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

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

Interesting to see lots of talk about grammar lately. Here's a thread from me on why I think explicit grammar instruction is important, but not all explicit grammar instruction is created equal!

I think explicit grammar instruction is important because it helps pupils to write better sentences. Pupils often write run-on sentences, and they aren't sure where they should put a full stop. This makes their writing much harder to understand.

For me, grammar instruction is about sentence structure. It's not about pedantic 'gotchas' designed to show how clever you are or how stupid everyone else is. It's about helping students to marshal their thoughts into coherent, logical sentences.

(On that note, I am sure there will be errors in this tweet thread, because I am writing it pretty quickly. I apologise for them in advance and hope it doesn't impede your understanding too much!)

To write good sentences, I think you have to know what a verb is and what a subject is. So what's the best way to teach those? You can teach definitions - a verb is a doing word, a noun is a person, place or thing, a subject is the person or thing that is doing the verb.

🧵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.

Last night, I was reading part of a thread where @liminal_warmth was putting together a new clan // guild // whatever on classic WoW. I almost jumped on it, but then I remembered my previous WoW experience.

I started playing during Lich King, because the people I knew started playing then. They played on a heavy RP server. I spun up an undead rogue named Qaddafi. And off I went into the world.

At this time, I played through all the story stuff. The world was amazing, and I applaud the writers for building it. However, since everyone else was already an 80, I didn't get to do dungeons. They only had the rando dungeons once you hit a high enough level.

As such, I was always woefully undergeared. By the time I hit 80, My primary weapon was a decent off hand weapon, and there weren't opportunities to upgrade. As I was gear light, my DPS was below average, and I'd get kicked. A lot.

The culture dictated you needed to be a spreadsheet king, or have been part of a raiding guild since the beginning. I was low on DPS, so I got kicked before completing the dungeon, and the rogue gear was always at the end.

no gear > kicked > missed gear > cycle repeats

@SamSeder @jimmy_dore has made his ultimate intention clear. Check out this video from an interview he did with Niko House yesterday. This should be extremely concerning from anyone serious about the progressive movement. It’s clear that Dore is trying to tear down the squad. (1/11)

@jimmy_dore But here he goes further. He believes that he had set up a test to see if progressive politicians are worth voting for or not. Only if they pass his test would they be worth voting for. Right now they are not. (2/11)

@jimmy_dore I don’t see how anyone can argue that Dore’s message is not extremely dangerous for the progressive movement. He is literally saying there is no point in voting for any progressive politicians. If a nefarious actor did want to infiltrate a political movement, (3/11)

@jimmy_dore what better way than to use a popular figure to spread anger and hate and convince his or followers that there is no point in voting for anyone in that movement. There is no more powerful way to succeed in killing a movement. That’s what Dore is doing. (4/11)

@jimmy_dore Jimmy Dore on Niko House show 12/20/20

Jimmy Dore: What’s the point? As Norman Solomon said after the entire squad voted for the extension of the Patriot Act to extend Donald Trump's fucking spying powers. As they were calling him a Russian puppet, (5/11)

“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.

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,

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.

In the spring of 2001, I was going to a meeting at the place where I worked then and still work now. Another of the people at the meeting was an academic dean of our school. She was perhaps the purest expression of academia *at* that school.

1/

That day she was literally wearing a tweed blazer. Before she'd become a dean she'd been an English teacher. Now, the epitome of English Teachers, in my brain, was and remains my father. That day she was a close second.

2/

That day I said hello and asked how she was or somesuch.

She gave me a slightly wry smile. "Oh, you know. Measuring my life in coffee spoons," she said. I chuckled, and we may have traded a couple more lines of 'Prufrock.' I'm not sure.

3/

And I've always been a fan of T.S. Eliot, so it felt natural enough to come to and fro, talking of Michelangelo, and otherwise it seemed a clever turn of phrase just before a meeting about school management systems and database development.

4/

It is a couple of days before 2021, and I am 20 years older, and that memory has taken on a very different shade and tenor. We have all seen too much since then, over and over again.

5/

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.

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