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http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."
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This entrepreneur uses Minecraft to simulate being a refugee
The gathering in Stockholm is part of a collaboration between the American organization Seeds of Peace and SE Forum from Sweden. Both organizations focus on social entrepreneurship in developing countries and they have come together to create a one-year program for entrepreneurs.

”In December, when the program ends, we want them to have found their business model, and tested and developed their idea enough that it has financial viability,” says Nicklas Wallberg, CEO of SE Forum.



”Many young people in the Western world don’t know how it feels to flee. I want to give them a little more insight in order to shift the perception of refugees and the attitude towards them,” Lilly explains.

Lilly was born in New York a year after her parents fled from the revolution in Iran. For her, the family’s flight has meant a lot of things – amongst them a feeling of not belonging and many unanswered questions.

As of 2006, Lilly lives in London and the past five years she’s worked as the director of talent at Maker Studios, a digital media agency bought by Disney in 2013. At Maker Studios she worked with some of the world’s foremost Youtubers, not least Pewdiepie. Many of them loved playing Minecraft.



That was how her idea was born.

She enlisted the aid of these Minecraft experts and developed a game in which you embark on a journey in the shoes of a refugee.

”I’ve developed a beta version, and now I’m going to adjust it based on feedback from players. I expect it to be completed in three to four months.”

But the game is only a beginning. Or rather, it’s the first part of a program she’s developed for schools.

”We’re going to take the students on an eight week long experience and after they’ve played the game they get to discuss their own relationship to migration. Every family has passed a border at some point.”

Lilly has already got a few schools on board in which the concept will be tested, and the program is helping her find new contacts. Presently she’s financing the project with her own savings, but when the concept is validated she’s planning to take in external capital.

“I think I will need about £20,000 initially,” Lilly says.

This article has been translated from the original published in Swedish by Veckans Affärer.
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https://nordic.businessinsider.com/this-entrepreneur-uses-minecraft-to-simulate-being-a-refugee--
 
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/family-gear-up-double-transition-13212441

Britain’s first gender-fluid family – who sparked a national debate because son Star Cloud is being brought up as a “person” rather than a “boy” – is preparing for a total transformation.

Parents Louise and Nikki Draven – who told their controversial story in the Sunday Mirror last year – are set to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

Dad Louise, 32 – whom Star calls his mummy – is to become a woman.

Mum Nikki, 31 – called daddy by the child – will be a man called Charlie.

Even five-year-old Star has cut his hair to look more like a boy than a girl.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Louise – born a man and Star’s biological dad. “I started my transition in 2011 but things, mainly weight, held me back.”

She shed 16st – slimming from 25st to a slim 9st – to avoid complications so she can have the December op.

She added: “It took a lot of self-discipline after bariatric surgery.”

Louise said of the swap op: “I have doubts all the time but that’s just part and parcel of my transition.

“No one chooses these feelings but when people do, they need the outside of their bodies to match the inside.”

Louise has also ditched her striking red and black hair – shaving it off after hormone treatment left her thinning.

She said: “The hair doesn’t make the woman – the woman makes herself.”

Meanwhile Nikki – born a female and registered as Star’s birth mother – now calls himself Charlie and is planning a female-to-male operation soon.

The ex-pub bouncer said: “I’ve never been comfortable being female but it’s taken me a while to admit that.

“I was never happy about having periods or growing breasts. It felt all wrong. So I did some soul-searching and realised I’ve always wanted to be male.”

Last year he revealed he was pansexual – some days he would dress as a woman, and others as a man.

Now he only ever dresses as a man and binds his breasts every day.

The couple say Star is “still gender neutral” and is happy and well-adjusted.

Charlie said: “He has a five-year-old’s understanding of our situation.

“I’ve always been daddy and Louise has always been mummy and that’s never going to change.

“Star sometimes asks questions. Recently he asked why I had to wear a swimsuit at the pool and not trunks like other daddies. I tell Star mummy is going to a special doctor who will take away her ducky, which is Star’s word for penis.

“I say that when I go to the special doctor I’ll be getting a ducky of my own then I’ll be just like him.”

Star’s school is supportive. He wears a boy’s uniform but can accessorise.

At home he is free to wear make-up, paint his nails, wear boys’ or girls’ clothes and play with dolls. In January, he cut his long hair and Louise said: “He’s in two minds now about whether or not he wants it long again.”

The couple hope to be in their ideal bodies by the time Star is 10 but admit they worry about the impact on him.

But Louise insists: “All parents worry. But having surgery will make Charlie and I feel complete as individuals and we’ll be much happier because of that.

“If we waited until Star was older, he’d spend his childhood with parents who felt incomplete.”

Charlie said: “By then the transgender community will be as prevalent as the LGB community now – and that can only be a good thing.”

Their family’s story caused a national debate last year.

Charlie said: “Most people were supportive. But some comments were horrendous. One person wrote that we should kill Star before he became a serial killer, committed suicide or killed us.”
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The dad's Facebook is as horrifying as you'd expect, filled with My Little Pony, bondage, and horrific family photos:

https://www.facebook.com/louise.draven.3

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...Why do they have a picture of water splashing on it? Do they really have to demonstrate it is waterproof?
 
Remy from the hit Pixar film Ratatouille took his life this morning. He had always said, eerily enough, that he wanted to die "by drowning himself in his own creation." If that's not poetic, I don't know what is.

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2...-shocks-pregnant-woman-closes-restaurant.html
A hotpot restaurant in eastern China was closed for an investigation by health officials after a pregnant woman says she found a dead rat in her soup — and claims restaurant staff offered her money to get an abortion if the meal affected her unborn baby's health, according to reports.

The woman and her husband were eating at the popular chain Xiabu Xiabu Thursday night when she discovered the dead rat in the hotpot.

Her husband, last name Ma, alerted restaurant staff to the situation. Ma alleges that restaurant staff offered the couple cash for an abortion if they were worried about the health of the baby after eating the rat soup.

“If you are worried about the baby, then we'll give you 20,000 yuan ($3,000) to abort it,” Ma says the staff told him, South China Morning Post reports.

Ma said he and his wife went to the hospital where she had a checkup to ensure the baby was healthy.

The restaurant allegedly later offered Ma 5,000 yuan ($728.00) in compensation for the incident — a price he was willing to negotiate after the hospital visit, he told the South China Morning Post.

It was not reported how much money, if any, the couple received.

Health officials investigated the restaurant and found no traces of rats, but shut down the location for other violations, including pooled water in the food processing areas and using produce suppliers without full qualifications.

In a statement released to South China Morning Post Saturday night, Xiabu Xiabu said it had always placed great emphasis on food security and would make any necessary improvements.

Xiabu Xiabu has 759 restaurants in China, South China Morning Post reports.
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@Rat Speaker, as speaker for all rats all around the world, I feel your opinion would be most valued in this situation. I await your response.
 
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Only Gordon Ramsey can save them now. RIP fuzzy litte disease bag.
 
and claims restaurant staff offered her money to get an abortion if the meal affected her unborn baby's health,
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Yeesh, skipping right to the nuclear option. That restaurant staff does not fuck around.

“If you aren’t satisfied with your meal, we’ll put you out of your misery.”
 
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Clop said:
But that just made me mystified that someone there had a problem with rat soup.
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I think the issue was that the rat was dead. Obviously it's rude to serve rats that aren't still alive. You can't guess how fresh they are otherwise.
 
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