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I was having a quiet evening at home when, suddenly, I received a text. It was my friend Laura, asking if I was free Friday. But I already had plans to get dinner with a different friend—a woman Laura had never met, named Erica.

I yearned to invite Laura along but knew, sadly, that I couldn’t. The laws of friendship dictate that getting dinner with two friends who don’t know each other is impossible, as they come from different, parallel universes.

To bring Erica and Laura to the same dimension—eating dinner with me at an Italian restaurant in the East Village, on the same night, at 7 p.m.—could be disastrous, shattering the friendship multiverse and generating awkwardness at unprecedented levels, with pauses in conversation so long, so vacuous, they’d fill with dark matter, sucking us into a void.

Open Rights Group welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Information Commissioner’s Office consultation on the “consent or pay” model, which is or could be relied upon for processing personal data on the basis of consent. ‘Consent or Pay’ and Data Protection Interferences with our right to privacy and data protection are admissible only and […]

Those gold sneakers are the extent of Trump’s grassroots outreach. Donald Trump says he wants to hold a major campaign event at New York’s Madison Square Garden featuring Black hip-hop artists and athletes. Aides speak of Trump making appearances in Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta with leaders of color and realigning American politics by flipping Democratic constituencies. But five months before the first general election votes are cast, the former president’s campaign has little apparent organization to show for its ambitious plans. His campaign removed its point person for coalitions and has not announced a replacement. The Republican Party’s minority outreach offices across the country have been shuttered and replaced by businesses that include a check-cashing store, an ice cream shop and a sex-toy store. Campaign officials acknowledge they are weeks away from rolling out any targeted programs. Basically, Trump’s saying “you’re on your own” to his Black MAGA endorsers.

Earlier today, Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson stopped by ABC's Good Morning America - and they brought a clip with them.

A tale of two Americas.

The post Cable News Viewers Have a Skewed Attitude Toward Gaza War, Survey Finds appeared first on The Intercept.

Ofsted is considering closing AP Care Homes Ltd - run by TV star Ampika Pickston and funded by her West Ham owner fiancé David Sullivan - while a separate investigation has been launched into its social media promotion

ORG’s Submission to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee   1. Executive Summary · Open Rights Group, the UK’s largest grassroots digital rights organisation, is submitting evidence about its human rights concerns relating to the IPA Bill. · The requirement that operators must notify the Secretary of State before making security changes to their […]

Trump on Trump 2.0 Not-so-veiled threats and rumors of political retribution are par for the course Donald Trump cheats on. In interviews with Time magazine, the dictator-in-waiting lets everyone know just how far he will go if he wins a second presidential term. Time: Every election is billed as a national turning point. This time that rings true. To supporters, the prospect of Trump 2.0, unconstrained and backed by a disciplined movement of true believers, offers revolutionary promise. To much of the rest of the nation and the world, it represents an alarming risk. A second Trump term could bring “the end of our democracy,” says presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, “and the birth of a new kind of authoritarian presidential order.” Trump 2.0 will be the unitary executive theory on steroids. Nowhere would that power be more momentous than at the Department of Justice. Since the nation’s earliest days, Presidents have generally kept a respectful distance from Senate-confirmed law-enforcement officials to avoid exploiting for personal ends their enormous ability to curtail Americans’ freedoms.

He’s a funny little chap: a sharp dresser with a sleek grey jacket, a white waistcoat, red shorts, and a small grey crest for a hat. With his shiny black eyes and stubby black beak, he’s quite the looker. Like the chihuahua of the bird world, the tufted titmouse has no idea he’s tiny. He swaggers right up to the feeder, shouldering bigger birds out of the way. A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have known a tufted titmouse from a downy woodpecker. (We have those, too, along with red-bellied woodpeckers, who really should have been named for their bright orange mohawks). This spring I decided to get to know my feathered neighbors with whom I’m sharing an island off... Read more

Source: Celebrating Links Across Species appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Been There, Smelled That explores the aromas of places around the world. Travel writer Maggie Downs investigates some of the world’s most potent smells, looks at how odor cultivates a connection to place, and presents how humans engage with smells, from scents that have endured generations to the latest innovations in aroma-making.

I believe it’s impossible to experience Spain without encountering ham. But in my case, it was by accident.

I was staying at a boutique hotel in one of those postcard-perfect Andalusian villages. Before jumping into the shower, I noticed there wasn’t any soap. I called down to the front desk and did my best to communicate despite knowing limited Spanish. Twenty minutes later, I was surprised when a smiling employee knocked on my door and presented me with a platter of ham.

“We do not want to be a democracy”* Republicans want to roll back the 20th century a quarter of the way into the 21st. They’ve made no bones about it for decades. In his heyday during the George W. Bush administration prior to the September 11 attacks, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform busily strong-armed Republicans into signing his anti-tax pledge. He dreamed of returning America to “the McKinley era, absent the protectionism.” He wanted, famously, to shrink government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Norquist was a radical for his day. But not so radical that he imagined chucking the Constitution itself along with the last 100 years. Among today’s MAGA Republicans, he’s a RINO. Nancy MacLean, author of “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” suggests the remnant of the southern planter class, economic royalists and academic libertarians, undertook affecting a restoration of elite dominance beginning in the late 1940s. Their goal: to save capitalism from democracy.

“Red touch yellow, legless fellow. Red touch black, legs they lack.”
Remembering that neither coral snakes nor scarlet kingsnakes have legs.

“Uplifting. Star-spangled. Anthem.”
Remembering the letters in “USA.”

“A caT has two. A dOg has one.”
How many horns common household pets would have if those household pets had horns, and also if cats had two of them while dogs only had one.

“Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. The largest nation, Russian Federation.”
Distinguishing between a coral snake and the country of Russia.

“An airplane takes you up to a different plane. A submarine goes in the water.”
Determining whether a vehicle is an airplane or a submarine.

“ER = Eating Rounds. ING = Inside, Normally Garments.”
Remembering whether plates go in a dishwashER or a washING machine.

“Red sky in the morn, a day is born. Red sky at night, a day takes flight.”
Distinguishing between sunrise and sunset.

This week’s local elections will be the last significant electoral test for the main political parties before the next general election. Polls indicate that the Conservatives are certain to receive a drubbing, signalling that the end of the road is near for a government that is exhausted and all out of ideas and ambition. Labour […]

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Watchmen/NIN, Always Sunny/Seinfeld, X-Men '97, Doctor Who, Superman & Lois, The X-Files/Taylor Swift & more!

. As argued by Susan, the universalist ideas of the Enlightenment are still relevant, despite the numerous criticisms that have been levelled against them. The Enlightenment was characterized by a spirit of exploration that led to new discoveries in both science and culture. Rather than promoting a narrow worldview, it encouraged people to question assumptions […]

Festus Akinbusoye is in hot water over potential ethics breaches as complaints mount

Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific

- by Adam Frank

Read at Aeon

Do you stick to a set schedule, or have a looser relationship to the clock? It can affect more than how you plan your day

- by Shayla Love

Read at Psyche

The Conservative candidate against London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined a series of events with the extreme anti-ULEZ campaigner

Gaza solidarity encampments have spread to university campuses across the country, inspired by the movement in the US.

The post Uni encampments for Gaza demand end to ties with Israel first appeared on Solidarity Online.