From the BBC: “Hundreds of truckles of cheddar worth more than £300,000 have been stolen from London cheese specialist Neal’s Yard Dairy. Fraudsters posing as legitimate wholesalers received the 950 clothbound cheeses from the Southwark-based company before it was realised they were a fake firm. More than 22 tonnes of three artisan cheddars, including Hafod Welsh, Westcombe, and Pitchfork were taken, which are all award-winning and have a high monetary value. Neal’s Yard Dairy sells Hafod Welsh for £12.90 for a 300g piece, while Westcombe costs £7.15 for 250g and Pitchfork is priced at £11 for 250g. Patrick Holden, who owns the farm where Hafod cheddar is made, said: “The artisan cheese world is a place where trust is deeply embedded in all transactions. “It’s a world where one’s word is one’s bond. The degree of trust that exists within our small industry as a whole is due in no small part to the ethos of Neal’s Yard Dairy’s founders.”
In this small Dominican community, children start out as girls and then become boys
From the BBC: “Johnny lives in a small town in the Dominican Republic where he, and others like him, are known as Guevedoces, which effectively translates as “penis at twelve”. Johnny was brought up as a girl because he had no visible testes or penis and what appeared to be a vagina. It is only when he approached puberty that his penis grew and testicles descended. Johnny, once known as Felicita, remembers going to school in a little red dress, though he says he was never happy doing girl things. So why does it happen? In 1970, Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley made her way to this remote part of the Dominican Republic, drawn by extraordinary reports of girls turning into boys. When she investigated, she discovered the reason they don’t have male genitalia when they are born is because they are deficient in an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase.”
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