Their mother gave birth to five girls
Their father wasn't particular about having a son but their mother insisted she must have a son
She said she had seen a vision when she was a teenager that she gave birth to a male child and was even given the baby's name
She married quite

early, so she had some time to relax after the fifth girl was born
They were living at a "face me I face you" apartment in Eleyele at the time
Her husband was a cook with IITA
She was a typist
They both attend a uniform wearing church where all forms of manifestations were the

norm
After she had the fifth girl, she went to church to pray one evening, asking God about the vision she had and why it had not come to pass
She really wanted to have only four children but she didn't want to ignore the vision because she was convinced that male child could be

God's purpose for her life
She told herself if having that male child was not important God wouldn't show his birth and naming to her in a vision
A prophetess came to her while she was praying
The prophetess said "Wait for five harvest ceremonies, after the fifth harvest you will

have this boy
That was exactly what happened
She got pregnant five years later and delivered the boy a few months before the sixth harvest
Her last girl was five years and ten months older than the boy
She named him Imole (Light)
Coping with six children was very difficult
They

[anan] Tsuchiya Tao × Murakami Nijiro Cross Talk

Nijiro: When I was offered the role of Chishiya, it wasn't long before the crank start. I remember downloading all the volumes of the original manga and reading it in one sitting on the airplane.
Tao: Wow! just in one sitting.

Nijiro: I was going to read it while thinking about whether I could play Chishiya or not, but it was so interesting that I forgot about that and got absorbed in it (laughs)
Tao: I read it like crazy too. I thought it'd be difficult to make a live-action based on a manga.

Some authors have been drawing for decades, and then they put the story together in a few hours in a movie or drama. I had a hard time believing that the appeal of the story would be conveyed properly. But when I realized that there are some fans of the original manga

who will watch the live-action version, but there are also people who will read the original for the first time after watching the live-action version, I was able to switch to pursuing the fun of the live-action version.

Nijiro: I studied abroad in Canada for a year when I was a student, and I had a strong image of manga and ninja when I thought of Japanese. Incidentally, Nijiro was called NINJA because (Nijiro) looked like (Ninja) when written in Roman letters.
Tao: I see! (laughs)

Q’s Farewell.

“Anonymous 12/20/20 (Sun) 16:14:32

“Dear Patriots,

“Some of you may recognize my name. I have daily briefings with POTUS and have posted here before a handful of times as a ‘helper’.”

“What I'm about to disclose is the most important post you'll read before the inauguration.”

“Q will not post here again, at least not for a while. The operation is ongoing but must run silent at this point.

“Once we wind down you will not hear from Q again. Don't let this worry or upset you.”

“We are in perhaps the most critical juncture of American history. POTUS is fully aware of the gravity of this time period. We have prepared from before 2015 for this exact moment.”

Once again, I find that @Maarblek is ahead of me in analysis. As he said a while ago: The only goal the left has now or has ever had is the liquidation of the kulaks (small property owners). This makes sense of the class alignments we see, and the left’s historic failures.

It’s a funny thing that two classes of people tend to join the left: The managerial class, and the lumpenproletariat. In modern terms: tech/educated class + the perpetually precariously employed / job hopper. What do they have in common? They would seem to be class enemies.

What they share is a hatred of the small property owners. On the part of the lumpen, these are often the people he collects a paycheck from (sure, some of them shitty). The lumpen doesn’t work for the elites directly because they demand high education and contract out low skills.

On the part of the managerial class and the elites, however, the small property owner becomes a target when growth in other areas is stalled. That market share is a potential avenue for firm growth once other options for expansion are foreclosed.

The managers promise the lumpens that if they help them overthrow the small owners and consolidate power in mega-firms, the managers will give the lumpens goodies (a small UBI, whatever). The Soviets made the same promise. And perhaps it holds—briefly.

It’s always fun to guess what would happen next year, no matter how wrong we would be.

Below is my 2021 crystal ball – out there to be smashed :)

A thread to come.

1/ Theme 1: Bitcoin is still the King

2/ Breaking Theme 1 down into 5 things:

a) Bitcoin price hitting $100k
b) More momentum in developer sponsorship
c) Lightening getting beyond early adoption
d) Payment in bitcoin gaining more traction (Africa and LatAm)
e) More smart contracts built on top of bitcoin network

3/ Surprise Factor for Theme 1:

Will some small countries PUBLICLY load up bitcoin as part of their forex reserve?

4/ Theme 2:

Heightened focus on privacy continues to fuel DeFi growth

Dear @jjhorgan . When can we expect counselling to be covered by #MSP of #BC? Your appallingly ignorant reply to @j_mcelroy suggests anyone unhappy w/your governance requires it. cc: @SoniaFurstenau @kulpreetsingh 1/

The reason I ask is that -there are large numbers of people (1/4 is a figure I've heard) who do live with varying degrees of mental/emotional health issues; who might benefit from professional #MentalHealth care; who don't get it; because of the stigma and/or the expense. 2/

your comment was so dismissive and demeaning to so many #BCers Among them:
->the reporter who asked the question
->your fellow MLAs, whose job it is to represent their constituents (us) by questioning you and holding you to account 3/

..->any BC resident who wants to ask you a question . Will they/we be similarly brushed off and told that if we're unhappy with *you*- we need counselling? ! Do you realize how ridiculous that premise is? 4/

But most seriously it is utterly dangerous to
->anyone who genuinely requires and/or seeks counselling You used 'needing counselling' as an insult to the reporter/MLAs/citizens of BC. But who it really harms most are those who may actually require #MentalHealth support 5/

Alright, it's time for my @threadapalooza - 100 tweets (if I can limit myself) on:

Judaism Is Not Christianity

2. When I was in Yeshiva, a certain Rabbi once explained the process of studying Chassidus as follows:

"The beginner thinks everything is different. Then he learns more, and thinks everything is the same. Then, he learns more, and finally realizes everything is different."

3. In my opinion, this process is broadly applicable. When we first enter any field, because we understand nothing, there seems to be an infinite variety of ideas. Then we learn, and each level of understanding reduces things to fewer and fewer central principles.

4. The Sophomoric student thinks not that everything is different, but that everything is the same. Only when we move on to actual understanding do we realize there is infinite or near-infinite variety and differences are real, despite or because of shared underlying principle.

The same is true when you learn about Judaism and Christianity. Judaism is not Christianity, and all semblances of similarity are mere semblances.

In fact, the illusion cannot hold under any close scrutiny at all. What follows is intended merely as close scrutiny. /5

Finally read the new update on UK variant B.1.1.7, posted yesterday, which includes a study suggesting the variant is no more (or less) severe than prior virus variants.
Just a very brief thread (or read the entire document here:

Researchers took 1769 cases of people infected with the new variant and then looked for 1769 cases of people with “normal” virus to compare them to. They chose these so that median age and proporion of females was the same. That’s why it’s called a “matched cohort study”

They then compared hospitalizations for the two groups:
Overall 42 people were hopsitalized,
16 with the variant
26 with wild-type
The difference between the two was not significant.

Caveat: “Due to potential time delays for receipt of hospital admissions data, the identified hospital admissions should be regarded as a minimum number of hospital admissions and further admissions data are likely to be received into this NHS dataset in the future.”

The researchers also compared fatality rate for those cases where 28 days had elapsed since sample was taken:
12 of 1430 (0.89%) variant cases had died
10 of 1360 (0.73%) wild-type cases had died
Again, the difference was not significant.

THREAD: Senate committee on public services holds hearing on cashless modes along tollways https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt

Tweets by our digital producers @YsabelwithaWhyy and Bamba Galang

Senate committee chair Grace Poe: The Toll Regulatory Board can't even do its job of collecting toll fees - ₱44.24 million in 2017 uncollected, ₱859.94 million in 2019 - almost a billion pesos

Sen. Poe: The TRB, like the NDRRMC and PhilHealth, suffers from a governing board dominated by ex-officio cabinet secretaries who have more important things to do. The future of the TRB is another issue that should be resolved in this hearing.

Sen. Poe: The backlash in the cashless toll collecting service reminded of the importance of careful planning.

Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian is present in the hearing.

Earlier, he suspended NLEX Corp.'s business permit over traffic problems caused by its cashless toll-collecting system. He has since lifted the suspension after coming to an agreement with NLEX.

Seven Gates of Hell; a thread

1. Jahannum

They said, 'Do not go forth in the heat." Say, "The fire of Hell is more intensive in heat" - if they would but understand.

Qur’an | 9:81

The gate is called jahannum cause the fire will burn the faces of men and women who enters it. And faces will be sullen. And in the Noble Qur'an Allah says:

Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted in Might and Wise.

-Quran | 04:56

The ironic thing is this is the lightest punishment that one can receive.

2. Ladha (Fierce blaze)

The second level of hell is called Ladha because the fire will eat away their body parts one by one. Both internally and externally. It will invite those who abandoned Tawheed,

Hey, We need to talk, we really need to talk

We need to talk about moving on so quickly, you carry on residues of unresolved hurt in your heart, we really need to talk

We need to talk about sitting with your emotions in full and dissecting them in little chunks, we need to talk

We need to talk about our intense focus on speed over direction, we need to talk about chasing shiny things at the expense of valuable things in our lives, we need to talk.

We need to talk about silence and counting days and having no plans, and how those are okay things too.

We need to talk about comparison and how it is such a thief of progress, and how you steal from yourself every moment you put yourself down.

We need to talk about our willful blindness to how far we have come, cheating our hearts, one "do they have two heads" after another.

We need to talk about slowing down, about solo conversations in the parking lot, we need to have more of that, where we are truly thankful for where we are and where we are going.

Life is more than just ticking the boxes. There's full love and wholesome friendships to be made.

I hoped that we'd sit with our emotions, and for most of us, not having a schedule can almost come off like a disease, but hey, you are here again. It will be fast soon, so you need to treasure the silence and the solitude of your own voice in your head

You deserve some time off

1/ Thread: You are not a lottery ticket

Peter Thiel is a contrarian. In 2013, he spoke in SXSW pushing against the conventional wisdom of luck’s outsized role.

2/ I like Thiel’s ideas not because I fully agree with them, but because he consistently pushes against ideas that seem settled.

Peter showed a simple 2x2 framework to make his case.

Are we optimistic/pessimistic about the future?
Is the future determinate or indeterminate?

3/ Optimists think about the promises of the future whereas pessimists deeply fear the future.

If the future is determinate, you should have strong conviction. If it is not, you should heavily diversify.

4/ In the 50s-60s, Americans not only believed they would be at the forefront of progress but also had big, hairy audacious projects in mind that would materialize the definite future they had in mind.

5/ US, generally speaking, still remains optimistic perhaps by just extrapolating the past, but the future vision seems increasingly unclear.

Japan and Europe probably need no explanation at this point.