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Morphing red blood cells help bats hibernate - and we could do it too

Animals that hibernate need a way to keep their blood flowing as their body temperature drops, and it seems that the mechanical properties of red blood cells may be key




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The mystery of the missing La Niña continues – and we don't know why

A climate-cooling La Niña pattern was expected to develop in the Pacific Ocean months ago, but forecasters now say it won't appear until November




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Battery-like device made from water and clay could be used on Mars

A new supercapacitor design that uses only water, clay and graphene could source material on Mars and be more sustainable and accessible than traditional batteries




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Carbon emissions are now growing faster than before the pandemic

Despite talk of a green recovery, global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise as the world emerged from coronavirus lockdowns




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Your gut bacteria are at war - and force their enemies to switch sides

Rival tribes of bacteria armed with poison darts are fighting it out in your gut, with armies of traitors often winning the day




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This surprisingly creative trick helps children eat more fruit and veg

Weaving tales of magical fruit and vegetables into your children's stories may encourage them to eat healthy snacks




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NASA is developing a Mars helicopter that could land itself from orbit

The largest and most ambitious Martian drone yet could carry kilograms of scientific equipment over great distances and set itself down on the Red Planet unassisted




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Chimpanzees will never randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare

The infinite monkey theorem states that illiterate primates could write great literature with enough time, but the amount of time needed is much longer than the lifespan of the universe




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Natural fibres in wet wipes may actually be worse for soil and animals

Fibres in wet wipes and clothes often make their way into soil - and natural versions could be more damaging than synthetic ones




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3D printing with light and sound could let us copy human organs

One day, doctors might be able to 3D print copies of your organs in order to test a variety of drugs, thanks to a new technique that uses light and sound for rapid printing




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Ancient Egyptians shaped sheep's horns – and we don't know why

The earliest evidence of livestock with modified horns has been discovered in ancient Egypt – sheep skulls with horns that point in unnatural directions suggest humans forced them to grow that way




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Bird flu antibodies found in dairy workers in Michigan and Colorado

Blood tests have shown that about 7 per cent of workers on dairy farms that had H5N1 outbreaks had antibodies against the disease




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Slick trick separates oil and water with 99.9 per cent purity

Oil and water can be separated efficiently by pumping the mixture through thin channels between two semipermeable membranes




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Watch elephants use a hose to shower themselves – and prank others

Asian elephants at Berlin Zoo show impressive skill when using a hose as a tool, and even appear to sabotage each other by stopping the flow of water




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How a single gopher restored a landscape devastated by a volcano

Never underestimate what a single gopher can achieve in a day: one of the burrowing mammals helped boost soil fungi in an area blanketed by ash from the explosive eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state




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Audio AIs are trained on data full of bias and offensive language

Seven major datasets used to train audio-generating AI models are three times more likely to use the words "man" or "men" than "woman" or "women", raising fears of bias




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Lights on surfboards and wetsuits could deter shark attacks

Experiments show that illuminating the underside of a decoy seal reduces attacks by great white sharks, revealing a possible strategy to protect surfers and swimmers




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Red kites and buzzards are being killed by misuse of rat poisons

Campaigners are calling for stricter controls on rodenticides after finding that birds of prey in England are increasingly being exposed to high doses of rat poison




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Drought, fires and fossil fuels push CO2 emissions to a record high

An annual accounting of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change finds no sign emissions will peak this year




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20 Of The Cutest Itty Bitty Kitties That Can Easily Fit In The Palm Of Your Hand (November 9, 2024)

Good morning, cat people, and welcome back to the most dangerous, spooky listicle that will shake you to your core and leave you trembling. Do not be fooled by the title. While it is indeed true that this listicle is full of itty bitty kitties that can fit in the palm of your hand, that does not mean that it is not dangerous. In fact, it's much more dangerous than you think. These teeny weeny kitties have incredible powers of meownipulation. They can make us do all kinds of things, whether we want to or not. 

They even force us to write this listicle every single week, showcasing the tiniest kittens - i.e. the biggest criminals of the week. Beware of their powers when you start scrolling down, because before you know it, you may end up walking to a shelter in search of your fourth kitten to adopt. Trust us, we have been there, continue with caution. 




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Celebrate Caturday in Style with 26 Moments from the Magical Life of Panko the Chonky Cat Child and All Her Hilarious Feline Friends

Spending Cautrday with a cat, let alone a clouder of cats is a truly special experience. There is almost a slight sense of religion to it in how regimented and celebratory the day is. There are specific feeding times for different kinds of treats, each one representing a different feline quality that we love and cherish. There are specific zoomie times that must be observed and much to our dismay there are the clawminal times that must be observed and not interfered with. So if you are spending your Caturday with cats, or simply want to see what it would be like we made this list to help you celebrate Caturday in style with marvelous moments from the magical life of Panko the chonky cat and all her hilarious feline friends.

From the cute kitten whose favorite part of Caturday is the fish smoothie feeding, to the clawminal catto who is all about the chaos of Caturday, to the flabbergasted feline who cannot believe that treat time is over and that he missed it due to indulging in too many zoomies.




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20 Snuggly and Silly Cat Memes for Cat Parents Embracing Blanket Season

Take a deep breath, everyone. It's Sunday morning, it's autumn, it's blanket season, our favorite season, and it feels like we have never felt quite so content. No work, no alarm clock, blankets that enwrap us in the best feeling in the world, and our cats beside us, enjoying these blankets just as much as we do. There is not a lot that can make this morning even better, but there is one thing. Because is always one thing that can make our mornings better, and that is, of course, a whole bunch of pawsome cat memes

Staring any morning with a good bunch of cat memes is a good thing for us, but there is something about giggling at cat memes in bed, under those heavy blankets, with our cats, that just… hits different. It hits better. So, we hope that you enjoy these memes, friends, and that you have just as much fun scrolling through them as we did bringing them to you. 




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The Freshest and Funniest Feline Tweets of the Week (November 10, 2024)

Happy meowrning, cat people! Yes, yes, we know… it's been a rough few days. But we're here now. It's Sunday, i.e. Funday, and we are indeed ready to put all the craziness behind us and have some fun. Now, we don't know about your plans for today, but we do know one thing, and that is that you have to start your Sunday here, with us, and with all of the pawsome cat memes that we are about to bring you. 

Because no matter what is happening in the world, starting the day with hissterical cat memes is good for your soul. And that's why we bring you this collection of the very best cat posts on X every single week. Because going onto that app without protection means possibly encountering the madness, so we are here to do the protecting and give you exactly what you would go there looking for. Have a purrfect Sunday, guys! 




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Awwdorable Otter and Kitten Grow Up Together, and Now, They Cannot Sleep without One Another (Video)

We don't know if you have heard of it, but some people out there claim that cats are not friendly animals, and we think that they are ridiculous for it. They don't believe us when we tell them that cats love their humans. They say that the only reason cats show us any affection is because we feed them and take care of them, that if we didn't, our cats would be just as aloof to us as all these cat haters claim. We know better. We just can't seem to prove it to people. 

So, here we are, trying again, this time by showing them cats showing affection to other animals. Because if cats being friends with dogs was not enough, and cats being lifelong friends with birds, and kittens befriending pigs is not enough, then maybe a video of a cat and an otter being best friends since babyhood and cuddling every night to sleep will be enough to prove the cat haters wrong. 





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Person Adopts the ‘Mean, Hissing, Swatting’ Cat That No One Wanted at the Shelter, and after Getting Some Love, the Fluffy Feline Shows Her True, Cuddly Colors

Getting a cat to love you can take some time. We think that most cat owners know that. It's a rare thing for a cat to fall in love with its new owner on day one. Especially when you're adopting an older cat. You don't know what they have been through. You don't know where they came from most times. What you do know - or should know - is that for most cats, it's a matter of time. You need to give cats space and respect, affection when they ask for it, and snacks… like- all the time. 

And eventually, when you do all of that enough… your cat will show you love. Now, that might take a few days, a few weeks, or a few years. As long as your cat is not actively harming anyone around it, there is no reason to give up on them. You just need to keep giving them those things, and when the time is right, they will make as big of a turnaround as this kitty.




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22 Fatigued Feline Memes Taking a 16-Hour Nap Nocturnating During the Day. And Night. And the Day After.

Cats can sleep for eternity, and somehow still be tired. Sleep surrounds cats, probably because they're such cutie patooties when they sleep. It's like the universe graces us, humble hoomans, with the gift of watching cats sleep - and it gives it to us in abundance. Sleepy cats are among the cutest things the world can offer us, and we cannot be more grateful for the eep that cats have. It's a true internal struggle - the urge to schmoop them and pet them because cats are absolutely pawdorable when they sleep - but with the realization that we can't, because it will disturb their precious princely sleep.

Since we cannot disturb the cats with the big eep who sleep, we prepared a bunch of sleepy cat memes to scroll through, so we can deal with the pet urge together, all cat pawrents. Gather the strength and don't fall asleep - it's worth it.




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1-year-old siamese cat refuses to use the bathroom unless human accompanies him to the litter box, fed up feline owner seeks solutions: 'My cat demands bathroom reciprocity'

Cats are truly unique creatures. Much like us humans, each one has their own completely developed personality and quirks. Some cats are perpetual balls of energy, pausing from their mischief only to engage in a well deserved cat nap. Some cats are totally indifferent to your existence, you could provide them with treats, pets, the whole lot and still not receive much attention in return. And some cats need their favorite human to accompany them to the litter box any time they need to take care of business. The cat featured in the story we are covering today is the latter, and might we add, a total goofball. 

To be honest, this is a new one for us. We have yet to come across a cat who demands that their human be present during all bathroom activities. We've heard of cats who like to go to the bathroom while their humans are in the bathroom, to protect them from whatever evil lies dormant in the toilet, but yeah, this is a new one. What advice would you give to the original poster? All we can think of is to laugh and cry at the same time. 




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10 Ai Generated Memes of Purrfessional Construction Cats Who Caught the Early Bird and Left the Worm in Your Silly Slippers

Welcome to the modern age feline fanatics. We have finally made it to the moment when AI has begun working to create cat memes along with the bright minds here at Cheezburger. Finally allowing us to bring you the very freshest in feline funnies hot from the oven of our collective ICanHasCheezburger mind. And today we are taking a dip into the world of cat construction, a little known environment which allows cats access to tools and methods of expression that they are usually not able to comprehend. But thanks to our supportive AI we have made this crossover come true.

So without any further delay we would like to present to you this list of Ai generated memes of purrfessional construction cats who caught the early bird and left the worm in your silly slippers. Prepaw yourself for a funny feline ride through some brand new never before heard feline notions.




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30 Purrfect Pictures of Cats Cuddling Calmly in Cozy Covers is Exactly What You Need to Pleasantly Pause and Ponder on Life’s Pleasures

Dear I Can Has-ers, today, we woke up thinking about a Danish term that will elate your days until the blessed weekend arrives: hygge. 

Hygge describes contentment derived from coziness, comfort, and gaiety. It is comprised of all that is cuddly, pleasant, cake-centered and candle-lit—in short, all the factors that make us purr.  
 

Hygge is all about enjoying each day to the fullest. All it takes is noticing the pleasantries of our daily lives. And it's no coincidence that cats and Hygge go together like Ben & Jerry. As you can see in the following photos of proud pawrents presenting their funny fluffy feline - cats are superior creatures, and understand that even the most mundane thing can be celebrated: a ball of yarn placed too low, cuddles with hoomans, and of course - continuous napping. If only we hoomans would appreciate our cozy domestic daily moments as cats (and Danes) do!
 

The ingredients for this comforting contented coziness are incredibly easy to obtain: Pour yourself a nice warm cup of your favorite beverage, wrap your feet with animal-shaped slippers, animal-printed socks, or your partner's backside, cuddle with your cutest cat, and scroll down these lovely screen shots from this post on Reddit. We must warn you, though - this post is not easy to leave. If you have plans today, cancel them. You are about to enter cuddle heaven.




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Heartless Owner Returns Cat to Shelter Because She ‘Wanted to Cuddle Them at Night’, Then Her New Hooman Un-Breaks Our Hearts and Shows She’s Living Her Snuggliest Life Now

Look, we have heard stories of cats being returned to shelters. We have heard people say that they felt like they had no choice. The couldn't afford taking care of a cat anymore, they found out they were allergic… there are all kinds of reasons. At least everyone who returns a cat is a heartbroken, at least that's what we thought. We never imagined that someone would do it because the cat they adopted wanted to cuddle with them at nighttime. 

Everyone wants a velcro cat, right? Cuddly cats are the best! Cuddling with your cat is one of the best feelings in the world. The trust they show you, the love, the calmness that being so close to them gives you… there is nothing quite like it. To complain about a cat being too cuddly is like complaining about something being too tasty. It's silly. And ridiculous. And thank goodness that this sweet girl is now in the hands of someone who actually deserves her. 




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Witches on TV: Pop Culture and Power

TV witches have always captivated me. As a child, I would sit cross-legged in front of the screen, completely spellbound by reruns of Samantha Stephens from Bewitched on Nick-at-Nite. I remember watching her effortlessly clean the house with a twitch of her nose, never realizing that there was something deeper going on in these portrayals of witches.

Continue reading Witches on TV: Pop Culture and Power at The Wild Hunt.




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“Tarot for Creativity” helps writers and artists get through creative blocks

“My very first experience was in asking the cards about a novel I was writing at the time and it wasn’t going anywhere," says Chelsey Pippin Mizzi in an interview with Lauren Parker. “Up until that point, so much of my writing had been informed by visuals. And then suddenly there were these three pocket-sized pictures that were inviting me to consider creative ideas.” 

Continue reading “Tarot for Creativity” helps writers and artists get through creative blocks at The Wild Hunt.




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Congress Moves to Expand Executive Power Over Nonprofits

The U.S. House of Representatives seems to be moving forward with H.R. 6408, a bill that grants the Treasury Department new powers to revoke nonprofits' tax-exempt status if deemed to support terrorism, raising concerns about potential misuse to target political opponents. Critics warn of risks to civil liberties and charitable organizations.

Continue reading Congress Moves to Expand Executive Power Over Nonprofits at The Wild Hunt.




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The End of Ondsel and Reflecting on the Commercial Prospects for FreeCAD

Within the world of CAD there are the well-known and more niche big commercial players and there are projects like FreeCAD that seek to bring a OSS solution to the …read more




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Alexandre Dumas

"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one."




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The Critic and the Writer

A chance comment suddenly helped crystalize my thoughts on something I’ve been looking for a way to talk about for at least thirty years. It has to do with the way a book is analyzed after the fact, versus how it is constructed. The comment was on my novel, Dzur, and it discussed how the … Continue reading The Critic and the Writer




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Competition and Cooperation

The question of competition versus cooperation among humans has come up on my Twitter timeline again. It emerges every now and then, when someone desperate to find a defense for capitalism falls back on, “You socialists want to eliminate competition, but competition is a part of nature, so eliminating it is impossible.” Okay, let’s talk … Continue reading Competition and Cooperation




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On Art and Commerce and Pseudo-Activism

Let’s talk about art and commerce. To get the obvious stuff out of the way, first, I am using here a very broad definition of art, so we can simply skip the arguments about what is and isn’t art. Second, those of you who want to make Garfunkle jokes, or any of the other oh-so-original … Continue reading On Art and Commerce and Pseudo-Activism




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Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Political Action

If you strip away the rhetorical flourishes, here is what we are told every day: 1) If you aren’t Jewish, you may not disagree when I say something is antisemitic. 2) Any objection to the genocide being carried out against Palestinians is antisemitic. If you disagree, see 1). 3) Therefore, you must either admit to … Continue reading Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Political Action




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A Brief Note on the Power and Limits of Propaganda

The 1872 presidential election (Ulysses Grant vs Horace Greeley) represented the last time progressive change was  brought about through a national election. Since then, progressive change has either been forced by mass action (Women’s suffrage, Welfare, Social Security, Unemployment insurance, Civil Rights, Gay rights, &c) or been a small part of a bill the bulk … Continue reading A Brief Note on the Power and Limits of Propaganda




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Comic [1611] "understandin' love"

Chapter 13: "Redemption" comic 1611
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blistered peas-in-the-pod with lemon and salt

Even though my kids are not yet on summer break and even though I, as an adult, do not have a thing called a summer break, I’ve apparently helped myself to one. I’m sneaking off to the beach on weekdays (oops), reading novels, gorging myself on cherries and crisp-from-the-market cucumbers, playing midday tennis like a lady who lunches, and getting vexed when I receive work-related emails and texts. [“Alex, why are they texting me on a Sunday?” “Deb, it’s Tuesday.”]

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summer steak with corn and tomatoes

This has been my go-to summer steak for the last several years and I have some audacity to have gatekept it for so long. Mostly, we’ve been too busy eating it for me to grab the camera and shoot it and then sit down and write the recipe, which is hilarious as that’s, like, my whole job. But my brain softens in the summer, especially when my kids are away at sleepaway camp, as they are now, and we quickly lose whatever tethers we had to things like to-do lists, responsibilities, and adulting. And while I do not expect a skirt steak with a cherry tomato and sweet corn salad to shake the cooking internet off its axis, there are a bunch of tips tucked into this recipe that make it a reliable favorite, and I hope become part of your repertoire too.

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braised chickpeas with zucchini and pesto

Last summer, when my younger child joined my older child at sleepaway camp for a month for the first time, leaving us unmoored and a little restless, we made a list of restaurants we’d been meaning to try and friends we don’t see enough and took this task on like it was our job. I barely cooked once. By the end of the third week, everything hurt and we realized our template for a child-free life (going out late, cocktails on weeknights, and generally behaving despicably) was based on our age and energy level when we were last child-free, which (I’m sorry as this fact seems to upset you guys as much as it does his actual parents) was almost 15 years ago.

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lemon chicken with potatoes and chickpeas

It’s humbling that way every September, without fail, knocks me on my rump. One week, you’re breezy and unscheduled, reading books on a beach and tearing lobster apart with your bare hands (indeed, we were in Maine) and the next you’re realizing a certain fetid backpack was never emptied on the last day of school in June, scrambling for after-school care, and despite the fact that I work every week of the year, somehow there’s a lot more to do. If dinner can’t be made in one pan in which everything cooks at once, I haven’t been making it. And yet I’ve made this chicken dish four times in the last month; it’s clearly time to shout about it across the internet.

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roasted carrots with lentils and yogurt

“I was looking for a simple roasted carrot recipe on your site and couldn’t find one,” a friend told me a month ago and I immediately put “simple roasted carrot recipe” on my sprawling, decades-long To Cook list because sometimes I forget myself, too. Spoiler: I was never going to write a simple recipe for roasted carrots.

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Just a Little DDOS Fun, Dildos, and Finding the Mystery Cowboy

If you’ve noticed CloudFlare verifying that you’re human, that’s because I had to enable extra security because of a DDOS attack. I also woke up to 1500+ spam email messages sent through contact forms on the site, too. The poor server is having A Time of it. At least it’s not Tuesday, I guess? Then I’d have all those dildos to contend with. (Also: every time I see that cover, my brain wants to read … Continue reading Just a Little DDOS Fun, Dildos, and Finding the Mystery Cowboy




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AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy

OverDrive is the company that provides a lot of digital content to libraries. If you’ve borrowed an ebook or an audiobook in Libby,  or read a magazine in Kanopy, that’s OverDrive. It seems there is some AI weirdness with audiobook narration on OverDrive, and the narrator is only part of the story. On Monday, October 14, librarian Robin Bradford posted on Bluesky that she’d purchased an AI audiobook for her library system and she was … Continue reading AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy




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638. Smart Bitches After Dark – Tara interviews Sarah & Amanda

Tara Scott, staff writer at SBTB and co-host of the Queerly Recommended podcast, is in the interviewer’s chair, asking Amanda and me questions about Smart Bitches After Dark, our new community support wing. We talk about what After Dark is, and also about the larger enshittification of different parts of the internet, and how we navigate that as a 20 year old blog. Yay blogs! I was really nervous about being interviewed, and I hope … Continue reading 638. Smart Bitches After Dark – Tara interviews Sarah & Amanda