If a critical mass of people on twitter generate enough Section 230 hot takes, all that energy fuses to create renewed interest in the #FairnessDoctrine.

I wrote a book on the FD so let me walk you through why reviving it would be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

First, the Fairness Doctrine was responsible for the most successful episode of government censorship of the past half century. While the Fairness Doctrine was technically created to encourage fair and balanced coverage of “controversial issues of public importance"...

...in the 1960s the Kennedy administration weaponized it to punish conservative radio critics. You see, fairness is in the eye of the beholder--which is the FCC--and the person who appoints the commissioners--the president--gets a say in what looks fair or foul.

(JFK also launched targeted IRS audits of his right-wing radio antagonists; the power to tax is the power to destroy, after all.) Stations responded to the secretly government-organized pressure by dropping conservative broadcasters in order to avoid Fairness Doctrine complaints.

And lest you think this Fairness Doctrine stuff is just conservative bellyaching, bear in mind that the Nixon administration used the threat of Fairness Doctrine enforcement to help bring television network heads to heel.

I am real mad about the Elastic relicense so I'm going to vent a bit.

Say that I contributed some code to Elastic, under the original open source license. That license defines the terms of our engagement. Me: "hey I improved your code, can you include this fix so I and everyone can use it?" Elastic: "sure!"

They require a CLA, which assigns ownership of my fix to the project steward. The idealistic reason to do this is to protect the long-term health of the project: if copyright law gets totally rewritten, we can update the license to reflect our original intent!

But this also requires me to trust in the steward organization to do the right thing. As the copyright holder on the project, I gave them the power to update the license to *anything* they want. Which, in this case, Elastic did.

Elastic didn't pick another open source license, which would provide the same guarantees for how I can use, contribute to, and redistribute the software. No, instead they said "thanks for contributing, your code is proprietary now, f off so we can make more money"

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I cannot count the number of people who've tweeted at me about how masking and social distancing don't work, and how California's surge is proof. Florida is the most common point of contrast, since while California was suffering in December, things in Florida were quiet(ish).

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pointed to CA as evidence that lockdowns and mask mandates are ineffective.

So, why was COVID calm in Florida when it was exploding in California? There's some randomness to when outbreaks hit , so everyone won't be hit at the same time.

Yes, CA has a higher compliance with masking and social distancing but CA *needs* higher compliance to stave off a New York-style disaster. CA is just far more vulnerable to a big outbreak, due to its higher levels of poverty, crowding & because it's a travel hub

The CDC measures "social vulnerability," -- how severely affected a region may be by a disease outbreak, based on average income, education, housing status etc. While 55% of CA residents live in counties with high “social vulnerability," fewer than a quarter of Floridians do.

So that's why, sometimes, it may seem that Floridians take fewer precautions, more businesses are open indoors etc, and they are not getting slammed with COVID in the way LA might be at that moment, for example.

Anyone who thinks I'm hounding Biden on government ethics because I want him to fail or want to play "gotcha" with him is wrong. Let me tell you what you can expect from me and what you *should* expect from him for the next 4 or (hopefully) 8 years. /1

I put my money where my mouth is. I stood up to Trump and, in doing so, destroyed my govt career. In Sept., I quit my job to help Biden unseat Trump and prepare to lead a strong ethical administration. I'm not permitted to tell you what I did, but I went 5 months without pay. /2

Someone asked me once how much I donated, I told them I couldn't tell them how much I gave because I wasn't allowed to say. But I gave up five months of pay and had to pay COBRA, so I'd say that's more than most people gave. I am committed to his success. /3

But he was swept into office on an anticorruption platform, and strong government ethics is the ONLY way he will succeed. So, I -- and, I hope, you -- will hold him accountable for delivering strong government ethics. This is what he owes America. /4

We spent four years demanding that Trump's allies put country over party. They failed to do that. Now it's our turn to live up to our own demands. We must in all things put country over party. And that means demanding strong government ethics -- from the start! /5

#BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $7.81 trillion AUM, recently granted two of its funds the ability to invest in #Bitcoin futures.

Here's why I think BlackRock investing in Bitcoin futures is bearish, and could result in a major downturn in the coming months.

1) According to the new BlackRock SEC filings, it mentions the use of Bitcoin derivatives and other assets as part of its investment scheme. The futures will be cash-settled, and likely on the CME BTC exchange.

2) If BlackRock was bullish on Bitcoin, they would've directly bought it, but instead they are choosing to buy Future contracts. Why?

With Futures, they can either short or long. Considering BlackRock's historically bearish stance on BTC, It's quite clear they will be shorting.

3) Here's a short clip of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink bashing #Bitcoin, saying theres zero institutional demand, and calling it an ‘index of money laundering':

4) By investing in the Bitcoin futures market, it essentially allows them to gamble on its future price.

With their large cash size, BlackRock will be the largest player in this market. They can and will tank Bitcoin's price to avoid paying out. Banks have done it before...

25 ways Princess Diana broke protocol as a Royal - A THREAD

1. She had a job before she got married:
Diana worked as a part-time kindergarten teacher in London. At the time, she was the first royal to have a paying job before getting engaged.

2. She picked her own engagement ring — from a catalog:
Although royal engagement rings are usually custom made, the 19-year-old bride selected hers from the Garrard jewelry collection catalog. Because Diana's ring was "accessible" to the public at the time, this caused a stir.

3. She wrote her own vows:
In 1981, Princess Diana made history when she famously refused to say that she would "obey" Prince Charles during their wedding vows. She also called Charles the wrong name!

4. Then Kate Middleton followed Diana's lead:
Kate removed the line in her vows that said she would "obey" Prince William.

Sanyukt Kisan Morcha to hold a press briefing in a short while from now...

Farm union leaders addressing the pc with a masked man....the masked man admits on camera that he and his few accomplices were asked to disrupt the farm agitation by indulging in violence.....

Govt wants to disrupt the agitation, says a farm union leader......

Youth on camera admits that he and his accomplices were planning to disrupt Jan 26 tractor parade

youth was even tasked to kill four farm union leaders

Farm union leaders holding this press briefing to convey that govt and its agencies have activated the dirty tricks department to disturb the peaceful agitation...@ndtv

Masked man goes on to admit that he and his accomplices were involved in similar violence during Jat agitation in Haryana

"We, in police uniform, used to canecharge protesters," said the masked man...

Everything creators and bloggers need to know about SEO to drive massive traffic from Google.

With 100% free & useful videos showing each step.

A thread 👇

1) Align your topic with the exact keyword your audience is searching.

You can write about whatever you want... But if you don't use your audience's language patterns... They'll never find you!

High search volume and low difficulty phrases are the

2) Double-check the intent behind the keyword.

You found your keyword, but you need to check and see if Google & your audience think that phrase means what YOU think it means.

Do a quick Google search of the phrase. Do the results match your topic

3) Write your Title/Description at this point.

You've got Google open from the intent research, browse the titles ranking... Are they listicles? "How to" articles?

Your title is the promise of your post. Make it bigger, bolder and more compelling than what you see on pg1!

4-A) Outline the post based on the additional topics/questions/suggestions Google is showing you.

This outline will help you in 2 ways....

A) You will write MUCH faster

B) Your end product will be SEO

A TRAITOR'S SHADOW

"it doesn't appear Democrats would have enough support in their caucus to change the rules because at least two centrists are resisting." CNN

Now imagine if the roles were reversed. What would Mitch McConnell

Why do I have little faith that anything will change under Biden? Look no further than Dems reticence to kill the filibuster. Real talk.

YOU GOT 2 YEARS. 2 FUCKING YEARS.

Prediction: If Dems dont kill the filibuster, they will lose the midterms thus losing Congress & Trumpism-

returns in 2024. All b/c Dems cant bring themselves 2 being as ruthless 4 their principles & values as Repubs are 4 theirs. Where is Democrats' Mitch McConnell? Who on the Democrat side is as ruthless as McConnell. No one. McConnell don't give a fuck & Dems have no such villain.

Leadership aint got a goddamn thing 2 do w/whether U or I agree on what said leader is doing. Leadership is about whether the mafucka in charge DOES WHAT HIS/HER PEOPLE SENT THEM THERE TO DO. Herein lies the problem w/electing a moderate in times that calls for a progressive.

Hear me. ALL OF JOE BIDEN'S TENURE WILL COME DOWN TO WHETHER SENATE DEMOCRATS KILL THE FILIBUSTER. McConnell is still behaving like he is in charge, telling the Democrats there will be no impeachment trial just like he told Obama there will be no Supreme Court nomination.

The Great Rat Massacre Of 1902 (and how it backfired spectacularly)

(Thread, sources here:

While we're talking about £500 incentives, I thought it would be fun to look back at one that backfired spectacularly and likely led to an outbreak of bubonic plague.

In Hanoi, Vietnam, rats were a huge problem around the turn of the 20th century.

Or more specifically, they had long been a problem, but now the colonial French viewed them as a problem too after Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacillus bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague, and the role that rats and fleas played in spreading it.

Rats would occasionally use the pipes that served the flushing toilets of the colonialists (unavailable to the local population) as an entry point into their homes.

1/ Don’t Fear Tether

Whenever Bitcoin has a bull run, naysayers try to cope with missing the boat by rationalizing why it will fail through FUD. Most of these are completely unsubstantiated, but annoyingly persist as negative narratives Bitcoin must fight against.

Feeling a bit of outrage fatigue. I know UCP likes to make digs about ‘the angry left’ (ie everyone who doesn’t support them or believe their lies), and maybe they’re trying to bombard us with their screw-ups until we’re numb to it all, but it’s ALL justified. 1/11

While we’ve been watching Kenney immolate what’s left of his credibility as a ‘leader’ over this Keystone XL debacle, it’s easy to forget that it’s only 10 days since we found out about the veto AIMCo will have over ATRF’s direction on how to invest hijacked pension funds. 2/11

It’s only 3 weeks since Kenney first tried to absolve his MLAs of blame in their hypocritical Christmas vacations, and less than that since he kicked a minister out of cabinet and another MLA out of caucus. 9 of them travelled. 5/11

It was only last week that teachers and students went back into the classroom, and amid all the rest of this, it has barely made a ripple in the news that there are *hundreds* of new covid cases in schools, and *dozens* of those caught covid AT school. In 9 days back. 4/11

The media has also largely ignored that the government decided to wipe the school outbreak map clean for a ‘fresh start’ in January, and raise the reporting threshold for outbreaks. When Dr. Hinshaw says ‘outbreak’ now, it means 5+ cases in a school, but it used to mean 2+ 5/11

Dear the @USArmy @USMarshalsHQ @USSOCOM @82ndABNDiv @USNationalGuard @SpaceForceDoD @usairforce do you really realize that the election cheaters won, even when there was FOREIGN interferences in 2020 national election? @DNI_Ratcliffe @SpaceForceCSO

Thread on The Congregation in the a Secular Age:

Pastors and ministers, I know that the pandemic as been no joke. It has taken a pound of flesh. I’m hopeful that The Congregation in a Secular Age can speak to some of this burden.

It was written before the pandemic, but I think will offer some insights on why the 2nd half of the pandemic has been a hellscape to do ministry in. And it may help you rethink what your congregation is for and how it should be in the world.

The post-pandemic risks being even harder on pastors. As vaccines are given & the world revs its engines like never before to race back to speed, I think the book could help give some insight into the phenomena within the pandemic,

but more so it offers points of reflection as we move toward a post-pandemic horizon. It’s a book written pre-pandemic that I think will really help post-pandemic. It will help resist the calls for your congregation to accelerate and race for change.

How to get the best image performance (Updated 2021)

1️⃣ Use `width` and `height` to prevent layout shift
2️⃣ Lazy-load images as they enter the viewport
3️⃣ Use modern image formats (WebP, AVIF)
4️⃣ Serve correctly sized images using `srcset`
5️⃣ Provide blur-up placeholders

1️⃣ Use `width` and `height` to prevent layout shift

These image attributes tell the browser how much space to allocate for an image, preventing the page from jumping when it loads. This avoids Cumulative Layout Shift

2️⃣ Lazy-load images as they enter the viewport

The browser shouldn't load images a user can't see. To prevent page speed from being penalized, we should load images as they're scrolled into the

3️⃣ Use modern image formats (WebP, AVIF)

These new formats reduce image file size while retaining quality. WebP is supported by all modern browsers. AVIF should be soon,

4️⃣ Serve correctly sized images using `srcset`

The browser should choose the best image for the device. By providing multiple options, we avoid shipping large images to smaller

Attaching a proposal to a cold email might also do the magic!

Ten tips for writing your research proposal

1. Follow the instructions!

Read and conform to all instructions found on the council website. Make sure that your proposal fits the criteria of the competition.

2. Break down your proposal into point form before writing your first draft.

Based on the total length of the proposal, decide whether you will have headings/subheadings and what they will be (e.g., Introduction, Background Material, Methodology, and so on).

These headings can be selected based on the advice given in the specific award instructions. For each section, lay out in point form what you will discuss.

3. Know your audience.

Describe your research proposal in non-technical terms.

Use clear, plain language and avoid jargon.

Make sure your proposal is free of typographic and grammatical errors.

Remember that, at every level, adjudication committees are multi-disciplinary and will include researchers in fields other than your own.

Therefore, follow the KIS principle – Keep It Simple!

Reviewers like it that way.