I’m not a scientist, so obviously do correct me if I’m wrong. (Heck, this is twitter, I don’t need to ask that do I?)

BUT a virus doesn’t mutate in *nothing*, does it, it doesn’t mutate when it’s on the handle of the supermarket door or even in the air you’ve just breathed out.

It mutates *in a host*. And the most sure fire way for a virus to find a wide variety of hosts in which to mutate is to do precious little to control the spread of the virus. To have policies which amount to “take it on the chin”. To have an ‘acceptable’ death level.

To allow the virus to run absolutely rampant through one section of the population (children) because stopping it doing so would mean making a politically unpopular decision (closing the schools).

Seen some people (scientists, I mean, not your uncle Jim) saying this virus is now more transmissible in children and like... what did they THINK would happen if you allow the virus unfettered access to kids?

It adapts! It adapts to its fucking hosts! It becomes better at infecting them! Like, the whole fucking point for a virus is to be able to make copies of itself. It’s actually not that arsed about killing or harming you.

This year has been momentous, with a new virus, a new job writing about that virus (114 articles!) and many new sources, readers and Twitter followers. To chronicle this insane year, I'm compiling some of the stories I'm proudest of. A thread.

Exactly a year ago, my family and I were headed back from Vietnam, with no idea how close we had been to the outbreak brewing in China. It took me a while to realize the gravity, but this first story I wrote about the virus still (mostly) holds

In March, it became increasingly obvious from research being published that the virus could spread in the absence of symptoms. Yet US officials were still mostly pooh-poohing it. In this article I talked to scientists who knew

We know now that some of the worst effects of Covid-19 are because of the body's immune response, not just the virus itself. There were just early hints of that when I wrote this piece about cytokine

In this story in May, I delved into what we knew about the relationship between the viral dose and the risk of infection -- a topic we still know woefully little

Merry Christmas! How’s your Christmas going? Here is a collection of random tweets from Indian Twitter that will do India proud. Thread 👇1/n

The run up to Christmas started with Chavhanke running his Christmas special series on conversions. 2/n

A few days before Christmas, a ‘dharmic’ influencer started a campaign about whether Hindus should celebrate Christmas. 3/n

Right-wing blog OpIndia meanwhile thought it was an opportune time to dig out a 10+ year old video of Zakir Naik on Christmas greetings. 4/n

No Christmas is complete without Indology enlightening his followers. In fact he does it every year on Christmas. 5/n

My updated recommended follows for February 20, 2021. Let me know if you want to be removed or added. To be added, we need to be following each other.

Faves (1/1)
@AndyPopeInTheW1
@CHQM8_tx
@Dubes123
@daralynn13
@_HypoLuxa_
@KtBoBt
@kharly
@ImpeachmentHour
@liberal_elder
@LtUhura2017
@MysterySolvent
@Natgcoh
@officialHJesus
@orangepeel18
@RancidGinger
@RKJ65
@robinskyleigh
@Ronnis_Joy
@Texan_21C
@umanoid
@wendimyb
@Wikweko

The Rat follows… (1/9)
@1Angry_lioness
@admiralmpj
@AFlyover
@afrugal1
@agent_orangutan
@ALT_MyName
@american2084
@AquaVelvaBoy
@AndraDoesCare
@AreYouis
@AryaKicksButt
@AshidMapanzigan
@bamableu
@benFranklin2018
@BeyondBlonde3
@bfs2020
@BiglyPrez
@bkaydw
@Black2thBone

The Rat follows… (2/9)
@Blackbear5
@Brasilmagic
@Brian_Chovanec
@briansantacruz
@CajunSiouxsie
@Carpediem4989
@CaliPhil
@carlisamantha
@ChafedCharlie
@ChampagneSane
@ChanningStephe5
@chaturner
@Chewythewookie1
@ChrisA_425
@CIAnderson3
@ColleenHenley
@Cosette2016
@da_kotarski

The Rat follows… (3/9)
@DarbysCastle
@DarrollHough
@DawnChristine2
@dawnwc
@DeepInTheHills
@DocAtCDI
@DonPayne17
@DrEttaM1
@Eiggam5955
@elle_desylva
@fleurdeliselle
@georginapond1
@GirlNamedBoston
@GonzoBaggins
@grammytammyd
@grannieof10kids
@gypsyphototaker
@HIHKatharine

What I learnt on the Twitter this week:

1. Doug Ford declares State of Emergency. Says he doesn't understand what people don't understand about the rules. Either stay home or go to Walmart to buy essential cream cheese.
2. Ford announces his French lessons are going tray bueno.

3. Kenney announces Alberta will begin procuring their own vaccine because they only have most of the Fed's supply left now.
4. O'Toole announces he just doesn't know how to quit Ezra.
5. Freak storm in Morden, MB; MAGA hat kicked up in the wind; lands on Candace Bergen's head.

6. Canadian Conservative politicians and staffers mourn the loss of Parler which they have never heard of.
7. Kenney signs giant cardboard guarantee saying coal will be mined from Rockies without loss of a single acre of protected land unless it's accidentally delisted and sold.

8. Ford defenestrates MPP Baber from caucus after Baber complains about lockdown. Ford says he's already busy enough locking down Phillips and Oosterhoff.
9. Ontario's Minister of LTCs adheres to lockdown rules and takes three-week vacation under her bed.
10. Où est la Fullerton?

11. Just when you thought Andrew Scheer couldn't defenestrate his reputation any further, Andrew Scheer fully defenestrates himself. Like, maaaddd defenestration going on here.
12. Moments before Parler shuts down, thousands of Canadians post "What does defenderthestation mean?"

Happy 2021, everyone!

To kick off the new year right, here is a thread of people that I love to follow. Check them out and follow them if you can. If we follow each other and you want to be added, please let me know.

Love,
Rata

Here's the one thread you need to read on BSC to actually DYOR and stop listening to all these talking heads on Twitter:

1. last year, Binance launched a PoA-based EVM compatible chain, compatible with common tools like metamask, trustwallet, etc. It works with ur eth address

2. this point of interoperability is important, because a user doesn't need to deal with new wallets or infrastructure to use this chain, whereas past projects like Tron required you to download a new set of tools (TronLink wallet, use tronscan, etc.)

3. Disclaimer: This chain operates with 21 validators that have staked BNB. It is currently centralised, and can be conclusively described as permissioned (aka binance has selected who can operate these nodes and thus can have influence over this chain).

4. However, while that means the chain in theory could be manipulated by B, there are incentives to not screw over users' funds, double spend or rehypothecate anything. why? because it can jeopardise more lucrative business of

5. think of it like proof-of-staked reputation. These attacks put binance in the most likely position to be attacked by double spends or other malicious activity on chain, in which binance, which custodies the mainnet real assets of many chains, is on the hook if things go wrong.

OK heres a thread I should have done a LONG time ago

HOW TO GET BACK ON TWITTER WHEN U BEEN BANNED

101

here goes

Step 1

U cannot connect Ur last account to Ur new one

meaning NEW PHONE NUMBER, NEW EMAIL.

ALWAYS have a VPN.

keep going
👇👇👇👇👇

I dont fully know wtf a VPN really is either. LOL
BUT I know that the FIREFOX browser is the BEST because it has an AUTOMATIC VPN in it if U always use a PRIVATE BROWSING WINDOW.
@CEOofgenz taught me this firefox trick, as well as VK suggested it a lot.

keep going
👇👇👇👇👇

Once U exhaust Ur main phone # on ur banned acct

then U need to create a GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER for Ur new acct.

They will allow U to make a new account with only email, but shortly in they will require U give them a phone #.

USE GOOGLE VOICE, download the app, connect it.

You are allowed ONE google voice number PER cell phone U have. So that means TWO potential twitter accounts PER cell phone U have. Once u burn thru those two #'s U have to buy a new burner phone to make a new account with a new #.

Keep going 👇👇👇👇👇

For Ur new email, its easiest to set up a new email account on

protonmail

its extremely FAST and they dont require all the vindication nonsense that the [DS] big tech email people do.

Use it.

ALWAYS WRITE DOWN ALL UR NEW #'s and emails and passwords. Keep them organized.

Ever feel like there is an “inner circle” of the 50 biggest finance/business Twitter accounts who all collude to give each other engagement?

Well, there actually is. Here’s how to join it:

First off, it’s not necessarily a group chat or a formal club.

But there is an unofficial group of the “big accounts” who all know each other and promote others in the group.

Joining is easier than you’d think.

There isn’t an entrance fee or anything like that.

The best way to join is to become known for one very specific thing that no one else is covering.

is the “self storage guy”

@Codie_Sanchez is the “boring business investor”

@Agazdecki is the “bootsrapper”

If you aren’t already known for something, no one will care about your vague takes. Almost no one gains a large following by starting out as a generalist.

If you have 1 major accomplishment or credential, don’t ever stop talking about it.

Seriously, don’t worry about annoying people. You have to be way more repetitive than you think to get your story across.

I didn't drink alcohol for 2020 and now I want to talk about it in a long twitter thread that should probably just be a blog post, but here goes:

(I get into topics like alcohol abuse, mental illness, homphobia, and parental death, just fyi)

Some background first: every year I do some kind of restriction. Last year I only re-read books, another year I didn’t buy any clothes. My dad is catholic and even though I hate the religion, something about the ‘fasting’ elements of lent and advent stuck with me.

I enjoy cutting myself off from things to create space in unexpected places. It's where Innovation and creativity flourish. I did some of my best work for Momofuku Nishi, and @davidchang told me I had to create an Italian cocktail program, but nothing could come from Italy.

My family also loved wine and used connoisseurship to cast consumption in a virtuous light. Opening that 4th bottle of Chateauneuf-de-Pape was *educational*

My mom once yelled at a wine steward for not letting my then-17-year-old brother have a glass of wine with our dinner.

Wine is great though! Beer, spirits, etc. They’re all fascinating things to study on many levels. (Hello I wrote a whole cocktail book)

Plus, they’re fun to drink and usually taste delicious and accompanied most major rituals in my life: birthday, Christmas, weddings, funerals…

#Twitter once again suspended our acct. Their targeted harrassment of us has never ended since day we began using 3 yrs ago under massive shadowban ever since 99% of the time. Once again they wrongly suspended us. We did a study on it to share & learn since they provide ZERO info

2/
We strongly invite @twittersupport to enter a deep dive discussion on this since they provide ZERO support, NEVER answer questions in over 100+ tweets we sent them, 8 appeals letters ignored & months & months of unlawful arbitrary suspensions without cause EVER mentioned.

3/
We have NO IDEA what they suspended us for here & of course their TOS says nothing about it nor could anyone EVER possibly discern what they could possibly be complaining about. Their TOS ALSO protects our Freedom Of Expression in the EXACT WAY we spoke the tweet under #18.

4/
Since Twitter's Dorsey has been COMPLETELY CLEAR that it is not the position of twitter to answer appeals but for ppl to languish in suspension unless they delete the tweet, & 37+ day suspensions when waiting are common & to be expected otherwise according to Dorsey on TV, Del

5/
This explanation in DETAIL is what is needed by Twitter on their website but they have REFUSED to EVER do this. They should do it for EVERY CASE have some commentary section for explanations so people can learn but they deliberately choose against this. Why? it seems obvious

What I learnt on the Twitter this week:

1. Well I know I learnt a lot more on Twitter this week than Trump did.
2. After Covid numbers skyrocket in Ontario for past four months, Doug Ford says the data modelling suggests he might have to stop his cross-province campaigning soon.

3. After the assault on the Capitol this week, the CPC finally pulls camou MAGA hats from online merch shop.
4. With pictures of the CPC's Deputy Leader wearing a camou MAGA hat circulating, Michelle Rempel expresses outrage that Candice Bergen getting more attention than she is.

5. UCP MLA Pat Rehn issues statement after return from Xmas trip to Mexico. Says he is sorry, but also very excellent.
6. Jason Kenney says he knows he's failed Albertans and that's why he moved up to the Sky Palace to help him see things from the everyday people's perspective.

7. Westjet insists Kenney government provide more notice of planned out-of-country travel next time so airline can be sure to have enough planes ready.
8. Blogger Karen Bexte travels to DC for insurrection, asks to speak to Canada's manager after he's asked to take a Covid test.

9. Trump says the crowd he got to attack the Capitol was far larger than any crowd Obama ever got to attack the Capitol. Huge crowd. Tremendous crowd of terrorists.
10. After being shut down on every major social media platform, Trump seen at Radio Shack haggling over a CB radio.

Incoming rant.

I'm pressing the "tweet" button as I type, and I'm typing as I think, so there's every possibility that this will drift into tangents and/or nowhere. Of course, that's true pretty much every time I start threading.

I know diddly-squat about physiology.

Friends and family who *do* know anything about physiology regularly mock my (apparently bizarre) theories of how bodies work.

I am not a trustworthy narrator when it comes to things like How Vaccines Work.

I know diddly-squat about epidemiology.

Unlike physiology, where I am firmly in the domain of Messrs. Dunning and Kruger, I've read enough about the subject to understand how little I know.

This is a complicated subject, where obvious truths are seldom either obvious or true.

I also know diddly-squat about public health policy.

Public *transportation* policy is way more in my wheelhouse. But this at least lets me make some useful analogies.

…I mentioned digressions? Yeah, I just started to write a very long digression about public transportation paradoxes, and it was taking away from the point I wanted to make.

Twitter: "We've removed thousands of accounts linked to Qanon."

Conspiracy theory spreaders:

https://t.co/Q4HqU5GtQa

For those who are asking: Twitter froze my account for 12 hours and penalized me with "a warning" because of my reporting on a religious organization (initials E.C.) who is behind the current anti-Pornhub campaign. (1/2)

If you google public record information on the leader of that campaign (initials L.M., a public figure) plus the words "Justice Defense Fund," you can take a guess as to why I was "reported."

Twitter punished me for literally doing my job.

Religious groups are already abusing the "reporting" system WITH SECTION 230 IN PLACE.

Imagine the future of journalism once Section 230 is repealed or reformed.

(Yes, I have receip†s.)

(No, I won't be using this platform as I have been. I've been "admonished" on the word of a religious lobby.)