I’m going to do a slightly substantial thread in Sadanand Dhume’s piece for @WSJ because I am quite disturbed at the flex the debate is taking. The problems in the piece go far beyond a debate on how “gentle” the govt has been on the farmers. Thread. 👇🏽

This causation is misrepresented. There’s a history to this. During the Green Revolution Punjab and Haryana moved to the wheat-paddy cultivation cycle from their traditional crops. This was encouraged and as we all know from CBSE textbooks, was done in the national interest.

At that time sustainability wasn’t a watchword but by 1980 a massive decline in the water table was noted. Why? Because paddy required five times more irrigation than wheat. So if you irrigate a wheat crop six times in one season, paddy will require 30 irrigations.

When free electricity was thrown in the mix farmers’ preferences changed. They also started growing longer term maturing paddy, like Pusa 44. Paddy was also planted in May-June with a maturation in October.

Dhume’s piece seems to suggest that paddy cultivation is preferred.

This is incorrect. After the paddy crop is harvested, the areas are brought under wheat cultivation if the farmer has the means to.

Why is this even important? Because of TIMING. This also brings me to the second issue I have with the piece. Stubble burning.

In yesterday’s discussion of colonies, #AdamSmith was really good on a lot of issues—particularly on condemning murdering Indigenous people, despoiling colonies in search of gold that ain't there, and then pretending you're doing it all for God. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Today, Smithketeers, will not be such a feel-good day. You will not be heartened. You might want to pour a cup of tea. Or something much stronger. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith starts by noting that the colonies of developed nations where the “natives easily give place to the new settlers” get rich and cultured faster than anywhere else.

That phrase “give place to” cloaks a lot of horrors. (IV.vii.b.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The reason colonies can do so well (for everyone but the Indigenous peoples, that is) is that settlers import the social, political, and technical know-how from the old country. (IV.vii.b.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

There’s lots of land, which means you need lots of workers and are willing to pay them high wages.
Workers + land + money ➡ kids!
And more people ➡ prosperity. (IV.vii.b.2–3) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Lockdowns don’t actually work (see pinned tweet). One reason is that it’s preposterous to think one can just halt an interwoven societal fabric. So “lockdown” is instead just poor people risking exposure to continue providing goods/services to rich people sheltering in place.
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A thousand books can (and will) be written on the harms of lockdowns. This thread will instead focus on its epic exacerbation of the divide between rich & poor. Last week I let 30 studies do the talking; this time I will let 23 pictures tell the story.

1. High earners are the ones that can work from home:

2. Similarly, only a majority of those with a college or postgraduate degree can work from home (also note the disparity in race/income):

3. This is reflected in mobility by income bracket – those with the higher incomes are able to “stay safe, stay at home”:

Overheard in a Newcastle cafe, two very despondent students, clearly not long arrived in the city: “I might as well just go home. What is the point in being here? I told my Mum last night, I just feel so lonely. Wish I’d taken a gap year.” The other nodded, in sad agreement.

More cafe conversations-a woman who has recently gone back to work and is now facing down the barrel of imminent unemployment again with the hospitality shutdown which is prob coming here: “I was so buzzing to get back to work. I can’t believe it’s back. Don’t know what I’ll do.”

A local bar owner who has popped in for a coffee: “up to now we’ve just about been making enough money on Saturday to survive and make it through the rest of the week. Depends what the government does. But we’re on the edge.”

And the cafe owner, been here 19 years: “things had been a bit better but this week trade has fallen off a cliff. I came in yesterday and the day before and I just closed because there was no point. Whatever they announce I’m praying it isn’t for long or they extend furlough.”

This cafe btw is a cracker, when I lived in Newcastle came all the time. If you’re ever in the area (restrictions permitting) @QuayIngredient is where you need to go.

Thread on F Tender by CM's Highways Dept: 2 events happened over d last month. A Contractor calls me & says not to proceed on Corruption in Rs 494 Cr Tender. A day b4 opening of Rs 494 Cr tender, 2 ppl come to our office in d guise of inviting me to a rotary event.

After few mins, they said they hv been sent by highway engineers abt thanjavur tender.This is d same tender that was prefixed to JSV infra that we cancelled last month. It was refloated & d nexus wanted to ensure b4 opening of tender that @Arappor does not raise this issue again.

I advised them abt Indian Constitution, law of d land & they went back! Next day, hours b4 d tender was due to be opened, sent an email to Highways Secretary on how d tender has again been prefixed to JSV Infra at 11.33 Am. Tender was opened on 12th Jan at 3.15 Pm (1st tweet)

After technical bids, financial bids were opened on 19th & results hv been announced recently. Its d same JSV Infra that we mentioned in the email that has won d tender. They quoted 512 Crores working out to more than 2 Crores/ Km, double d amt than PBMC tenders of last few years

As can be seen, other 2 bidders who participated in d fixing tender r RR Infra & KCP Engineers who won the other 2 big Thanjavur AB CRISM and PBMC tenders. How r tenders prefixed?. CM Edappadi claims EMD can be done thro email payment. Check the tender clause below

Let's talk about the space-tampon story. OK, so this is a story confirmed by Sally Ride and Kathy Sullivan, where a male engineer asks if 100 tampons is good for one week, and she politely tells him he can go a lot lower. Very often repeated, and true so far as it goes. BUT

In an interview by Weitekamp with Rhea Seddon, the only MD among the women in that class, she said she was actually consulted on the decision! She said they ended up with a big number out of concern about microgravity effects and due to the NASA approach to redundancy.

Microgravity concerns were not unreasonable. In Sally Ride's biography by Sherr, she discusses how the first woman who actually had to use the tampons in space had issues with "capillary action." Space is horrible.

Anyway, so, the story Ride and Sullivan tell is true (and funny!) but there's some missing context. I am not a historian, and certainly not a historian on this topic, but I have read a lot of books. A plausible sequence goes like this:

1) Seddon is consulted as the lady MD.
2) Due to unknowns, gives a high number
3) NASA management doubles that number, out of abundance of caution
4) A kit with infinity tampons goes to the other women, delivered by some (happily never identified) male tech

THE CHURCH vs WITCHES

A thread

There was a time in the past where the Church was fully in control of the then known modern world, that era is best known as the Dark Age because that was the time where anything that resemble progress and enlightenment was met with persecution and death.

At the top of the list of people who really suffered at the hands of the Church were "Witches"

Now, everything you know about witches, or what you think you know, was heavily shaped by the events that took part in the Dark ages, events that I'm about to break down as clearly as I can.

To better gain prominence, Christianity began by demonising other religions that already existed. They demonised Mediterranean gods, the gods of Celts, Teutons and any other religion that could pose a threat to their expansion.

Which places have done the best job of protecting people from Covid? A thread.

Best at early action: TAIWAN. Quickly halted flights, quarantined travelers, implemented widespread testing, and quadrupled face mask production within a month. The US now has more cases and deaths every 5 minutes than Taiwan has had to date.

Best at learning from recent epidemics: LIBERIA. Hit hard by Ebola in 2014, Liberia was one of the first countries to screen for Covid at airports and implement comprehensive control measures, including rapid testing, complete contact tracing, and effective quarantine.

Best at crushing the curve: NEW ZEALAND, which began preparing hospitals and border control policies in February, then implemented a countrywide lockdown in late March with the goal of eliminating Covid entirely. Clear, empathetic communication has been essential.

Best location in the US: AMERICAN SAMOA. On high alert after a 2019 measles outbreak, health authorities halted all incoming passenger flights and have managed to prevent any Covid cases.

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One of the most common tricks used by woke Social Justice activists to defend their view is to de-legitimize criticism by attacking the motives of the person who is opposing them. The goal is to undercut the moral authority and social standing of anyone who disagrees with them

2/
If you criticize the views of woke Social justice Activists they'll attack your motivations and imply that you're not being honest about your true motives. The goal is to make the audience suspicious of your intentions so they won't trust you or believe anything you say.

3/
By attacking your motives the woke activists can both discredit you while getting the audience to raise their level of skepticism toward you. This tactic is sometime referred to as "poisoning the well."

It is a dirty tactic, but it is effective.

4/
Here @BrandonLBradfor attempts to smear Conservative Black thinkers by claiming the reason the Right listens to conservative blacks is to assuage their own insecurity. The implication is people don't really care about the ideas of conservative blacks, they just use them...

5/
This implies that the ideas of conservative blacks are not worth listening too, and that even if conservative blacks had good ideas, nobody would care any way. This is the sort of pure cynicism that typifies Wokeness.

Part 2

Those who missed Part 1 here it is https://t.co/myV2RhzsxJ 1/n

The Toilet issue also brings to my mind memories of my childhood

We always had clean toilets.

But my grandparents lived in an Agraharam (Village) where there was only one toilet, which was in abysmal condition.

You wouldn't dare enter the toilet, because it was pathetic 2/n

I was asked by my father to go and stay with my grandparents for at least 2-3 days a month, and I would dread at the prospect of using that toilet.

Most of the time, I wouldn't and return home with severe constipation, or stomach cramps. 3/n

My grandfather never used the toilet and used to defecate in the open. This caused us considerable embarrassment whenever he visited us, and complaints would flood in from people in the neighbourhood. 4/n

I was a frequent traveler by train in my youth, and the number of people defecating in the open along Railway Tracks always made me angry.

I could see ladies getting up hurriedly whenever the train passes them, protecting their modesty. 5/n

Remote isn’t just about the future of work

It’s a bridge to a higher quality of life

Rather than a job – and an office – being the anchor of our social lives, it’s about democratising access to opportunity

[ a thread ] 🌍🏠💻

Remote work should lead to individuals having more choice

Not just spending time with people selected by HR teams, where your deepest common bond is a shared reliance on the economic success of that employer – where if that changes relationships end

Offices have been great for certain demographics – but disqualified/discriminated against almost most others

- single parents
- caring for family members
- health conditions and impairments

The offices makes staying in office work incredibly difficult if not impossible

‘What about young people in shares apartments’

Absolutely.

But is this an issue with remote or the implication of expensive cities and needing to live close enough to commute daily?

‘There are mental health implications’

Absolutely.

But is this a natural issue with remote work, or an implication of COVID-enforced lockdown WFH where we can’t see family, friends, go to coffee shops or travel?

1) Seeing a lot of attempts recently by NRIs in Canada & the usual Khan Market gang to drive an artificial wedge between Hindus & Sikhs in order to overtake the ongoing dialogue between farmers & government for their own malicious agenda.

A thread-

2) First of all, Sikhism IS a different religion legally and we respect that. But neither party can deny the common structure, shared culture & heroes - two branches of the same tree. Recent attempts at Abrahamization and subnationalization are both dangerous & fake.

3) Guru Gobind Singh-

"Sakal jagat main Khalsa Panth gaje
Jage dharam Hindu sakal bhand bhaje"

"The Khalsa sect will roar around the world. Hinduism will awaken, its enemies will flee."

4) Idolatory and worship of deities was common practice in Gurudwaras as late as 1920s when the Khalsa Akali movement took over. The Sikh empire had ritualistic pujari Santani Sikhs until the mid 19th century.

There was no us vs them. This "othering" is very recent and top-down

5)"Hindus, do not fear, Guru Tegh Bahadur is Guru Nanak's successor. If Muslims bother you, I'll take care of them. For I am the protector of Hinduism."

"... To ham hain sab sadar Arya Dharma rakshak pragatiyo hain"

There’s a reason why they coined the term “couch potato”. Excessive TV watching turns you into a potato in time. Research has shown that when you are watching TV, your higher brain regions shut down, and activities shift to the lower brain regions. Your lower brain is set in a

“fight or flight” response mode. In the long run, your higher brain regions experience atrophy due to lack of usage. There have been studies that TV viewing among children leads to lower attention and poorer brain development. TV is like a tune in station, a place where you’re

completely cut off from reality and falsely presented news/ideologies about real world (media/movies)

Watching Netflix series on your laptop all day is no different. Movies/series subconsciously programme the brain by presenting it with a false perception of reality. This is

dangerous because it can warp the very reality you live in. Yes, i use movie clips and tv shows as content, but mostly for information purposes to show you the kind of programming used and what it means.

Watch documentaries on YouTube/Vimeo about real shit. Spend your time

loading your brain with useful knowledge instead of junk thats designed to programme your thoughts. All media, including movies, newspapers, the news, magazines etc, are all owned by just a few corporate entities. This means only a few corporations control the narrative. The

"this is not a third world country.."

"this is not a third world country.."

"this is not a third world country..."

"this is not a third world country.."

"this is not a third world country.."

After going through over 500 CVs over the last few days, I thought I might share some observations for those seeking an entry-level position at an international NGO like @hrw.

Of course, what I’m about to say doesn’t apply for all job openings everywhere. But for entry-level posts at a fairly big NGO, I think these thoughts will hold.

The main takeaway is that some people sell themselves on their CVs much better than others, even when they have the same or similar qualifications as others.

As usual, I was overwhelmed with the quality of the people applying. Most had one, more often two, masters degrees, two or three solid internships, if not actual jobs, and minimum 2 languages. Usually 3. Some 5.

As normal with an entry-level post, many applicants had similar qualifications: degrees in international relations or journalism/communications. Internships were generally at similar places: EU institutions & NGOs. Languages also generally English & French & one other EU language

Costing of solar panel in a developing country

In developing countries, the costing of solar panel is quite expensive. This is because electricity using solar is something that is still uncommon, so it requires difficult equipment

Solar panels are a component that has the function of converting energy produced from sunlight into electrical energy. Solar panels or commonly known as solar panels are also famous for their fairly expensive prices

In this easy era, there are many suppliers of solar panels, one of which is in tropical countries. To find out how much it costs to install this power, here is a list. The following list is a variation of the 1.2 kWp - 5 kWp sourced from solarcellsurya

PV Module 200 Wp Monocrystallin = 500-2500 USD
Support PV Module 200 Wp = 100-500 USD
Inverter = 1000-1500 USD
Cable Power = 50-140 USD
Electrical Panel = 140-160 USD
Grounding Systerm = 50-70 USD
Service and Licensing Fees = 680-720 USD

Total cost = 2800-5700 USD