A California social club hosted a discussion on surveillance states, debating how to balance civil liberties and public safety.
Then, Flock sent them a cease and desist prohibiting any discussion that "describes (...) reveal, analyze, or speculate about the technical capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, or vulnerabilities of non-governmental surveillance assets and related technologies."
BREAKING:
The NBA has now traded Paul George for:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Jaylen Brown
Domantas Sabonis
Victor Oladipo
Danilo Gallinari
And
7 1st round picks plus 4 pick swaps
Paul George is the Most Valuable Player in NBA history.
Juni Kung wins his first X Games gold with a nollie backside 270 heelflip to boardslide 270 out of the 12-stair handrail in @monsterenergy Men’s Skateboard Street Best Trick at @moonpay X Games Sacramento! 🥇
Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly “strongly considering” going to Chipotle for lunch today. Would be a big move for someone who normally eats Qdoba 👀 (per @KuKhahil)
USA. Summer. It is 95 degrees outside, and I am shivering inside a sandwich shop.
I have discovered how Americans forge strong souls.
Outside, the sun is trying to kill everyone. Inside this small restaurant, it is winter. My breath does not fog, but it is thinking about it. A man near me is eating a cold sandwich while wearing a jacket. In summer. Indoors.
In Japan we would simply turn it down. Americans do not turn it down. And now I understand them better than they understand themselves.
This cold is not an accident. This cold is a gift.
The owner has built, inside his shop, a second season. He invites you in from the brutal heat and hands you the one thing the sun has denied you all day: a reason to be cold. To endure it is to be tempered. You walk in soft and sweating. You walk out sharp and clear, a slightly stronger person than you were.
So I did not complain. I removed my outer layer and offered it to the woman at the next table, who was hugging herself. She said, "Oh, no, I'm fine, thank you." She was not fine. Her lips were blue. But she, too, understood the training. She would not break first. I respected her deeply.
The owner asked if everything was okay.
"It is perfect," I said, through my teeth, which were chattering. "Thank you for the winter."
He said, "...I can turn the AC down if you want?"
I told him no. A man does not ask the mountain to be shorter.
I stayed two hours. I ordered a hot coffee to survive. Then a second one, to hold. By the end I could no longer feel my hands, but my spirit had never been clearer.
So now, on the hottest days, I seek out the coldest rooms. I sit. I shiver. I sharpen.
And when I finally step back out into the summer heat, and it wraps around me like a warm bath, I feel it.
Reborn.
A man who has survived the winter, in August, indoors, for the price of a sandwich.
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.
Nah man I’ve NEVER seen a back to back MVP with worse PR than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lmaooo
Jay Williams just introduced a new segment called ‘Life Alert with SGA’ 😭💀
“Help me I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” 🤣
Funniest part about this Knicks playoff run is we have faced Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Donovan Mitchell, and James Harden yet the only player who instilled even the slightest fear in the fan base was 34 year old CJ McCollum
I agree Mr. President!!!! @realDonaldTrump
I suggest you to start with capturing Jamīs Bin Hardoun, a Al-Qaeda double agent acting like a basketbal player for the Cleveland Cavaliers !!!!
he tries to hide his identity by living under the stage name “James Harden” !!!!