The utensils, developed by scientists at Meiji University, trick a diner’s taste buds into thinking their meal is salty

Two-and-a-half years after California Gov. Gavin Newsom upended the NCAA’s iron-fisted control over athlete compensation by signing the nation’s first intercollegiate name, image and likeness protections, the Golden State’s legislature will now consider passing a new pay-to-play bill designed to be the deathblow of amateurism. On Wednesday, the California State Senate’s education committee is set to vote on SB-1401, the College Athlete Race and Gender Equity Act, which would not only permit but mandate universities to compensate their revenue-sport athletes. SB-1401 was first introduced in February by state Sen. Steven Bradford, whose district includes the Los Angeles County communities of Compton, Watts and Inglewood, which have produced multitudes of Division I athletes over the years. As initially drafted, the legislation would require California universities to set aside a portion of funds from their team sports that generate more than twice as much money as they spend on athletic scholarships, which would then be distributed in equal share to the sports’ participating athletes. Most of the money would be assigned to an “Athlete Degree Completion Fund,” which could only be accessed upon graduation. The head-count sports that would currently qualify for revenue-sharing under the statute’s provisions are football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Based on 2018 financial figures schools provided to the U.S. Department of Education, the legislation would have worked out to FBS football players in California earning, on average, $132,000 per year in addition to the price of their grant-in-aid, while men’s basketball players would receive an extra $107,000 and women’s basketball players would get $15,000 more annually.

At least 18 pro-union employees have been fired since February, in what workers say is an attempt to stop an increasingly popular union campaign.

Biogas promises less pollution, more jobs, and a renewable energy source. Residents and farmers disagree. Sherri White-Williamson lives about three miles from a pork processing plant in Clinton, North Carolina. On a good day, the air smells fresh, tainted by a minor whiff of rotten egg and sewage. On a bad day, the odor from the plant is so strong, she has to keep her windows closed. The smell wafts into a local elementary school, nearby restaurants, churches, and the county history museum. Those who live and work in the area say they have to keep fans, candles, and air fresheners running at all hours to make the air tolerable. The problem is even worse for people living down the road in rural Sampson County, near large hog farms, where they must endure more potent odors and pollution coming from the lagoons filled with waste, and the systems that spray waste onto fields as fertilizer. North Carolina is the second largest producer of pork in the country, and Sampson, Duplin, and Bladen counties house more than 40 percent of the state's hog farms. According to census data, between a quarter to a third of the population in all three of these counties are Black; around a quarter of Duplin and Sampson residents are Latinx. About 42 percent of residents in neighboring Robeson County—the fourth largest hog producing county—are Native American.

In just one year, the Twitter account has helped steer the outrage machine at the center of right-wing messaging and legislation. On March 8, a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok posted a video of a woman teaching sex education to children in Kentucky, calling the woman in the video a “predator.” The next evening, the same clip was featured on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program, prompting the host to ask, “When did our public schools, any schools, become what are essentially grooming centers for gender identity radicals?” Libs of TikTok reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage. Videos shared from the account quickly find their way to the most influential names in right-wing media. The account has emerged as a powerful force on the Internet, shaping right-wing media, impacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and influencing millions by posting viral videos aimed at inciting outrage among the right. The anonymous account’s impact is deep and far-reaching. Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures, politicians and right-wing influencers. Its tweets reach millions, with influence spreading far beyond its more than 648,000 Twitter followers. Libs of TikTok has become an agenda-setter in right-wing online discourse, and the content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community. “Libs of TikTok is basically acting as a wire service for the broader right-wing media ecosystem,” said Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director for Media Matters, the progressive media watchdog group. “It’s been shaping public policy in a real way, and affecting teachers’ ability to feel safe in their classrooms.” The account has been promoted by podcast host Joe Rogan, it’s been featured in the New York Post, the Federalist, the Post Millennial and a slew of other right-wing news sites. Meghan McCain has retweeted it. The online influencer Glenn Greenwald has amplified it to his 1.8 million Twitter followers while calling himself the account’s “Godfather.” Last Thursday, the woman behind the account appeared anonymously on Tucker Carlson’s show to complain about being temporarily suspended for violating Twitter’s community guidelines. Fox News often creates news packages around the content that Libs of TikTok has surfaced. “The role I’ve seen this account playing is finding new characters for right-wing propaganda,” said Gillian Branstetter, a media strategist for the ACLU. “It’s relying on the endless stream of content from TikTok and the Internet to cast any individual trans person as a new villain in their story.” Throughout its increasingly popular posts and despite numerous media appearances, the account has remained anonymous. But the identity of the operator of Libs of TikTok is traceable through a complex online history and reveals someone who has been plugged into right-wing discourse for two years and is now helping to drive it. An account in search of a voice — and a big break from Joe Rogan Chaya Raichik had been working as a real estate salesperson in Brooklyn when, in early November 2020, she created the account that would eventually become Libs of TikTok. Under her first handle @shaya69830552, she minimized covid, cast doubt on the election results and promoted a dubious story about a child sex trafficking ring. On Nov. 23, 2020, Raichik changed handles, this time going by @shaya_ray and identifying herself publicly as a real estate investor in Brooklyn. She began doubling down on election fraud conspiracies using QAnon-related language. Early that December, she joked about launching a clothing line titled “voter fraud is real.”

Despite right-wing outrage and backlash from the President, there is little evidence that cities are slashing police department budgets. A study of budgets in over 400 American cities over the last 5 years shows that, despite persistent claims by politicians, pundits, and police unions, there was no mass defunding of police. Police departments got the same average cut of the city budget in 2021 as they did in previous years. Defunding the police became a mainstream political topic in June of 2020, when nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced their intentions to dismantle the city’s police department with cardboard signs saying “Defund Police.” George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police officers had set off a nationwide wave of protests which often called for cuts to law enforcement budgets as a way to curb police violence—and, briefly, it was floated as policy. The call to “defund” was less of a unified call for abolition, and more of a general sentiment that directing nearly a third of taxpayer money to the police seemed inconsistent with the regular high-profile incidents of police violence. Opponents worried that fewer police would lead to more crime, and these ideas could have been the start of a long-overdue conversation about policing in America.

These two non-scientist dudes are now advising men across America to tan their balls.

Bloomberg's report says this is what the 'Super Game' project was all about

LET'S GO BRANDON!

For example he's cured three incurable diseases in himself, and has had $50,000 stolen from him five to seven times.

Internet sleuths reveal that the influential conservative Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, attended the Capitol riot.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported on a mysterious illness sweeping the nation that appears to be linked to the leprechaun-themed breakfast cereal Lucky Charms. As a fan of these “magically delicious” marshmallow bites, I was alarmed. Should I throw my box out? I wondered. What, exactly, is making so many people sick? It turns out that the majority of reports of Lucky-Charms-related illness have surfaced on the website iwaspoisoned.com. Over 3,000 brave Americans from Pembroke Pines, Florida, to Grand Forks, North Dakota, have reported bouts of nausea, diarrhea, and general stomach upset after eating bowls of Lucky Charms. And in many cases, these people are very confident that Lucky Charms are the culprit, because they continued to eat bowl after bowl just to make sure.

Now we know what Alex Jones has been doing in all the time he was ducking discovery and refusing to sit for a deposition in those lawsuits brought by surviving family members of the Sandy Hook shooting victims he called “crisis actors.” If a lawsuit filed yesterday in Texas is to be believed, he’s been frantically looting his company and socking away cash to make himself judgment proof when those plaintiffs come to collect. Courthouse News was first to flag the case, which was filed in a state court in Texas, where Jones lives and where the companies associated with his Infowars media brand are located. The plaintiffs allege that Jones and his company “doomsday prepped” for the inevitable defamation judgments coming their way by siphoning some $72 million out of the company, with $18 million going directly to Jones and another $54 million paid to “shell companies owned by insiders like his parents, his children, and himself.” The most egregious scheme allegedly involved a Nevada limited-liability company known as PQPR Holdings which is “owned and operated directly or indirectly by Jones, his parents, and his children through an alphabet soup of shell entities.”

Presumably these donors are some combination of unscrupulous campaign managers and utter cretins.

But even at $30 billion, 'Ike Dike' might not be enough to defend Texas coast

At a news conference, Adams said three different types of detectors are being reviewed.

WOKE Beeb bosses are to reframe the reputation of the terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex — claiming the raptor has had a bad rap.

The video and images match the shape and design of the missile cruiser. Russia says a fire onboard caused ammunitions to explode and the vessel sank as it was being towed in a storm. Ukraine says it hit it with missiles. The new images do not immediately back the claims of either side - but there is no sign of a storm at the time.

Facing multiple bowls of spicy chili, the far-right website InfoWars on Sunday voluntarily filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in Texas.

They may be set up like two opposing armies defending their territory, but no one really knows why the two villages come together to fight on Good Friday. Some say that the boxing is a form of penitence to mark the religious holiday, while others believe that it was originally a way of resolving disputes. These days it’s apparently just a bit of fun, a chance to see who is the toughest guy in town.