1/ I enjoy rereading books that provided me a lot of insights and ideas on the first go around.

just reread this, and I highly recommend reading it if you haven't

2/ The author, Paul Kalanithi, was a neurosurgeon and writer who got a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis when only in his mid-30s. He died at age 37 in 2015, but not before writing "When Breath Becomes Air."

It's filled with insights that perhaps only a dying man could see clearly

3/ “There is a moment, a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living. We are never so wise as when we live in this moment.”

And

“If the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unlived life worth examining?”

4/ But, as I remembered from my first reading, it was his last passage that took my breath away. Here it is:

"Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way,

5/ they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed."

Thread: Confucius Institutes, aka Hanban, were intitiated in 2004 as a way to spread the CCP narrative while simultaneously gaining entry to foreign universities. Considered "cultural soft power" and a important part of China's overseas propaganda set-up.

The strategies that have helped me write 10 books in 10 years
⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎

1. Always be researching

The bulk of the work is researching—collecting stories, anecdotes, and data to marshal your argument. The writing is stringing those pieces together.

2. Know where you’re going

You don’t “find the book as you write.” You have to do the hard work of solving the problem first. You have to figure out the best route, too.

3. It’s all material

Turn all your bad experiences, your struggles, your pain, your mistakes into material. The obstacle is the way / antifragile…

4. Have something to say

“To have something to say,” Schopenhauer said, “by itself is virtually a sufficient condition for good style.”

87 pages

#RoyalAmbassadors #PraiseandWoraship
🎶The heavens declare, Your power and royalty
Lord You reign
King of all ages, You are the ancient of days
Lord You reign
Your throne is established in justice and righteousness
Lord You reign🎶

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

#RoyalAmbassadors #PraiseandWoraship
🎶Great are You Lord and greatly to be praised
Lord You reign
We cry Holy, Holy is our God
Let Your glory, glory fill this place🎶

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

#RoyalAmbassadors #PraiseandWoraship
🎶Arugbo Ojo
Arugbo Ojo
Iwo Aseda, Laweda, Lameda o (You are the ancient of days)
Arugbo Ojo
Arugbo Ojo
Iwo loniyin, kaabo, kaabo, marora
Arugbo Ojo
#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

#RoyalAmbassadors #PraiseandWoraship
🎶We cry Holy, Holy is our God
Let Your glory, glory fill this place
Arugbo Ojo (You are the ancient of days)
Arugbo Ojo (Aterere Kariaye ooo)
Iwo Aseda, Laweda, Lameda o
Arugbo Ojo🎶

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

#RoyalAmbassadors #PraiseandWoraship

🎶Who has the final say?
Jehovah has the final say
Who has the final say?
Jehovah has the final say🎶

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

On this day in 2008, one of our favourite movies, TEETH, was released. This horror movie centres around a young woman who has "vagina dentata" - teeth in her vagina. Vagina dentata myths is common, appearing in South America, India, Japan and Māori mythologies. Here's one myth...

So, you all know and love the movie Moana, right? And you all know and love the demigod Māui? Well, Disney and Lin Manuel Miranda skipped a particular Māui story in the "You're Welcome" song. It involves vagina dentata.

According to Māori legend, Māui tried to secure immortality for humans (you're welcome!) by "reversing" birth via the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-pō.

Hine-nui-te-pō is described as having "in the place where men enter her she has sharp teeth of obsidian and greenstone." This did not put Māui off (you're welcome!)

His plan was to enter the sleeping goddess via her vagina and exit through her mouth. He found her sleeping with her legs open and, seizing the opportunity, turned himself into a worm (you're welcome!)

1. Is @FoxNews" giving aid and comfort" to insurrectionists? Can the sponsors, hosts, directors, producers, writers, managers, and directors be charged under 18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection?

@robreiner

In “A Few Good Men”, a 1992 film by Rob Reiner, Base Commander Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) tells Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) in a defining moment of the film: “You can’t handle the

2/In the film the truth ultimately prevails. Jessup confesses he ordered the “code red” and is arrested while Dawson and Downey are acquitted of the charges of murdering Santiago. However truth often doesn’t win the day on the great stage of life on which we are but the actors.

3/In a material and political world, truth can become the enemy of those in power. The truth about suffering led Siddhartha Gautama to leave his palace and princely inheritance to become the Buddha. The truth about Jesus Christ led to his crucifixion.

4/There is the truth about reality, and there is propaganda designed to keep people from knowing the truth. It’s the quest of the truth seeker to determine which is which.

5/“Shakespeare stated and I quote,”The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be the fool” the natural tendency of humans is not to face themselves and not to see who they really are- but knowing who you are gives you the strength to manage your weakness.””

Quite you say? I’ll give you quite. I don’t do cheesy music. When I’m pounding the sand burning off the tequila and the virus I’m listening to Mr Motivator by IDLES...here’s what I hear

Repeat after me
I am I
And I intend to go go go
Like Conor McGregor with a samurai sword and roller blades Like a hedge funder declaring he’s morally and intellectually bankrupt on his sunny Caribbean island
How d’you like them clichés???

Now turning to end of week stuff. Don’t stop the game and don’t protect #hedgefundelite. Buying crappy co.s and bidding them to preposterous valuations is almost DaDaism and the kind of nihilism you find around fin de siècles or at least in The Joker movie.

But more’s going on. These stocks ain’t random. They all conform to patterns of absurdity that i professionally engaged in. I posted examples on my insta account this week. And shorting Nokia - Mr douche bag Hedgie - to buy Ericsson is just lame i.m.o

gamestock is like someone studied the Netflix transformation from vendor of videos from a vending m/c to global digital platform and went hmm...I could spin that? The fable of the dumb jocksters is cute...but maybe disingenuous

This is a great article that touches on Stone’s role in stop the steal, but the most important sentence is this:

“The radicalization of the Republican Party has altered the world of conservative media, which is, in turn, accelerating that

We aren’t talking enough about the political insurgency into the Republican Party, and who is funding it.

From the article:

As Fuentes said on the “InfoWars” panel, “This is the best thing that can happen, because it’s destroying the legitimacy of the system.”

It’s thirty years since The KLF’s 3am Eternal hit Number One so I suppose it must also be about thirty years since 13-year-old me met The KLF at Top Of The Pops.

I’d decided they were my favourite band a couple of years earlier and at that point I hadn’t really grasped the fact that most of the music they were making in 1989/1990 was for people either at raves or coming down after raves.

To be frank I made a complete nuisance of myself. Often after school I’d phone their PRs Mick and Pam, or their radio plugger Scott, or their distributor James, and later on Cress and Sallie at their office in Brixton.

I must have been extremely annoying but they’d make time for a chat and sometimes send me photos and white labels and merch. Sometimes they even phoned me. I once came home from school to find my dad on the phone to Bill Drummond.

At one point someone mentioned in passing that on my 13th birthday the band had toyed with the idea of driving their famous but increasingly dilapidated car, Ford Timelord, to my house in East Grinstead and dumping it outside. (?)

New on Amazon Prime Video in 2021..

A thread...

@PrimeVideoIN @aparna1502

#Tandav S1 by @aliabbaszafar, ft. #SaifAliKhan #DimpleKapadia @dirtigmanshu #KumudMishra @Mdzeeshanayyub @WhoSunilGrover @Kritika_Kamra @sarahjanedias03 @DinoMorea9 @AmyraDastur93 @GAUAHAR_KHAN @sandymridul @soniiannup @pareshpahuja @iamshonali & @tentej.

Premieres Jan 15th.

#TheFamilyMan S2 by @rajndk, ft. @BajpayeeManoj @sharibhashmi @priyamani6 @Samanthaprabhu2 @shreya_dhan13 @SharadK7 @DarshanKumaar @hinduja_sunny @sharmamatvipin and @mimegopi.

@sumank @Suparn @CastingChhabra @krishdk @rajnidimoru @SrikantTFM

Original series #MumbaiDiaries2611 by @nikkhiladvani, feat. @konkonas @mohituraina @shreya_dhan13 @tinadesai07 and @satyajeet_dubey.

@EmmayEntertain @monishaadvani @madhubhojwani

Original series #Gormint by #AyappaKM, feat. #AmolPalekar #ManavKaul #GirishKulkarni @rajshriartist @ShikhaTalsania @SmitaJayakar and #SulabhaArya.

Since today is my birthday, I thought I'd share a little something I wrote about life lessons learned to commemorate the day:
View from age 55…
1. Make intentional space for things that bring you joy.
2. It’s okay to take a nap when you get tired. This year has been exhausting.

3. Take care of yourself. No one can do this for you.
4. Notice small things. There is sacredness in the mundane.
5. Pay attention to your emotions. They give us needful information.
6. Listen to your heart’s desires -they give you guidance about how to spend your one life.

7. Never regret turning a year older. Not everyone had that privilege. Birthdays are a gift to be celebrated.
8. Don’t be afraid of silver hair. I feel like mine represents the experiences in my life and the (hopefully) wisdom I have gained.

9. Grief is a part of life. It is not weakness or lack of faith. Allowing yourself to grieve is the only way through.
10. What other people think of me isn't as important as I once thought.
11. I don’t have to live up to the expectations of others. I have to be true to my self.

12. I have learned to accept myself more. Not perfectly every day, but much more than I did in the past. I am who I am and I’m shaped how I’m shaped. I can only be who I am.
13. I’ve learned to be kind to myself.
14. The beach is always a good idea. It helps me reset.

Figuring out who to listen to and what's right/wrong in the world of social media, podcasters, and experts of everything is difficult.

As a scientist and writer here's1 trick & 6 lessons on figuring out if a writer, podcaster, or expert should be listened to or not. 👇👇👇

First, the quick way:
See what an expert says about something in an area you have expertise in.

For example, I search for where they talk about exercise or athletic performance.

If they are wrong but confident in it. It tells you that something is wrong in their thinking

They overindex on superficial understanding and don't do the deep work.

It doesn't mean they'll be wrong on everything, but it should make you question whenever the person ventures away from an area where they've had 'skin in the game' success in.

Want to be a better thinker?

"Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows is the top book on Amazon for System Theory with 1,000+ ratings.

Here are some highlights (thread ↓)

"Donella Meadows (1941–2001) was a scientist trained in chemistry and biophysics (Ph.D., Harvard University), followed by a research fellowship at MIT. There she worked with Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics."

"This book is about that different way of seeing and thinking. It is intended for people who may be wary of the word 'systems' and the field of systems analysis, even though they may have been doing systems thinking all their lives."

— Donella Meadows

"Today, it is widely accepted that systems thinking is a critical tool in addressing the many environmental, political, social, and economic challenges we face around the world."

— Diana Wright

"A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time."

— Donella Meadows