1/
This car pulled up to a 4 way stop just after me the other morning. On my left. As I pulled out, they did, too.

We nearly collided.

After a brief pause, I continued. Moments later, the driver swooped alongside me, extended an arm over the passenger seat, & flipped me off.

2/
Then, they sped off. But got stuck at the red light just ahead.

2 lanes. An empty street. On an early morning.

And this person in a car now beside me who, after not having the right of way, decided to greet me with a middle finger.

Mmm hmmm.

3/
Did I mention that this was on December 26? And that I'd worked not only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day--but 12 consecutive days before?

And where I come from? Flipping folks off is not compatible with life.

Or at least compatible with not having it threatened.

4/
Anywho.

I stop at the light and allow my eyes to drift to my bird-shooting comrade. And then, after a few moments, they looked over toward me.

Mmm hmmm.

I felt my lips curling. My eyes narrowing. My hand reaching for the window button.

And then I stopped.

5/
I thought about this instance where someone made me very mad when I was an intern. A really intimidating person who was tasked with performing a complicated straight cath on my unstably housed patient who had urinary retention.

Yup.

Here's how it went down:

#StructureChange is coming...a thread. (speculation based on extensive research)

We will have an entirely new set-up or system- to which we will soon begin the transition- new structures for financial, energy, legal, health, education & political systems.

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:

Now ministering for second service: Pst Joel Awogu @AwoguJoel
Topic: Restoration
Text: Isaiah 54:2-3
Things you would experience this year, expansion, and your products would be blessed.

#ChurchGRA
#HappyNewYear
#FirstSundayOfTheYear
#Restoration

In this new year, you would experience restoration in Jesus' name, Amen.

#ChurchGRA
#HappyNewYear
#FirstSundayOfTheYear
#Restoration

Things you need to do this year
1. Enlarge the place of your tent

#ChurchGRA
#HappyNewYear
#FirstSundayOfTheYear
#Restoration

Expand your mind. Think Possibilities. your current state of mind won't be able to contain what God is planning for you. Mark 2:22

#ChurchGRA
#HappyNewYear
#FirstSundayOfTheYear
#Restoration

New experiences must bring new thinking. Think BIG. Think beyond your house.

#ChurchGRA
#HappyNewYear
#FirstSundayOfTheYear
#Restoration

Personal thoughts on how to choose Vaccine as of date in India given tremendous uncertainty about approval/availability of Vaccines.

If you can get it "somehow" .Get a Pfizer/Moderna Vaccine . Previously it appeared that Pfizer Vaccine would come in Private Market and will be administered in Metros.

But Pfizer developed cold feet and Govt seems not interested (as Vaccine requires -70 degree for storage and distribution difficult/price high-> could precipitate health iniquity).

As a compromise ,if you are very high risk(>50,comorbidity, elderly in family). Consider taking Covishield. Hold off/get Antibody titres if you have autoimmune/neurological disease or history of severe allergic reaction as here the Vaccine has higher risk of side effects

While approval in Clinical trial mode is granted for COVAXIN . Wait for phase 3 data . (don't get sucked in by "indigenous" tag yet).

A thread of appreciation for Gloria Purvis:

This past year, I was blessed to be in dialogue with many people within the Academy and the US Catholic Church. I mean no offence to anyone, but, amongst them all, Gloria Purvis was easily the most edifying and impressive. She soared.

I had never met nor spoken to Gloria before my interview with her. I sent a few prompts and questions beforehand to show respect and honesty, but we did not agree to anything too formal in terms of the conversation or content of the interview. We had a time set and that’s it.

The moment the Zoom call connected, we got started, with no chit chat. I felt bad initially for this oversight, but she took to it like a duck to water. I opened asking about framing the conversation around anti-Black white supremacy, citing Du Bois. She took flight.

Not only did she accept the frame, she extended it, citing a far less known, and more radical, essay by Du Bois, weaving it into common associations like Our Lady of Guadalupe. She did this with great enthusiasm, but also humility and even a certain pressure on my chosen source.

Seeing this range in her very first response, I realized I needed to dig deeper. Every move I made she accepted on its own terms but then extended and enriched and even subtly challenged or subverted with great joy. But none of this was even the most impressive part for me.

@JustUsADOS @AbdullaahDawud @BreakingBrown @doritegrocery @Amazon_Queenn @melanatriot In my humble opinion, there are some (few) who claim “FBA” because they don’t like the moniker “descendants of slavery”. But, they don’t understand the significance, connection and necessity in being explicit that we are owed reparations BECAUSE OF “slavery”... 1️⃣▶️

@AbdullaahDawud @BreakingBrown @doritegrocery @Amazon_Queenn @melanatriot And, everything that followed on the timeline from slavery til now. But, these *few*, need to understand that “FBA” IS an “org” (that does nothing) except for dox people, speak recklessly about ADOS, Black immigrants, and other people who ARE doing the work. Tariq can *say* 2️⃣▶️

@AbdullaahDawud @BreakingBrown @doritegrocery @Amazon_Queenn @melanatriot it’s not an “org”, but once he trademarked it, created some kind of “flag”, took money from thousands of people for a “conference”, and created some sort of weird and dangerous *allegiance* amongst those people... it’s an “org”. That does NO real work in furthering our cause.3️⃣▶️

@AbdullaahDawud @BreakingBrown @doritegrocery @Amazon_Queenn @melanatriot So, those *few* who are doing some work (in Marlon’s case) need to pick a definitive side in name, and principle. Because, whatever work they are doing, needs to be within the continuity of the foundation and work of ADOS who IS an actual WORKING ORGANIZATION. As well as a 4️⃣▶️

@AbdullaahDawud @BreakingBrown @doritegrocery @Amazon_Queenn @melanatriot DEFINED lineage. Those *few* are NOT actually helping, but are in the long run, harming the momentum and progress of those (ADOS) who ACTUALLY created and initiated the definitions, foundation and momentum for the reparations *movement* in the past few years. I can clearly 5️⃣▶️

when I was a teenager, the dominant criticism my closest friends had of me was that I was too arrogant, and they were right. I was too caustic, abrasive, eager to nitpick, quick to criticize, and I was way too certain of myself. I spent my entire 20s trying to correct for this

the social niceties stuff were relatively trivial for me to address. learning to be gracious, patient, I could manage all of that. But "too certain of oneself" goes order of magnitudes deeper. It goes into philosophical territory about risk, certainty, the nature of knowledge

I very seriously experimented with beliefs like "almost everything I know is wrong to a degree I do not understand", "my mental models are contaminated beyond repair", "I have been indoctrinated and need to be deradicalized", I subjected myself and my mind to radical rewrites

Over 8+ years I wrote over 800,000 words of introspective journaling, investigating my own mind, investigating the investigator. I read & talked to thousands of people from around the world to seek out different ways of thinking, seeing, being, believing, knowing, understanding

I tried to think of myself as a robot that needed debugging. I actually made substantial progress with that

I tried to think of myself as a garden that needed tending. I made substantial progress with that

I tried not to think of myself at all, and I transcended progress itself

Hello new followers! Can I introduce you to some of @RSF_inter’s other priority cases? They all deserve much more attention and support! Thread.

#DaphneCaruanaGalizia was a courageous Maltese journalist assassinated by a car bomb near her home in October 2017. More than three years on, there’s still been no justice for Daphne or the extensive corruption she had uncovered. Some background here:

We are working to support her family’s campaign for #JusticeforDaphne. Follow @daphnefdtn, her sons @mcaruanagalizia, @acaruanagalizia & @pcaruanagalizia, her sisters @Corinne_Vella & @MandyMallia, and her niece @meg_mallia. @TheShiftNews is also an excellent resource.

For the best overview, listen to #DaphneCaruanaGalizia’s son @pcaruanagalizia’s incredibly moving podcast, My Mother’s Murder.

Christopher Allen was a 26 year-old freelance journalist, and dual US/UK national, who was killed covering the civil conflict in South Sudan in August 2017. More than three years on, there’s still been no investigation and no justice.

PRUs and AP - A thread on the impact of the current situation....
Let’s start by saying that I don’t want us to be closed to any child at all, I want every pupil in accessing their education; but I want that to be done safely for children, staff and the wider community...

When the government announced a delay to pupils returning to school PRUs and AP were not included; then organisations like @prusapuk and beyond applied pressure to have this rolled back, we can now work with parents for the first week. Whatever that means...

Here’s a few of the reasons why PRUs and APs must be treated equally:
Firstly, the view that all of our pupils are somehow vulnerable at home is disrespectful to our families. They did amazingly during the first lockdown and would do the same again; the same as any other family!

IT access is an issue, but we have had good engagement with online learning when bubbles have closed and this shouldn’t, in my view, be used as a balance against safety and health! There are ways around it....

My experience is that we have a higher number of families living in 3 generation households than many mainstreams; pupils with elderly grandparents living with them! Protecting these families is crucial to protecting lives and the NHS capacity.

Imagine if, in the midst of the massive BLM riots this summer, the entire tech infrastructure had deplatformed Facebook because some had used that app to plan events devolving into violence. People would rightly have called that an insane act of ideological fascism.

Yet today, media will celebrate Amazon doing exactly that to Parler. The tech bros are making a horrible and dangerous moment significantly more horrible and dangerous. There are no consistent standards being applied. There is reactionary deplatforming in the name of one side.

Private companies are by law free to do what they like. That’s why I have always said that the solution to the censorship of Twitter is alternatives -- which is what Parler was attempting to be, whatever its flaws.

But when the technological instruments necessary for speech are located in essentially three companies, all of which are moving toward like-minded censorship (Amazon controls about half of all public-cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 16%, and Google 4%), that avenue closes.

I am by nature anti-regulation. But even the consumer-based theory of anti-monopoly championed by free market advocates cuts in favor of anti-monopolistic regulation if these companies are acting in de facto collusion to shut all avenues of dissent.

🙏 Are you a sheep or Judas goats. “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;& He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.”
Matthew 25:32-33 🇺🇸 sheep;🇨🇳 goat

I’ve seen lots of people defending porn and BDSM on this website recently, and a lot of other people critiquing them for it. I feel like both sides miss something important that the other side has to say. I usually stay out of this debate, but I feel quite strongly about this.

The critics of BDSM have many things right. The fact that BDSM is used as a smoke screen by abusive men who murder their partners and then blame it on a “sex game gone wrong” should appal all right thinking people.

Pornography/ 50 shades have mainstreamed many of the more extreme practices of BDSM, including choking and anal. This mainstreaming has not brought with it any understanding of consent, or how to reduce the risks associated with more extreme practices.

This has led to young women being pressured into painful and humiliating sex acts that they do not want, did not ask for, and do not understand, without having any trust in their partner to carry out the acts safely, or even with regard to their own desires. This is appalling.

Many defenders of BDSM would agree with all of this. No really, they would. The argument is that if you are pressuring an unwilling partner, murdering people, if you are a dom who has no concern for your sub’s experience, you are not practicing BDSM, you are being abusive.

Ulcer: what you should know.

Peptic ulcer (generally known as ulcer) is a sore/wound that develops on the lining of the stomach or small intestine.

There are two types of (peptic) ulcer:

A THREAD
Help RT

1. Stomach ulcer also known as gastric ulcer is the ulcer that occurs in the stomach while
2. Duodenal ulcer is the ulcer that occurs at the first part of the small intestine.

There are two major causes of ulcer:

1. Helicobacter pylori (a bacterium)
2. Chronic use of NSAIDs like aspirin, diclofenac, ibuprofen etc.

This two accounts for over 90% of all ulcers with H. pylori having a higher percentage when compared to the long term use of NSAIDs.

Other causes of ulcer exist but the account for lesser percentage of ulcer, they include:

-Stomach hyperacidity (Zollinger-Ellison syndrome)
here the stomach produces abnormal amounts of gastric acid. It is a rare condition.
-Weak gastric lining
Here some people are born with weak gastric mucosa as such, even small stomach acidity can result in ulceration.

THREAD on conspiracy theories & attachment.
I keep seeing frustrated social media posts asking why people believe conspiracy theories. Answer: It gives a sense of control - includng belonging, predictability & safety. It's emotional regulation. Here's research to unpack that.

2. "Participants with an 'ambivalent attachment style' were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories....The findings add further evidence that attachment not only influences how a person interacts with others, but also influences world views."

3. "People have a strong need to feel positive abt the groups they belong, such as their nationality, political party & religious group. A conviction that others conspire against one's group is more likely to emerge when the group feels undervalued." 2019

4. "Conspiracy theories are consequential as they have a real impact on people's health, relationships, and safety. They are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs."

5. "Ostracized participants were more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs related to political issues. Moreover, heightened vulnerability mediated the link between ostracism and conspiracy beliefs."

@Zuasibel @MouthFactory @Lawrenc04048984 Mathis here belongs to a sliver of Jews in our tormented history who succumbed to the millennial war of attrition waged upon Jews and decided that resistance is futile and better join the persecuters and maligners than be their targets. /1

@MouthFactory @Lawrenc04048984 It's not enough that they were "liberated" from their Jewish shackles but they have to prove, convert-style, that whatever the antisemites do or say, they will out-do and out-slander Jews and thus gain some love for their wretched person. Examples: /2

@MouthFactory @Lawrenc04048984 Pablo Christiani, a converted rabbi from 12th century Spain, who took his children from his wife after he converted, tried to ban the Talmud, and, with the Pope's dispensation, compelled Jews to listen to his speeches and answer his questions in their synagogues. /3

@MouthFactory @Lawrenc04048984 A more recent example is Irene Nemirovsky, a talented author whose novels contained vicious portraits of Jews. She and her husband would die in Auschwitz, despite their pleading to Vichy for leniency on account of her sharing their distaste for Jews./3

@MouthFactory @Lawrenc04048984 I can find it in my heart to somewhat forgive Nemirovsky who lived in viciously unforgiving times. Maimonedes wd have mitigated for her sin of not loving Israel (Jewish people) in such circumstances, had he been her contemporary, I speculate. /4