Incredible paediatric ST3 regional teaching day organised by @DrSeanMon

Feel so privileged to be a @WMPaeds Trainee and have monthly study leave to attend this amazingness 🤩

#PaedsRocks #ChoosePaediatrics

A summary of my highlights:

First up Sean did an interactive session on #debriefing sharing frameworks for structuring a debrief both from literature & his own top tips(using pics to illustrate rather than lots of text -love this @DrSeanMon #MedEd technique, def going to steal this for future teaching 😆)

Sean's framework top tips:

1) Get Out --> get off the shop floor, go to private place and fill it with tea and biscuits

2) Get the whole team together

3) Ask "Are you ok?" then ask again #asktwice

4) Recap what has happened

Sean's tips continued...

5) What went well - although outcome may be sad, your team was likely all kinds of awesome, highlight this!

6) Could anything have gone better?

7) Is there any other learning here to be discussed?

8) Summarise and thank your team 🧡

Next up Dr Doug Simkiss gave an incredibly engaging talk about Social Determinants of Health:

-Striking graphs illustrating the effect of social deprivation on child outcomes

-Actions we can take as trainees - take a detailed SHx!

-List of essential & additional reading

A lot of folks are grappling with, "What comes next? How do we atone for our part in what happened?"

We Jews have a ~700 page book you can turn to, The Gateway to Repentance. It painstakingly catalogues what true atonement requires.

But I want to tell you WHY we have this book.

Have you heard of Maimonides, aka The Rambam, aka Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon?

He was a Torah scholar, Saladin's doctor, wrote widely on mysticism and rationalism, and was super controversial.

He lived in Spain. Here's a common rendering:

He was born in 1138. He wrote The Guide for the Perplexed. In the late 1100s, controversy erupted over the fact that he had the gall to suggest that Torah scholars should work rather than live off of benefactors, and that his Mishneh Torah was more helpful than many rabbis.

The Guide for the Perplexed attempts to reconcile science and philosophy with rabbinic Judaism. This is no small thing! Assimilation in Spain and France was rampant among Jews, and many were not happy about this work, to put it lightly.

So the author of the book I posted, Shaarei Teshuvah, is Rabbi Yonah of Gerona. He is born in 1180. Unlike Maimonides, he spent all day learning Torah. He is related (by blood and marriage) to the Ramban, aka, Nachmanides, aka Rabbi Moses ben Nahman.

(Maimonides dies in 1204.)

I had set myself a goal of 35 books for the year, but lack of travel meant I could squeeze in a fair bit more. I’ve tried to read more fiction, but not very successfully (most of the books here are non-fiction). Nonetheless, here is my reading list for 2020. (1/9)

1. The Quantum Spy — David Ignatius
2. The Siege of Mecca — Yaroslav Trofimov
3. The Only Plane in the Sky — Garrett Graff
4. American Spy — Lauren Wilkinson
5. Rise and Kill First — Ronen Bergman
6. Return to Sri Lanka — Razeen Sally
7. Scale -- Geoffrey West (2/9)

8. Bridgital Nation — Roopa Purushottaman & N Chandrasekaran
9. Backstage — Montek Singh Ahluwalia
10. Spillover -- David Quammen
11. The Theory the Would not Die -- Sharon McGraves
12. The End of October -- Lawrence Wright
13. Team of Teams — Stanley McChrystal (3/9)

14. Galileo’s Daughter — Dava Sobel 15. The Gated Republic — Shankkar Aiyar
16. Powerful — Patty McCord
17. The Paladin — David Ignatius
18. India Moving — Chinmaya Tumbe
19. How Innovation Works — Matt Ridley
20. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Lewis Carroll (re-read) (4/9)

21. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap — Yuen Yuen Ang
22. Phantoms in the Brain — VS Ramachandran & Sandra Blakeslee
23. Seeing like a State — James C Scott
24. El Jefe: The stalking of Chapo Guzman — Alan Feuer (5/9)

The Iron Law of Oligarchy:

The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, 'Political Parties'.

It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of an organization.

Michels's theory states that all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies. Michels observed that since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy,

...power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise.

Michels argues that democratic attempts to hold leadership positions accountable are prone to fail, since with power comes the ability to reward loyalty,

...the ability to control information about the organization, and the ability to control what procedures the organization follows when making decisions. All of these mechanisms can be used to strongly influence the outcome of any decisions made 'democratically' by members.

This reminds me of an old story...

Once upon a time there was a city.

In the middle of the city there was a huge and very popular meeting place where everyone gathered and talked and shared ideas.

The meeting place had only one rule: "No shitting on other people".

1/10

The people agreed that it was a good rule and they met and talked and didn't shit on each other and were happy.

2/10

By and by a politician wanted to take advantage of the meeting place to talk to all of the people at once.

The owner thought it was a good idea and said "everyone is welcome but you must obey our one rule".

The politician agreed.

3/10

Day after day, the politician talked and talked and people listened, but there was a bad smell in the air.

People thought that the politician was not obeying the rule and complained to the owner that they were being shat on.

4/10

The owner assured the people that the politician wouldn't do something like that deliberately but agreed that it was only fair to warn people.

So, whenever the smell was bad the owner made the politician wear a blue badge to advise that there may be shit in the air.

5/10

The faces of the insurrectionist, anti-American mob that attacked the country have inspired me to re-read George Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier".

One of his lesser known, but IMHO best books. Thread.

First, so many right wing extremists tweeting Orwell quotes right now, as if he would have supported an attack on democracy. Read his work. Here's what HE believed, in his own words:

Orwell was a socialist. In fact, he was fighting against fascism in the Spanish Civil War when the book was published in 1937. He took a bullet in the

I'm re-reading the book because of what Orwell writes about class.

Buying plane tickets, purchasing weapons of war and body armor, taking time off from work, that takes time and money.

This is why Orwell is so interesting. Who are the people most prone to fascism?

It’s happening and it’s happening NOW! The first movie, Guardians of the Pedophiles, just had its big release.

Buckle up, Patriots, it’s going to be a very bumpy ride.

"How to Crush Your Biggest Goals in 2021" #podcast
https://t.co/NDq0IV6kd3
Well worth a listen (8mins-57mins for juicy bits).

Six pillars in thread below 👇
~~
#SelfImprovement #Success #Entrepreneur #EntrepreneurLife

1. Mental toughness, grit. 2021 is gonna be harder than 2020.

2. Maximising what you get out of your time. Being productive.

3. Associate with people who have accomplished what you are trying to accomplish. This requires learning new social skills.

4. Self confidence. (The opposite of self-limiting)

🎩🎉🥳⏳ 2020 New Year's Time Capsule in oil paintings -

Thread 🖌️20 highlights of (approx 50) projects from 2020.
No particular order, but some have greater impact than others.

Tweets are numbered,
last one will say /end thread/

1) "Turning Angel"
A tribute to...

1b) "Turning Angel monument, built over the graves of five children killed in a factory explosion in the early 1900’s:

(2020)She was recently vandalized, toppled, had a broken wing. She is made whole here.
This was my first time painting in only black & white, no color at all."

1c) "When I first heard about this statue being toppled and damaged, something about it tugged at my heart. When I found out that it was a memorial over the graves of five children, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I looked up the statue to see what it looked like…decided to

1d) "paint it. I understand how it feels to create something to honor the deaths of people, & to have someone destroy it in a hateful action. That beautiful angel statue, installed as a memorial for children who died so tragically young- toppled to the ground with a broken wing"

2) 🖌️ Even in 2020, we are welcome at His table, multitudes.
Come as you are.

Does anyone remember when @DavidCornDC and I wrote about the #Groundswell group led by Ginni Thomas and organized by Cleta Mitchell?

The organizer of yesterday’s insurrection is one of the top influencers in that group — JennyBeth Martin, formerly of Tea Party Patriots.

Because no one calls them out, and because the IRS granted this group of orgs their coveted nonprofit status and further loosened restrictions and disclosures for them, they’ve been allowed to grow a seditious, criminal enterprise, led by the spouse of a sitting SCOTUS justice.

“This work”, says the publisher, “was not named ‘The Qur’an and its Translation’, because its author, M. Quraish Shihab, was acutely aware that the Qur’an is a holy book that cannot possibly be translated into any other language.” #qurantranslationoftheweek 🌏🇮🇩

Nevertheless, Muhammad Quraish Shihab’s (MQS)“Al-Qur’an dan Maknanya” (“The Qur’an and its Meanings”, first published in 2010) comes across as a Qur’an translation, rather than a qur’anic commentary.

Published in a single 650-page volume, which includes both the Arabic text of the Qur’an and an appendix that summarizes the content of all surahs, the work renders the meaning of the Qur’an into Indonesian verse by verse.

Some footnotes contain additional explanations, and the occasion of revelation of a segment of the Qur’an is infrequently provided, but the proportion of such additional material is small.

MQS (b. 1944) is a prolific Indonesian exegete, and a highly visible one as well, as he was the country’s first TV exegete. In 2004, he began hosting TV programmes that focused exclusively on the interpretation of the Qur’an.

ASSANGE thread
1/ Introducing ICELAND
home of ORIGINAL TURNCOAT Sigurdur_Thordarson (see2/belo)
WATCH: 2 min film by
a/STRATFOR #lookitUp
b/no mention of CHINA
c/no GEOTHERM, GAMING or ELECTRONICS inf
d/no ASIANS pictured

Iceland's Geographic Challenge

There's more today on the weirdness of a housing boom in the midst of the worst economic crisis in 300 years, helped by temporary tax breaks that will expire - probably before Lockdown3 comes to an end.

It's always puzzling why people aren't more repulsed when lenders report "soaring" house prices; we wouldn't, for example, welcome "soaring" gas or electricity prices - or soaring bread prices. But in any case that's what Halifax says they have been doing:

"Soaring" sounds very different if you're hoping to be a first-time buyer than if you're a potential seller who thinks 'ah - freebie time'. That something for nothing mentality has led politicians for decades to think it's bad politics to have prices fall.

...and to spend taxpayers' money propping them up (from mortgage interest relief in the late 1980s to Help to Buy to the current stamp duty holiday). But the reality is that unless your next move in the housing market is to downsize - rising house prices work against you.

Today the estate agency chain Chestertons highlights a huge imbalance in supply and demand: “There were 4% more homes for sale in 2020 than the previous year compared to a more than 40% rise in buyers." And apparently the outlook for the market is therefore 'positive'.

1/18 Looking back at some of the most notable books I've read in 2020. It's a pretty eclectic mix!
I don't keep track so I am sure I forgetting something, especially if it was in deadtree form. Also, omitting the ones I started and abandoned.

2/18 The Supernova Era

I am a big, big fan of Cixin Liu- love his fiercely imaginative prose in the 3-body series and short stories... but I was bummed by this book.
The plot unfolds so preposterously that the large scale backdrops are grotesque. Pity.

3/18 How the Internet Happened

Beautifully written chronicle describing key actors & events that led to the internet as we know it today (almost).
I was a freshman in computer science in '92, saw a lot of that 1sthand, yet there was so much I didn't know!

4/18 Agency

A @GreatDismal in great shape. Getting back to that universe was fascinating, tho remembering all the characters frm th 1st book was hard.
His view of the Jackpot is disturbingly plausible, I am sure every reader wondered whether we are in

5/18 The Case Against Reality

Fantastic book. Evolution optimizes for fitness, not truth (whatever that is), and this book does a much better job explaining it than I ever could, to myself and others.
Skip the last chapter,

🧵THREAD🧵

So, I'm on a another platform with some very smart people that apparently got Jack's goat over the years, and late last night, I got a crazy idea.

The idiot shitlibs have been, with varying degrees of effectiveness, using a basic rulebook since the early 1970s.

That book is "Rules For Radicals" by Saul Alinsky.

Until @realDonaldTrump came into politics, every time a Republican was confronted by one of these rules, they rolled over and showed their soft bellies as they waved the white flag.

The Boss is different though.

Here in the next tweets, I'm going to go over the "rules" and how Trump has broken, subverted, or appropriated their rules to beat them at their own game.

1. "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."

Trump's answer: This is straight out of the "Art of War": Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

Interesting dichotomy, isn't it?

This is why so often, the MSM backs the Democrats and demeans Trump, to create the illusion that the Left is more powerful than they are, and that Trump is working from a position of weakness/illegitimacy/stupidity.

It is with a glad heart that I welcome everyone to the New Year, 2021.

The out-gone year was quite dramatic and it is only by the grace of the Almighty God that we survived to witness the succeeding year.

It is cheering that we are entering the New Year with refreshing news of a handful of certified vaccines against the dreaded Covid-19 virus. And better still is news of commencement of vaccination in some parts of the world.

I am expectant that the vaccine(s) would soon be available for vaccination in Nigeria. It is also hoped that very soon life would return to normal.

As a country, we have taken our share of the blow that Covid-19 dealt to the globe. And worst still, we suffered a multi-facet downcast on account of lazy and uninspiring leadership from the government at the centre - most especially.

I've been publicly addressing white mediocrity since my 2011 blog post "The American Way: Mediocrity, When White, Looks Like Merit," but I learned A LOT from @IjeomaOluo's MEDIOCRE. As Brittney Cooper's @nytimes review said, it really is an invitation for society to do better.

Of necessity, that invitation requires unvarnished truths. A few of my favorite lines:

“When I talk about mediocrity, I am not talking about something bland and harmless. [...] I’m talking about a dedication to ignorance and hatred that leaves people dead, for no other reason

than the fact that white men have been conditioned to believe that ignorance and hatred are their birthright and that the effort of enlightenment and connection is an injustice they shouldn’t have to face” (6).

“Perhaps one of the most brutal of white male privileges is the opportunity to live long enough to regret the carnage you have brought upon others” (30).

“Nothing says ‘American’ like a boy making a woman struggle so that he can seem independent” (35).

“Mediocre, highly forgettable white men regularly enter feminist spaces and expect to be centered and rewarded, and they have been. They get to be highly flawed, they get to regularly betray the values of their movement, yet they will be praised