#the root articles

[hedgehog-moss]

Hi! Can I ask you a question about France? How common or uncommon or weird is the use of coucou as a greeting? Especially between adults. Would it be super weird if I went to France and greeted someone like that?

I don't trust the click-baity articles that show up when I google this (I'm not even sure all of them were written by humans), so I'd rather ask someone that, you know, actually lives over there.

Thanks, have a nice day

Hi! Coucou is a pretty common greeting including between adults (though it's more often used by women as it does sound a bit cutesy), but I think it implies pre-established friendly relations, unlike the neutral Bonjour or Salut. I only use it with family and friends. Friendly acquaintances too—okay now that I think about it, it's hard to say where I draw the coucou line. I use it as a greeting when I enter the library if there's no one in there but the librarian because I know her well, but if there are other people in the room I say bonjour even if they're children. And of course if I knew the librarian very well but didn't like her she wouldn't get a coucou. You kind of have to follow your heart with this greeting.

But definitely don't use it to greet people in a shop or formal context or anyone you don't know well because that would be weird (in my view!) Coucou sounds affectionate, I often use it in writing to set the tone ("Hi I am an informal unthreatening email !") (also if a French person sends you a text that starts with Cc, that's textspeak for coucou)

To me "Salut !" is "Hi!" while "Coucou" is Hi :) <3

[fatcatlittlebox]

I’m so over lame dudebros writing awful reviews in major publications and cheering the cancellation of the Rings of Power. They claim the writing is bad, the show is boring and worse, that the writers have made no effort to be faithful to Tolkien. To actively CHEER its failure is fucking pathetic and they do it with literally nothing to back it up other than “trust me bro.” And their bad faith rebuttals are always comparing it to the Peter Jackson movies. Really. I think the kicker for me was reading one reviewer make its case for cancellation based on the Acolyte. So can we just be honest here? Can we just be frank and admit that this isn’t about honoring the IP because nobody had this kind of heat for GOT. No one was calling for it to be axed. And the difference is that the showrunners there were misogynists so that made everything a-ok.

These “reviewers” probably spent their whole life writing manifestos in the dark, creating the narrative in their heads that the reason why people, especially women, don’t like them is because they don’t appreciate what they like: not fantasy, not scifi, not anime, not gaming. But we do like the same shit. We just don’t like shitty personalities. So spare me their inaccurate pedantry and just admit it. Admit that female joy fills them with rage that the source if it must be destroyed.

[softavasilva]

Kristina Tonteri-Young featured on Timid Magazine

[omegalomania]

btw fall out boy has literally always been pop. right from the start they set out to be a melodic pop punk band and this got them laughed at by all their hardcore peers. they went into pop intentionally so they could get away from the racism/sexism rampant in the hardcore scene and make music that girls would want to listen to. they were being decried as sellouts from the moment they decided to assign melodies to lyrics and appeal to teenage girls.

they refer to themselves as pop punk. they have always looked into the pop sphere of music for inspiration. take this to your grave was inspired by bands like green day and blink-182 and saves the day because they were doing pop punk. they consider from under the cork tree to be a pop record. when they started doing take this to your grave they were called too pop and then when they did from under the cork tree then tttyg was suddenly punk and okay to like, because now it was from under the cork tree that was pop. and so the cycle goes, as it always has, from the very beginning of their careers.

to suggest that at any point they became "more pop" is kind of bizarre because i'd argue their pop leanings have always been at the forefront and they were 100% aware of and deliberate in marketing their music to a largely female largely teenage fanbase. right from day 1 that was in their dna. dismissing any of their stuff as "too poppy" is ludicrous because it's all pop. all of it.

Fall Out Boy Has Always Been Pop And That's Not A Bad Thing.

(x) (x) (x)

[theblisterdoesntexist]

i'd hang it on the wall above my bed and pretend it's always 2003, not just april

(and oh living in a time when i could see gonzo interview)

[softerstorms]

in case you haven't read the teen vogue article on gemini & fourth

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Truly reading fundamental academic literature is a humbling experience of intellectually mining for gold. Yes, past a certain point in academic life you'll feel like a whole lot of it is just dust, and then suddenly the author will hit you with a very enlightening passage that leaves you reeling a bit.

[daenystheedreamer]

i need to go back to 2010-2015

[whiteshipnightjar]

Andy Samberg is the perfect choice to play David E. Scherman in 'Lee' (2023) and here's why: (1) he's a great actor and that's non-negotiable, it's a fact; (2) this scene in the film:

and the real life from David E. Scherman's perspective:

illustrated by these photographs:

(3) . It's going to be so good, you guys!

[girderednerve]

The AP found that U.S. prison labor is in the supply chains of goods being shipped all over the world via multinational companies, including to countries that have been slapped with import bans by Washington in recent years. For instance, the U.S. has blocked shipments of cotton coming from China, a top manufacturer of popular clothing brands, because it was produced by forced or prison labor. But crops harvested by U.S. prisoners have entered the supply chains of companies that export to China.

While prison labor seeps into the supply chains of some companies through third-party suppliers without them knowing, others buy direct. Mammoth commodity traders that are essential to feeding the globe like Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels Midland and Consolidated Grain and Barge – which together post annual revenues of more than $400 billion – have in recent years scooped up millions of dollars’ worth of soy, corn and wheat straight from prisons, which compete with local farmers.

...Incarceration was used not just for punishment or rehabilitation but for profit. A law passed a few years [after the formal end of the convict-leasing system in 1928] made it illegal to knowingly transport or sell goods made by incarcerated workers across state lines, though an exception was made for agricultural products. Today, after years of efforts by lawmakers and businesses, corporations are setting up joint ventures with corrections agencies, enabling them to sell almost anything nationwide.

Civilian workers are guaranteed basic rights and protections by OSHA and laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act, but prisoners, who are often not legally considered employees, are denied many of those entitlements and cannot protest or form unions.

“They may be doing the exact same work as people who are not incarcerated, but they don’t have the training, they don’t have the experience, they don’t have the protective equipment,” said Jennifer Turner, lead author of a 2022 American Civil Liberties Union report on prison labor.

[coochiequeens]

Gay men and the wealthy are no longer content to exploit one woman now exploiting two at the same is becoming trendy

Why have one baby when you can have 2? People are paying $500,000 to hire 2 surrogates at once and have 'twiblings'

By Kelsey Vlamis  Jul 16, 2024, 3:04 PM EDT

Some people are hiring two surrogates at the same time to carry their babies.

Concurrent surrogacy can be complicated and costly, with prices reaching up to $500,000 or more.

Many people who do it are in their 40s and trying to build out their family quickly.

Bill Houghton still vividly remembers the moment he met his son.

He was sitting in the hospital waiting room, right outside the birthing room, when a nurse appeared carrying a little green bundle.

"I just held him in my arms and just started crying. It was so overwhelming. My husband was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that this is it. We're a family,'" Houghton told Business Insider. "This is my son."

Just one week later, Houghton and his husband would have the same experience all over again when their second child, another son, was delivered.

"And it has been like that ever since," he said. "To this day, I still look at them and I think, 'Oh my God, these are my sons.' My father had sons. I never thought that I would have a son."

Houghton and his husband opted to become parents via concurrent surrogacy — a process in which two surrogates are hired to carry two babies at the same, or overlapping, time.

The resulting children can be born anywhere from one week apart, like Houghton's, to nine months apart, and have been referred to by some people in the industry as "tandem siblings" or "twiblings."

Surrogacy agencies told BI that concurrent surrogacy journeys are not uncommon, with some saying it's a rising trend in a growing industry that was valued at $14 billion in 2022 by Global Market Insights and has attracted the investments of private equity firms.

All kinds of people — couples or singles, straight or gay, young or old — have opted to build out their family two at a time via concurrent surrogacy. But there is one thing that most parents of twiblings have in common: the ability to afford them.

While Houghton hired surrogates abroad, couples who choose to go through US-based agencies can easily spend $300,000 to half a million dollars or more on concurrent surrogates, according to five surrogacy agencies that spoke to BI.

"It is a luxury, absolutely," Brooke Kimbrough, cofounder and CEO of Roots Surrogacy, told BI. "Most American families don't have $200,000 in cash to go through surrogacy generally, and then $400,000-plus in cash to be able to go through that twice at the same time."

Still, the use of concurrent surrogates could grow as surrogacy generally grows in the US, in part because celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen have started opening up about using surrogates, as well as depictions in film and TV that have made the practice more mainstream. Teigen was even pregnant at the same time as her surrogate.

Surrogacy is also becoming increasingly relevant as more and more people are opting to have kids and start building their families later in life.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have opened up about using a surrogate. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

Concurrent surrogacy can help build a family quickly

Concurrent journeys typically look like regular surrogacy journeys, just times two. Gestational surrogacy, when IVF is used to place a fertilized embryo into a surrogate, is the most common form of surrogacy in the US today. Parents can use their own egg and sperm or that of donors.

Like many gay couples, Houghton and his husband each used their sperm for one of the babies, as well as the same egg donor, so their sons are technically half brothers.

While there has been increased awareness around what some call "social surrogacy" — using a surrogate when it's not medically or biologically necessary — the majority of people who conceive via surrogacy do so because they have to.

"Typically, when people come to us, they've been through a lot. This is not their plan A, it's often not plan B, maybe it's plan C," Kim Bergman, a psychologist and senior partner at Growing Generations, told BI. "They've had a lot of disappointment, and they've had a lot of trials and tribulations."

Many hopeful parents are in their 40s and are simply eager to build their families, the agencies said. A surrogacy journey can easily take one and a half to two years, so for intended parents who know they want multiple kids, concurrent surrogates can be appealing.

Certainly, some people who opt for concurrent surrogates do not fit the definition of medically necessary, at least according to the standards laid out by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

Some people have mental health reasons or a fear of giving birth. Others are actors or brain surgeons who spend 12 hours a day on their feet and who can't get pregnant and continue to do their jobs. All the surrogacy agencies BI spoke with said it's essentially never the case that someone opts for surrogacy simply for vanity reasons.

David Sher, founder and CEO of Elite IVF, told BI they've helped coordinate surrogates for celebrities, politicians, and people in demanding careers like finance or tech. He said he currently has a client who serves on the cabinet of a Western country and is trying to have a baby via surrogate in part due to her demanding schedule.

Sher said he thinks concurrent surrogacy has long been an option for intended parents but that there does seem to be an uptick in people who are opting to do it.

Part of the reason for that could be because fewer and fewer agencies are willing to do double embryo transfers, which were previously more common and could result in a twin pregnancy. The ASRM recommends against them, as twin pregnancies come with heightened risks for both the surrogate and the babies. So concurrent surrogacy is a safer option for intended parents who want to have two kids at the same time or in close succession.

Costly and complicated

Though it's viewed as a safer option, concurrent surrogacy is controversial. The ASRM guidelines actually recommend against concurrent surrogacy, as well as against social, or not medically necessary, surrogacy. But all five surrogacy agencies that BI spoke to will facilitate concurrent surrogacies.

The agencies said they've seen many concurrent surrogacy journeys be successful and that a lot of care and prior planning goes into making them happen.

"It's not taken lightly," Bergman said, adding that concurrent journeys are rarely chosen by 30-year-olds who have plenty of time to build their families, though that does occasionally happen.

Surrogacy, in general, is expensive — commonly ranging from $150,000 to $250,000 for one child. The costs go toward surrogate compensation, agency fees, legal fees for contracts, and clinical bills.

The agencies BI spoke with said a concurrent surrogacy journey would essentially cost twice that. Meaning there's no two-for-one special.

But cost isn't the only factor to consider. Perhaps the primary drawback to pursuing concurrent surrogacy (that is, besides the high price tag) is the logistics of it.

All the agencies emphasized that concurrent surrogacy should only be pursued with full transparency and the fully informed consent of every person involved. That means matching intended parents to surrogates who are fully aware and OK with the fact that they will not be the only surrogate.

Gestational surrogacy, in which a fertilized embryo is implanted in a surrogate, is most common in the US. Jay L. Clendenin/for The Washington Post/Getty Images

There's also tons of planning and talking through hypotheticals. Are the surrogates based in the same area? Can the parents attend both births? Are we staggering expected delivery times enough? What's the plan if one surrogate gets pregnant on the first try but the other doesn't?

There's also a psychological aspect. Will both surrogates feel fully supported? How will one feel if she doesn't get pregnant right away and the other does?

"All of these conversations are front-loaded. Anytime in the conversation, the surrogate can say, 'I'm not comfortable doing this,'" Bergman said, adding that sometimes, after thinking through the logistics, some parents will change their minds and plan to space the deliveries out further than they initially wanted, like to six or nine months.

Most agencies recommended staggering the planned deliveries by at least three months. But at the end of the day, parents need to be ready for the timeline to not go exactly as planned.

Houghton and his husband had actually planned to have their babies six weeks apart, but when one of the babies was born five weeks premature, they ended up with birthdays one week apart.

Concurrent surrogacy may not be for everyone — even if you can afford it

Although the cost of concurrent surrogacy makes it prohibitive for most people, that could change in the future as more and more companies expand their fertility benefits.

There are also more nonprofits popping up that will provide grants or partial funds to people who want to build their families via surrogacy but may not have the means to.

Jarret Zafran, founder and executive director at Brownstone Surrogacy, told BI that it's not necessarily only the ultrawealthy who pursue concurrent surrogacy. He said he currently has clients who are lifelong educators on the older side who are getting ready to start the surrogacy process. They recently asked about what it would look like for them to do a concurrent journey.

"I guess it is still a luxury in the sense that most Americans would not even be in a financial position to afford it the first time," Zafran, who also had a child with his husband through surrogacy, said. "But for them, this is not a frivolous decision, and they're scraping together every single little penny that they have, all of their savings, their retirement funds, and I get it."

By using surrogates abroad over a decade ago, Houghton and his husband, who are based in Spain, spent much less on their concurrent surrogates than they would have in the US. But he's still not totally sure why they chose to do concurrent journeys rather than space the children out a bit more.

"We just liked the idea of having two kids that were about the same age that would sort of grow up together," he said, adding, "I didn't realize at the time the challenges that would come with having two kids."

In reality, he said having the two boys grow up so close together in age, not twins but in the same class in school, ended up leading to a lot of conflict and constant competition as they were growing up. He said it has gotten better now that the boys are facing their teen years and developing their own identities.

Still, if he could do it over again, he thinks he would stagger them more.

"They're unbelievable young men, and I'm so proud of everything about them," he said. "But having the two together has been a challenge."

Have a news tip or a story to share about concurrent surrogacy? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

If a brain surgeon or politician can't do their job while pregnant have they thought about how kids in general will impact their job? What if their kid wakes them up the night before surgery because they got of had a nightmare? Are they counting on a reliable spouse or a nanny to take care to the unpleasant parts of parenting.

Finally at the very end of the article they address how being born so close together impacts kids. We're they really surprised that there was a lot of competition? And they article just touched on how one of the twins was born 5 weeks premature. That means at one week old the dudes in charge of its care were focused on its twibling. Considering that surrogacy pregnancies are more likely to have complications do the parents consider how they will care for one baby while another baby is in the hospital longer than expected?

[dreamings-free]

In response, TikTok claims it has reached “'artist-first' agreements with every other label and publisher” and that “Universal's self-serving actions are not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans”

31st January 2024 By Surej Singh

Last night (January 30), Universal Music Group (UMG) published an open letter announcing its intention to withdraw music from artists signed to the publisher and label from short-form video platform TikTok, which has since responded in a statement of its own.

A short list of UMG artists whose music is expected to vanish from the platform is Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Adele, Coldplay, J Balvin, Post Malone and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – whose 2001 track ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ has gone particularly viral through TikTok following the release of Saltburn.

In its statement, UMG announced that its licensing agreement with TikTok expires today (January 31, 2024) and that negotiations to renew the contract have fallen short. According to Reuters, TikTok and UMG first reached an agreement in February 2021.

-> read the full article on nme.com

[universalsatan]

Hey bestie, no need to answer this, but I saw u reblogged something from roach - works, and I just wanna let u know that she's a major terf

oh!!! thank you for this fr. i'm answering this bc i just wanna say that i don't have shinigami eyes and i'm on mobile most of the time, so these pointers are much appreciated <33

[theblisterdoesntexist]

my precious babies 💋

[morepopcornplease]

once again struck by how actually unfathomably grotesque and dismissively inhumane abortion is

[justthedismount]

People hate on athletes in other sports for no goddamn reason all the time and no one says a word about that but suddenly gym fans want to and it's like the fucking sky is falling