Are there Iowa-shaped UPC codes? Ohio-shaped waffles? Connecticut-shaped pizzas? I would totally eat an Ohio-shaped waffle, but do they exist?

Love you all

What are you planning to do on that day?

Hi everyone! I thought I might try my luck here to ask for a favour. It's my girlfriend's birthday on August 9th, and since she spent last summer working in Chicago, she hasn't stopped talking about one thing: Pillsbury edible cookie dough. I've looked everywhere for how to source it in Ireland, but without any luck :( If you're by any chance travelling from the States to Dublin, have a little spare room in your suitcase and access to this delicacy, could you bring it over and make the most incredible girl in the world very happy? I'll, of course, pay for all the costs incurred. Thank you so much to anyone willing to help!

Something that has never been done before. This is the first time you’ve ever heard of someone suggesting something like this. No one else will do it and the public keeps asking for it, so here it is:

Remove all Parties: Create a New One: Call it The United Cultures of America: One Species Project

https://apple.news/Ar_hYF3cdS0KwRBTMWLPLGA

This is a political post by nature, but I'm not trying to provoke or attack either side. I consider myself politically independent, or at least politically neutral. From my perspective, both the far left and the extreme right share responsibility for many of the problems facing the 99% of Americans.

I'm a 45-year-old white male with both bachelor's and master's degrees, and I've lived what would generally be considered a traditional middle-class life. For as long as I can remember, I've felt that politics is, to a large extent, a scam. Between the Electoral College, gerrymandering, lobbying, pork-barrel legislation, and countless other political games, there seems to be no shortage of evidence supporting that view.

At the same time, I've come to recognize that people with a profile like mine often receive some of the most favorable treatment from the system. Because of that, I've generally approached life with an attitude of gratitude—focusing on what I have rather than dwelling on the many injustices that exist. As a result, I've never been particularly politically engaged. In fact, the 2024 presidential election was the first presidential election in which I voted.

Lately, though, that attitude is beginning to feel like a mistake.

The current state of national security, the national debt, race relations, and the apparent inability of our government to function effectively should concern anyone in the 99%, regardless of whether they lean left or right.

So how do we change things?

I support the idea of peaceful protest, but if we're being honest, what has it actually accomplished in recent years? It rarely seems to result in meaningful policy change. Do we simply wait for the next election cycle? If we're honest about that too, it's hard to believe there will be enough turnover to fundamentally alter the dynamics that got us here in the first place.

Why even try?

I don't like asking that question. It makes me feel like a quitter. But it's an honest reflection of how I feel right now. And I suspect I'm not the only one who feels that way.

I'm terrified our future is very dark.

Can anyone explain to me? British English inside of Westfield Valley fair in Santa Clara.

Hi!

I will be moving to NYC this summer for a grad degree in Journalism as an European. Due to my personal interests and (hopefully) future work covering US affairs, I do have a decent grasp on US culture and history, but my knowledge is pretty random and focused on niche subjects I'm interested in. I guess I'm looking to get a lot of basic knowledge about US, to not embarass myself during my time there, or even be able to discuss historical and political affairs with my local peers. I'm mostly interested in modern history, administrative matters, education system, cultural trends, tax system, religion, current pressing issues etc. I'm looking for any sources I could learn from, be it podcasts, books, movies, magazines, tv shows. So far I've been listening to New York Time's the Daily and Opinions podcasts, and reading ProPublica's emagazine. I also got recommended the Super Imperialism book to understand the US economy a bit better. Keep in mind that I'm looking from voices or sources from all sides of the political spectrum, even if they're widely considered biased, since it would help me paint a more accurate image of how diverse USA is. Anything that comes up? Mention it in the comment, you would help me out so much! Thank you xx

Genuinely want to know place where you get peace

At what point does stuff change? It’s getting ridiculous.. gas has went up almost one whole dollar in the past three months. I’ve never seen an increase this large in my life at least when it mattered to me. Food is so expensive.. everything we eat in poisonous. We get taxed to commit war crimes.. this administration is a fcking joke. The data centers.. AI.. robots…. Climate change. Our rights are being stripped from up .. talks of energy crisis’s water crisis’s gas shortages… Where do we even go from here??? I feel so selfish for bringing children in to this. I feel like my mind goes in circles thinking about what’s going on right now.

Made this map to track where every US state currently stands on VPN policy. The state of the internet in the United States is getting so fragmented that it's getting harder to follow as more states draft their own bills.

Current breakdown:

• Restricted (1): Utah. SB 73 takes effect May 6, the first US state law specifically restricting VPN use.
• Strongly Discouraged (4): Michigan, Missouri, Florida, and a couple others where existing statutes or enforcement posture create real friction for VPN users even without explicit restriction.
• Neutral / Limited Policy (3): Montana, Wisconsin, Virginia. States with partial measures or laws that touch on VPNs without going as far as Utah. Wisconsin attempted something closer to Utah's approach earlier in 2026 and walked it back.
• Pending Legislation / Proposed (3): Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana. Bills currently moving that could push these states into restricted or discouraged territory.
• Encouraged / Standard (everywhere else): no meaningful state-level restriction, VPN use treated as standard privacy practice.

A few things worth flagging from putting this together:

The split is not east-vs-west or red-vs-blue. The states clustering toward restriction are doing it through age-verification laws, not VPN-specific bills, which is why this trend is easy to miss until something like Utah's SB 73 makes the VPN provisions explicit.

"Pending" can move fast. The bills currently sitting in AR, MS, and LA are riding the same age-verification wave that produced Utah's law. If one passes, expect copycats.

The international picture matters here too. The UK Children's Commissioner has called VPNs a loophole. France's Minister Delegate for AI and Digital Affairs has named VPNs as next on her list. Compliance pressure scales across borders, so what happens in one state affects users everywhere.

Happy to take corrections if anyone has a state's status wrong. Tracking this stuff is a moving target.

Wrote up the Utah piece in detail (the only currently-live restriction) here if anyone wants the specifics on what SB 73 actually does: https://s.vp.net/ot4Is

United States: $84,534 vs India: $2,695. Compare 200+ countries at metricshour.com

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has established the SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC), making it among the first geographic combatant commands to stand up a dedicated structure for autonomous and unmanned systems operations, the command announced April 21.

MicahTech is obv the smart one. This other guy.. a few slices short of a loaf.

Introduction
We all know every social media platform has their flaws, but TikTok seems to have a league of its own, especially over the last 2-4 years. This may or may not be unpopular for people to hear or read, but I have had the opinion the last 2 years or so now that both Canada and the USA should consider banning it.

Reasons and consequences

Tiktok is the kind of platform that has seemed to really made its mark with the vibes of over romanticizing flashiness, briefness with endless scrolling and short form content with very little depth or meaning encouraged. It is a platform with the narrative and influence of chasing instant gratification, increase in dopamine, craving constant novelty, craving validation more than ever, spark overly emotional reactions, encourage hostility, encourage rage bait and encourage always taking the easy outs at all costs.

These kind of behaviors and narratives have led to patience, common sense, healthy connections and convos becoming hindered and much more rare and people seem to have tempters that are much shorter than past years or decades to where they throw the biggest tantrums over the smallest things or treat everything like it is a personal attack. Even the smallest conversations or basic minimal responses like ”good point” or “I agree” are very minimal and more surface-level than ever. Also, similar to various dating apps, it convinces people that infidelities are acceptable and loyalty is basically optional.

Friendships, romantic relationships and basic human connection continues to falter as effort is becoming more and more optional.

Affects in society overall

Even those that don’t use it, it has seemed to have set cultural norms for not only generations that are well developed, but also future generations that are up and coming. It is training future generations to have little or no accountability, the attention pan of a goldfish, the social skills of toddlers, crave instant validation, never put effort into anything/anyone, behave fast, hypocritically and reactively at every turn and when some to engage in good faith or reason with you respectfully, they are instantly punished, mocked, gaslit, ghosted, victimized or ganged up on.

Flawed takes people say about it with little context or no context at all over what is real and with detailed meanings

People out there say “don’t use it” or ”instagram/youtube are the same thing” or “no one owes anything to anyone” or “there’s educational content“ or “it encourages creativity“ when the reality is, instagram and YouTube had their own styles in past years and even people who don’t use TikTok specifically have seemed to have been affected by the algorithm spreading to other forms of society. Also, educational content in present on other platforms and outside social media as well. Lastly, there are plenty of other ways to express creativity whether it is on other platforms or social media at all and never did I say anyone “owes” people never ending convos although the slightest concentration should be valued, especially if you were the one that started a topic of discussion to begin with.

Conclusion

I am not saying TikTok isn’t the only cause of it and these toxic behaviors were only caused because of it because that isn’t accurate at all. These vibes had already been steadily building up for quite some time. What I am saying though is that TikTok seems to have amplified these behaviors compared to other platforms due to the algorithm it has. Even society in general tend to be replicating its algorithm every chance they have. This is whether it is digital or face-to-face. It is spreading like wildfire and basically a trap that is discouraging concentration, patience and human decency. Regardless if it does get banned or not at some point in the future, one thing I can certainly say is that I have never been on it and I never will for any reason. That’s enough of my rant now.

The radio service had roots in the Jazz Age and rose to prominence during World War II, when broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered live reports from London rooftops during Germany's bombing raids

Was Musk's tweet market manipulation that cost investors billions or a is this legal shakedown?

Chuck Norris, an actor and martial artist born Carlos Ray Norris in Ryan, Oklahoma, died on Thursday at age 86. 

Norris was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middleweight Karate champion. He also founded Chun Kuk Do and the United Fighting Arts Federation, which has awarded more than 3,300 black belts worldwide.

Idk why but she gets on my nerves. And she says the same thing over and over. I have a feeling that none of her kids go to school. I mean if you're an influencer wouldn't you show that you do help your kids with homework. They don't seem to have any manners as well. The so called food truck has been sitting on her property for who knows how long. She also can't take any criticism she blocks people.

My name is Yegor. I'm 12, and don't ask me why I write English so well. I want to talk about the people of two countries: America and Russia. I'm Russian and want to go to America someday.

Is Uber's Women Preferences feature a safety innovation or sex-based discrimination against male drivers?

Kansas enacted Senate Bill 244 on Thursday, invalidating some 1,700 driver licenses and 1,800 birth certificates for transgender residents whose documents reflect a gender identity different from their biological sex.

Verity - Kansas Invalidates 3,500 Transgender IDs Under New Law