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Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

I have a theory about 2020.

Bear with me...I’ve done the math and it checks out, but I have no way to prove it, so it’s purely theoretical.

At this time.

1/

 Here’s the thing...it wasn’t supposed to be this bad.

There are safeguards, you see? Many times when things were going dark, heroes, mostly reluctant heroes, would appear from elsewhere to save us. To set things right.

But this year, they didn’t...why?

2/
When things go bad., it’s because someone messed with the timeline, and someone else has to set it right.

A thousand alternate timelines have been stopped before they could happen, because these chronsl plumbers showed up to fix the leak before it floods the house.
3/
The general public never knows what they have fixed because the alternate timeline has disappeared, vanished, into a limbo none of us ever touch.

But this year, something happened.

4/
You can’t break the laws of reality forever.

Eventually, the gatekeepers find you.

And their revenge is terrible.

5/
They arrive in broad daylight at the moment of meddling with the time stream.

It took them a long time to find our guardians.

And they arrive, eyeless, with glittering, silver teeth and the sound of cereal being chewed by a gaping, all-consuming maw.

6/
The Langoliers.

It took ages.

But they found our guardians.

And they followed them.

7/
And their rage at seeing their sole purpose tampered with is unspeakable, horrendous.

One by one they chased our rescuers down.

There is nowhere to hide, no WHEN to hide.

They came for each one, ravenous and implacable.

Eternity was not big enough.

8/
One by one, they chased them down.

A police call box. A phone booth. A DeLorean.

Nothing was fast enough. Nothing went far enough.

Teeth that tear through steel found our guardians and showed no mercy.

9/
We already have come to believe they never really existed, that they were merely stories to amuse us.

Soon, we won’t even remember their names. This thread will fade and vanish, the toys and books will disappear. The streaming services will be diminished.

10/
Sam Beckett.
Ted “Theodore” Logan.
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
H.G. Wells.
Marty McFly
Doc Brown

There were more, many more.

But their names are already lost to us.

Eventually, the Langoliers took down the Doctor, bits of multi-colored scarf in their glittering teeth.

11/
Don’t ask me how I remember what it was like before, when they set things right, again and again. I can’t explain it.

And I don’t know how long this knowledge will stay in memory.

I only know that there was a better time, where kindness and knowledge were valued...and...

12/
...I’m sorry, what was I talking about again?

And what is that godawful SOUND?

?/

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Abir Ballan \U0001f60a
Abir Ballan 😊
@abirballan
The ten points of the Nuremberg Code
1) The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

2) The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature. 2/n

3) The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment. 3/n

4) The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury. 4/n

5) No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects. 5/n
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NotTheMacAnon
NotTheMacAnon
@NotTheMacAnon1
2020 marks the start of the quantum dot revolution.

Completely ignoring the fact that "photocatalytic generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from quantum dots (QDs) has been widely reported."

Results: It was found that whereas singlet oxygen (1O2) was not produced by photoexcited QDs, superoxide anion(O2− )and hydroxyl radicals(OH) were generated by QDs, especially in the presence of a physiological concentration of electron donating agent including NADH.

Using cell metabolic activity assays and various probes of ROS generation, the formation of ROS in cellular environments was demonstrated.

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Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
After the 9/11 attacks, airlines and public buildings adopted a flurry of "security" measures, like taking away pen-knives from fliers or requiring visitors to office buildings to be photographed or present a driver's license.

1/


Bruce Schneier's seminal 2003 "Beyond Fear" called these measures: #securitytheater.

Schneier pointed out that these measures would be easy to circumvent, and were thus providing only the comforting appearance of security - not security

Security theater is worse than nothing. Security theater gives people the false impression that their risks have been mitigated, when actually things are just as dangerous.

After al, if you know that danger exists, you can take some steps to mitigate or avoid it.

3/

But if you have the false impression that you've been made safer, you might unwittingly engage in risky behavior.

4/

Like, if you know your car's brakes are flaky, you might nurse the car along to the mechanic at low speed on side-streets.

But if you don't know about the brakes, you're apt to discover their flaws at 75mph on the freeway.

5/
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Melissa J. Hogan
Melissa J. Hogan
@melissajhogan
🧵 @DianeLangberg wrote about NDAs in Christian environments, noting “An NDA is an agreement to hide something. In the cases I have encountered it has always been an agreement to exercise power over and hide sin.... [it is] unlike our Lord.”
1/

NDAs are traditionally “non-disclosure” - don’t talk about specific X. Often in church/ministry cases - they’re overly broad - don’t talk abt *anything* re: your employment

but also may include

“non-disparagement” - don’t say anything negative about us EVEN IF IT IS TRUE
2/

Numerous articles have described the use of NDAs in Christian environments and the conflict with principles described in the very faith supposedly being promoted. I’m linking them here then I’ll offer my 20-year lawyer and victim of silencing (gag order) take on the practice.
3/

“Silence of the sheep” (2018) from @emlybelz described how the conference of catholic bishops has now banned NDAs in abuse cases but how some churches and Christian orgs still use them without

Later in 2018, @scotmcknight discussed NDAs after the Bill Hybels sex abuse scandal, noting that often the stronger party is implicated in sin because the whole reason for the NDA is bc they know that something is wrong and they don’t want it
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Cory Doctorow #BLM
Cory Doctorow #BLM
@doctorow
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs; Strength in numbers; and more!

Archived at: https://t.co/esjoT3u5Gr

#Pluralistic

1/


On Feb 22, I'm delivering a keynote address for the NISO Plus conference, "The day of the comet: what trustbusting means for digital manipulation."

https://t.co/Z84xicXhGg

2/


Planet Money on HP's myriad ripoffs: Ink-stained wretches of the world, unite!

https://t.co/k5ASdVUrC2

3/


Strength in numbers: The crisis in accounting.

https://t.co/DjfAfHWpNN

4/


#15yrsago Bad Samaritan family won’t return found expensive camera https://t.co/Rn9E5R1gtV

#10yrsago What does Libyan revolution mean for https://t.co/Jz28qHVhrV? https://t.co/dN1e4MxU4r

5/
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Here, Muruga got Vel from Devi to fight Suran. So the place was called Vel kadu which became Verkadu.


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1/OK, data mystery time.

This New York Times feature shows China with a Gini Index of less than 30, which would make it more equal than Canada, France, or the Netherlands. https://t.co/g3Sv6DZTDE

That's weird. Income inequality in China is legendary.

Let's check this number.

2/The New York Times cites the World Bank's recent report, "Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World".

The report is available here:

3/The World Bank report has a graph in which it appears to show the same value for China's Gini - under 0.3.

The graph cites the World Development Indicators as its source for the income inequality data.


4/The World Development Indicators are available at the World Bank's website.

Here's the Gini index: https://t.co/MvylQzpX6A

It looks as if the latest estimate for China's Gini is 42.2.

That estimate is from 2012.

5/A Gini of 42.2 would put China in the same neighborhood as the U.S., whose Gini was estimated at 41 in 2013.

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Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193
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Keep dwelling on this:
Further Examination of the Motif near PRRA Reveals Close Structural Similarity to the SEB Superantigen as well as Sequence Similarities to Neurotoxins and a Viral SAg.

The insertion PRRA together with 7 sequentially preceding residues & succeeding R685 (conserved in β-CoVs) form a motif, Y674QTQTNSPRRAR685, homologous to those of neurotoxins from Ophiophagus (cobra) and Bungarus genera, as well as neurotoxin-like regions from three RABV strains

(20) (Fig. 2D). We further noticed that the same segment bears close similarity to the HIV-1 glycoprotein gp120 SAg motif F164 to V174.
https://t.co/EwwJOSa8RK


In (B), the segment S680PPRAR685 including the PRRA insert and highly conserved cleavage site *R685* is shown in van der Waals representation (black labels) and nearby CDR residues of the TCRVβ domain are labeled in blue/white
https://t.co/BsY8BAIzDa


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https://t.co/BsY8BAIzDa
Y674 - QTQTNSPRRA - R685
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Superantigenic core, consistently aligned against bacterial or viral SAgs
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