Thrilled to announce our new paper by Victoria Junquera and Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, "Assessing livelihood vulnerability using a Bayesian network: a case study in northern #Laos”, is now out in @ecologyandsociety1 https://t.co/tEbZmiulDS #openaccess #WomenInSTEM. Short thread👇

This work analyzes the effect of #cashcrop production on livelihood #vulnerability, which we define in terms of the probability distribution of household income.

We use a #Bayesian network to estimate the probability distribution of household income, conditional on biophysical (e.g., yield), household (e.g., agricultural land), and commodity price variables.

By expressing all variables, including stressors such as price volatility and yield variability, as probability distributions, our model explicitly reflects exposure and sensitivity to shocks.

Our results show the effects of household land portfolio, including diversification between cash crops and between cash and food crops, on household income and income variability.

This man spent almost ₹50 lakh, let go of his 3BHK dream to run a ‘Rice ATM’ for the needy in #Hyderabad

https://t.co/QdULpAMYaV

In the gruelling months of the #coronavirus lockdown earlier this year, several stories of migrant workers and the poor being stranded without jobs and money emerged. This also led to the emergence of stories of @SonuSood and the likes – the real heroes who offered help.

One such story is that of Ramu Dosapati, from Hyderabad-
an HR executive in a corporate firm, he has been running a ‘Rice ATM’- a 24X7 supply of rice and other rations for the needy in Hyderabad since April, 2020.

Dosapati claims to have spent almost ₹50 lakh out of his own pocket and has no intentions of claiming it back.

Just about a month into #lockdown, Dosapati’s younger son wanted to have chicken for his birthday. Dosapati went to the nearest shop to buy chicken, only to find a security guard buying chicken for ₹2000. “I was quite surprised as to why this lady is buying so much chicken...

📖 Story Time: How the Frogs helped the Lion save the world.

1. One day a story will be told, around the holidays, about how God worked through good people to defeat evil on the Earth. There will be many books written & stories told. This is a short version one of them.

Good to see @Marthakearney on @BBCr4today taking @pritipatel to task over the numbers of lorries in Dover - now 1,500 in Stack (M20) and Manston airfield combined - rather more than 170 that @BorisJohnson said yesterday, baffling haulage groups /1

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson She won't say whether lorry drivers will have to take a PCR test (long-winded, requires RNA extraction etc. 24-48hrs) rather than much faster (and less sensitive) lateral flow test. Short Strait will struggle to operates with PCR tests. You'd need one yesterday for tomorrow! /2

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson Because of the delays that have empty lorries already stuck in the queues, in an earlier interview British Retail Consortium @the_brc Andrew Opie said fresh food shortages would occur within days because lorries couldn't get back to Spain etc to reload /3

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson @the_brc Haulage experts like @RHADuncanB are always at pains to explain that the lorries at Dover (and GB-IE, for that matter) are flowing in a continuous cycle. More than 85% are from EU countries. So if you block one side, or artery the whole system starts to grind to a halt/4

@BBCr4today @pritipatel @BorisJohnson @the_brc @RHADuncanB This episode has been a bit of a teaching moment, exposing the canard that the UK can unilaterally "take back control of its borders". It can't. Borders are membranes. Traffic flows in both directions. Actions by one side impact the other - as French move has demonstrated. /5

Definitely not the first to post on this but am completely floored by a 2008 paper published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases by Professor David Morens (Medical Epidemiologist), Dr Jeffery Taubenberger (Virologist), and Dr Anthony Fauci (Immunologist) at the NIAID. 1/11

In the paper the authors question the cause of mortality during the 1918 pandemic and those which follow. They go on to hypothesize and prove that bacterial pneumonia is actually the prominent causative factor during viral respiratory pandemics. 2/11

Part of the methodology was examining several histological specimens which had been preserved from the pandemic. They found that in essentially every single case there was evidence of severe acute bacterial pneumonia either as predominant or in conjunction with virus. 3/11

The paper notes that previous post mortem cultures picked up bacterial colonization with more than half of those being pathognomonic. 4/11

Morens et al. note that subsequent pandemic deaths were also attributable to secondary bacterial pneumonia following primary viral infection despite significant advancements in medicine. 5/11

This is going to be a thread about the annual #footbag Christmas Calendar, the Joulukalenteri. It is annual tradition going back more than a decade.

#footbag players from around the world submit their video to a main organiser. This year there was a lot of focus on different tutorials as it has been quite a different year for everyone. #hackysack

Day 1 we were in Colombia with "Don Gui", awesome countryside and drone shots. #footbag #hackysack

Day 2 we are learning about Barfly from Dante himself -

Day 3 - The first of a series of doubles tutorials from @freestyle_smile and Sergio Garcia in Spain. #footbag #hackysack

Happening now: Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula will release the 2020 Festive Season Preliminary Road Statistics in Limpopo. #FestiveRoadStats

#FestiveRoadStats |Mbalula is joined by Limpopo Transport and Community Safety MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya and RTMC CEO Makhosini Msibi.

#FestiveRoadStats |Mbalula: The preliminary figures we are releasing today are a dipstick on the progress we are making towards achieving our 20% target to reduce fatalities this festive season.

#FestiveRoadStats |Mbalula: The peak travel period is upon us and we expect traffic volumes to spike between today and Thursday, followed by another spike on 31 December. The final peak is expected on the 3rd and the 10th of January 2021.

#FestiveRoadStats |Mbalula says the roads have been busy, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. An average of 2 439 vehicles per hour were recorded on the N1 from Gauteng to Limpopo between 18-19 Dec; while the N3 from JHB to DBN recorded an average of 1 547 vehicles per hour.

I’m not a scientist, so obviously do correct me if I’m wrong. (Heck, this is twitter, I don’t need to ask that do I?)

BUT a virus doesn’t mutate in *nothing*, does it, it doesn’t mutate when it’s on the handle of the supermarket door or even in the air you’ve just breathed out.

It mutates *in a host*. And the most sure fire way for a virus to find a wide variety of hosts in which to mutate is to do precious little to control the spread of the virus. To have policies which amount to “take it on the chin”. To have an ‘acceptable’ death level.

To allow the virus to run absolutely rampant through one section of the population (children) because stopping it doing so would mean making a politically unpopular decision (closing the schools).

Seen some people (scientists, I mean, not your uncle Jim) saying this virus is now more transmissible in children and like... what did they THINK would happen if you allow the virus unfettered access to kids?

It adapts! It adapts to its fucking hosts! It becomes better at infecting them! Like, the whole fucking point for a virus is to be able to make copies of itself. It’s actually not that arsed about killing or harming you.

They report, you decide.

Mike Pence to confirm Biden then leave the country, says report https://t.co/oIkb1SU6wX via @YahooNews

DMK President MK Stalin after presenting a detailed complaint to Governor Banwarilal Purohit, speaking to media said, the complaints that have been given to the governor had already been given to DVAC, but to no avail. Since the DVAC failed to take action, 1/n

the DMK had moved court and Madras HC had ordered a CBI investigation against CM Edappadi Palanisamy, which was subsequently stayed by HC. The Governor has the power to order a probe, and told the media that Governor said “he will take appropriate action”. 2/n

Stalin also said, DMK will take these charges to people’s court.

However, Stalin should be aware that, Banwarlial Purohit’s only interests in Tamil Nadu is to protect the interest of Brahminical forces. 3/n

Sources say, apart from, supporting Anna University VC Soorappa, an RSS stooge, to protect him from a Commission of Inquiry, Banwarilal has been pressurizing EPS, to convey the land encroached by SASTRA University, for more than three decades. 4/n

In a detailed order, Madras HC has categorically rejected SASTRA’s request to re-convey and regularize the encroachment of more than 50 acres of government land and the appeal of SASTRA to Supreme Court has also turned down. 5/n

@WendyRogersAZ We have an eyewitness testimony, an actual victim of Robert E. Lee's cruelty.

Wesley Norris speaks to us from the grave.

"My name is Wesley Norris"

"My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr.

... Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about ...

.... seventeen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster,

... Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason

🌿Some rare oil, litho and oleograph paintings of the Pre-Bengal School from 19th century. Painted by various unknown artists 🌿
1. 🌺Devi Durga with little shri Krishna🌺

2. 🌺Maa Saraswati🌺

3. 🌺Young shri Chaitanya with guru🌺

4. 🌺Nadiabihari gour hari( Gourango of Nadia)🌺

5. 🌺Maa Baglamukhi🌺

If I finish all of the physics a lesson or two before the end of term, I like to use those spare lessons to do something fun. For the last 12 years I have done a boys vs girls engineering challenge and the girls nearly always win. Here is why...

So, my experience of this is normally allowing 5 or so classes do this activity in any given year, always with the same set up and always with me observing just how it goes. In total I must now have observed the experiment about 60 times.

To be clear I am all for students choosing their own teams and such and I am aware of the false dichotomy of the situation. But generally due to sports, boarding houses etc my crew are quite used to boys as one gang and girls as another.

The activity is bridge building. Two tables are set apart and each team must bridge the gap using only paper, string and 4 clamp stands. The bridge must have a roadway and each will be tested to destruction at the end with weights.

So, I split the class - girls vs boys. The rules are clear. They can't interfere with each other's bridges and they can't test their own bridge. They have about 45 minutes to build something. Let me tell you what then normally happens...

The new Variant Under Investigation (VUI) was re-designated Variant of Concern (VOC) 202012/01 on 18 December

This is an excellent report by @PHE_UK, but it’s a bit technical so I’ll try to unpick it for you

https://t.co/M9f3zaimF5

1/14

The team at @PHE_uk begin by explaining that on 8 Dec they investigated the surge in cases in the South of England. Only 4% (255/6130) of Kent cases had genetic sequence data, but of these 117 genetically similar cases had been collected between 10-18 Nov

2/14

When looking at national data, these 117 cases were part of a larger cluster of 962 (to 8 Dec) in Kent, NE London, plus a few in rest London, Anglia, Essex

3/14

915 or the 962 cases had additional data: 828 were from November, 79 in Oct, 4 from Sept

90% were from <60 years old (further detail not yet available here)

6 patients had already died

4/14

As of 20 Dec, most cases were in London, the SE and East of England.

Of note, 3 of the main testing labs use a PCR test for 3 different viral genes: N, ORF1ab, S.

The new VOC has a mutation that makes this test negative for S (spike), but positive for the others.

5/14

This is a thread on @EspinaNonoy ‘s FB which clearly shows what he means by a “mob howling for blood” — calling for summary execution of the killer cop. What follows is his post on the “attempt to twist the narrative of the uproar that followed the Paniqui executions.” (More)

The new lie, he notes, “blithely claims that so-called human rights advocates he been calling for the lynching of the cop and his kid while Duterte's disciples sought a trial.” (More)

“The truth is - and this is so easy to check on social media - the mob howling for blood, including that of the child, was made up of BOTH pro- and anti-Duterte partisans, though predominantly the former” (more)

“many professing shock and outrage at the double murder even as their social media accounts cheered on the deaths of drug suspects and, later, of activists-terrorists-who-the-fuck-cared-about-the-difference.”

“As for the many human rights advocates I know, and they come from the different colors of the political spectrum, I can vouch that they erupted in righteous anger, demanding justice, but not a single one of them even hinted of wanting the killer cop summarily executed.”