Victory for journalists, press freedom after tribunal finds there is no reason to bar people from using the UK's freedom of information act simply because they are not in the UK. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas

The decision comes after the First-Tier tribunal stayed 16 Freedom of Information by appeals by journalists and ordinary people, because they were either not UK citizens, or had UK nationality but were living abroad. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

Today's decision means that the Freedom of Information Act will continue to operate as it always has done for the past 15 years. It is open to any person regardless of nationality or place of residence.@SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

Upper Tribunal judge O’Connor said today:" We found there is no territorial limitation that should be read into FOIA." Reasons will be given later. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

The decision means that after long delays - and arguably unnecessary - delays a number of important public interest FOIA requests can now resume. @SMaurizi @estelledehon @EmmanFre @benjameslucas #FOIA

Thread: There is the usual talking point going around the pro-Iran-Regime-Lobby in which Israel is once again presented as somehow doing something wrong by seeking to work with the US on Iran threats...or that Israel could start a "war"...the usual "war" bogeyman myth

The fact is that Israel is the one being threatened. Israel doesn't run proxy groups throughout the Middle East and arm them illegally by giving militias weapons...or have whole days devoted to bashing Iran or soldiers marching on Iran's flag. Only Iran does that.

There is never going to be a "war" with Iran, war is the talking point to claim that those who oppose the Iran regime far-right extremists are "hawks" or "for war"...which is nonsensical. Iran's regime can't afford a war, that is why it arms militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,Yemen

Iran knows how to get the poor to do the fighting for it...recruiting people from Pakistan and Afghanistan, not to defend their own communities, but sending them to Syria while they are attacked at home by extremists. Awful.

So the "war' talking point is always used to claim Israel wants "war"...or "drives wars"...but there is no evidence of this. Israel is totally open about its goals to deter Iran or keep its entrenchment in Syria away from the Golan. Israel found relative calm with hamas-Hezbollah

THREAD: The story of the week in finance is how a group of retail traders at @wallstreetbets, with assists from @ElonMusk and @Chamath, took down the establishment short sellers at GameStop.

A thread on the underlying mechanics of the $GME saga...

1/ First, for those unfamiliar with the business, GameStop is a videogame and merchandise retailer.

It has >5,000 stores, primarily in malls, across North America, Europe, and Australia.

The business has struggled to modernize, hurting its financial and stock performance.

2/ For a variety of business reasons, a bull (i.e. optimistic) case regarding its future performance has formed.

It really came to the forefront after RC Ventures, an entity managed by Chewy founder @ryancohen, disclosed a large position and assumed three board seats.

3/ @ryancohen summarized his case, stating:

"We are excited to bring our customer-obsessed mindset and technology experience to GameStop and its strategic assets...expanding the ways in which it delights customers and by becoming the ultimate destination for gamers."

4/ At the time of that statement on January 11, $GME stock was trading at about ~$20 per share.

Since then, the stock has surged to ~$200 per share and captured the public imagination.

But how did it happen?

There are two dynamics at play: a short squeeze and a gamma squeeze.

There is one book I recommend more than any other, and I'm ashamed to share the name...

I swear to god, this is an incredible, well-written, thoughtful book.

It's called 'How To Get Rich' 🤦‍♂️

It was written by a magazine publishing magnate named Felix Dennis in 2008...

Ignore the title. Seriously. It's great.

He is a character. In the 90's he blew $100MM+ on alcohol and crack cocaine, then become a full-time poet in the early 2000's.

It encompasses most of the important lessons of starting and operating a large business.

Here's a few bits:

Fish where the fish are:

“If you wish to become rich, look carefully about you at the prevailing industries where wealth appears to be gravitating. THEN GO TO WHERE THE MONEY IS!”

Hire smart people and leave them to it:

“When you come across real talent, it is worth allowing them to create the structure. In nine cases out of ten, by inviting them to take responsibility and control for a new venture, you will motivate them to do great things.”

Delegate:

“If you want to get rich, then learn to delegate. Don’t learn to pretend to delegate. Delegation is not only a powerful tool, it is the only way to maximise and truly incentivise your most precious asset – the people who work for you."

THREAD

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have taken the decision to resign from the SNP.

I cannot in good faith ask people to vote SNP in the upcoming Holyrood elections. Those with the ability to make a difference, and make positive change have stood by and done nothing

1. I have tried to reconcile myself many times to staying in on the basis of wholly good organisations such as @YSINational, @SNPStudents and @OutForIndy. However, I have seen for myself the number of times that these organisations have been ignored.

2. However, every time these people try to do anything to advance equality, they have been left empty handed while TERFs have been pandered to.

3. In the 4 years I was in the SNP, I have met a whole host of good people trying to do good things. However, I cannot in particular feel that I can in good faith stand in the same organisation as those who want to roll back equality, and intimidate those who disagree.

4. I joined the SNP because I thought that I could advance my vision of independence. However, more and more it has dawned on me that the egalitarian Scotland that I want to see is not something that I will ever get from the SNP.

Warren Buffet & Charlie Munger's wisdom on

- LTCM
- Circle of Competence (Q by @MohnishPabrai )
- Buy & Hold Strategy

Berskhire Hathaway AGM: 1999

@suru27 @ParikPatelCFA @ashishkila @ravidharamshi77 @_kirand @gauravgsgs @blitzkreigm @PuneetK009 @_anshulkhare

🧵👇

#investing

1). On LTCM:

Munger: What was interesting was how talented they were and then also got in so much trouble. It also demonstrates general system of finance involving derivatives is irresponsible.

Warren: Here you had extremely experienced people operating with their own money.

• They went broke. Why do people risk losing something very important to gain something that’s totally unimportant? The added money has no utility whatsoever.

If almost impossible to go broke without borrowed money being in the equation. No gain is good enough when there is no gain to offset the risk of loss.

2. Estimating Company’s IV

Warren: Investment is process of putting money today to get more money back in the future. The question is how far in the future, how much money and what is the appropriate discount rate to take it back to the present day and determine how much to pay?

Heres the story of how I volunteered to be infected with 50 parasitic worms (hookworm) for a year as part of a research study. Check out this thread & follow me for more #parasite & marine biology content [t]
#ScienceTwitter
imgs: https://t.co/hH5YsfS0ay https://t.co/kVurE6BbTS

1st some background on the parasites I got. Hookworms are blood-feeding nematodes that live in the intestine of mammals including cats, dogs & humans. ~500 million people are infected with hookworm, mostly in tropical and subtropical areas including the southern USA

Infection with many worms (100+) can cause anemia, which is most problematic in kids, pregnant women, and the elderly. This clinical study was launched to try to develop a vaccine against hookworms to prevent infection

People become infected when baby worms living in the soil penetrate their skin. Baby worms hatch from eggs that infected people poop out. Where plumbing is scarce, poor waste disposal is a common source of heavy infections (100s to 1,000s of worms)

I volunteered to be vaccinated with an experimental hookworm vaccine (I was also paid). After vaccination, the vaccine (or placebo idk) was tested by infecting me with 50 hookworms (Necator americanus) that penetrated my skin from a patch of gauze I wore on my wrist for 1 hour

At about 19:00 hrs local time on January 26, 2021, Peoples Gazette's website (https://t.co/wkUFy0ZN63) was hit by a coordinated disruption of service across all telecommunication networks in Nigeria.

This disruption, we are increasingly learning from top federal sources, was based on a directive, from the Nigerian government to MTN, Glo Mobile and other telecom firms, that sought an immediate blacklist of our web address as well as all other alternative domain names.

Our internal assessments and notes from our readers indicate a total restriction on our website for people connecting via MTN, Glo Mobile and Airtel, i.e.: a vast majority of Nigerian Internet users.

Since our inception, we have diligently carried out our sole duty of bringing to public awareness, the rot that exists in our public and private institutions.

We have exposed the abuse of power by government officials, agencies, and cronies; corrupt practices in the public and private sectors and flagrant abuse of human rights and the rule of law by security agencies.

If I were looking to do my first real estate deal with zero prior experience and no money, here's what I'd do (I did).

I'd start with the target of buying a single-family, duplex, 3plex, or 4plex in an area close to where I lived and that I was familiar with.

I'd take an online RE course to get my license as quickly as possible (I did it in 2 weeks). Upon completion, I'd sign up for the MLS system so I could start looking at deals.

I'd call the listing agents involved and pepper them with questions about active and sold listings.

I'd also tell them about my plan to buy an investment property.

I'd call local banks or mortgage brokers to get an idea of loan terms I'd be able to qualify for. Rate, Loan Amount, LTV, Term, Guaranty, etc.

I'd be building relationships with these bankers along the way.

They should be able to give you an answer in 1-2 weeks on what you'll qualify for.

**Be sure to ask them what options you'd have with an FHA loan, 3.5% down government backed.**

I'd get laser focused and pick 1 or 2 neighborhoods and learn every single thing I could about the area.

I'd drive the streets, search public city planning for the area, know every proposed & ongoing development, talk to all the listing brokers that have properties on the market

A thread about GameStop:

Big hedge funds made big bets that GameStop’s stock was overvalued. The way these bets work is the hedge fund borrows shares of the stock and sells those borrowed shares.

When it comes time to give the borrowed shares back, they buy them on the market, hopefully at lower prices. For example, they might sell the borrowed share at $50, hoping to be able to buy the share back at $30, to make a $20 profit. This is called shorting.

The hedge funds were so sure that GameStop was going down, that GameStop was the most shorted stock on the market. 140% of the shares in existence were “borrowed.” Imagine Bob borrows from Jane who borrows from Sue who borrows from John.

Shorting is risky, but the hedge funds were so sure that they just didn’t even care. People on Reddit realized this and basically thought “what if we all just bought shares and refused to sell them when the hedge funds need to give their borrowed shares back.”

The price goes up, the hedge funds are forced to buy back the expensive shares and lose money. Except the hedge funds kept doubling down as the price rode up, expecting that it would eventually fall. The Redditors weren't scared off and with "diamond hands" refused to sell.

“Don’t leave the church because of the people who hurt you. Nobody is perfect, only God”

I’ll explain why this comment is not only not helpful at all, but also very harmful.

1/

The comment assumes we can’t tell the difference between people and toxic theology, it assumes our issues are with a few people who are outliers and misrepresented God, and we just seem to think that’s the totality of divinity. Which makes us appear unintelligent and petty.

2/

But, that’s not the case at all. I didn’t leave because a few people hurt me in the name of God, in fact I stayed long enough to get hurt again, and again, and again, and again. Because it’s not a few bad apples hurting people in the name of God what we are dealing with.

3/

Instead we are talking about systemic abuse due to toxic theology that is taught as righteousness.

Go to any white evangelical church today and conduct all the tests you must to ensure only those who are “good Christians,” remain. I guarantee you people will be harmed there.
4/

Not because people just hurt people, not because Christians have good intentions but sometimes make mistakes; instead because the harm is caused due to indoctrination into toxic theology and a belief that their social and theological framework is not only good,

5/

"I was born in 1921. There have been some incredible moments in the past century, but some years will always be etched in my heart. When I was 22 years old I was sent to Auschwitz. I survived the Holocaust."

Freddie Knoller writes for @TimesRedBox on #HolocaustMemorialDay

"My earliest years in Vienna were largely happy ones. I came from a wonderful, loving family. I was one of three brothers — we all played music and our home was full of happiness. But, I was also subjected to

"After the Germans invaded my home country of Austria this became unbearable. I still remember Kristallnacht — the broken glass and the beatings so many Jewish men received. It became clear that to stay was dangerous"

"My parents, in their fifties, believed they were too old to be the targets of the Nazis so they stayed in Vienna. They were wrong. The Nazis did not care if Jews were young or old, religious or secular. My parents were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau alongside 1.1 million others"

"Eventually I joined a French Resistance group in southwest France, alongside non-Jews who risked their lives to stand up for what was right. But I was betrayed, tortured, and sent to a concentration camp."

Very few people know the history of eugenucs and thats how your government can do what they are goare doing ung today.

2.

3.

4.

Euthinasia was & still is a misnomer. The "Lethal Chamber" as the called it, was created by Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson & first emerged out of the victorian era in Britain & first used in Battersea Dogs Home and later opened up for human use in Washington Square.

My name is Itzik Yaakobi, son of Olga and Yaakov Elimelech, brother to Klari (all of blessed memory), survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, number B.11057.

This is my story.

#HowItzikSurvived

📸 Yediot Achronot

I was born in Debrecen, Hungary to an ultra-Orthodox family.

Under my father Yaakov Elimelech's direction, I spent my childhood studying religious and Jewish texts.

My fondest memory is studying the weekly Torah Portion with my father.

📸 @MakorRishon

This is my father of blessed memory who perished in the #Holocaust.

#HowItzikSurvived

While many of my childhood memories have been obliterated by the trauma I experienced during the #Holocaust, I remember Yulia, our non-Jewish housekeeper who I was very found of and who would give me double portions of Gefilte fish.

📸 The synagogue in Debrecen

When I was 13, the Nazis came to power in Hungary & forcibly moved all Jews into ghettos.

The conditions were unbearable. There was little food.

The Nazis purposely fed us pork (forbidden by Jewish law). My mother made me eat it because we were starving. I vomited it up.