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Saved by @CodyyyGardner

Nearly time to bid farewell to 2020. Never been prouder to be a @FT science writer - nor more grateful to be able to carry on working. A short, indulgent (sorry!) thread on writing covid...

Starting on Jan 8 with a mystery pneumonia https://t.co/d21b1e3gr4 via @financialtimes

 A realisation at the end of Jan that this could be ‘the one’...

https://t.co/DXYLW44NZt
...and that healthcare might need rationing. Except I thought this would be a one-off in the spring first wave. Never dreamed we’d be in a worse place nearly a year later.

Remember, we have yet to pay the ‘Xmas mixing’ dividend 😔

https://t.co/uYs5j7HsM6
But at least a vaccine was in the works. The road was shorter than I thought 😂...free to read)

https://t.co/m8lSRwoPIi
...but, until it arrived, we had to learn to operate in a new landscape of risk (free to read)

https://t.co/ZVRPVK0l2U
Public trust is vital in a pandemic but in summer the U.K. govt was losing it over schools.

Again, can’t believe we are fighting this one all over again. The worst ever Groundhog Day...
https://t.co/FbwTdljNju
...and in the summer we were still debating how the virus spread, particularly whether aerosols mattered.

https://t.co/0i3kBjaf9N
The vaccines were ticking along nicely in the autumn but we still didn’t have a good evidence base on behavioural science & non-drug measures like masks, 10pm curfews. fear we have not seen the last of these, even after vaccination...

https://t.co/hjdakvC19Y
...partly because we might need to spread vaccine doses a bit more thinly than we’d like (and while I opined this 👇🏽in mid-Dec, I didn’t think it would actually end up happening)

https://t.co/uTa5DPICVI
I could not have survived it without fab @FT colleagues like @brookeamasters & @clivecookson @donatopmancini & many more, but most of all...
...I am so very very grateful to the frontline health workers - nurses, docs, support staff - that have given *everything* to keep the rest of us safe, at great risk to themselves....
...plus the school & uni staff who ensured my children were still educated *in a pandemic*....and the food industry & supermarket workers who kept us fed *in a pandemic*....
...and the transport staff who kept London moving *in a pandemic*....and the delivery drivers who kept us supplied *in a pandemic*...
...and it is out of sincere respect and gratitude to them, and to so many others, that I will be staying indoors tonight for the first NYE I can remember. With copious amounts of Prosecco I will toast my dad, who died alone in hospital (not of #covid)
...this year because we, like so many bereaved families, could not see him. I only wish he could have lived long enough to see the vaccines rolled out: Dad always believed that science was a powerful force for good in the world, a conviction I share.
So, my final thank you: to the scientists, drug companies and manufacturers, and clinical trial volunteers that have brought us such hope for the future. I cannot wait to get my jab. 💉

Here’s to a happier and healthier 2021 🎉 🍸

More from Finance

Chamath Palihapitiya
Chamath Palihapitiya
@chamath
A children's book explanation of what's happening:

1. If you are "smart money" you are allowed to take your $1 and leverage it up to $15+

2. You can now buy $15 of stock AND if you promise to short companies, you can short $15 of stock as well

3. In finance language, this means that you are $30 "gross" ($15 of longs + $15 of shorts) but $0 net (+$15 of longs -$15 of shorts). This makes everyone feel good because it feels like you are taking zero risk...but in reality, your $1 is exposed to $30 of risk.

4. Now you go around and tell your friends about both your longs and your shorts and when you do it at a restaurant vs on Reddit, its called an "ideas dinner".

5. You also publish your longs on a quarterly lag via an SEC rule. You don't have to tell anyone about your shorts.

6. Now the less cool people who weren't invited to the ideas dinners, start copying your longs based on your report.

7. You realize that publicizing your shorts is also a good idea so instead of only selling stocks, you also BUY options (puts) which has to be reported.

8. Now everyone can see both your longs and your shorts and if you have a hot hand, you can likely predict that the cool people from the dinner as well as the less cool people monitoring your filings will copy you.

9. But then an outsider notices that the math is way off!
CULTURE , ALL , FINANCE
Kostas \U0001f468\u200d\U0001f4bc \U0001f4c8 \U0001f4b8
Kostas 👨‍💼 📈 💸...
@itsKostasWithK
This year I started writing daily on Twitter about finance and investing and gained more than 500 followers in 2 weeks

Here are the main things I learned on Twitter growth

1. Brand
2. Content
3. Engagement
4. Networking
5. Tools

/THREAD/

1. Brand
You need to find a niche you are interested in and focus on it
E.g. finance, fashion, travel, etc.

Adjust your profile by adding a profile picture and banner that will show someone what your profile is about and why they should follow you.

Add a linktree that will have all the links for your blog, website, newsletter, etc.

2. Content
Don't wait to gain followers before posting. Nobody will follow you if they see an empty feed.

Start posting daily focusing more on single tweets or threads that provide insights on a topic people in your niche might be interested in.

At first, it will feel like talking to a mirror.

Have a pinned tweet, which will be your best one that will catch the attention of someone visiting your profile.
FINANCE
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Simon Lelieveldt
Simon Lelieveldt
@finhstamsterdam
The Dutch regulator and DNB as financial supervisor are a tough cookie to deal with. In essence they hyperregulate EU-rules into goldplated Dutch rules which go beyond what is prescribed in Europe.

All NL-customers at British banks may thus be kicked out on brexit.

Thread

/1

If we start with the capital requirements directive, it says attracting deposits is forbidden. In article 9.

https://t.co/RYl7SXligC


Now the translation of that rule into Dutch law is slightly expanded to not only prohibit attracting deposits, but to also prohibit, having those deposits under custody ('ter beschikking hebben').

That's not in EU law, but it is in our Dutch law.

https://t.co/PsbWfNY3PA


So if you wonder how this would work out for UK banks and Payment institutions servicing Dutch customers. Have a read at the technical explanation of DNB, the financial supervisor and their summarising table.

https://t.co/LL0fAnYkRJ

Passive servicing of Dutch is not allowed!


Any bank or PSP in the UK that continues to serve Dutch customers (as in retail customers, professional players are excepted) can thus be subject to fines and policing under Dutch law.

Meaning we not only have Accidental American issues in payments, but also Accidental Dutchies
FINANCE
Kirtan A Shah
Kirtan A Shah
@KirtanShahCFP
Does increase in Inflation & hence interest rates lead to a fall in equity? While theoretically yes, practically the last 20 years of data shows otherwise

Please ‘re-tweet’ 🧵& help us educate more retail investors

#Investing

Lets start with basic, y does inflation ⬆️?
Most feel bcoz of higher demand & lower supply but that’s nt the only factor. Imagine there is a shortage of laptops wrt the demand, but there is no liquidity in the market (people don’t have monies) will the price of laptop ⬆️? No

So, Inflation takes place because the demand supply situation is accompanied by high liquidity, people have the monies to spend and hence the price goes up. Inflation does not take place only because of the demand supply gap (3/n)

Its RBI’s job to keep inflation under check. What role does RBI play? RBI is comfortable keeping Inflation between 2-6% currently. So if Inflation is increasing, how can RBI control it? Can RBI do anything to demand & supply? Nothing (4/n)

So the only tool available with RBI to control inflation is controlling liquidity. If RBI is able to reduce liquidity in the market, less money will chase the goods and hence Inflation can be expected to stabilize. (5/n)
FINANCE
Ram Bhupatiraju
Ram Bhupatiraju
@RamBhupatiraju
One of my fav docs to come back to during all market cycles. Covering Investment principles, checklists, economic cycles/bubbles, value traps & more. Phenomenal compilation by @pcordway👏

cc: @dmuthuk @Gautam__Baid @saxena_puru

Some of my fav content.⬇️

https://t.co/TIkvktVoJC


Pretty good process and checklist.


Tenets from "The Warren Buffett Way"


Some lessons from Ben Graham


Phil Fisher's 15 Questions and 10 Don'ts.
FINANCE

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Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI THIRUNARAYANA PERUMAL, MELKOTE (KAR)

Known as Dakshin Badri, Thiru Narayanapuram is one of the four famous Swayambu Kshetrams, the other three being Srirangam, Kanchipuram and Tirupati.
The presiding diety is Cheluva Narayana Swamy/ Selva Pillai/ Rama Priyan.


Once, Sri Rama gave his aradhana murthi of Sri Ranganatha, to Raja Vibhishana on his request. So he was left without a murthi for his daily pujas. Brahma is said to have provided the murti of Selva Pillai to Rama who later passed this on to his sons, Lava and Kusa.


When Kusa’s daughter married a Yadava prince, this murthi moved to the lunar dynasty from solar.

It is said that the utsav murthi got the name Selva Pillai due to Sri Ramanuja.
Once, a Sultan took away this murthi and Sri Ramanuja went in its search to the Sultan’s palace.
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Hello Dear Tweeples!

It’s Siddhars time of the week! Last week I shared story of Guru (Machamuni or Yogi Matsyendranath), this week I bring you information on his Shishya.

#Thread on Gorakanathar Siddhar.

@LostTemple7


His origin story is interesting, though I couldn’t verify it’s authenticity, so not sharing the story here. He’s shishya of Machamuni Siddhar and also learnt from Agasthiya Siddhar.

@HelloNNewman @RajiIndustani @Kishoreciyer1

Unlike other Siddhars, he is depicted as either with a Tiger or seated & wearing Tiger skin. While I couldn’t find any explanation for this. My interpretation is as follows:

Tiger is a predator that lurks around and attacks unexpectedly.


Our 5 indriyas and 5 vikitis also similar to Tiger, they lurk around and attacks our thoughts when we’re least expecting. Gorakkar is said to have mastered these aspects, thus to denote this, he shown with Tiger.

@Itishree001 @VarierSangitha @jananisampath

Gorakanathar or Gorakshnath (as he’s known in the Nath Sampraday) is celebrated Guru in both Northern and Southern part of India. He’s one of the NavNath in Nath Sampraday and also 18 Siddhars of Tamil tradition. During his life, he’s travelled Indian subcontinent extensively +
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Jonathan Ware
Jonathan Ware
@ReassessHistory
So when it first appeared in Normandy, the Sherman Firefly and it's meaty 17 pounder represented an ideal combo of reliable chassis, great gun and devastating firepower right?

Ummm...

Truth is a bit more complex. /1
#WW2 #SWW #History


Deliveries of Firefly to units only commenced in April 1944,
just a few weeks before Overlord & left minimal time for familiarisation.

Armoured Regiments mostly utilised Fireflies on a basis of 1 per troop of 4 tanks. /2


Finally each armoured regiment troop had access to integral, meaty, anti-tank firepower capable of dealing serious damage to any German AFV likely to be encountered. /3


The dual purpose 75mm gun was quite capable of laying down a reasonable HE shell or AP round for dealing with Panzer III or IV.

Firefly's 17 Pounder had.... problems with HE, but excelled at tank killing. So Tigers and Panthers would need to be wary. /4


Firefly's design history dated back to March 1943 when the General Staff published "Policy on Tanks" which effectively stated the majority of tanks should have a good HE weapon and...

[See image below] /5
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Jonathan Ware
Jonathan Ware
@ReassessHistory
Rhino Barges

One of the dullest, coolest, more bizarre and fascinating pieces of kit used in Normandy.

Which NO ONE REALLY CARES ABOUT.

BUT I DO AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
/1

#WW2 #SWW #History


Planning for Overlord and Neptune had a serious snag, how to get troops from LSTs onto the beach as simply ramming them onto the beaches and dropping the ramp was known to damage the exceptionally vulnerable LSTs and felt to be unsustainable in the mid to long term. /2


LSTs were essential in sustaining Overlord's progress and were a subject of major headaches in the planning phase, and a real subject of friction when it came to launching additional amphibious operations such as Dragoon.

A single LSTs loss represented a capability nick. /3


So, logic dictated, we don't really want these remarkable but rare and highly valuable vessels constantly doing beach landings, we want something to act as a medium between ship to shore, and in came the (mostly) American designed Rhino. /4


I fucking love Rhinos.

Seriously.

Graceful lines of pure industrial pedigree.

Modular.

LOOK AT IT. /5
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sriram
sriram
@SriramKannan77
12 Azhwars (Alwars)

The 12 Azhwars, (the Main composers of Naalayira Divya Prabandam - 4000 poetic Rhymes) are known as Nityasuris or Divyasuris; those who reside permanently with the Lord in His Heavenly abode.


They have incarnated as Azhwars -Vasihnavite Saints - to propagate Bhakthi Marga, devotion to Lord Vishnu.

Alwars have dedicated their lives towards Lord Sriman Narayana and they led their life by praising Him.

These Alwars were born in various parts of our country but they were all united in a common subject, ie dedicating their lives and praising the Lord.

Poigai Alwar, Bhoodath Alwar and Pei Alwar are collectively called as "Mudhal Alwars" were found in the same period of time.

Thirumazhisai Alwar, who thought the Perumal as his friend and has sung Mangalasasanam on Perumal.

Thirumangai Alwar was a great king and later, changed his life to work for the Perumal and for his bhaktaas.

Thondaradippodi Alwar, who is also named as "Vipra Narayanar" led his life as the servant to the God and did service to Him by offering beautiful Garlands.
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