To the Victoria Embankment, there to take our Government-mandated exercise by following the lines of two waterways, the Bloomsbury Ditch & the #CockAndPye Ditch. These were channels which drained the marshland that surrounded the village of St Giles - current-day Covent Garden.

The walk is one devised by @teabolton in the second volume of his guide to London’s lost rivers, & follows the line of the 2 linked ditches from the Thames at Victoria Embankment Gardens & then back to Cleopatra’s Needle. #CockAndPye

"With no known natural watercourses between the Fleet, to the east, and the Tyburn, to the west, Covent Garden and Soho are gaps in the London river map. It is, however, quite possible that the ditches rechannelled small streams that existed before the earliest maps" - @teabolton

The fields of St Giles-in-the-Fields were notoriously boggy. St Giles itself stood by the main London-Oxford road (as in Oxford Street), but was sufficiently isolated that when, c. 1120, Henry I's wife Matilda founded a monastery here, it doubled as a hospital for lepers.

St Giles always had a marsh-tang of misery & sedition about it. It remained a leper colony - on & off - until the Reformation, & was the centre of Sir John Oldcastle's Lollard rebellion in 1414. (Sir John was executed at what's now the Oxford St-Tottenham Ct Rd x-roads in 1417.)

Hey @caroljsroth, I was just listening to your podcast with @JesseKellyDC and I wanted correct some errors concerning the Dickinson/Jackson duel of 1806. I am working on my PhD thesis related to Jackson and host the @AgeofJacksonPod. 1/

The origins of their feud begin not with Rachel Jackson’s honor, but rather over horseracing. Jackson was a horseracing enthusiast, as were most southern gentlemen of the planter class. Cutting a long story short, it comes down to money. 2/

Basically, Dickinson was in on a bet against Jackson’s horse but withdrew and paid the forfeit. The problem is rumors began to fly that Jackson wasn’t thrilled about this, because they apparently wanted to use promissory notes as payment. 3/

Things start to get very testy between the two men are insults are exchanged and circulate around Nashville. Eventfully things get even more public when all this gets published in the newspapers, with the two calling each other cowards more or less. 4/

So, what about Rachel? That’s the funny thing, Rachel is not mentioned in any of the newspapers and in the letters between the men and their associates leading up to the duel. I’m not saying it was not a contributing factor, but it hard to find solid evidence for it. 5/

End of the year scorecard: 2020 has been a difficult, dangerous and depressing year. Like last year, I again read 41 books this year- it was reading which kept me going through these gloomy times. I also reviewed 4 books, which are mentioned on the top of this list of 41 books

1) Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Rivalry That Unravelled the Middle East
2) Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison by Ahmet Kuru
3) The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Divided Nation by Declan Walsh

4) Pakistan: A Kaleidoscope of Islam by Mariam Abou Zahab
5) On the Meaning of Life by Will Durant
6) Pakistan- The Politics of the misgoverned by Azhar Hassan Nadeem
7) Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy voters: Democracy Under Inequality in Rural Pakistan by Shandana Khan Mohmand

8) The Bhutto Dynasty: The Struggle for Power in Pakistan by Owen Bennett-Jones
9) The battle for Pakistan by Shuja Nawaz
10) Pakistan's Political Parties by Nahid Siddiqui, Mariam Mufti, and Sahar Shafqat
11) Pakistan at Seventy by Shahid Javed Burki

12) New Perspectives on Pakistan's Political Economy: State, Class and Social Change by Akbar Zaidi and Mathew MacCartney
13) Aap Beeti Jug Beeti by Saad Khairi
14) Fading Memories of Islamabad by Saud Mukhtar

Saw a post that triggered a wild spirit journey of remembrance.

To make a covenant anciently they parted certain animals and 'passed through' the parts, then they partook of [consumed] their part. This was a ritual of purification and of covenant.

See here esp. v. 9-10, 17-18

Jeremiah explicitly supports this too; as do many other accounts in the scripture and in history all over the world, they attest to this tradition of parting a sacrificial animal [body] and passing through the parts and blood as a covenantal and a purification ritual.

This connected the dots to the Covenant with Israel as the Waters of the Red Sea [and various bodies of water later] parting and the purified 'passing through' - or back it up and transpose this idea to the marking of the door posts with the blood of the Lamb at 'passover'

Look now to the Baptismal covenant, a purification covenant [for the remission of sins], a symbolic "passing through" to our 3rd Estate and future resurrected life full of the purifying Holy Spirit of the Celestial Kingdom (as the Gift of the Holy Ghost).

The Priesthood 'parts' the bread and 'divides' the water, 'passing it to' the Saints to renew their Baptismal covenants by 'partaking' (consuming) the symbolic body and passing through the symbolic blood of the Lamb of God. The Divine Body and eternal atoning sacrifice.

WRITING A WINNING STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (SOP)

PART A

This VERY long thread will break down the process of writing an SOP using six questions that have worked for me in the several admissions and scholarships I have secured.

Get a drink and let us begin.

Writing an SOP requires thorough research and planning. Writing an SOP involves writing a story of your academic and professional experience.

Remember that volunteering or internship roles also count when you are writing your SOP.

It is important to tell a coherent story from start to finish of your SOP. This allows the assessors to link your passion with your academic and professional trajectory.

It is also very significant that you allow others (mentors, friends, professionals) to review your essays.

This is important because, your essay might be coherent and convincing but if it is laced with grammatical errors, you are likely to lose points.

You can also use editing software or websites to assess your writing.

I will be providing six questions that I aim to answer when I write my SOPs. I will also expand on the questions as we go along. Part A will speak to four out of the six questions. Part B will continue from Q4.

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

All in one place: our #BestiveBooks favourite-reads-of-the-year advent. Day 1 brought the joys of How to Read A Book by @kwamealexander & Melissa Sweet – a perfect starting point #BestiveBooks 1/28

Day 2 offered us a Lift created by @dsantat & @bottomshelfbks , published by @LittleBrownYR #BestiveBooks 2/28

Day 3 opened up new possibilities with How to be a Butterfly by @LauraMakesBook & @catellronca #BestiveBooks 3/28

Day 4 addressed the critical issue of coiffure-maintenance with The Hairdo that Got Away by @JosephACoelho & @fionalumbers #BestiveBooks 4/28

Day 5 got creative with How to Spot an Artist by Danielle Krysa #BestiveBooks 5/28

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

More ?s I'm asking when looking at curricula, policies, practices, etc. 1) "Cultural diversity" "Respect Diversity" ... how are you defining culture? Diversity? 2) Where are you asking for reflection & naming of positionality? Beyond right/wrong narratives that avoid complexity.

3) What group(s) and culture(s) are you framing as default and normal? Who are you othering and dismissing? 4) In your clinical evaluations, how are you asking students to demonstrate "respect for diversity"? 5) Are you lumping together caring, altruism, and social justice?

6) Where are you asking students and providing guidance about honoring patient leadership and autonomy, not merely supporting patients voicing concerns?

7) Safety in clinical evaluations: How are you defining safety beyond medication errors, falls, etc. Where are you asking students to consider cultural safety and demonstrate trauma-informed healing-centered care?

8) Where do you give students the space to PRACTICE inclusion and antiracism and genuine apologies with guidance & a clear theoretical stance? 9) How do you de-center niceness and deservingness and normalize dialogue through conflict?

1/9 For Holocaust Memorial Day, I drew this short comic based on one of the many stories my grandpa used to tell. When he was 14, he came home to discover his family was gone. With no where else to turn, he was forced to hide and live in nearby woods for years.

2/9 As much as he wanted a companion during this time of isolation and terror, he made the decision to tell the dog to go away, fearing that the barking would get him caught. Miraculously, the dog understood, left, and never came back.

3/9

4/9

5/9

I'm a nerd re: productivity systems, so here's a thread of some books and things that helped me this year, and might be helpful for some of you making New Year's resolutions:

I like books that use behavioral science and / or neuroscience to guide recommendations. To that end, @bjfogg 's Tiny Habits is really good. Maybe the best productivity book I read all year.

The best one I read last year was @jamesclear's Atomic Habits. It's a quick, easy read and it prompted me to start habit tracking, which has been really useful:

I don't have hyperactivity issues but I have big inattentive issues, so CBT strategies for adult ADHD have been very helpful for me. This one's a little pricey, but had some techniques that I hadn't seen before:

This one is about systematizing research and ideas using a methodology called Zettlekasten that was developed by a German sociologist.

EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE won the Printz Medal!

Okay I’ve had a minute to take it in, and dance w/my family. But I stayed up last night wondering what would I do with the 15 seconds of attention I'm so grateful to have. I wrote this thread. Hear me out if you would:

It is unfathomable (to me) that a refugee who showed up to this amazing country unable to understand the language would win literary prizes 31 years later.

But it happened! MOM, IT HAPPENED! And glory glory what do I say to you reading this, right now, with my heart overflowing? I don't know, but it was all freely given, so there’s nothing to do but freely give.

Can we try that? As it says in my book, "King or Queen Reader," can we try something together? I figure this is my best week of sales, and an author makes about a dollar per book. So what if we tracked the Bookscan sales for this entire week?

For every book you buy this week, I'll give my dollar to @Heifer a nonprofit that fights global hunger by giving livestock so that impoverished families can create sustainable livelihoods for themselves.

What I Read In 2020 (A Thread) [ Let me know if you read any of these because I want someone to talk to about these books or if you want my full thoughts on anything ]

So overall I read about 28 books and 11408 pages. I had an initial goal of 24 but lockdown kicked in and I also had some big boy books too. Here's as much as I can get into a single thread:

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris: The first Hannibal Lecter book. I've always been a fan of the Hannibal franchise so I enjoyed this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Francis Dollarhyde as a tragic villain. Very cool crime thriller.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: As much as I shitpost about 1984 and George Orwell, I do enjoy what works of his I have read. Very short endearing book about a bunch of animals that get into some wacky shenanigans.

Dune by Frank Herbert: This is the first Sci-Fi book I read of the year and what sparked that book club I set up early this year. I went on a bit of a Sci-Fi binge. Dune is a very well written book, the world building is really well done and I liked the big worms a lot.

Really good americana type songs I've been listening to to avoid podcasts/politics.

🎩🎉🥳⏳ 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.