In a few years the bar moved from saying that children weren’t undergoing irreversible procedures, to arguing in The New Yorker that children should get to sterilize themselves for life without regard to the “arbitrary historical boundaries of

Among those of us with left-of-center political ideals, it’s only radical feminists who will now stand up and say that it’s wrong to sterilize children because they’re different, or unhappy. It’s only conservatives who will platform us to say

Where are the other organizations that claim to represent lesbian and bisexual women, saying that these girls don’t need mastectomies? Where are the gay men’s groups standing up for the wholeness of these boys? Why are they abandoning their responsibilities?

Where are the groups for those on the autism spectrum, standing up to say that it’s completely typical for autistic young people to have social fit difficulties and be unhappy about this, as well as to obsessively perseverate on special interests?

Why are news outlets who’ve made their bones reporting on previous medical scandals ignoring the sterilization of these children? Whether they’re LGB, autistic, or caught up in social contagions because they self-diagnosed from a YouTube overdose in a vulnerable moment?

I was involved in getting the #oxfordvaccine @JennerInstitute manufacturing process and consortium up and running. Here is a thread of why there is an issue with doses, with some science and #sciencepolicy. The EU looks in the wrong to me.

To make the vaccine, you need to grow up a huge volume of cells, they make the vaccine, then the vaccine is purified. The manufacturing process is new. It relies on elements used before, but each new process has its own parameters.

That means each manufacturing site has to on board the exact process and get it running. Usually this takes many months, but is being done urgently for COVID.

When you book manufacturing capacity, you are booking the manufacturing slot. It might take 2 weeks to make a batch of vaccine. With a new process, you always get the same vaccine, but the yield can vary.

Maybe a good yield is a million doses per run (in reality, it depends on how big your cell culture is). But maybe the first few runs only yield 250 thousand doses.

This isn't what I normally post, but it's a summary of some morning reflections since Monday is the anniversary of @aaronsw's death.

He had a big impact on the world (and me). He's someone you should know.

Here's a tribute.

Aaron was "one of those kids" - he was part of the working group on early RSS at 14, dropped out of Stanford, was in @ycombinator's first summer class, and was part of the early @reddit team.

His life's work was focused on the accessibility and dissemination of knowledge.

Aaron believed public information, scientific research, and the Internet as a whole should be open and accessible to all.

Here's the preamble to his "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto".

He was the definition of mission, even if it meant flying in the grey areas of hactivism.

In 2008 he went after PACER, a database of public court documents that charged per page of access even though the documents were public (they made $100M+ per year).

Through a library loophole he downloaded 2.7 million documents and released them to the world.

The FBI investigated, but since they were public documents and he used the free library trial, nothing illegal took place.

PACER still charges to my knowledge, but @binarybits continued the mission with a browser extension that gives free access through the @FreeLawProject

Well, UCP supporters, are you happy NOW? What is it going to take, for you to open your eyes, and realize that @jkenney & the @UCPCaucus is f***ing incompetent?
Good god you bunch of drooling idiots.
You threatened the lives of @RachelNotley @SPhillipsAB & other NPD officials>

2/ , their staffers, & their supporters, for passing legislation to protect employees (HOW DARE THEY want people to be safe! The HORROR!) and protecting natural areas of this province.
You SCREAMED about not enough consultation on BigHorn. So you tell me - where the F*** was >

On this day of (mis)/remembering MLK, I think about the promise of Latin America’s pink tide (into which I was born and which molded me politically) to deliver economic redistribution and socialism by peaceful means, a version of MLKs dream. 🧵

In the past 20 years, various spots in Latin/Central America have been the murder capitals of the world. It remains the most dangerous place in the hemisphere to be a journalist or a politician. A half century of coups and counter-coups have beleaguered the continent

Collapsing global economies have left many countries behind, and almost all are struggling to find an economic path forward, including Vnzla which now under US sanctions and dwindling reserves must construct a post-petrol economy to survive and has failed to begin to do so.

MLK’s peaceful vision for racial and economic transformation in the US made him into an enemy of the state for whom racial and economic violence is both foundational and necessary for its hegemony and he was murdered by those complicit in that mission of domination.

Allende, MLK’s contemporary, succeeded in achieving part of MLKs vision by winning a democratic mandate for social justice and transformation at the ballot box and without firing a single bullet. This made him into an enemy of a faraway State, the US, and he was murdered for it.

Cliff breakdown.
🇺🇸

@paddua @USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Remedy has been sought from both the Legislature and the Judiciary. Notice was given time and time again...people were given the opportunity to do the right thing. In every case they refused. What has not been used thus far to effect remedy is the Executive.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Donald Trump knew before he ever took office what needed to be done. He has quietly rooted out corruption in key positions and departments while manipulating the media since he took office...always talking loudly to keep people focused where he wanted them to look.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka The pieces are now in place...Washington DC is occupied by 25,000 soldiers that the DEMOCRATS called in. Those soldiers answer to Donald J Trump and have been deputized as Federal Marshall's.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Marshalls are authorized to make arrests without warrants for federal crimes committed in their presence or for which they have evidence. On January 6th, the whole world watched approximately 90% of our congress commit treason by knowingly certifying a fraudulent election.

@USMarshalsHQ @SebGorka Donald Trump went on camera before the American people and told us that he has tried every legal means to fix this problem. Right now a state of emergency exists in all 50 states and DC. The head of FEMA is a 26 year veteran who was ALSO just appointed acting secretary of DHS.

Today we lost 1820 of our citizens. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. I plead with our Secretary of State @MattHancock and @CMO_England to make changes to our community protective shield as follows: (1)

Face the data with humility. Latest data show only 32% of in-person test results were received within 24 hours...Way too slow. For all routes combined, 18.3% of tests from all test sites were received within 24 hours of a test. (2)

Since Test and Trace launched, 97.8% of all contacts managed by local health protection teams have been successfully reached. Performance of call centres is much worse. The % reached within 24h of the case that reported them reaching the contact tracing system fell to 67.7%. (3)

We should expect many more contacts than have been identified by call centres. And those contacted by call centre or online are simply asked to self-isolate. No follow-up. No link with primary care. No offer of local help. (4)

The MOST important statistic is not measured: compliance with 'self-isolation'. Surveys conducted have shown only 18.5% comply. And many of the poorest groups won't go for a test because they fear being asked to self-isolate. Why? (5)

Ok, so here we go. This is a thread and I'm not numbering them. I have been thinking about this for a while, and when @BeautyHeathen read me to filth, this is the first thing that came to my head...and when she said that maybe I already knew what it was, I think this is what

that means. I'm killing two channels, Rox Reacts and MetRox en Español. I am going to take all the content I already started working on for those channels and add them to Aviddiva and MetRox. I am testing other things to see what might work and what will not, not just for you

all but for me. It is no secret that I have been miserable with commentary for the last year. There are tons of other things I want to focus on and the reality is that although I have all the receipts for the videos I'm working on now, it has become increasingly difficult to

get through them. The amount of stupidity, micro-aggressions and nonsense I have seen recently is just mind boggling. I'm just tired of focusing on the stupidity and it is not adding to the anxiety I feel right now. There is other content that is more fun and more interesting

so I will focus on that. So all the reviews or "commentary" on books, magazines, movies, etc, will go on @AvidDiva , which I had planned to move more into artistic endeavors, projects and trying out new art forms as means of expression. As for Metamorphosis Rox, it is going

A few days ago @Sector035 was tagged in a tweet about the disappearance of 3 boys in Belford Roxo, Brazil. As he didn't have time to look at it, he asked me to have a look since I speak PT.

already deleted the tweet. I'll still share some an overview for whomever is interested in this case. Otherwise the time I have spent on this was in vain.

On December 27, 2020 three boys: Lucas Matheus da Silva (8), Fernando Henrique Ribeiro Soares (11) and Alexandre da Silva (10) disappeared in Belford Roxo, RJ (Brazil). They had gone to the football pitch next to their house in the Castelar neighborhood.

On Sunday Dec 27, 2020 around 10:30 am (local time) they left their house to go to a football (soccer) pitch to play as they’d done many times before. They’d return home around lunch time between 12 and 2pm, but they didn’t show up.

The boys live on Castelar hill in an apartment complex -22.750641493852445, -43.39909563311383 in a report by RJ2 they show the outside of the housing complex and the court where they were last seen.

@spyrosmakrid and his team listen to the community's feedback and offer, within a window of three years, two fantastic, insightful and impactful forecasting competitions, the M4 and M5. I am tired with all the "sceptics" that try to dismiss the competitions' results.
1/8

First, the ongoing discussion on error measures. It seems that everyone in the forecasting community has devised their own measures, and if someone is using another one then s/he is doomed. The real question is: does the chosen error measure fit the purpose of the exercise?
2/8

Second, the disbelief on the results especially from people that did not participate in the competitions. I have said that before, but skin in the game is important in forecasting (if you want to call your self a forecaster).
3/8

The fact that a method won a competition does not mean that it will win all future competitions. But, there are important lessons to be learnt. In the case of M3 and Theta: the value of information decomposition. In the case of M4 & M5: the value of cross-learning.
4/8

Such insights should be taken into account when designing future methods and algorithms. Since 2000, I have seen many new implementations of the Theta method that have improved on the original proposition. The same will surely be the case with the top methods of M4 & M5.
5/8

At times it is good to review the Declaration of Independence. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth

@WendyRogersAZ We have an eyewitness testimony, an actual victim of Robert E. Lee's cruelty.

Wesley Norris speaks to us from the grave.

"My name is Wesley Norris"

"My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr.

... Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about ...

.... seventeen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster,

... Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason

As an Emergency physician and a Navy veteran, I'm calling on social media companies to permanently ban Dr. Simone Gold and America's Frontline Doctors from their platform. Here's why. 1/x

Gold may now state that she regrets being part of the group of insurrectionists who attacked our democracy on Jan. 6th. But she WAS a part of it, and their traitorous actions resulted in five unnecessary deaths. 2/x

Not only that, but from a medical perspective, Gold was extremely reckless in joining a group of largely maskless rioters who didn't socially distance whatsoever. These actions go directly against the science we know helps prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease. 3/x

Sadly, this isn't the only thing Gold and her extremist "America's Frontline Doctors" have done to worsen the pandemic. Since summer, they've spread dangerous disinformation, like touting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure, even though it's not and can be harmful. 4/x

And while the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is the best tool we have to eradicate the pandemic and save lives, Gold has incorrectly referred to it as an “experimental, biological agent deceptively named a vaccine.” 5/x

Beginning to learn and understand that my "inner critic" - the voice that harshly criticizes and shames me - is only and has always only been attempting to protect me, to act to curtail or stop behavior that in the past has gotten us harmed - has made dealing w/it much easier.

Not "easy" or "pleasant," because the inner critic still shows up only when it wants to yell that we need to stop doing something immediately b/c of how we have previously been hurt. As a protector it still attempts to mostly communicate with goads of fear and shaming.

But understanding the roots of that fear and shaming, that self-policing behavior, has allowed me to respond to it with compassion, and that has been transformative. Being able to hear and endure the shaming as what it is - a protective reflex born from a child's fear & pain;

has enabled me to view it in that proper context, the same way I would view a child screaming in fear, and receive it gently and warmly, thank it for trying to protect me, and attempt to de-escalate the fearful predictions of catastrophe.

Not having to receive these still-aversive messages from a place of anger and hurt - from a place of "why is this voice saying such terrible things, I am so angry at this piece of myself that wants to protect me," has reduced the stress of inner critic interruptions considerably.

For the 20,000 victims of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation, I urge Parliamentarians to take action now and amend the Domestic Abuse Bill. This needs to be a stand-alone offence. If this opportunity is missed women will die.
#NonFatalStrangulation

Police could much better support victims if there was a stand-alone offence of Non-Fatal Strangulation. 80% of survivors are likely to have a resulting health problem e.g. stroke or PTSD. The Lords should amend the Domestic Abuse Bill to fix this.
#NonFatalStrangulation

The stunning announcement of >$6B in philanthropic donations in one year by @mackenziescott deserves wider

Fine piece by @nkulish in the @nytimes that addresses some of the key

But this should be just the start.

Important first to put the $6B total in context. Total grantmaking in 2019 by @darrenwalker at the @FordFoundation was ~$350M. Total at @Hewlett_Found was ~$450M.

So @mackenziescott is ~15x some of the largest and most discussed foundations.

To the best of my knowledge, what we know about her philanthropy stems from a total of two posts on @Medium.

No address. No website. No known staff. We don't even know much about the entities she's using -- DAFs, LLCs, private

What's interesting about her philanthropy?

*Proves it's not that difficult to give away a billion dollars.
*No strings attached giving - all general operating support over multiple years
*No reporting requirements, AFAIK