1) Science denial is destroying our societies, our civilization. Various vested interests, usually right wing ideologues find various scientific facts and information contrary to their agenda, so through propaganda they are orchestrating the public into denying this science.

2) We are seeing this with regard to the COVID virus, where a range of denial is being promoted, ranging from absolute denial the virus exists, to different levels of denial, such as only some people are vulnerable to the virus, to facilitate business as usual.

3) For a long time, to promote business as usual, vested interests have been promoting the denial of the climate and ecological crisis through propaganda. The aim being to create a large enough body of public denial to prevent action which can change anything.

4) We have seen similar patterns over a long time, such as when tobacco companies promoted denial of the emerging scientific evidence of how harmful and addictive tobacco smoking was. This further denial uses exactly the same methods.

5) Understandably, the public can't be educated about everything and have to rely on experts to inform them of concerns about threats to public safety. Malicious vested interests take advantage of this by using pseudo-experts to misinform the public.

THREAD: CCP vs US Military, on home soil.

1. I watched the Executive Orders and I watched the media panic. I watched the MSM lies and I watched the treason. I watched the fake Russia narrative. I watched the calls for impeachment. I watched a stolen election, in full view.

We’re in a new year and we have also entered a new phase of this pandemic. So I thought I’d start off the new year with a quick catch-up thread on the UK variant B.1.1.7 and where we are at in this pandemic.

The variant caught scientists' attention in early December based on a surge in cases around Kent and sequencing data showing it carried a host of mutations. (I wrote about this and how a quirk in the PCR is helping track it here:

CAVEAT: The pace at which we have learnt about this new variant is astonishing. But it’s important to realize that a lot of crucial lab experiments take longer. Most data now is looking at noisy epidemiological data and making inferences based on that.

Having said that: The picture is becoming clearer.
Good news first: There still is no evidence that the variant causes more severe disease or that it can reinfect people more easily or circumvent vaccine-induced immunity. Still, we need to stay vigilant.

The bad news: The evidence has only become stronger that B.1.1.7 is more transmissible and potentially a lot more transmissible than previously circulating #sarscov2. That has potentially massive consequences for the course of this pandemic.

Who are all the hypocrites who voted against abolishing the Tampon Tax back in 2015 but have had a sudden change of heart? First up, Steve Baker, Conservative MP for Wycombe.

Next we have Bernard Jenkin, Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex. The patronising way in which he calls Stella Creasy "feisty" really shows his commitment against sexism. Nice job!

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor and Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, also voted against the 2015 motion to abolish the Tampon tax. What's with the autographed graphics, Rishi? Do you think you're some kind of rock star?

Harriet Baldwin, Conservative MP for West Worcestershire has posted the lie that it was EU membership which prevented us ditching the Tampon tax. Harriet, you voted against the 2015 motion to abolish this tax. Have you forgotten?

James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk didn't post his own tweet. But he did retweet Rishi Sunak. James, how soon you forgot your vote in 2015 against abolishing the Tampon tax!

Yesterday an old family friend came to visit for a few hours from NY. She was absolutely destroyed about the voter fraud that took place, but she exclaimed “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?!” She isn’t on social media at all. She just gets what the TV and paper tells her.

She wanted to know why so few people went to the first march in DC. She wanted to know why everyone was complacent and what she could do - she had no idea what she could do. She was depressed over it.

I took some time to explain to her and show her all of YOU. I showed her my pictures from the first event and also described just how many people were there. I tried to explain there was a lot going on and gave her a few numbers she could call.

The point of this is, again - she is not the minority but she FEELS like she is. She said “we have no country without fair elections. That means I can’t even get rid of the people I don’t feel are doing a good job! What’s the point!” What’s the point indeed. The only

way we are going to break through this is for those of us who are involved in this to keep spreading the word and keep fighting for those who know they have been wronged here but aren’t connected enough to know something is being done about it.

What I've learnt on the Twitter this year:

1. The State of Hawaii makes Jason Kenney honorary Premier.
2. Rod Phillips and John Tory say Rod nodded off on a TTC streetcar and somehow ended up in St Barts.
3. New Conservative Task Force created to locate their MPs and staff.

4. Michelle Rempel says, because some other Conservative politicians did the wrong thing, now she can't do the wrong thing, because the media will report she did the wrong thing, and that's wrong for the media to do. That's it. That's the funny part.

5. Mike Harris awarded the Order of Ontario, which basically makes the whole thing an attendance award.
6. Doug Ford announces that a large order of McDonald's fries and a box of Philadelphia Cream Cheese will also be awarded the Order of Ontario this year.

7. UCP MLA Tracy Allard says she left the country and flew to Hawaii because her family can't celebrate Christmas properly without eggnog served in genuine coconuts.
8. UCP MLA Jeremy Nixon says he only travelled to Hawaii to personally forward a really funny email joke to Allard

9. After appearing more than an hour late for the press conference he'd called, Jason Kenney says Alberta's vaccination rates are low because Trudeau screwed up and delivered the vaccines early. That's it. That's the funny part.
10. Doug Ford sent Jason Kenney a Thank You card.

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It’s often claimed that “The Concept of Autogynephilia and the Typology of Male Gender Dysphoria” by @BlanchardPhD has been debunked.

I thought it would be interesting to see, at a basic level, how the concept and typology compares to the DSM-5.

A. The definition of AGP.

2/

B. Transvestism is often accompanied by AGP.

C. The presence of AGP in transvestism increases the likelihood of [developing] Gender Dysphoria.

3/

D. Gender Dysphoria (GD) in natal males is categorized as either early-onset or late-onset.

4/

E. Natal males with early-onset GD are almost always androphilic. The majority of natal males with late-onset GD are gynephilic; additionally, they frequently [have histories of] engaging in transvestic behavior with sexual excitement.

5/

F. In many cases of natal males with late-onset GD, transvestic behavior with sexual excitement is a precursor to their GD.

Ahead of Boca-River tonight, a LONG READ thread on River Plate's 2010/11 season: How did a massive club and institution like Club Atlético River Plate get relegated from Argentina's top tier in June 2011?

🇦🇷 #longread (3,000 words)

This thread is based on the fantastic When We Were Kings podcast with the blessing of its creators @ErikNiva & @andreassonhakan. Because the podcast is in Swedish, I wanted to translate the story and share it in English.

Disclaimer: this is NOT a dig at River Plate. My book's title/front cover overwhelmingly suggest that it's exclusively about Boca Juniors - that's not the case. I'm 100% neutral when it comes to Argentinian fútbol. This thread is not written to antagonise River fans!

June 2008. River Plate win the Clausura 2007/08 title (a 19-game half season) with Diego Cholo Simeone as manager. It's their 35th league title! River's attacking players: Radamel Falcao, Alexis Sánchez, Ariel Ortega, Sebastián Abreu, Diego Buonanotte, amongst others.

10/08/2008: The story of River Plate’s relegation in June 2011 starts on 10th August 2008! River Plate draw 1-1 away to Colón de Santa Fe on the opening day of the Apertura 2008/09 - it would be a bad campaign:
P19: W2/D8/L9. Cholo Simeone resigns after 1 win in first 14 games

MHRA exceptional authorisation of Innova for asymptomatic individuals was issued on 22nd Dec.

This is a LIMITED approval, and the details of how and why it is LIMITED are important. It does not cover all current uses of INNOVA by

Details here have been provided by the @MHRAgovuk by email. If any fact is incorrect here @DHSCgovuk @MHRAgovuk please let me know and I will change – it is a bit complicated and rather unusual.

2/8

First, approved test is called the “NHS Test and Trace COVID-19 Self-Test kit” - the LFT test in it is the INNOVA test.

Second, the test manufacturer is stated as “Department of Health and Social Care”, and not Innova.

This determines who has the duty of care and safety.

3/8

MHRA confirmed details of the limited approval by email (their emphasis):

“ONLY allows for the test to be used to “find” positive cases.

MHRA HAVE NOT approved the test for use in a ‘test to enable’ scenario.”

4/8

MHRA continue:

“as stated on our webpage, people should not act on a negative result and should continue to follow their local guidelines.”

“Any other use of the kit is outside of MHRA’s remit and at the manufacturer’s own risk.”

5/8

Astrology in Tibet and its influences, follow the thread below:

1. Tibetan Astrology is a diverse and complex phenomenon. Tibet, as an ancient kingdom of monarchical regime before the invasion and Chinese domination in itself, was isolated due to its location inaccessible by the predominantly mountainous relief.

2. Tibet received many influences from other peoples, as it was parallel to the "Silk Road", which went from Europe (in the Italic Peninsula), crossed the Mediterranean, and reached China. It received a predominant influence from Vedic culture due to Buddhism and, amalgamating +

3. the local shamanic culture and its local religion later suppressed to conversion (the ancient Bön, currently the tradition "Yungdrung Bön"), also incorporated Chinese elements of Astronomy, Astrology and Medicine Traditional Chinese.

4. The fact is that, roughly speaking, Tibetan Astrology is not unified, but composed of three systems that work in parallel:

Here is the thing about these 2015 conversations that many appear to have refused to move on from.

They should be a teachable moment. Sadly, aren't asking the right asks. Too many people from my neck of the woods (SE/SS) keep insisting on narratives that won't stand scrutiny.

I'll speak for the Igbo side, we are letting ourselves down in what should be a race to advance our agenda within #Nigeria

Yes, it is undeniable that there was an element of ethnic chauvinism in the coalition that came together against GEJ, but to attribute his loss simply to that factor is to completely miss the lessons of 2015, and as a result, set yourself up for another failure.

I'll talk about two of these:

First, Benue. In 2015, Benue state voted for Buhari.

No one within the set of people who keep shouting about ethnic jingoism ever seems to ask themselves why.

There are/were two reasons: first, Gabriel Suswam's government was unbelievably bad.

As of January 2015, Benue owed workers almost a year in salaries, and he never got as much as a reprimand from Abuja.

Instead, Suswam was mollycoddled by the GEJ govt.

Something I saw in United v Villa last night. We don't teach it enough at most levels of the game. What would the vast majority of teams do, if they were in Villa's situation, and were awarded a free kick here?

Thread below.

Common Productivity Mistakes You Might be Making

>>> Thread <<<

Apply these to significantly improve productivity.

#6 alone will turn you into a machine.

1. Over-Planning

A man without a plan will almost always get nowhere.



But while you do want to narrow it down as specific as possible.



People often get too caught up at this stage and spend the majority of their time trying to perfect the plan.

Which ultimately leads to them not doing any of the work.



Pick one skill, one destination, and go.



Optimize as needed.

There is no such thing as perfect, it does not exist.

2. Planning too much

Your to-do list should not have 20 items on it each day.

Nobody has the capacity to do that many quality tasks.



Adopt the Jeff Bezos style:



3 big tasks each day, 3 decisions to make, as early as possible in the day.



That’s it.

Focus on quality rather than quantity.