Back on 12/30/22 I wrote a piece titled Normalizing the New Normal about Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter and the subsequent revelations about the US government's collusion in censoring content on the platform, especially during the 2020 election. The article's basic premise was this:

Let's suppose that freedom of speech may not be Musk's ultimate goal in buying Twitter. Let's suppose that normalizing the new normal is actually the goal. What do I mean by that?

Musk is bringing front and center the alphabet agencies hand in censoring Twitter users. He is exposing that which many of us have suspected for a long time, that is, the government is colluding with big tech to catapult their narrative and to shut down oppositional view points. Exposing that is a good thing, right? My immediate reaction was, "Sure is". But, wait a minute.

Since I've been going on about normalizing the new normal, let me try to explain. The behind the scenes collusion of big tech and the state is being exposed with the intent to normalize that unholy marriage. To put it out there for all to see. It's shocking, right? But after a while the shock wears off and people begin to accept it. There's nothing that can be done about it, so we have to live with it, right? There's no hope citizen, accept your medicine and let Big Daddy Government handle this. Accept this fact and prepare yourself for CBDCs and digital slavery. Go back to sleep.

People are and will be outraged. "My Constitution" is crying out across the land. Folks will ululate, throw up their hands, shake their heads, call out for reform. But slowly, over time, the short attention span majority will move on to the next big thing and the tech/state collusion will be normalized and we the people have lost another right. Perhaps the most important right of all. And it's out there for all to see.

The new normal has been normalized.

Johnny was a young lad whose mind was stuck on puppies, fishing, baseball and teasing Jane, his little sister who lived to torment him. If Johnny didn't play the games she wanted to play she would make fun of him and ban him from her playhouse, pointing a wagging finger of superiority and haughty otherness. Johnny hated Jane and she hated him. They didn't see eye to eye on anything and Johnny had long ago decided that Jane was only good for harassing and teasing. Both gave no quarter to the other.

The freedom of the summertime filled Johnny's life with adventure, from sun up to sun down, with nary a thought of the wide world around him. School was a distant memory and he was going to make the best of it while the days were still long. The warm pie on the windowsill, kicking the tin can down the road and pulling Jane's pigtails were the things of a small boy's wonderment. But, the one thing, at the top of the list, that was even better than a birthday cake, even better than the Saturday matinee at the theater, and yes, even better than hitting that home run over the fence into the neighbor's window.

The circus was coming to town!

Science, in its quest for understanding the world around us, both within and without the human condition, has made great strides forward in developing techniques to better help us comprehend the complex structure and pathology of the human brain. One of these advancements are organoids.

Organoids are 3D cell cultures derived from pluripotent stem cells that mimic the structure, function, and cellular complexity of human organs. These in vitro, miniaturized versions of organs are especially well suited for studying complex multicellular organ structures, such as the brain, retina, kidney, and lungs, and are now widely used to study organ development and disease.

Source

Recently scientists have for the first time grown mini-brains from fetal brain tissue that are about the size of a grain of rice. Tiny brains were previously grown from fetal stem cells but now, for the first time, from actual fetal brain tissue, opening exciting possibilities for the future.

Don't be worried about your smartphone or TV spying on you. Your vacuum cleaner has been collecting dirt on you for years

If you can't think of a word, say, I forgot the English word for it. That way people will think you're bilingual instead of an idiot

I'm at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.

I'm getting tired of being part of a major historical event.

Kenyan journalist reports on US election like Americans report on other elections
( https://boingboing.net/2020/11/08/kenyan-journalist-reports-on-us-electi... )

Samples:

“It was a stern night landscape. The sound of the freezing of snow over the land seemed to roar deep into the earth. There was no moon. The stars, almost too many of them to be true, came forward so brightly that it was as if they were falling with the swiftness of the void. As the stars came nearer, the sky retreated deeper and deeper into the night clolour. The layers of the Border Range, indistinguishable one from another, cast their heaviness at the skirt of the starry sky in a blackness grave and somber enough to communicate their mass. The whole of the night scene came together in a clear, tranquil harmony.”
~ Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country

Dear Washington D.C.,

Are you ok? We haven't heard from you in a while.

You've been spending a lot of time over at Mainstream Media's house, and you frankly never call or text. Hell, you could just open a window and look out, but you seem to have installed security filters on those.

Look, I know you're really Gung Ho about this new WAR(tm) you want us all to buy into, but I need to ask you a serious question here.