This is biblical.
A woman in her eighties. Ten years into Alzheimer's. Hadn't spoken a full sentence in five years.
Takes one, 5 gram dose of psilocybin.
She slept 19 hours and woke up and spoke for hours about her life, recognized family and held real conversations. She regained bladder control after five years, walked on her own. and dressed herself. Gains held for weeks.
In America, a stranger will rename you in a single breath, and you are simply expected to come when called.
I went to eat at a busy restaurant. A young man at the front asked for my name, to mark my place in line. I gave it the weight it has carried for eight hundred years.
"Nobunaga."
He smiled, nodded, and wrote it down with great confidence. Then he read it back to me, to be sure he had honored it correctly.
"Perfect. Banana, party of one."
Banana. He had heard my name, held it a moment, and returned to me something rounder and more cheerful. To refuse the name a host gives is to refuse his welcome. I bowed. I was Banana now.
Then he handed me a small black disc, said it would "light up and buzz" when my table was ready, and turned to the next guest as though he had not just placed a living thing in my hands.
I held it in both palms, the way one holds a small sleeping beast that may wake. I found a place to stand. I waited, ready.
It woke.
It screamed. It flashed red. It leapt and shook in my hands like a captured spirit demanding release. A lesser man would have dropped it. I did not. I gripped it, steady, looked into its blinking lights, and told it, in a low voice, that its time had come. Then I carried it back to the host with both hands, the way one returns a hawk to its master.
He took it without looking and shouted across the entire room.
"BANANA! Party of one, your table's ready!"
A hundred strangers turned. I rose. I crossed that floor as Banana, spine straight, chin level, a man answering to his name. A child pointed at me. I gave the child a small bow. He had recognized me.
All through the meal they kept me. "How's it tasting, Banana?" "More water, Banana?" The check, when it came, said Banana, and thanked me for visiting. By the end the whole staff knew me. They waved as I left. "Night, Banana!"
So tell me honestly.
For eight hundred years my clan answered to one name. Tonight I answered to a fruit, calmed a screaming relic in my bare hands, and ate among people who were glad I came.
When the little disc lights up, is the table truly mine, or am I only keeping it warm for the next Banana?
Because I have already decided to return on Friday, and to ask, very humbly, for the same disc.
chinese startup built an AI collar that translates barks and meows into full sentences.
95% accuracy. cost $118.
10k people have already pre-ordered it.
It uses mics, motion sensors, and AI to read body language and vocalizations.
THE WEALTHY PLEAD POVERTY: Mike Johnson says we should have sympathy because Congress isn’t paid enough...so we should “allow” insider trading just so they can take care of their families.
I don't think he understands that 70% of Americans could not afford a $1k emergency. Nearly 50% would be hard-pressed to afford a $500 emergency. We're that close to the bone. Spare us your "poverty" talk...you have NO IDEA!
Don’t forget, Congress also gets $258 per day for lodging (housing) and $79 per day for food/incidentals when Congress is in session (or for committee meetings). That brings their salary up to about $234K a year. Plus they get 75% off health insurance subsidized by taxpayers.
But @SpeakerJohnson is RIGHT. Prices are through the roof. The People need a raise.
Restore the ACA tax credits.
Raise the minimum wage.
End the war in Iran.
These will make life more affordable for all Americans, not just Members of Congress getting a raise because the Republicans and Trump have made life unaffordable.
Instead of paying yourself more, get back to work and earn a raise.
Mike Johnson says Congress can't survive on $174k because of inflation, and uses that to justify letting members trade stocks.
Incredible take from the guy who decided his only job was taking orders from the President.
Mike Johnson says Congress can't survive on $174k because of inflation, and uses that to justify letting members trade stocks.
Incredible take from the guy who decided his only job was taking orders from the President.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was spotted eating Beijing’s famous fried bean sauce noodles.
Huang, who is in Beijing as part of Donald Trump’s state visit to China, seemed perfectly content relishing the local staple right on the sidewalk. Follow our coverage from the summit: https://t.co/1iWZ8HUYsK