Anxiety resides in 4 spaces:

1. The space inside you
2. The space between you and another
3. The space between others
4. The space inside another.

A powerful de escalation tools is to first locate the anxiety. Where is it?

Often the answer is 'all 4.' Yikes!

1/

Anxiety is contagious, we spread it and escalate it unless we know how to manage it.

This was perhaps my biggest lesson as a trauma chaplain - the very hard work of not catching someone's anxiety.

2/

When I caught it, I was no good to them. I no longer saw what was going on, I was now 'infected' by my own triggers, assumptions, the story I tell myself. I was all wrapped up in myself.

But when I managed my anxiety, I was able to be calm, aware and fully present to them.

3/

Even in the very worst moment of their lives, even if they had me by the shoulders screaming, 'how could God allow this to happen?'

4/

Incidentally, early in chaplaincy, I thought this was an actual question. Because I was anxious, I was more infected by my need to answer than I was to simply be calm and present with them in their pain.

5/

It is past due time we talk about microaggressions on interviews (a thread #MedTwitter #AcademicTwitter):

First, microaggressions are harmful! Despite their name, they signal “you don’t belong here” to marginalized groups.

Second, interview days are already nerve-wrecking.

One comment or experience has the ability to undermine an interview day. Applicants may not have the ability to report immediately and anonymously or may fear retribution for doing so. Interview day microaggressions put applicants in an awkward spot in addition to the harm.

They are also not rare experiences. As a Black woman, I have experienced them at multiple institutions and different levels. I’m sharing my stories as examples of what happens, but I have no doubt there are many others, even within your institution, that need to be responded to.

College: I had an in-person panel interview for a full-tuition scholarship. One POC on the panel repeatedly asked, “where are you from?” I was 17 and eager to please, but also knew I didn’t have to share that my ancestors were traumatized thru slavery. I got flustered and bombed.

Med school: A diversity website wrote, we need more physicians of color because they are more likely to serve in underserved communities. While true, the reason we need more representation in medicine is because minoritized groups have been kept out. PERIOD. I didn’t apply there.

Thread on Evolution of Sino-India Border

I expect followers not to tag official govt handles and create unnecessary hype.

This thread includes generic information of the border post 1987 as the longitude-latitude wise information is only available with Army and not in public domain. Post 1987 information is taken from satellite imageries, generic archive records available in public domain.

The modern nation states are based on shared idea of their definition, some might be synthetic but they all are based on a common definition. Territorially, China considers itself as a nation state having same borders as that of Qing Dynasty

while India considers itself as a civilizational state between Himalyas and Indian Ocean whose boundary is based on long customs and latest treaties inherited by Dogras,Hill states,Sikkim,Bhutan Kingdom and British India on one side and the Tibetian Empire.

which was nominally independent under Qing and the Qing had authorized them to have treaties which they refused by 1920s.
Lets first go back to 2 main great Chinese extents-
Ming Dynasty with independent Tibet 1368-1644

Much of the chatter about Twitch and Metallica and copyright is getting the facts and the history wrong. Quick thread.

The short version is that people are confusing the DMCA itself with particular companies' choices about how to implement the DMCA. That works to the benefit of huge companies like Amazon (owner of Twitch); they end up escaping scrutiny.

Jeff Bezos is worth $197 Billion. Twitch can afford to pay for music licensing! And any artist who controls their own publishing has the ability to waive their exclusive rights if they want to perform their own material and don't mind that the service isn't paying them.

If it's unclear who made the decision to swap the Metallica performance audio and why, we do know it wasn't because they were "forced" to by the DMCA.

We know that because the same performance was simultaneously streaming on other platforms with no trouble. This happened because 1) some person made a mistake 2) some automated system made a mistake or 3) Twitch failed to secure necessary licenses.

@AuthorMonika No; we have been British here long before we were Scottish. British comes from 'Pritani' which is what the people here called themselves and the whole island before the Romans invaded.

When the Romans were here they Latinised this to Britannia, but also, for example, the Vindolanda tablets found at Hadrian's wall record the locals north of the wall as 'Britunculi' ' the little britons'

Looking at the post Roman period the 'scots' were Irish pirates who started to invade and colonize from the west. There has been a tribal split known between the 'British' - which covered the central belt where most of 'Scots' still live now, and the 'picts' to the North.

Now the latest research on the Picts suggests from their language that they and the 'British' had an originally common source and both from a same root proto-british language.

Then if you move forward to the Declaration of Arbroath - it literally says that the Scots invaded from Ireland and 'expulsis primo Britonibus et Pictis omnio deletis' - 'first routed the British then destroyed every single Pict'

1/ A Short Thread About Civility and Calling Politicians Liars.

Nice people are sometimes uncomfortable that I call some politicians "liar". And I don't apologize for it.

But I don't call every politician "liar". Only the ones who deliberately tell provable lies and do so

2/ repeatedly. A lie is different from an accidental misstatement. For example, when @michaelaglasgo lied about her church's carbon tax, it could have been a genuine mistake. But she doubled down by telling other lies. And has since been caught in more.

#cdnpoli #abpoli #ableg

3/ When @KayceeMaduYEG is caught lying, he doesn't do the right thing. He just plows ahead. As if lying doesn't matter.

So which is more uncivil: calling out people who lie a lot OR being in a position of public trust and lying to people in the first place?

4/ I think it's important that once a politician is found to lie repeatedly, like @jkenney , we never forget that anything they say could be a lie. We need to always weigh it. Look for lies of omission.

Civil discourse cannot survive if politicians lie all the time. It can't.

5/ So as rude as it might be, when members of @UCPCaucus tell lies, we should be calling them "liar" every time. As long as they think they're getting away with it, they won't stop. So shame them.

If the politician is a lawyer, report their behaviour to the Law Society.

Having spent 2020 telling covid denalists that they were overly optimistic about the pandemic, I now look forward to spending 2021 telling covid maximalists that they are overly pessimistic about the end of the pandemic.

Telling a denialist in May that we shouldn't open bars back up = telling a maximalist in February that we should open schools back up.

Look, folks, the math is straightforward. ~13% of Americans have been vaccinated as of this

And the 7 day average continues to rise; we're approach 2 million vaccine doses per day. Meaning that we'll double that ~13% much faster than the two months it took us to get there.

So it's entirely reasonable that absent any other intervention, we should expect to hit ~30% vaccinated by the end of March.

The initiatives of Congress are to come in two areas. One within the party and the other with other parties.
First Congress has to Improve its communication with people, cadres, leaders and supporters.
Rahul is mainly shouldering this responsibility. But why not other leaders.
/1

It may be argued that some leaders are doing it within their areas. What about other areas, other leaders?
There will be many contenders for posts, maybe even for President’s if given a chance.
Why not leaders volunteer to propagate views, counter the Modi regime on the field?
/2

Some leaders give out statements in media, write their views on social media. Are they enough? Are they doing justice to their potential?
Even during elections, they limit themselves to their constituencies/ state.
Why should they not extend it beyond & even between elections?
/3

The statements of Congress leaders with few exceptions are bland, insipid, prosaic, not interesting and attracting enough to percolate to the people.
How many of their messages reached the people?
Can they not make it more attractive or find other ways to reach the masses?
/4

Some may say there are limitations of age, barriers of territory, egos, invitations, interference.
Most of them are artificial, self-imposed and can be sorted out.
These leaders do not devote themselves to the masses.
If Rahul does it, expected to do it why not others?
/5

1/11
On Thursday the Biden administration, along with congressional Democrats, unveiled a new immigration bill creating a path of 8 years to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country. #velshi

2/11
The bill also provides an expedited path for DREAMERS - the undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children by their parents. #velshi

3/11
The bill’s approval has a tough road ahead given razor thin Democratic majorities in both houses, but while there’s little bipartisan support for immigration reform in Washington, DC, there’s broad support for what it aims to do among Americans. #velshi

4/11
A new Vox and Data for Progress poll found a majority of likely voters and an overwhelming proportion of Democrats “strongly” or “somewhat” support offering a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. #velshi

5/11
When asked specifically about DREAMERS, support was even greater with 72% of all likely voters & 87% of Democrats in favor. This poll is consistent with a PEW survey from last year. 72% of Americans couldn't agree that today is Saturday, so it’s is a big deal. #velshi

An article by Jan Nyssen, a Belgian physical geographer, and professor of geography at Ghent University, on the ongoing war and its impact on civilian life in Tigray

"Ever since I started research in Tigray in 1994, the fight against famine has been a major priority. With academic colleagues, we tried to assist through studies and projects for environmental conservation. But now, it feels as though we are back to square one" he says

From February to May 2021, more than half of Tigray’s territory is expected to suffer “Emergency” outcomes by the U.S.’s Famine Early Warning System Network—the last stage before “Famine.

What is reported is therefore catastrophic; worse even than anticipated in our prescient paper in November. In that analysis, we warned that food security in Tigray was already critical before the start of the conflict: for instance....

....large areas were on a path towards hunger due to a desert locust invasion that significantly reduced harvests.

Okay. Now that the lights are on again, let's do this Texas thing one more time from a slightly different angle. Because for a lot of people the REAL disaster of the last week is still on the way. … 1/22

Texas is finally back to a grid capacity that exceeds demand. That's good. However, it's only making it easier to see the water disaster, food disaster, and economic disaster ahead. Which is exactly what has billionaires bragging they "hit the jackpot." … 2/22

For energy companies in Texas, this has been the BEST WEEK EVER. The same goes for natural gas companies. The entire energy industry—including the owners of Texas wind farms—has seen a tremendous surge of profit. … 3/22

In just two days this week, Monday and Tuesday, providers easily cleared more profit than in a full year of ordinary, ho-hum service. NOT providing adequate electricity to Texas is much more profitable than providing every Texan with the power they need. By design. … 4/22

With a governor so busy going on Fox he didn’t have time to even distribute the stock of generators provided by FEMA, most of Texas is simply exhausted. But the energy industry is ecstatic. This sugar rush injected billions straight into their pockets *for failing*. … 5/22

Did you realize there is a movement to normalize anti-white hatred? It works with white guilt and psych-op to dehumanize white people. They are working to dehumanize "whiteness". Do not make the mistake of thinking this is an isolated incident because it has been going on for ...

some time. I have collected nearly 100 articles in the last few yrs.
Today there was a whistleblower from Coca Cola, who revealed classes they were to take to learn how to "try to be less white". The classes are provided by Linked In on Linked In.

Many large companies are not only doing diversity training, but "What It Means to be White" seminars. Inside our government seminars are available. Recently we learned the Defense Secretary said he is going to root out extremism,

which we know means white supremacists aka Trump supporters. I do not think he was talking about the Muslim Brotherhood, as he has been fine with them.

A Federal contractor: "A filmmaker and policy researcher has posted online a series of documents showing how the federal government required "white men" who work at Sandia National Laboratories to learn how to "deconstruct their white male culture."(WND 8/13/20

This has been going around, links to support. At this point we should all be digging!

(1) “TEXAS something is not sitting right with me with Texas and it’s not just the weather.
I mean it really bothers me these millions of Texas families are suffering.
I couldn’t sleep actually...

(2) So I woke up this morning, made coffee and got to researching.
I started pulling Biden’s EO’s this morning and I found something buried in the Keystone Pipeline EO..... way towards the end of the doc.

(3) It turns out that the same day Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline, he also lifted the security on our power grid for 90 days (Trump’s EO the year prior secured our power grid by giving China no access.)

(4) Here below is the snippet buried in Biden’s Keystone pipeline EO.
“c) Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days.

Saharon Shelah and number 4, a thread.

Shelah is an incredibly prolific mathematician working mostly in mathematical logic who has (co-)authored around 1500 papers so far. His other superpower is the ability to discover number 4 where it has absolutely no reason to be. 1/32

Example 1. "There are just 4 second order quantifiers".
In first-order logic, one is allowed to form statements about structures, such as graphs, groups, fields,
etc., with only quantification over elements allowed. 2/32

So you can say "exists x, ..." or "for all x, ..." with x ranging over the elements of the structure M, but you can't say "for all subsets of M, ..." or "for all binary relations on M, ...", etc. Allowing such
quantifiers puts us in the context of _second order logic_. 3/32

It was well-known in logic and computer science that one can express more complicated properties by quantifying over binary relations on M rather than just over the unary ones. But can we say even more quantifying over ternary relations? 4/32

And how does this compare to quantifying over functions, bijections, or any other infinitely many possible types of relations on M one can think of? In his 1973 paper Shelah proved that there are exactly 4 (four) possible types of second order quantifiers. 5/32

1/ By far, the biggest Ponzi scheme I've discovered until now was the diamonds one. In 2014, two years before other media and 3 years before prosecutors, I wrote stories about physical diamonds sold by 2 brokers through banks to tens of thousands of Italian investors.

2 / Diamonds were sold at constantly rising prices in a sort of linear progression, which wasn't related to real market prices. The prices were produced by the two brokers themselves, Intermarket Diamond Business (Idb) and Diamond Private Investment (Dpi), then published monthly

3/They published monthly table of their prices in markets pages on my newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's highest-selling financial daily. Then the 2 diamonds brokers cut the price tables from the pages and presented them to the public as "Il Sole 24 Ore records" but they weren't

4 / People were lured into the scheme with the promise of constantly revaluating physical luxury assets, easy to be hidden (a lot of diamonds were sold to tax evaders and probably gangsters). For just connecting their clients to the 2 brokers, banks earned 15-20% fees.

5 / The business throve thanks to a hole in Italy's financial regulations: diamonds weren't overseen neither by Bank authority Bank of Italy nor financial authority Consob. In two decades, the 2 brokers sold diamonds for 2/3 billion € proceeds.