I've been an elected official for the same amount of time as the 5 (so far) UCP MLAs who decided that taking a warm vacation while telling Albertans to stay home was OK.

I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how in the world they came to that conclusion. #ableg

🧵

When you enter politics, you know your actions will rightfully be subject to public scrutiny. Not just because there's more attention, but also because you've asked the public to place their trust in you. You're expected to lead by example. Never more so than during a crisis.

Every day, I have moments where I reflect on my actions. Sometimes I'm sure I got it wrong. But the importance of that reflection has been heightened during the pandemic. It's brand new to all of us, I need to not only be seen to do the right thing, but I have to lead by example.

I also have to do the right thing because I feel responsible for keeping my family, neighbours, friends, & community safe. I want to get through this as much as the next person. I want my kids' lives to go back to normal. #ableg

A few weeks ago, my family went to the Leg to see the outdoor lights. We turned the car around halfway there because we had forgotten masks. The current orders do not *require* masks outdoors, but our mantra is to consider the spirit & intent of the orders, not parse words.

Proceedings resume
Mr Fitzgerald rises
#Assange

Says that Assange's experience in the Equadorian embassy was not one he would want to repeat, also says Mexican president was misquoted on asylum offer

Fitzgerald his client is aware: "He is safest and best in this country, with the protection of the rule of law and the cloak of this courts judgement."
#Assange

Defence end by formally asking for bail, ends.

Judge asking about costs, both sides agree this can wait

Freezing as you hear the faint noise of one of the latex panthers.
As the creaking noises from around the corner get louder and closer you grit your teeth and turn, breaking into a sprint for the door at the end of the hallway...
You don't even get ten steps before you're caught.

The predator jump into your back, sending the both of you crashing to the floor, rolling slightly before you end up pinned beneath it, stomach down.
"You thought you could outrun me?" You hear her purr, the gentle creaks of her body sending a shiver down your spine.
"Poor prey."

You grunt, lifting and turning your head for just a moment before one of her paws presses down on your cheek, forcing the side of your face against the cool linoleum. She cranes her neck down, grinning as she purrs deeper,
"Look at you~. So indignant. So defiant." She grins.

You feel her paw slip a bit down your face, and suddenly you're made hyperaware of the thick scent of her body - like that of a pool, of synthetic chemicals. You had smelled it before, of course - it was impossible not to, with the number of them in the city.

But this was the first time you'd been so close. Your adrenaline fuelled body taking deep breaths, your nose dragging in more of those fumes...
"Aw, that's cute," she giggles, and you're broken out of your stupor. "That heat in your pants, just from my paw~?"
You suppress a moan.

Thanks for joining the countdown show on WKRZ this sunny saturday afternoon. just getting ready to kick off here folks- Today's show is centered around Gloria.
the local time is 1:42 and there's no traffic problems....

I don't know if you ever had to deal with the switchblade strife of being a runaway greaser in Tulsa Oklahoma or maybe you just read the book or saw the movie too.
First Up is Van Morrison with Glora.
Stay Golden, Pony

Alert the FCC! alert the Dade County Sheriff... Here's The Doors - I really think Jim takes it too far. WELL I

Today's Theme is Gloria. Most of the songs will contain Gloria in the title, either referring to a beautiful woman or Gods beauty in general. Here is one of those beautiful women named

Now we're gonna slow it down, ya dig. Here's Enchantment from

i finished the wire yesterday.

i was so disappointed in so many of the people in power.

i can't stop thinking about the kids from season 4 - dukie, randy, michael, bug, namond. even wallace from season 1.

reading about ACEs and their impact and how that was portrayed

thread.

According to Corcoran and McNulty (2018), adverse childhood experiences are “traumatic events (e.g., sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse) or chronic stressors (e.g., neglect, parental separation) that are uncontrollable to the child”

They can include:
- all kinds of abuse
- household challenges
- DV towards mum
- parental separation
- criminal household member
- mental illness
- substance abuse

The theory behind ACEs is that they lead to neurobiological impacts and health risks, which in turn lead to long-term social and health problems. The greater the neurobiological impacts and health risks, the more serious the lifelong consequences to health and wellbeing.

In a systematic review specifically examining school-related outcomes of traumatic event exposure, Perfect et al (2016) identified 44 studies that examined cognitive functioning, 34 that examined academic functioning and 24 that examined social-emotional-behavioural functioning.

Dear anons and Secular Maldives proponents: 12,020 is over, and we made a lot of progress on the #SecularMaldives front. We pushed many important conversations publicly, drove controversial positions in the country while exposing those ideas to a bigger audience. 🧵 /1

We also engaged with the public and started discussing secular politics by injecting our selves into strategic conversations and we forced ourselves into relevance hile changing the entire face of public discourse in the country. /2

We gave a strong message that we exist and we matter. Now we must scale up the activism. Recent Vaguthu article showed the extent of problem. Regular folks were scared and silenced off while Islamists dominated comments and conversation around the article. /3

This needs to change and that change can only be achieved through sustained engagement and dialogue. Keep this up, and we will start chipping away their ideological dominance in the country, eventually towards a win. This is in your hands. /4

When you engage, and gain traction, you begin changing public perceptions. This is described in political science as shifting the Overton Window. /5

We couldn’t leave 2020 behind without naming our 10 calls that “missed the mark” this year.

Follow along with #ReasonsNotToCall911 to see the top 10 calls of 2020.

Call 1: Suspicious activity – A 9-1-1 caller advised he’d seen the same moose standing in the same spot in a field for two days straight. The caller thought this was a little suspicious and RCMP officers should check it out. #ReasonsNotToCall911

Call 2: Locked up – One concerned animal parent was wondering if her cat was in custody with the local RCMP as the cat went out two days prior and had not returned home. #ReasonsNotToCall911

Call 3: Better programming – A concerned parent called 9-1-1 requesting RCMP officers speak to a popular video streaming service to request they provide better programming for their kids to watch. #ReasonsNotToCall911

Call 4: Directions? – 9-1-1 dispatchers received a call asking for directions to travel from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to Winnipeg, Manitoba. #ReasonsNotToCall911

ON PRINCIPLES

The recent censorship events have shown that many don't understand what's a principle.

If you only practice it when convenient, it's not a principle.

1/11

This doesn't mean that a principle cannot be partisan.

For example, "I put the family first" can be a principle.

But then you must put your family first, both when it's convenient for you and when it isn't.

Otherwise it's not a principle.

2/11

What is the purpose of principles?

They keep us focused on the long term when the short term would misguide us

For example, I do not like Trump. And yet, yesterday I defended his free speech. Because I believe that defending free speech is ultimately good for everyone.

3/11

Principles protect us from undesired or unthinkable consequences.
They protect us from the problems we didn't experience and from what could go wrong.

They are there for when we think they could be transgressed. They are there for when we think it makes sense to skip them.

4/11

Rights are a form of principles.

Rights are preserved by granting them to our enemies.

The moment we cease to grant them when inconvenient for us, we cease to have them too.

The moment we destroy their sanctity, we open the door to someone else taking them from us.

5/11

1/

time for a little bit of a bragging thread

2/

in hunter gatherer societies, male speed, strength and dexterity peaks in the mid 20s, but hunting success peaks closer to 40

the difference is decades of acquired wisdom about all sorts of tiny things

3/

In infoworker economies I think something similar happens. Fluid intelligence peaks in the 20s or so, but graybeards have seen all manner of complicated Charlie Foxtrots and can start to predict where they're going to happen.

4/

I build this complicated app that communicates with Vast Third Party via three different APIs, a mix of XML, JSON, etc.

Two of these APIs are outgoing / push (from my PoV), one is inbound.

Three weeks ago Third Party pinged us and placed an order. We responded "ok".

5/

Then, apparently, Third Party pinged us again and placed a second order... and is now upset because second order didn't ship.

We have no record of a second order in our system, and we don't have enough inventory to fulfill it.

Read bottom to top for correct chronological timing...

WTF?

1

2

3

4

A serious reasoning error that is particularly common among educated people is to argue that if a study hasn't been done on a particular question we have 'no data', and therefore no basis on which to form beliefs or act.

This is incorrect and dangerous. 1/

There is almost always a reference class we can use to make a sensible prediction, and often we can reason about the causal mechanism directly.

To see how this is clearly wrong, consider these two extreme cases: 2/

a. Before a vaccine trial is conducted we have 'no data' on how likely it is to work.

But we can estimate the likelihood just fine! To start with we can just check the base rate of all vaccine trials.

What fraction of all vaccine trials in history have had +ve results? 3/

That gives a much better estimate than pure agnosticism.

b. Imagine now that the vaccine trial results have come back positive. But by chance all the vaccines were given in a blue room.

So, will the vaccine still work if given in a red room? I guess we have 'no data'.

4/

So can we say nothing about about whether vaccines work in red rooms?

That is plainly ridiculous — we understand the causal mechanism and it doesn't involve room colour, so in fact we can give a near definitive answer to that question. 5/

Thread: When I accepted my OBE I did so in full knowledge there would be backlash from academic philosophers in my discipline, and here it is. The letter contains some basic errors about my view - but that's to be expected as their aim is not truth.

I won't bother correcting errors, as I've made my written position clear many times before. We aren't dealing here with an ordinary philosophical dispute here, but rather a pathological desire to roleplay an ethical stance for public applause. But their stance isn't ethical. 2/

They want me - and by extension others, including their own students - to stop talking about biological sex and its social importance, wherever it could make conceivable difference to a trans person (which in their view, is almost everywhere). So, they want me to stop talking..3/

about the fact that in Canada - the country of the letter-author Jonathan Ichikawa - male sex-offenders have been placed in female prisons alongside women prisoners (also in Ireland and UK). I care about those forgotten women. 4/

They pretend any discussion whatsoever of violence against women, and what policies we should have about woman-only spaces in response, can only imply one thing - "all trans women are violent" (OF COURSE most are not, and this is not the implication). They want.. 5/

For what it's worth, a THREAD on Gary Player, my dad, and redemption.

My father was politicized by sport. His experiences as a young, sport-obsessed Indian boy gave him his first real sense of the inequities of apartheid...

...seeing white kids playing cricket on perfect greens, in their crisp whites - a world away from what he had.

And because he developed such a strong sense of how sport and politics were intertwined, he loathed sportsmen who used their platform to support apartheid...

...who played a fair and gentlemanly game on the pitch, but off the pitch were cheerleaders for such extreme unfairness and injustice. None drew the ire of my dad more than Player.

It infuriated him that Player could thrive, despite being so publicly unrepentant, "in a democracy that he once did all he could to thwart".