Data drop! Some numbers, nuggets and trends for bowl season which I find interesting...

Miami has lost 9 of its last 10 bowl games and is 2-10 ATS in its last 12 bowl games. Oklahoma State has covered each of its last four bowl games, three coming as an underdog.

This is the first time since 2011 Texas is favored in a bowl game...

Wisconsin has won five of their last six bowl games with the only loss in that span a one-point loss to Oregon last year in the Rose Bowl. Each of Wake Forest’s last five bowl games have been one-possession games (6, 3, 3, 8, 6)...

Mike Leach coached teams are 1-9 ATS in their last ten bowl games (4-6 SU). Included in those ten games are four outright losses and a 1-7 ATS mark as a favorite. In the last five years, Leach’s teams have averaged 19.6 PPG in bowl games (28 is the high in that span)...

1/ The poor during lockdown;

In poorer, working class towns, the majority of jobs, when there are any, are in supermarkets and the care (mainly elderly) industry. This makes them “key workers”.

2/ It’s then of no surprise that poor schools, in poor areas are dealing with large amounts of “key worker” children

One local school has 150 “key worker” children, which, by the headmaster’s own admission, makes closing the schools utterly pointless and “defeats the object”

3/ Any other children in the local area are, more likely than not, the children of the unemployed.

In towns like Camborne, Pool, and Redruth, where house prices are extortionate, wages incredibly low, compared to the rest of the UK,

4/ Water rates and Council Tax higher than anywhere else in the UK outside of London*for decades, having a baby and getting a council property has been a career choice, as opposed to something to fall back on in a time of desperation.

5/In towns Like Camborne, there is little opportunity. There are few Doctors, Architects, Brain Surgeons, entrepreneurs, Solicitors, and various other successful people to inspire the next generation. Because, of course, people earning that sort of money,

Finally watched The Bee Gees doc. I’ve always been a fan but I have new respect for their artistry.

I am *especially* glad that the doc explicitly called out the fact that the “death of disco” was pointedly homophobic and racist.

I do wish a bit more time had been spent on the fact that The Bee Gees, as hard as it was to survive the blowback, were able to do so both because of their musical & writing talent and because they were all white straight men. The latter doesn’t diminish their gifts.

But plenty of extremely talented Black and LGBTQ artists of color never survived the undermining of and blowback against (bad) disco.

Disco-and songs that are really R&B but got that commercial label-is rooted firmly in a Black tradition The Bee Gees always acknowledged.

And none of that can be separated from the attacks on it.

The scene of the Black former Comiskey Park usher is one I’ll think about for a long time. “It was a racist, homophobic book burning. That’s all it was.”

True tea, which the doc also brilliantly explored: a lot of the “disco” folks hated was actually trash bc straight white men got greedy and commercialized it beyond recognition and quality.

So a bunch of artists who were talented beyond a genre-including The Bee Gees-were harmed

Since a lot of my fellow Texans are going to apply for aid through @FEMA let’s talk about the agency and some of the barriers disaster survivors encounter and persisting program flaws.

First things first, @FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s a blog I wrote about its history and shortcomings in how the agency is funded:

Many people will be applying for Individual Assistance (IA), but past disasters have shown us that help isn’t evenly distributed and frequently struggles to reach those in deepest need. This unpacks some of the class bias in accepted/rejected apps:

Of course, there are racial dimensions to this as well:

Documentation is seen as helping reduce fraud, but after a disaster many docs are destroyed. People who are denied assistance and appeal are often told to make small changes to the documents they provide or provide updated documentation b/c of how long the aid process takes.

I have always had a huge interest in the SSW and, like many of us, that stemmed from learning about family experiences. What follows is a thread on my great uncle’s service. Sadly he passed away when I was young but thankfully he wrote down some of his wartime experiences.

Lt Keith Best served in 2 Troop of 591 squadron attached to 9th Parachute Battalion. 2 Troop formed part of the force that was to be dropped on the heavy gun battery at Merville. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan…

“When we got across the Channel there was a lot of flak and our pilot seemed to be taking evasive action…We began to get thrown about inside and then the red and a green lights came on in what seemed to be unusually quick succession and we were bundled out of the door…

As I found out later, instead of finding the drop zone near Varaville, the RAF put us down well east of the River Dives and ten or fifteen miles off target on higher ground near the village of St Pierre-Azzif. There was nothing I could do about getting to Merville on time.

A map showing the considerable distance between Saint-Pierre Azif (top right) and Merville.

Pretty much a love letter to the farmers in Wisconsin directly from my website:

I'm not a politition so I'm not going to mince words. I am not a democrat or a republican I consider myself a Christian Viking & the party name I will use is the party of "We The People". I am

absolutely disgusted with politicians that have the "Israel first" mentality instead of America first. I will not do anything for special interests, nor will I accept money from AIPAC or big Pharma.  I will work for YOU the Legal American Citizen. We need to get rid of & hold

accountable these bought off satanic perverts in office and stop the madness. Wisconsin should be a leader in agriculture thus I'll make efforts to kick Bayer/Monsanto out of our state with their glyphosate & round up ready seeds and find ways to hold them accountable for the

destruction & damage they've already caused. I want all of our small business up & running and the churches open. I'm absolutely against mask mandates nor do I want people vaccinated with this abhorrent DNA altering experiment. I think marijuana should be legal & hemp used to

detoxify our farmland. I want the fluoride removed from our water & the spraying of heavy metals in our skies stopped. I want criminal justice reform and to stop the incentives for populating private prisons. I'm pro constitution as it was written. Wisconsin should be a leader in

Everybody ready for more #WealthOfNations? Let's go!

The third sort of rude produce is the kind where human attempts to cultivate and improve it produce unpredictable results. Examples include wool and animal hides. (I.xi.m.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

It seems like the price of these should rise right along with the price of meat, but Smith says “Not so fast!” (I.xi.m.3)
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Because this sort of produce travels much better than meat, the market is much much larger. And we all know that more competition drives prices down. (I.xi.m.4–5) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And it all gets more complicated when government gets involved, like it did in the English wool industry. (Isn’t that always the way? You should see the forms we have to fill out to get each tweet govt. approved!) (I.xi.m.8) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

X : When is #mapcamp happening this year?
Me : Wed, Oct 13th.
X : What's the plan?
Me : Right now? Find some funding.

X : How much do you need?
Me : For a 1500 - 3000 person online event? Back of envelope calculation ... about £50k to make it happen. LEF has kindly sponsored it for the last few years but we now need to stand it up on its own two feet.

X : What does that mean?
Me : Like all events, it's a risk profile. So, today the chance of #mapcamp happening is 0%, as we raise some funds, identify costs and find ways of reducing costs etc then that chance increases to a point that we can say ... yep, we can do this.

X : What about ticket sales?
Me : Nothing can ever be guaranteed, so you have to position it to the point that if everything goes wrong the liability is acceptable. Ask me in a month then I'll have a better idea.

X : If it's all about cost, reducing liability etc ... why does anyone run an event?
Me : For the same reason we speak at events. We love the subject. If you didn't then you'd be mad.

I have a passion to help &  educate other trans athletes about their own bodies. I suffer many adverse health conditions from not understanding my own post surgery endocrine system early enough before it had damaged my health.
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This article shows the consequences to health when trans girls experience low T. This is important to educate everyone because in this conversation those against us compare men's performance versus women.
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This article also shows trans girls have very different endocrine systems to a healthy male and as such they should not be compared to men when talking about sports

The only comparison you can make between a trans female athlete and a male would be to compare the trans girl to a male that has either been surgically or chemically sterilized.
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You won't even find men competing in elite sports in this health state without being prescribed T replacement therapy which is not available to a trans woman like me in sports.
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THREAD

1. Dear Primary, Secondary, Further ed and Higher ed colleagues,

Many of you may have experienced working with our youngest children- but as the "foundation stage" the work that happens in these early years will be of great importance to you....

2. Right now whichever phase we work in- whether it is a baby room or a university- it is fair to say that we are all working flat out to do the very best for those we work with. But in this thread I wanted to share with you some of the mess that our sector finds itself in...

3. Firstly- whilst most schools and educational establishments are closed to most students, and whilst we battle with Zoom, teams, google classroom and as lateral flow testing starts to be rolled out- the picture in the sector working with our youngest children is very different.

4. This is the first real piece of mainstream media attention we have seen.
*Cases are rising.
*Staff are not on immunisation plan
*No lateral flow testing on site.
...and if they close to protect staff/children- they may never

5. Now imagaine within your own sector- imagine if you were told there would be a new statutory test coming into force from September 2021. A test that would take you away from your pupils before you've got to know them. A test that won't be for your benefit- or even theirs.

I know a Christian who prayed fervently for up to 9 hours a day for about five years. On many occasions, she turned hunger to a fast for lack of food to eat with her children
This woman didn't have a job or learn a trade. She was a full housewife before her husband died.

All she did was sit at home and pray
She was dirt poor and even her children despised her
She invited me to her home one day and asked me why God has not changed her story despite all her hours of praying and fasting
I said "Why didn't you get a job? Start a trade? become an

apprentice
somewhere? Is praying a job? Is praying a source of income and blessing? No.
The next day, she went to a friend who has a pharmacy and asked if she could be coming to work for four hours every day for a stipend
The friend agreed
Two weeks later, somebody came to the

shop to get some drugs
The person's baby was convulsing and the doctors told her to rush to a pharmacy and buy a particular drug
The drug was available but the person didn't have enough money
The person begged her to please give her the drugs on credit
The person promised to pay

up as soon as her husband returned
home from the office
She gave the person the drug
Her friend got back to the shop and saw that the expensive drug was
missing
She explained what happened
The friend embarrassed her and sent her out of her shop
She cried all the way home
The

LOL at the uptick in followers.

Fair Warning: I believe that Cultural American Patriotic Churchianity (CAPC for short - aka White Evangelicalism/Christian Nationalism) has caused more damage to the body of Christ and the credibility of the church than CRT ever has or will.

It's been a systemic problem since the founding of the country (indeed, before the founding of the country) and has contributed to the church being complicit in chattel slavery, Jim Crow, cointelpro, redlining and a host of other things the Bible condemns as sin.

The conflation of Christianity with Americanism since the founding of the country has left too many actual believers confusing love of country and culture with biblical Christianity (thus, in their minds, to fight against conservative political culture is also to fight against

what they think is biblical Christianity). It's part of what makes it okay to minimize the sins of men like Dabney while extolling his ability as a theologian in other areas, or minimizing it as him being 'a man of his time'. It also allows you to have an atheist speak at your

Christian conference while condemning your brother who holds different political views than you, but professes the same faith you do.

On the other side of the issue, the phrase 'black lives matter' is true because of the Imago Dei. Debate your momma about it if you disagree.