Thread .... 👇👇👇

Situation Update, Dec. 11th – DoD de-fangs the CIA, 305th intel proves foreign interference, SCOTUS maneuvers

1/ The “No Surprises Act” is deeply flawed. It should not advance in its current form. Work must continue to reach a meaningful remedy to “surprise medical bills” #SMB that keeps patients out of the middle and provides balance.

Here are several concerns w/ the current proposal:

2/ The proposal should require that the initial “interim payment” made by the insurer for out-of-network services be considered the plan’s offer for IDR, to incentivize the insurer to pay a fair initial reimbursement.

But, the proposal does not.

3/ The proposal should allow the IDR process to consider UCR and an independent charge-based database. Lest it be a form of price-fixing by insurers since the qualifying payment is indexed to the insurer-set in-network median rate (w/CPIU adjustment).

But, the proposal does not.

4/ The proposal should avoid a complex administrative burden that threatens practice viability and leads to consolidation and higher healthcare costs for patients. Cost effective independent physician practice provides patients choice.

But, the proposal does not.

5/ The proposal should explicitly prohibit the IDR process from considering Medicare, Medicaid, and other public payer rates. These are well known to be below the cost of providing care and these programs are not implicated by the #SMB provisions.

But, the proposal does not.

I took a drive down the 22 yesterday to check out a #monolith that popped up in the Crowsnest Pass area! Went to investigate, left realizing the @UCPCaucus is likely involved, in a bad way, as usual

More in thread 🔽

#monolithmystery
#FiretheUCP #ableg #WaterNotCoal #Alberta

If you haven't driven down the 22, it is gorgeous - rolling foothills, streams cutting through picturesque ranch land, and a rugged mountain landscape background. Near Maycroft provincial park, right near the Crowsnest pass is where this thing stands, approx. 12 feet tall.

It sounds like the Tin Man from Oz when you knock on it and looks to be made of shiny sheet metal. Seems to be mounted firmly into the ground, with no visible supports

Its similar to others I've seen, only in pictures, but has an additional feature: what appears to be an extra component that seems to indicate the monolith is 'pointing' to a larger swath of area, rather than strictly in the direction of the acute triangle shaped object's 'point'

If that is the case, it looks to point towards a chunk of the eastern slopes of Southern Alberta. A chunk that happens to be where the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal mine would be located.

The republican speeches today are familiar to any abuse survivor.

"I hate that you made me hit you. I've never hit anyone before, so that's how awful you've been to me to make me do that. And the way you keep pushing this, it feels like you're trying to make me go there again."

1/ How many times have u been told that ‘Imposter syndrome’ is an internal problem? That it’s your responsibility to make it go away from your mind. That it’s entirely a figment of your own imagination. Well I don’t think so, but the journey to this conclusion has been painful 🧵

2/ Let’s start with the definition of Imposter syndrome: it’s basically those feelings of inadequacy & doubt in your abilities to do the things that you’ve proved successful in doing by virtue of your achievements & qualifications. This in turn affects your confidence to do them.

3/We’re told women, particularly those from minoritised backgrounds, have this more intensely though it can affect anyone. I’ve certainly felt it throughout my life intensifying at times of stress and overload. But is it entirely internally triggered? Well, this is the narrative.

4/ You go to courses, you read articles, you speak to mentors and what they usually tell you is that it’s all in your mind. Perhaps triggered by your social upbringing & cultural background. So you must work on it. But I’ve realised recently that it’s not just that.

5/ Some people in your surroundings trigger this, to be fair to them perhaps unconsciously. They may have in their minds a stereotype of you that is inadequate & incapable of achieving what you’ve achieved in reality. So they do or say things that trigger the feeling in you..

So much cultural criticism boils down to chewing on the strange result of popular genre chum--guilty pleasure stuff--being taken more seriously than it was really designed for or capable of sustaining.

Im thinking about the furors around American Dirt, Bridgerton, and WW84, which, in different ways, are all objects meant to be consumed for pleasure without thinking too much about why and how. And then you think about them and you're like "wow, this sucks."

Scads of thrillers as bad or worse than American Dirt are published constantly, and no one but their readers notices, but THIS one got lots of "serious" attention, so it was held to real literary standards and eviscerated.

Bridgerton is an adaptation of romance novels--not serious alt-history--but when claims for the progressive work it was doing were made, lots of folks were like "wow, this seems pretty silly and kinda careless?"

And the conversation around WW84 is fascinating because of the strange way "comic book movie" is simultaneously "stupid goofy fun, not supposed to make sense" and "this is an allegory for America under Trump" (doubly vexed by the "saving cinema!" role WW84 was slotted into)

CW Nightmare

In the torn out belly of an old, sprawling hotel, I found myself investigating strange happenings in the fledgling restaurant that sprouted in the blasted ruin.

Swarthy men gutted the collapse, using every nail & timber to build the eatery and it's long tables.
1🧵

I swear to have seen a spider, large as a dinner plate, with an ape-like face and twitching human fingers for legs, ground down to bloody points. But only a flash witnessed in a broken pane of glass. The bike thing was some illusion. A twisting of light and color, nothing more.

It was then , in the darkening hours of the day, that six young travelers entered, seating themselves at the single large feast table. Colorful, happy, bawdy souls in all, they seemed unaffected by the haze of terror that lingered among the workmen.
3🧵

I found no sign of mold or damp, gas or chemical, any phenomenon to explain the various sightings.
The matron, dutiful and mild in manner, brought the travelers beer, soft pretzels, and honey butter - leaving them to chitter and indulge.
4 🧵

The workmen, in the growing dark, left as quickly as a flock of larks, in one writing mass at the foreman's whistle. Unashamed in their obvious terror. Each man nodded to me, the stranger, in quiet gratitude and sorrowful fancy, as I dared to remain after dark.
5 🧵

I seek the Lord God Almighty, the King of the hosts of heaven. Lord I beseech you to pour out your military upon our earth and specifically throughout the United States of America. Send your generals to do your work in our land. Take down every stronghold of our enemy...

Here are their names:

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District

Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama’s 6th Congressional District

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio’s 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ralph Abraham of Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District

Rep. Rick W. Allen of Georgia’s 12th Congressional District

Rep. James R. Baird of Indiana’s 4th Congressional District

Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan’s 1st Congressional District

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona’s 5th Congressional District

Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida’s 12th Congressional District

Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois’s 12th Congressional District

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas’s 8th Congressional District

Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama’s 5th Congressional District

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ted Budd of North Carolina’s 13th Congressional

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Michael C. Burgess of Texas’s 26th Congressional District

Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama’s 1st Congressional District

Rep. Ken Calvert of California’s 42nd Congressional District

Quick Thread on the Gut Microbiome

Hippocrates said: “All disease begins in the gut.”
While there is significant truth to this, in my personal view of health, it is a little more complex, but it is largely true.

The gut affects the rest of the body, being the gateway to what is absorbed, via the gut-brain axis (directly affects the brain), and due to the metabolism, absorption, detoxification and immune system (70% is in the gut) which takes place/resides in the gut, etc.

This is why it is so critical to take care of our gut health, because once it is negatively affected, it may never be the same again. What affects the gut microbiome? There are over 100,000 trillion microorganisms working together in the gut.

There are 10x more bacterial cells than human cells. Usually, we focus on the bacteria, although there are other species.

Currently, out gut microbiome is less diverse than historically, which can have a negative impact on our health as various species have distinct functions (metabolizing food, producing vitamins like B12 – which we have lost, among other functions).

On the issue of access to information for adopted persons #knowyouridentity, there are others who have more expertise in this than me but since I didn't get time to make all the points I would have liked to on @morningireland earlier, here are some thoughts (Thread ⬇️)

The previous AG advised that it would be unconst to provide an unlimited right to access info in leg - reasons were not given but we can presume this opinion is based on the result in the IOT vB case, which is a misreading of that case, while privacy was prioritised in that case

The SC indicated that this was an issue which should properly be dealt with by the Oir, which is entitled to conduct a balancing exercise and decide that one right should prevail over the other. The only prob would be if one set of rights was completely disregarded

Also, the weight of law and legal opinion is on the side of the right to know your identity, a CoA judgmnt last feb identified a right right to have your identity correctly recognised by the State and that was said to encompass a right to have a birth certificate and a passport.

The ECHR has recognised identity rights in respect of a variety of adoption information context & under EU law a person’s name is their personal data to which they have a right & personal data can lawfully be restricted only if there is clear legislation that allows for it

A lengthy thread I wrote just to write. Feel free to ignore.

1/ The future of consumer GPUs is probably less ASICy than people think. I think we're nearing the end of growing non-general purpose compute/cache die utilization in consumer GPUs. Here's why:

2/ Real world RT core usage is far from peak theoretical perf. On Nvidia, they're cache starved. The way to improve performance for Nvidia is to add more cache to the die a la infinity cache. On AMD, it's just to improve their RT core design, which isn't great.

More importantly,

3/ real world RT core usage is very naive. It's often collect n sample per pixel with m reflections w/irradiance caching, & then run A-SVGF to denoise. This usually works well, but sucks w/moving objects, fine details like leaves on distant trees, and the combo of leaves in wind.

4/ But research already shows that you can get pretty drastic improvements w/adaptive sampling in that case.

Beyond that, adaptive sampling research usually focuses on general cases. But consumer GPUs use RT for e.g. games, Blender, etc. These aren't super general. The engines

5/ underpinning these applications have access to a lot of information. For example, developers can add hints to objects to suggest to the renderer that they be sampled more or less.

Better exploitation of temporal data and ray tracing statistics can make a lot of the rays cast

My friend @RiirReeRii comes out with another argument against The Trinity

P1) God exists a se (From the definition of "God)
P2) The Father begetting the Son/Generation is a causal relation.
C1) Therefore, the Son exists ab alio.
P4) The Son is God (From, "Trinity")

C2) Therefore, the Son exists a se (From 1, 4)
C3) Therefore, the Son is exists both a se and ab alio (From C1 and C3)
C4) Therefore, "The Son" Is self-contradictory
C5) Therefore, The Trinity is self-contradictory

By a se we are just referring to God's aseity (i.e, the term a se means "through itself"). Aseity refers to God's uncaused, independant, unconditioned, necessary, etc. Existence.

We are simply exemplifying how God's existence is independant from and unaffected by anything outside of him. It's important to note that "Aseity" doesn't just mean "metaphysical necessity" / "existence in every possible world", since we could have Ab Alio necessities as well.

Ab Alio simply meaning, "Through another." In contrast with A se.

The second Premise might seem a bit weird. Someone might argue that the relation between the Father and the Son isn't "causal" in any sense. But this is just heretical.

I know my opinion doesn’t count for much. I’m a faceless name on Twitter (for valid reasons I won’t dilute this message with). However I have been massively affected by what has taken place over the last few days in Scotland and I wanted to air my feelings around this. 1/

We are being told that sex and gender are interchangeable by many and that changing the wording within the amazing Forensic Medical Services Bill makes no difference to the services survivors receive.

We are told this as though we haven’t been privy to the raging debate 2/

around it for the last few years. In years past people often replaced sex with gender to appease sensibilities around sex. This was an accepted practice because it caused no real concerns or issues in regard to the actual protected characteristic of sex. 3/

However, in more recent times gender is no longer used in the same way. Gender is not defined in law but it is being conflated with sex to the extent that people are suggesting that they mean the same thing. They do not and the law agrees that they don’t. 4/

There appears to have been policy capture at the highest levels, within our government, LA’s, NHS and other orgs. These places have made preemptive assumptions on advice from lobby groups that they proudly display champion badges for and pay thousands of pounds to each year. 5/

IMHO, this article — https://t.co/wLiWDOZrvm — is an important corrective to fatalism about the new strain. As in, "welp, there are probably already at least a handful of cases of the new strain already here, so no matter what we do now, it's gonna spread." Not necessarily so.

"10 to 20 percent of infected people may be responsible for...80 to 90 percent of transmission."

"An early run of bad [or good!] luck...can produce dramatically different outcomes."

New Zealand had 277 separate introductions; only 19% of them led to more than 1 additional case.

That's all referring to the original COVID strain, but I haven't read anything suggesting that the same pattern doesn't apply to the new variant. Not sure if we know yet, but it's at least possible a lot of people don't spread it (while the few that do, spread it *A LOT* a lot).

Here's what we know, or think we know:

* The new variant is here, with probably at least a handful of undetected cases.

* The new variant is so wildly contagious that, once it gains a foothold, cases WILL spike.

* Cases stopped rising steeply around Nov. 10 (by onset day).

It seems like 1 of 2 things is true:

1) New variant arrived in October or earlier, and helped cause our November spike. We then reined it in, without even realizing it was here.

2) New-variant community spread is low-level thus far, at least thru ~Xmas. No superspreaders yet.

As we celebrate the end of this difficult year and welcome 2021, I’d like to take an opportunity to review the past year in our 35th Ward. Thread🧵👇🏽

We started this year by passing our 606 demolition moratorium, which has helped preserve our built environment, promote environmentally sustainable building practices, and protect affordable two- and three-flat apartment buildings near the 606 trail.

In January, we also amended Chicago’s sanctuary city ordinance to require our police department to report any requests they receive from ICE. This was a major step forward for accountability, transparency, and immigrant protections.

In February, we continued our work to address displacement and win housing justice for all Chicagoans by advocating for Just Cause for Eviction legislation.

We also continued to advocate to close the loopholes in our sanctuary city ordinance.

Kamala Harris is not eligible to be VP or POTUS under Article II & the 12th Amendment of the Constitution.