42 h. ago I see time as a grid in my mind. I remember the birthdays of friends I haven’t seen for 65 years

Judy Stokes, a retired GP, shares her experience as a spatial-sequence synaestheteRead more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel seriesDid someone with spatial-sequence synaesthesia design the calendar app on mobile phones? Because that’s how time and dates look in my brain. If you say a date to me, that day appears in a grid diagram in my head, and it shows if that box is already imprinted with a holiday, event or someone’s birthday. Public holidays and special events like Christmas and Easter are already imprinted for the year, and the diagram goes backwards to about 100,000BC and then forwards all the way to about the year 2500 before tapering off.It was only in my 60s that I discovered there was a name for this phenomenon – not just the way time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern, but the colours seen when I think of certain words. Two decades previously, I’d mentioned to a friend that Tuesdays were yellow and she’d looked at me in the same strange, befuddled way t...

Politics

68 h. ago Historic market in Kinshasa ready to reopen to a million shoppers a day after five

Long criticised as overcrowded and filthy, the city’s Zando marketplace has had an elegant and sustainable redesignSelling vegetables was Dieudonné Bakarani’s first job. He had a little stall at Kinshasa Central Market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades later, the 57-year-old entrepreneur is redeveloping the historic marketplace that gave him his start in business to be an award-winning city landmark.Bakarani hopes to see the market, known as Zando, flourish again and reopen in February after a five-year hiatus. The design has already been recognised internationally; in December, the architects responsible for it won a Holcim Foundation award for sustainable design. Continue reading...

Economics

1 week ago Borrowers share how they paid off their student loans in less than a decade

Paying off a hefty student loan debt without help almost always requires a six-figure salary or a second job and favorable market conditions

Politics

1 week ago Rangers star Dujon Sterling arrested after crashing car in Glasgow following Old Firm win

Dujon Sterling, 26, is expected to appear at court at a later date.

Events

2 w. ago Borussia Dortmund make decision over Jobe Bellingham's future after nightmare start in Germany

Jobe has had a more difficult start to life with the German side, scoring once in his 27 appearances to date and was sent off on his most recent league appearance last month.

Politics

2 w. ago Deadline looms for postmasters to apply to key Horizon compensation scheme

Current and former postmasters are being urged to apply to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) before the closing date of January 31.

Events

2 w. ago The US job market is so tough job seekers are turning to dating apps to get interviews

A recent survey found 1 in 3 dating app users are seeking jobs

Politics

2 w. ago Considering student loans? Here’s how borrowers paid theirs off in less than a decade

Paying off a hefty student loan debt without help almost always requires a six-figure salary or a second job and favorable market conditions

Politics

4 w. ago Conservative legal group aims to export its rightwing Christian mission beyond US borders

Alliance Defending Freedom has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns to push its ultra conservative Christian valuesAlliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade, has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns, in what appears to be an attempt to export what critics call its hard-right Christian theocratic values beyond US borders.ADF and ADF International, a separate legal entity, spent a combined $10.9m on international grants and programs for the year ending June 2024, according to its most up to date public tax records, and appears to have increased by 70% year-on-year spending on Europe-related issues. Continue reading...

Events