Lalleshwari (Lal Ded)

The Great Mystic Saint (1335-87)

The Valley of Kashmir, in spite of being walled by the high mountains,received waves after waves of various Asiatic cultures, which came from different directions and formed a happy amalgam in this land of beauty and plenty

First came the early Aryans from India and later Kushans, the Indo-Scythians, the Mongols and then Muslim Turks from Central Asia and China.

“The history of India has for its landmarks not wars and emperors but saints and scriptures.”

Lalleshwari (1320 - 1392) locally mostly known as Lal Ded, was a Kashmiri mystic of the kashmir shaivism school of philosophy she was the Creator of the style of mystic poetry called Vatsun or Vakhs, literally "speech" (voice). Known as Lal vakhs.

Her verses are the earliest composition in the Kashmiri language and are an important part in the history of modern kashmiri literature. She inspired and interacted many sufis of kashmir.

She is also known by other names like Lal Ded, Mother Lalla, Lalla Arifa, Lal Didi, Lalleshwari, Lalla yogeshwari and lalishri.
Lalleshwari was born in pandrethan (ancient puranadhisthana) about 4.5 miles of the south east of Srinagar, in a kashmiri pandit family

1/ LISTEN UP MY PEEPS: In the 4 years of the American Civil War not one confederate soldier ever breached the inside of the US Capital, and walked around inside with a Confederate Flag. In the last days of the Trump administration, that happened

2/ Like it or not, these two guys will this morning and for a long. long time be considered heroes by millions of Americans

3/Tens of millions are Americans yesterday watched the storming of the US Capital not with alarm or concern, but with happiness and cheer that at long last the politicians in Washington were getting what they deserved.

4/ The only thing that many of those Americans were unhappy about was the fact that those storming the Capital did not show up with M-16's so that they could kill every Democrat in site.

5/ While all of this was occurring, talking heads on TV expressed alarm, pontificated about democracy, made appropriate comments reflecting their privileged status. and a few referenced the discrepancy between the treatment of these largely white protesters and BLM protesters

A watchman in our society, on an average, lasts 3 months. Just when we get a hang of each other's eccentricities, he disappears. So you have to start all over with the new man. 'Don't ever ring my bell twice... I carry my bags myself, thank you... '. And so on. +

Rakesh was different. He looked 16, though he was 21. Wide eyed, eager, sincere to a fault. He would magically get to the gate before you could honk, he'd never miss a courier, the water tank never got empty on his watch, the cars he washed sparkled. +

Before Rakesh, we had a run of disastrous men. He was like Kapil Dev walking in at 17 for 5. In a couple of days, we knew we had a keeper. Like those animated drops of lubricant in Castrol ads, Rakesh was everywhere at the same time, keeping our Society humming efficiently. +

Residents competed with each other to offer him a snack, a cup of tea, a t shirt from a sales conference, an old mobile phone. They all made small talk with him. Like writers on a talent show production, they discovered his back story. Jaunpur. Sick father. 2 sisters. Cows. +

He worked days in our society. And nights at another. He had no home in Mumbai. Yet he showed no signs of fatigue. Even Mrs.Menon had no complaint. That's saying something. Her last complaint was, '..the watchman makes loud noises brushing his teeth... unacceptable..' +

Deplorables breakdown at the seditious, insurgent terrorist coup at the Capitol, a thread. /1

Excited to be able to share this comprehensive review on the many ways that climate change is increasing bushfire risk in southeast Australia, just published in @CommsEarth.

Thread 👇 describing what we found:

[paper is open

This was a huge collaborative effort across climate and fire science experts, including from @ClimateExtremes and @BushfireHub, who came together following the #BlackSummer disaster in Australia.

Our review focuses on forest fires in southeast Australia (NSW + ACT + Victoria).

The #BlackSummer fires were unprecedented:

*In their scale (23% of all southeast Australia forests were burnt)

*In their power (for every month of the spring and summer seasons), and

*In the number of fires that developed into extreme pyroconvective events

Climate in SE Australia in 2019 was also the hottest and driest on record.

Regional warming is part of human-caused global warming trend.

Dry conditions were part of a 3-year drought with consecutive winter rain failures. Long-term winter drying trend appears to be emerging.

Dry years in southeast Australia are usually also hot, (and wet years are usually cool), due to land-atmosphere feedbacks.

And years of large bushfires in southeast Australia have clustered in the hot-&-dry quadrant of historical climate conditions

Let's name and shame them! #Capitol #CapitolBuilding #CapitolRiots #MAGATerrorists #Antifa

1) Chester Doles - KKK from Georgia and Neonazi.

Next up is @ElseyVicki talking about "Faking it, creating it and making it: the pillars of professional identification in Occupational Psychology". #DOPconf

What are the five pillars and why do they matter for employability? Ensuring MSc graduates have somewhere to go. #DOPconf

Vicki looked at career stories and how graduates forged their identity into the profession. Identification precursor to identity, but is more outward-facing. This research interviewed 20 MSc graduates, aged 22-63, about their career. #DOPconf

These interviews led to five pillar model. First pillar is Education and Learning, with continual life-long learning contributing to identity-forming. #DOPconf

Second pillar is Networking and Building Relationships. Who is in your network and how do you support each other? Those connected to #weareoccpsychs found identity-building stronger, with networking being very important. #DOPconf

The nonsense happening in DC last night is important for a lot of reasons, mainly two - it shows how Trump is different from Berlusconi, his probable inspiration; and is a textbook example of how chaos most often than not helps status quo/centrist/stability 1/

Our own Silvio went to power with large and stable support from NE right-wing industrialists who had felt excluded from power during the 1st Republic (1945-1992). He was also popular with the NE and Center professional and commercial middle classes 2/

Last but not least, while he was not amazingly popular with Italy's military, he never antagonized them, and he never alienated the Italian diplomatic corp (mostly a closed class). He had his own agenda, not always in line with "Atlantic interests," but played his cards well 3/

Berlusconi promised stability to center-right voters dismayed by the Democratic Christian party's collapse, "efficiency" to professional classes, keeping taxes down, etc. He acted as a virulent anti-communism, but by 1994 this was just a charade to keep his audience in line 4/

As by then, there was no credible "communist threat" around, and the splinters of the former Communist party were playing "who's more in love with the markets?". So you see, Berlusconi, for all his bluster, was you average conservative tycoon - just smarter than most. 5/

Dear media,

I am an anarchist.

I assure you, the Capitol Hill mob are NOT anarchists.

Anarchists support, among other things, social and economic egalitarianism; not extreme cultural conservatism, nationalism, and the like. That’s fascism. Do some actual research.

If you ever see an "anarchist coup", it won’t involve people storming government buildings and trying to take over

It will involve people ignoring those buildings and coming together in their neighbourhoods and workplaces, then deciding to run them autonomously and cooperatively

Liberals and conservatives alike throw around the word "anarchists" to mean "people who cause a fuss in public", regardless of their actual politics.

If you’re at all interested, there’s more to social anarchist political philosophy than causing a fuss in public.

Social anarchism is about trying to push society in a direction that is more

• free
• egalitarian
• cooperative

It sees the central antagonism within society as the conflict between

1. Sociality: the voluntary cooperation of free equals
2. Hierarchy in its various forms

Social anarchists propose replacing the various forms of social hierarchy that restrict both freedom and equality – statism, patriarchy, white supremacy, queerphobia, ruling classes – with various forms of horizontal organisation through free associations.

Here is another very enjoyable conversation, with @Pandata19’s scientific advisory board member, Dr Jay Bhattacharya. Key ideas in this thread.

We are making world-changing decisions on the basis of evidence that is not very good. Vast scientific evidence tells us that infection fatality rates are much lower than originally expected. A small fraction of people get severe illness. 2/10

The scientific community has been resistant to evidence not supporting the majoritarian view, preferring instead to gin up panic, focusing on the worst case for everything the virus does & the best case for everything lockdowns do, and ignoring the range of uncertainty. 3/10

Academe is a strange place now, with debate stifled. But there's a sense some are opening up to considering opposing views. This is key, since suppression of views stops knowledge from progressing—the end of science. Public health norms of unified messaging complicate this. 4/10

Why did we, from the start, assume we knew nothing about this virus, instead of assuming a reasonable prior? Low susceptibility was evident early on. Assuming any virus is new is hard to square with our deep-time co-evolution with viruses, & their slow evolution. 5/10

Delhi High Court is hearing a petition by Sr. Adv. Abhishek Manu Singhvi against the Central Board of Direct Taxes - filed in response to a penalty on Singhvi of about Rs. 57 crores, imposed for undisclosed income of almost Rs. 91 crores.

Singhvi is making submissions on merits of the case.

Delhi High Court has asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to consider not taking any precipitative action against Singhvi.

Singhvi: Government has taken a lot of action to reduce tax related litigation. Singhvi refers to a scheme meant to reduce direct tax litigation taken out by the government.

Singhvi: I'm jumping out of sequence to refer to a CBDT Circular which repeats the same objects which were laid down in the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act.

.@claudiahammond introduces the panel discussion on elitism in occupational psychology with @NancyDoylePsych @TomCalvard @PavtweetKhurana and Ben Williams, former Chair of @ABPsychologists

Ben starts by taking a poll on the topic, do we feel the profession is elitist? 22% say yes, 13% say not at all. #DOPconf

Ben says if success comes to the "best" in a profession, how accessible is it? Or do factors such as network bring you to the elite? Challenging to level the playing field. #DOPconf

Turning to @PavtweetKhurana, who takes issue with "best". Who defines it, standards mapped against what? Does school define access? We can have an elite without elitism, it is exclusion that is problematic. #DOPconf

And now @NancyDoylePsych who talks about lack of disability, racial and other areas of representation in Occupational Psychology. #DOPconf

My friend’s father went to the Virginia Military Institute, which is as hardcore as the name implies. He tells a story that has always stuck with me:

[THREAD]

1/ The school had a rivalry with another school, I can’t remember which. My friend’s father was one of three cadets guarding the school’s canon during the big football game. The rival school thought it would be a funny prank to steal and/or deface the canon.

2/ A dozen or so drunken students came upon the three of them, guarding the canon. My friend’s father was a bit scared, because they were badly outnumbered. But the cadet in charge was not scared. At all. He stood there with his rifle, holding it as if to bludgeon.

3/ The drunk students approached, rowdily demanding that the cadets move so they could deface the canon.

“Stand down,” the cadet said.

The students got closer, grew rowdier. Now they were taunting.

“Stand down.”

4/ The taunting grew. The drunk students fanned out, surrounding the three cadets. My friend’s father was now terrified.

Again: “Stand down.”

The Capitol is mostly empty this morning but many remnants of yesterday remain.

Four bullet holes in the glass of the doors that lead to the House Capitol steps

And this is where the woman was shot. These are the doors to get into the “Speaker’s Lobby” off the House chamber. Three pains of glass missing. One is shattered. Shards of glass remain on the floor

And this is the entrance to Speaker Pelosi’s suit. Her wood and good placard is missing

These are the doors to the center steps. Where they first breached the Capitol.They are cast in iron from Italy and moved here in the 1860s or earlier. Double paned glass shattered

This is just outside those doors

@NPR your story “Trump Supporters Storm U.S. Capitol, Clash With Police” is date-stamped January 6, 2021 at 9:30 AM, which is 2.5 hours BEFORE President Trump spoke at the Ellipse and 4 hours BEFORE any procession to the Capitol. #fakenews

January 6, 2021, at 11:44 AM Eastern Time: The President arrives to speak.

January 6, 2021 at 12:05 PM, an hour past the scheduled start time, the President took to the podium. Again, your story was posted before anything happened. Why and how?

The crowd was reverent, not violent, mostly taking photos to capture the historic moment after waiting in frigid weather for so long.

During his speech, @POTUS says “I will march with you to the Capitol.” Here are 4 images of the President during that speech. He clearly told the crowd they would go together, peacefully but firmly, to make sure Congress did its job.