not be doing exactly what I had in mind….yet…but the way I think of it is this: I'll do whatever comes in the door that will help me keep the incubator going. I'll learn what I can from every one of them.
From alterations, I'll learn more about how commercial garments are constructed, what parts of them tend to fail, how much time particular alterations take, what the going price for them is, and if I'm really willing to keep on doing them for that amount or whether my time would be better spent another way.
From commissions, I'll learn about gaps that are not being filled by the high street, particularly fit problems that are not being addressed, populations that are not being well served, along with how much those populations are willing to pay to get something different and something that fits really well.
From the opportunities to teach, I will improve my teaching abilities and build other opportunities to teach, I'll learn what stock I should buy in to fill the needs of students after they take my classses.
Now to find those other designers, bring in the stock I want to offer, and get this operation off the launch pad. I'm feeling confident, strong, creative, inspired, full of ideas for further projects, more likely to try something I've never dared before.


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onto the face of things
her face;
she can't move without
stealing the breath out of my universe with her.
everything quivers,
everything she.
where would I begin?
how does one take apart a garden of eden girl
and touch a woman after the fall?
I know only little ways
when she needs who knows what all.
will it take a lifetime to begin to uncover her?
shall I take off my shoes?
she has turned this tired town into holy ground.
she makes my pen stagger across any scrap of handy blank,
makes me think all these dagger thoughts,
dream all these blurry dreams,
run all these endless miles,
throw something at a sleeping sky
hoping to wake up the night,
break the dark starry window,
flood the drowsy world
with her unexpected shattering light.
how would I possibly live near her,
breathe her exhaled air,
drink her in,
unshackle her wonder and live?
this has nothing really to do with her
per se
the mouth of her well,
my mouth on her myth,
her myth in my mouth,
telling the whole world
what they've already heard.
but I'm not love's iconoclast.
and I'm probably not the last,
to write these tired lines of love
onto the face of things
until by some miracle
I say something that hasn't been said before
about the trapdoor
underneath her kitchen table
in the hardwood floor.
- braided
- Whispering


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If you are looking to do something original and entertaining for your hen party in Kenmare then a chocolate class at Lorge Chocolatier is the perfect solution. We can cater for a number of people and the classes are hands-on and great fun. Each hen will go away with a goodie bag of treats made during the class.
If you would like to hold a hen party with Lorge Chocolatier contact us for more information.


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Take advantage of our special offers here at The Furlong pub in Muswell Hill with our great drinks and food promotions. We also feature seasonal offers and events to keep you wanting more! Along with great surroundings and friendly staff, we think this is a great combination here at The Furlong pub.
Drinks Promotion:
- Fizz Fridays a bottle of prosecco for £12.95.
- Double up for an extra £1.50 on selected spirits.
- 3 Jager bombs for £10.
- Mix and match ciders 4 bottled ciders for £12 on selected lines.
- Mix and match on Corona and Budweiser, 2 for £6 or 4 for £12.
Food Promotion:
- Pub Lunch – 2 for £14 on Mains, Burgers and Pies Weekdays until 2.30pm and 2 for 1 desserts.
- Pub Dinner – 2 Mains and a Bottle of Wine for £25 available Thursday, Friday and weekend evenings.


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Constructing a DYI shed is a project that can be done by almost anyone, amateurs as well as professionals in carpentry alike, and can be completed within a few days. There are a number of DIY shed books and blogs around that have proven to be influential to a significant amount in a bid to create and develop a strong storage platform. Individuals that are interested in building their own sheds are strongly advised to seek a good shed knowledge base so as to find the best means possible to complete their project devoid of any flaws.
In order to construct a shed, there are a few basic materials that will be needed to be procured from a local hardware retailer. Few of these items include tools, nails, wooden boards and planks. Other materials that would need to be procured depend upon the type of shed that the individual is planning on constructing. Sheds can be made from a multitude of materials. Each of these materials help in setting a distinctive look and feel for the shed. It is always recommended that individuals get a hands on feel of the materials they intend to procure so as to know the durability and shelf life of these goods. Always bank on reputed names from the hardware industry so as to ensure that the shed is made with the highest possible standards.
Once the material by which the shed is to be constructed off is finalized, individuals will need to shift their focus towards the interior and exterior design. Most DIY shed manuals offer a multitude of options in this regard so as to be capable of providing individuals with choices to correlate with. What must be understood is that the type of décor that one uses for his shed should correlate to its usage. For example, if the shed is to be used for the storage of old items and other discarded materials, there would be no point in investing too much into the interiors of the design. However, if individuals plan to make it their outdoor clubhouse or pool house, more details would need to go into its construction.
Shed plans offer the best choices for interior construction in this regard. The exterior of the shed has to blend in with the area of where it is being constructed. This means that if the shed is to be placed in the garden, it should be designed in such a way that it unifies with one's home. Other aspects such as installation of windows, doors, vents, flooring, skirting draws, shelves etc are also expected to be given its due importance. DIY shed books, manuals and blogs offer the best of ways through which this can be done. What must be understood is that before individuals can start their shed construction project, it is imperative that they have blueprints of the shed scheme in mind. These blueprints or shed plans are essential for sole reason to ensure that the project is constructed as per plan and devoid of any errors or flaws.
After lots of research and price comparison I recommend MyShedPlans. These plans cost less and just plain outclass the others. Click here to visit MyshedPlans


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you have been my greatest burden,
who turned my tongue into stone
and my words into concrete,
leaving my speech too heavy to be understood.
You have built walls out of shame,
and left dreams tumbling down,
as women need no homes for themselves,
but need to seek shelter underneath men's fists.
You told me that women are best when quiet,
and if they talk, they will not be heared.
You told me that there are words women can not speak,
and if they do, they will be heared.
In a world full of hungry men and starving women,
I lost the balance of who I was
and who I should be.
When I weep, you say I will be fine,
as seeking help is shameful,
and every other woman cries sometimes, but does not complain.
Dear Self,
you had the audacity to say
while standing on my throat;
but today I am speaking.
Maybe you will hear my suffocating pain somewhere inbetween a world of lies and pure souls.
Jehona Thaqi©


text:
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text:
You savage your foes so badly that they can become supernaturally disfigured.
Prerequisites: Wis 17, Improved Unarmed Strike, Wolf Style, Wolf Trip, Knowledge (nature) 9 ranks.
Benefit: While using Wolf Style, when you deal at least 10 points of damage to a prone opponent with a natural weapon or an unarmed strike, as a swift action you can savage that creature. When you do, your opponent must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + half your character level + your Wisdom modifier). If the target fails the saving throw, it takes either 1d4 Charisma damage or 1d4 Constitution damage, or it becomes fatigued (your choice). Ability score damage dealt with this ability cannot equal or exceed the victim's actual ability score total.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Wilderness © 2017, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Alexander Augunas, John Bennett, Robert Brookes, John Compton, Dan Dillon, Steven T. Helt, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Mikko Kallio, Jason Keeley, Isabelle Lee, Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Jeffery Swank, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.


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A few weeks ago at Chopmeet the idea of having a small run to somewhere centrally located was brought up by the Prince Albert crew. The PA PArty crew went to work and found us a decent location at Manitou Beach with great accommodations. We all had an absolute blast, despite me seizing my motor in my Panhead. That really sucked but after 11 years and not having any major work done, it was to be expected. Here's a few pics
My buddy Gerard and I leaving
A little roadside stop with Kelly, Kyla and our buddy Chris
Rollin' dirty moments before catastrophic engine failure
This was a few moments after the engine locked up. I was a little pissed, but how can I be pissed at this pretty lady. She's served me well for tons of miles
El Beardo suggested me to give this book a read.
Oh fuck. Who gave the drunk guy the gun?
DanceLand. This place was built in the 20's. Horse hair cushioning under the dance floor. We busted in and had the whole place looking at the group of us, thinking we're there to fuck shit up. What a blast, dancing it up with these old gals.
These two struck out with the ladies.
Gelvis looking boss as fuck!
Praying to the Shovelhead gods
Hey Beardo, how big are the DeathWheelers Balls?
Hey baby... here's an idea
The DeathWheelers presented a trophy for the baddest dude who exemplifies the chopper ways. After talking to this young dude named Jordan and hearing him tell us about him riding some janky chopper he just bought, across the US and not making it home. Plus seeing his other low buck bike there, it was no contest.


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I recently visited the Memorial Museum of the Battleship Mikasa. I took some short videos and pictures to illustrate how was the pre-dreadnought battleship. Incidentally, it was raining that day so the sound was impressive. I wonder how hard it could be for seamen to sail with storm weather in those days.
Considered as a pre-dreadnought battleship, the Mikasa had a long history since it was built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. She was unique in her class, since and there was the only ship built with the same specifications. She served as the flagship of Admiral Togo during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war and the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. The famous Tsushima battle was a complete and decisive victory of the IJN over the Russian Navy. Because this was the first victory of an Asian navy againts an European power, it had a great impact at that time. The Mikasa remained as one of the most famous ships in the world. Unfortunately, after finishing the war, it suffered an accident and even thought she was repaired she could only operate as a coast-defence ship during World War I and as support unit for Japanese forces during the Siberian Intervention in the Russian Civil War.
She is now fully restored as a museum ship and can be visited at Mikasa Park inYokosuka and she is proudly considered as the last remaining example of a pre-dreadnought battleship anywhere in the world.
See also Russo-Japanese war 1904-1905
▽ Imperial Japanese Navy – Nihon Kaigun
Aircraft Carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Heavy Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Light Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The Time Line of ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Naval Landing Forces 1928-1945
▽ Simulations & Wargames
▽ World War II: Pacific Theater
War in the Pacific: Admiral Edition
The Empire of the Sun (2nd Ed.)
▽Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)
Naval landing forces of the JMSDF
▽ Simulations & Wargames
▽ World War II: European Theater


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Hello, I only registered to this forum couple days ago, and I am not sure if I am writing this thread on right place. (If not, let me know or you can move it forcibly.)
I noticed HawkGer just released another mod: Arena v1
I don't know how so fast
Anyway, as soon as I saw the mod, it really gave me a feeling it would be a good fit for tech track.
So I made three veryshort tracks using RPG TP with Arena mod.
I hope you enjoy these, and I also hope that making tech tracks with good use of custom blocks will attract more people from not just RPG, but also tech genre.
I couldn't attach the tracks because it said they are too large. I put the mx link instead.
[RPG-TP] Neo Tech #01
[RPG-TP] Neo Tech #02
[RPG-TP] Neo Tech #03


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Website: http://www.worldimpactmidwest.org/stlteam/
Member Since: January 1, 1981
Roger Alford, a World Impact Associate, is now directing the efforts of our St. Louis TUMI satellite, a theological training site that equips and trains urban lay leaders and pastors for the purpose of facilitating church-planting. Roger is bilingual and has been a pastor for more than 40 years and has also spent many years going to Latin America to train and equip pastors. After a season of pastoring in western Kansas, Roger has returned to St. Louis, where he pastored for 14 years previously, and is excited to be working with our ministry. In addition to directing the St. Louis TUMI site, Roger is currently making contacts with local pastors in both North and South St. Louis tofurther expand the number of TUMI sites in the city, as well as identify indigenous leaders whom we can partner with in planting churches. There is great potential for expansion within the growing immigrant communities in St. Louis including Nepalese, Ethiopian, Bosnian and other ethnic groups. Through our continued presence in St. Louis, we are committed to do all we can to recruit, empower and release urban leaders who will plant churches and launch church planting movements in the St. Louis area and beyond.


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ComPet: Ladybug Crickey
Ladybug Crickey can be found in "Torvald's Bog".
It belongs to the "Defensive" class and its rarity level is "Legendary".
ComPet: Black Beagle
The Black Beagle is a member of "The Pack".
It belongs to the "Aggressive" class and its rarity level is "Rare".
ComPet: Phoenix Rooster
I had already encountered the Phoenix Rooster once, but my pet had lost the battle. I then decided to spend a lot of time with fights at low level (Farmyard Frenzy) and finally the Phoenix Rooster appeared again. This time I was prepared to win!
The Phoenix Rooster belongs to the "Balanced" class and its rarity level is "Legendary".
COMPET: Venomander
I just discovered a Venomander!
Venomanders are born in poisonous, foul smelling marshes. This stains their skin and makes them smell awful. They belong to the "Attuned" class and their rarity level is "Epic".
I have just acquired the Monria stable which was put for sale on the auction. This stable is now up and running.
The Pet Center Manager currently offers following buffs:
I hope we will see new developments of the taming system in the near future, with the addition of new features to the stables.
I Have Tamed an Oratan Miner
Taming a Mountain Gorilla
Pygmy Mountain Gorilla is a level 15 creature that is found on Secret Island. It is not especially difficult to tame. The point is that it spawns in a wave area, which makes things a bit more difficult. It is very important to stay just outside the wave area during the hunt in order to avoid Mountain Gorilla waves to start. The best position is [38184, 19467] and you need to be equipped with a long range weapon to be able to tag any spawning Gorilla. Then you have to kill regular Gorillas over and over again until a Pygmy appears. The regular Mountain Gorilla spawn is extremely small, with two Gorillas occuring at the same time at most. All you need then is patience...
The problem with the tamable papoo spawn south of Crystal Center seems to have been corrected. Yesterday I went to Next Island and found Adaptable Brown Papoos that can be tamed. These are level 1 creatures and are therefore very easy to tame. Once tamed, their name is changed and they are called Lofven Papoos. They cannot be exported to any other planet so you can only summon them on Next Island and Secret Island for the time being.
Edit: The issue is not solved. Most spawning papoos are immediately killed by the nearby turret. It is only in exceptional situations that some of them spawn outside of the turret range and can survive.
I have tamed a Pygmy Kong
I have found and tamed a Pygmy Kong. Pygmy Kong occurs occasionally among regular Kongs on Secret Island. This is a level 36 creature, and the most difficult I had to tame so far, much more difficult than Hogglo Pygmy. I am now level 40 in the Animal Tamer profession and level 50 in the Evader procession, and the process of taming a Pygmy Kong took me more than two hours. Run RiverRun Run was present during the first hour, and could provide assistance with healing and moral support.
The whip I used - a Dominax Original Boiga (L) - lost more than half of its TT value during the fight. I also used a Portable Repair Unit (L) to repair my Angel armor regularly for greater comfort. Pygmy Kong has a very high spirit, and it takes time to lower it sufficiently and make an attempt to tame this ape. In my case, two attempts were necessary. Maybe the Artemic Ring (L) I wore helped a bit.
In Entropia Universe
April 2018


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Although most of the state agencies and NGOs studied have some kind of gender policy or strategy, very few promote indigenous womens participation in decisions related to natural resources or forests. Even in communities where women believe they have influence over many important decisions, they do not have similar influence over forest-related decisions. Lack of confidence in local authorities has paralysed the participation of both men and women community members. Thus, efforts to address womens participation may be ineffective if local governance and accountability are not addressed. Both communities and outside institutions need to reflect critically on their gendered assumptions regarding forests and design and monitor specific strategies to support womens effective participation.
Topic: gender,tenure,forest policy,policy,communities,tenure systems,tenure rights
Geographic: Nicaragua
Series: CIFOR Infobrief no. 57
Publisher: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia
Publication Year: 2012Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Altmetric score:


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What a broad title, huh? You probably read this with some mixed emotions. Is this going to be philosophy? Is it an idealist's take on it all? Is it sarcasm?
The answer is: Yes. While I can't honestly speak for everyone, I have recently reflected on myself and I've found some really amazing things. Things that ultimately lead me to finding my own place in the world. Let's start from the beginning.
A few years ago I began to reinvent myself. I went through some pretty bad times and had some emotional break downs and when I emerged on the other side, I came to the conclusion that I needed to know who I really was beyond that which was regularly beaten down by the world. I've always been a spiritual person and I have been a Zen Buddhist for many years. So, it's no surprise that I found my biggest clue by looking inward and asking — and facing — the hard questions.
First, I needed to know what I wasn't. I scanned through my past, and I looked at who I saw. Not just the parts that I was OK with, and not just the parts that I was ashamed of. But all of it! I saw myself as someone whose happiness was defined by external sources; by attachments that I talked myself into thinking I didn't really need, but I might as well enjoy while I had them. The truth was, I did need them and when they were taken from me, I felt a massive void in myself. But was this who I was?
No, of course not. My suffering came from being who I wasn't. My conclusion in my search to find what I was not lead me to learn some key things about myself:
- I am not weak.
- I am not helpless.
- I do not need someone else to define my happiness.
- I do not need to sacrifice all of myself for someone else's happiness.
Armed with this knowledge, I had a foothold in my self reflection. I probed further, needing answers. I arrived at a series of true self assessments that ultimately surrounded some fundamental necessities. Before I could ever understand who I was, I first needed to forgive myself. You probably read that and thought "What did you do that you need to forgive yourself?" The answer isn't as obvious as you think. It's not some crime, or secret thing I have been harboring, but it might as well have been.
All my life I have taken the blame for my own self-destruction. I had internalized all the pain I had gone through and had made myself out to be a victim, while secretly and simultaneously feeling guilty for doing that, knowing deep down that it wasn't the right path. I compromised my values and I let people use me as a doormat. I let fear, anger, depression rule my life instead of embracing happiness.
I forgave myself because I didn't know how to be happy. I had only ever known sadness and conflict in my life and so I thought it was all I could ever know. I thought it was the only way I could feel.
Truth is, happiness is a choice. Once I forgave myself and accepted that all my mistakes, flaws, problems, and issues were part of the whole. I no longer tried to cut those pieces of myself out of my life, or pretend they didn't exist. I accepted myself fully. And when I did, this really amazing thing happened: I felt complete.
So now that I've looked into myself and forgave myself for all of my flaws and mistakes, the next step was to bring myself some real love. Not love from someone else, but love from myself, to myself. To do this, I had to be my own friend. I had to teach myself to treat myself like I would treat my best friend. I began this radical movement of compassion towards myself. I felt the things I felt, and I embraced them and comforted them as one might do a friend going through a hard time. And guess what? I appreciated my own sense of compassion, which only furthered my happiness.
The next step was true independence. I had met my true self; both emotionally, psychologically, and metaphysically, but how did I maintain that image in the presence of someone else whose energy would surely try to dissuade me from my own ideals? I found the answer in understanding how to stand with myself. To that end, I refused any relationships of any kind until I was happy, comfortable, and enjoyed being alone with myself first.
Fast forward the better part of a year, and I am blessed to know real happiness every day. I wake up happy that I have something in my life worth living for and that I have an everlasting source of happiness that can never be taken from me.
Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.–Hellen Keller


text: Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's ex-prime minister, has missed a verdict in a negligence trial that could have seen her jailed, prompting the Supreme Court to say it will issue an arrest warrant fearing she is a flight risk, according to the lead judge in the case. "Her lawyer said she is sick and asked to delay the ruling ... the court does not believe she is sick, " Judge Cheep Chulamon told the court on Friday. He said the court would seek permission for an arrest warrant for the former prime minister, adding that verdict has been rescheduled to September 27. Yingluck, who had pleaded not guilty in a case focused on a rice subsidy scheme for farmers, had told the court she could not attend because she was suffering from an ear problem. "We don't think the defendant is ill," a statement from the Supreme Court judge said. "We think that the defendant is hiding or has fled." READ MORE - Thailand: Deep divisions remain since 2014 military coup A spokesman for Yingluck, who was overthrown by a military coup in 2014, declined to comment. The head of Thailand's immigration police chief, Nanthathorn Prousoontorn, said he believed Yingluck remained in the country. "Up until this point we have no information showing that Yingluck has exited via any of Thailand's border checkpoints," he told Reuters news agency. "I believe she is still in Thailand. If she is found she will be arrested," he said. Yingluck is facing a possible 10-year prison term on charges of negligence linked to an ill-fated rice subsidy programme that cost the state billions of dollars. If convicted, she has the right to appeal. The case is the latest chapter in a decade-long struggle by the nation's elite minority to crush the powerful political machine founded by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in another coup in 2006. Thaksin's removal triggered years of upheaval and division that has pitted a poor, rural majority in the north that supports the Shinawatras against royalists, the military and their urban backers. The rice subsidies, promised to farmers during the 2011 election, helped Yingluck's party sweep the vote. Critics say they were effectively a means of vote buying, while Yingluck supporters welcomed them and argued that the case against her is politically motivated. READ MORE: How life has changed in Thailand since 2014 military coup The long-awaited verdict could inflame tension in the Southeast Asian country and have far-reaching implications in the politically divided kingdom. Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler, reporting from Bangkok, said hundreds of Yingluck's supporters gathered outside the Bangkok Supreme Court to await the verdict but were not allowed in the vicinity. "Only media, police and court officials were allowed in this area, normally in the previous court hearings, it was packed with supporters, but this time her supporters are about 200 meters away," he said. "They believe that she is still here and has not fled the country." Some of those gathered held roses while others wore white gloves with the word "love" on them. Supporters of the Shinawatras accuse the ruling generals of political persecution. The military government has acknowledged it wants to maintain permanent influence over future elected governments, partly through a new constitution that took effect earlier this year. SOURCE: News agencies Asia Pacific Thailand


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"Say (O Muhammad): "if you (really) love Allah then follow me (i.e. accept Islamic monotheism, follow the Quran and Sunnah), Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [3:31].
Allah swt is our creator. He knows our short comings and He knows our strengths and weaknesses. In order to acquire the love of Allah swt, we need to follow what He sent to us. Take the example of our parents. If we obey them, they will love us and they will be more careful about us. If our parents can return our obedience with love then Allah swt has created love and He has it for us beyond our imaginations.
Prophet Muhammad pbuh said regarding Allah's love for His man;
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: 'if Allah loves a person, He calls Jibrael saying, 'Allah loves so and so; O Jibrael love him.' And make an announcement amongst the inhabitants of the heaven: "Allah loves so and so therefore you should love him also, and so all the inhabitants of the heaven would love him, and then he is granted the pleasures of the people on the earth." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
This hadith tells us and shows us a glimpse of Allah's love. When Allah swt love a man, He makes everything to love that man. Thats so wonderful. Who would not want to have that much love. Of course we all want to be loved by others. If a world is out there to love us, that would be more than just amazing. Therefore, the obedience of Allah swt is returned with immense amount of love and blessings. In another hadith, prophet Muhammad pbuh told us about Allah's love;
Allah's Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said that Allah said: "I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of mine. And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My worshipper keeps on coming close to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, then I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hands with which he grips, and his legs with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection (refuge), I will protect him." [Al-Bukhari].
This beautiful hadith contains so much in it. This hadith tells us not only about the love of Allah swt but it shows us a whole new picture of love. In this world, the very definition of love is only to become mad for someone. In fact, the modern sufi muslims think that dancing for Allah, singing for Allah, being mad for Allah is the love for Allah swt. This is all so wrong. The ahadith quoted above and the verse mentioned in the start make it all clear what love of Allah swt means. We do not have to be mad about Allah swt to love Him. Loving Allah swt means total submission while being totally rational and completely true. If we do something for show off, or if we do something which is not an act prescribed in islam, then our actions are vain and they have no meaning.
Love of Allah swt does not require any rocket science. It only means for us to be sincere and honest. The more a muslim is sincere, the more God fearing he will become, and that means acquiring love of Allah swt.


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SHALL There Be a Scottish Literature? It may seem that the question, posed to hundreds of international delegates gathered in Glasgow for the first World Congress of Scottish Literatures, is redundant. But it is worth asking, for three reasons.
First, there was certainly a time when a Scottish Literature did not exist. Second, even when its existence was asserted, it was often disputed. Third, prior or present existence does not guarantee future existence.
In 1919, in the magazine Athenaeum, TS Eliot wrote a challenging article under the title "Was There a Scottish Literature?" The history of literature in Scotland, he said, demonstrated a steady and increasing influence from England and English leading eventually to assimilation.
"We may even conclude it to be an evidence of strength, rather than of weakness," he continued, "that the Scots language and the Scottish literature did not maintain a separate existence. Scottish, throwing in its luck with English, has not only much greater chance of survival, but contributes important elements of strength to complete the English… A powerful literature, with a powerful capital, tends to attract and absorb all the drifting shreds of force about it. Up to a certain limit of dissimilarity, this fusion is of very great value… [but] the basis for one literature is one language."
Professor Robert Crawford has argued English Literature as an academic discipline was invented by 18th and 19th-century Scottish intellectuals, keen to create a British culture in which Scottish values and methodologies had a rightful and influential role. But in the century since Eliot wrote his review Scottish attitudes have changed and so too has the political relationship between Scotland and England: the terms of the Treaty of Union of 1707 were effectively torn up when a Scottish Parliament reconvened. England has also changed. In particular, London (Eliot's "powerful capital") is now effectively a city-state, different and detached from most of the rest of the British Isles. Whatever it has become, London is not the capital of a unified English Literature.
Meanwhile it has become normal to see Scottish Literature as a multilingual beast – at least triple-tongued (in Gaelic, Scots and English) but potentially unlimited in its use of languages, and willingness to engage with other literatures and cultures through translation. It is true that without language there can be no literature, but must one literature be confined to one language? What is astonishing is that Gaelic, Scots and Scottish Literature were not assimilated but re-emerged in the 20th century and demonstrated some of the very characteristics Eliot looked for in a literature: a tradition based on more than simple geography, writers who are not "merely connected by a tradition in time, but who are related so as to be in the light of eternity contemporaneous, from a certain point of view cells in one body".
Burns, Scott or Stevenson, read as peripheral contributors to an English literary tradition, are frequently misread, devalued and considered either quaint or a damned nuisance. If, however, they are read as part of a Scottish literary tradition, it becomes clear they are not accidental mountains that popped up out of nothing, or curious, difficult-to-explain northern appendages, but part of a greater – yet more local – landscape. We can apply William McIlvanney's term "mongrel nation" with some confidence to our literature. We can reassert the crucial importance of our oral tradition, of song, ballad and storytelling. We can celebrate and be relaxed about the sheer diversity of voices. A study of the literature of Orkney was recently published, and a study of the literature of Shetland is soon to appear. These are parts of Scottish literature yet also apart from it: they should be welcomed for both reasons. The experience of Scottish literature's treatment by the metropolis teaches us to be wary of such terms as peripheral or remote, and to remember that the centre is where you are, not where you are not.
A literature not of one language – the rich, wonderful language that is English – but of three at least, is a blest literature. It helps to tell us who we are. The cultural arguments for or against independence have barely been heard in the referendum debate. Only six or seven of the 650 pages of the white paper, Scotland's Future, touch on cultural matters. We have heard plenty about the pound, the European Union, Nato, pensions and jobs. We have heard almost nothing about the things that really differentiate one nation or one country from others. That may be no bad thing, at one level. Thankfully, in modern Scotland, democracy trumps ethnicity: it is right this decision is to be made only by the people registered to vote in Scotland and that nobody will be excluded by some spurious identity test. But perhaps all the white papers in the world, all the predictions of greater this or safer that or weaker the other, are less persuasive than the feelings generated by a song, poem or story. "Shall there be a Scottish Literature?" Yes, if we want there to be. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun's words from 310 years ago come to mind: "If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation."
• This is a revised and reduced version of the plenary address to the "First Congress of Scottish Literatures", University of Glasgow, on 2 July. James Robertson will read at "Scotland on the Cusp: A Reading for Independence", Oran Mor, Byres Road, Glasgow, tomorrow at 1pm, along with Rodge Glass, Neal Ascherson, Liz Lochhead, Aonghas MacNeacail, John Glenday, Kathleen Jamie, Meg Bateman, Andrew Greig, Robert Crawford and Alasdair Gray.


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The life an ministry of Christ was marked by His overwhelming compassion for people. And His heart is the same today as it was then. As believers, we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ and to extend His extravagant love to a broken world. Based on the book of Luke, this study examines the very heartbeat of our Savior and explores how Jesus connects with hurting people in a authentic and powerful way.
Part of Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe's best-selling "BE" commentary series, Be Compassionate has now been updated with study questions and a new introduction by Ken Baugh. A respected pastor and Bible teacher, Dr. Wiersbe explores the compassionate life of Jesus. Filled with moving examples of Christ's ministry to people of all backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, this study will inspire you to share His love with the world around you.
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David Jeffries
Principal / Licensed Real Estate Agent
0419 757 597
07 4058 0000
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In 1996 David returned to Cairns and commenced working in the real estate industry. He has been based at Redlynch Shopping Village since January 2002, servicing the Redlynch district and Cairns suburbs. David has personally sold over 1000 properties in the Redlynch area and surrounding suburbs of Cairns during the past 20 years.
David is a Licensed Real Estate Agent and the Principal Licensee of Redlynch Real Estate. He has been admitted as a Fellow member of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. It is Queensland's peak professional association for the real estate industry. REIQ members are bound by Standards of Business Practices to maintain a high level of ethical practice! They are also required to complete a Continuing Professional Development Program. David's commitment to professional development also includes subscribing to Australia's top real estate training programs. He attends the Australian Real Estate Conference every year, which is one of the world's leading industry events. David undertakes ongoing training by Australia's leading real estate coaches and the number one real estate educator in the USA. He is an accredited member of the Best Agents real estate group and an accredited Certified Practicing Real Estate Agent.
David's 20 years' experience selling local real estate, plus his superior marketing, financial and negotiation skills ensures his clients achieve the highest possible sale prices for their properties. He has numerous Testimonials from satisfied clients available for references.
Sheree Bennett is his Professional Assistant who is a registered salesperson.
He is the Rate My Agent 2017 & 2018 winner of Agent of the Year – Redlynch.
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Community involvement
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