{"id":286328,"date":"2024-04-25T07:22:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T07:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=286328"},"modified":"2024-04-27T05:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T05:07:54","slug":"this-week-in-the-new-normal-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=286328","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the New Normal #88"},"content":{"rendered":"

Off-Guardian \u2013 Apr 22, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian<\/em>, This Week in the New Normal<\/a><\/em> is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.<\/p>\n

1. Apparently Weather Modification IS<\/em> a thing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This week torrential rainfall in Oman and the UAE resulted in some of the worst flooding those countries have ever seen.<\/p>\n

Why? Well climate change, duh. But not just climate change<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

Climate change and cloud seeding \u2018exacerbated\u2019 deadly flooding in Gulf countries<\/p>\n

Cloud seeding too. Cloud seeding is the practice of spraying chemicals \u2013 usually silver or potassium iodide \u2013 into the atmosphere to bond with fine water vapour and cause heavier droplets, which then fall as rain.<\/p>\n

So, planes were flying over Dubai and Abu Dhabi spraying chemicals, they must have been\u2026and yet anybody who saw them doing so, and said that\u2019s what they were doing would have been branded a crazy conspiracy theorist.<\/p>\n

After all, \u201cchemtrails\u201d are just a paranoid conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

Obviously, cloud seeding, stratospheric aerosol injection<\/a> and other forms of weather manipulation don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

2. Food Transition Making Strides<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A new study has allegedly found that if people started eating herring instead of beef<\/a>, we could save 750,000 lives.<\/p>\n

Two days ago the University of Minnesota Entology Department held an event \u2013 The Great Minnsect Show 2024 <\/a>\u2013 where they promoted eating insects. \u201c[It] can be good for you and good for the environment\u201d<\/em>, according to this article from AOL News.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prof Sujaya Rao, the head of the department gave a Ted Talk last year simply titled \u201cWhy we should be eating bugs\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Across the Channel, Dutch retail chain Albert Heijn announced this week they will be creating a \u201cfood transition advisory council\u201d<\/a>,<\/em> with the mission brief of \u201cMaking better food accessible together. For everyone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

According to the write-up in European Supermarket Magazine [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n

[The advisory board] meet regularly to explore and discuss the role and power of food and drink in the transition towards a healthy, social and sustainable society<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n

The Indy has gone the more personal route this week, with a kind of \u201cslice of life\u201d column from a \u201creformed picky eater\u201d all about how delicious insects are: \u201cMezcal-cured worms and cricket chilli oil: Why restaurants are ditching beef for bugs\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Which slips the messaging in at the end:<\/p>\n

\u2026despite that UN report suggesting that wasps, beetles and other insects are underutilised as food for both people and livestock, there\u2019s some way to go in persuading legislators that bugs have a place in British diets for the sake of the environment and public health. It\u2019s certainly not me, or the thousands of people booking up these restaurants, that need convincing. The bug trend has well and truly landed.<\/p>\n

About as subtle as a brick to the face.<\/p>\n

3. Google Sustainability<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cards on the table, I have no idea if this is new or not. I just stumbled across it today, and wanted to mention it: \u201cGoogle Sustainability\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a specialised search engine that tells you how you can do X or Y in the most environmentally friendly way\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Oh, it\u2019s Earth Day, by the way. So, as well as helping us be sustainable, Google has added a feature to their Maps app that \u201cencourages\u201d you<\/a> to plan \u201cclimate-friendly\u201d means of transportation.<\/p>\n

Good old Google, so friendly. Not at all the tip of the spear when it comes to global tech-based tyranny in a lovely green box.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re imagining a future where using the \u201cgreen travel\u201d feature is mandatory, or where refusing to use it impacts your social credit score or something, then shame on you, you cynical so-and-so.<\/p>\n

BONUS: Pay-off of the week<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This week it was announced that Anthony Fauci has been\u00a0awarded the prestigious Stearne Medal<\/a> for \u201coutstanding contribution to public health\u201d<\/em>, by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.<\/p>\n

This is my description of \u201cThe ScienceTM<\/sup>\u201d from last year<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Science\u201d is a self-sustaining industry of academics who need jobs and owe favours. An ongoing quid pro quo relationship between the researchers \u2013 who want honors and knighthoods and tenure and book deals and research grants and to be the popular talking head explaining complex ideas to the multitudes on television \u2013 and the corporations, governments and \u201ccharitable foundations\u201d who have all of those things in their gift.<\/p>\n

A better example I could not have hoped for.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all bad\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Had trouble finding any good news worth reporting this week, but I\u2019m not yet so taken by the bleak demons of despair to suppose that means there wasn\u2019t any. If you have some, put it in the comments below.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, enjoy actor Julian Glover reading one of my favourite poems, My Last Duchess<\/em> by Robert Browning.<\/p>\n