Since today is my birthday, I thought I'd share a little something I wrote about life lessons learned to commemorate the day:
View from age 55…
1. Make intentional space for things that bring you joy.
2. It’s okay to take a nap when you get tired. This year has been exhausting.

3. Take care of yourself. No one can do this for you.
4. Notice small things. There is sacredness in the mundane.
5. Pay attention to your emotions. They give us needful information.
6. Listen to your heart’s desires -they give you guidance about how to spend your one life.

7. Never regret turning a year older. Not everyone had that privilege. Birthdays are a gift to be celebrated.
8. Don’t be afraid of silver hair. I feel like mine represents the experiences in my life and the (hopefully) wisdom I have gained.

9. Grief is a part of life. It is not weakness or lack of faith. Allowing yourself to grieve is the only way through.
10. What other people think of me isn't as important as I once thought.
11. I don’t have to live up to the expectations of others. I have to be true to my self.

12. I have learned to accept myself more. Not perfectly every day, but much more than I did in the past. I am who I am and I’m shaped how I’m shaped. I can only be who I am.
13. I’ve learned to be kind to myself.
14. The beach is always a good idea. It helps me reset.

This is a thread I have been wanting to write, but it needed to come from a place of logic and truth and not just words. It is yet another one of my Christianity threads. However, this one will really focus on politicians that use Christianity to attain power.

We have politicians who in one tweet say very divisive words like “radical left” and their next tweet is a Bible quote, think Rubio. I have explained in the past that many Americans call themselves Christians based upon the fact that that they are white and American only. “I am

an American and a proud Christian.” This is Christian nationalism. They don’t actually follow Jesus or what he represents. It’s the same as someone who is born in Iraq, they are Muslim based upon it being the predominant religion of the country. There are those that practice

their religion and others that do not.
But what I want to highlight is the evil that comes from those who only use a religion for power. And it really highlights two things.
1. Evil using religion
2. The literal meaning of the Bible.
Now theologians and Biblical scholars

state that the Bible isn’t literal. It’s what they study. But we have evangelicals who say that it is a literal word of God. But there are issues here. They don’t take the whole Bible literal, they choose parts to take literally. But here’s the issue. If these people say we must

TIGER INSIDE FIX with VISU

ㅤ
ㅤ
( @/arcturusjae )

ㅤ"Don't~tie me, tie me up, tie me, tie me up!"

Part Jaewon berakhir saat kelima member mengangkat kedua tangan mereka serempak seperti dalam keadaan terikat, sebelum Yoonwoo mengambil alih dan mulai membawakan

ㅤ
ㅤ
ㅤ"Hwesaek jeonggeul dan hanaye Rule,"

Suara lembut sang adam mulai mengalun, seraya dirinya berjalan ke tengah-tengah formasi sambil menurunkan tangannya perlahan dari posisi awal. Yoonwoo berdiri tegap selagi pundak dibuang ke belakang,

ㅤ
ㅤ
satu tangannya yang bebas diarahkan ke depan sebelum melangkah ke sisi kiri formasi sesuai ketukan lagu.

ㅤ"...Geugeon nal deo jageukhaesseul ppun,
Dallyeodeureo geochilge, Let's growl~"

Yoonwoo menggesturkan tangannya ke arah

ㅤ
ㅤ
seperti tengah menyihir seseorang, sebelum ia membungkukkan badannya sedikit ke depan, lalu menghempaskan kedua tangannya ke atas sebelum ia mengakhiri part awalnya kali ini.

ㅤ"So bring it on, bring it on, bring it

To celebrate the one month anniversary of this article, I thought I would do an update of everyone on this chart.

I even color coded them accordingly. 🤓
🔴 Trump
🔵 Distribution
⚪️ Ops
🟢 Tech
🟠 Former Intel
🟣 LARP

THREAD
#RIPQ #StupidCoup

Star Trek S1E02 "Who Mourns for Adonais?" #TOS #StarTrek https://t.co/LIkzMGcPIi has interesting features 1) sexism tempered by female crew members' competence, (2) advancement of Ancient Aliens theory & 3) use of Pre-Modern anti-Muslim slur 4) appearance of Walter Koenig: Chekov

For the 1st time, Michelle Nichols as Uhura performs a technical task. In previous episodes, she basically was a receptionist or a switchboard operator.

After Scotty the Chief Engineer oogles Leslie Parrish as Lt. Carolyn Palamas on the bridge, Capt Kirk basically states that women won't go far in Star Fleet because they end their careers for marriage. She's part of the landing party where she & Kirk exchange these lines:

Apollo changes her miniskirt uniform into an alluring evening gown and does her hairdo quite elegantly. The camera gives viewers multiple shots of her the remainder of the episode.

Despite her being tempted by the life Apollo offers her, she does her duty as a Star Fleet Officer and spurns him, thus draining him of his power so that the Enterprise's crew and the landing party could free themselves.

My 12 favourite quotes from Phil Fisher, from his wonderful book 'Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits'

Aside from Buffett/Munger, Fisher is the investor that has had the most influence on me and I would recommend his book to anyone:

"More money has probably been lost...

...by investors holding a stock they really did not want until they could 'at least come out even' than from any other single reason... Especially so when you consider foregone reinvestment gains."

"If the growth rate is so good that in another 10 years the company might well have quadrupled, is it really of such great concern whether the stock might or might not be 35% overpriced? Maintain the position and don't worry about losing a small part of the gain."

"If a company has changed for good it deserves to trade at a P/E premium to its history and will probably continue to do so. For young companies in particular many investors will mistakenly view them as overvalued...

…Stocks that at first glance appear to the highest priced may, upon analysis, be the biggest bargains."

Very excited to share this one with you all!

It was both a shock & an honor to get an email from the editors at Current Directions asking for a paper on this topic, and I'm glad to see it out in print.

Feel free to share/RT widely (please!)

Obviously, as I'm sure you all know, internet pornography use is incredibly common.

Yet, despite how common pornography use is, the premiere outlets for psychological science have all-but-ignored the topic for 30th years.

Now, it wasn't always this way. In the 1960s-1980s, there were actually quite a few excellent (though early) papers in JPSP and even American Psychologist about the use of "erotica," but since about 1985, there's just nothing.

Now, I suppose that this would be reasonable if nothing significant had changed about use in the past three decades, but, as I'm sure you are all aware, there have been some major technological changes that have affected use.

Philosophers if they were muppets, a thread I made so I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore:

Machiavelli is Ernie

John Locke is Hoots the Owl

Karl Marx is the Grouch

Hume is Fozzie Bear (credits and legal responsibility go to @KreetzTristan for this one)

Foucault is Bert

On our new podcast, we interviewed @angie_rasmussen, one of the leading virologists, who has been a guiding light during the pandemic. Thread here to summarize, transcript and audio https://t.co/Q6CabBsKCM @cuttingforstone /1

Current status
"We're essentially experiencing the equivalent of a 9/11 every day in terms of number of deaths; our hospital systems are overburdened. ...We're going to be dealing w/ this for some time to come, even after people get the vaccine, certainly #LongCovid is real." /2

On her strong efforts for dispelling misinformation
"My philosophy about public health is that you can't have it without the engagement of the public. And my philosophy about communication is that information empowers people to decide for themselves" /3

The diagnosis of #SARSCoV2 reinfection is very challenging and Dr. Rasmussen provides the best and complete explanation for why that's the case. One dimension of that is being able to culture the virus in a BSL (biosafety level)-3 lab /4

Many are not familiar with what BSL-3 and 4 labs are all about. Great summary here from her extensive experience. More in podcast/transcript on her response in BSL-4./5

So I finished reading The Velvet Rage today( I think it was Owen Jones who first put it on my radar) and it's been on my wishlist for a while, I had some extra cash thanks to some stocks I'd invested in so I decided to treat myself.
I have some thoughts™ (thread)

First off, the beginning chapters of this book are very good. They describe an experience growing up gay that I as a self identified queer man can vibe with. Even in a supportive household queer kids learn all too quickly what is and isn't acceptable parts of themselves to show

It stresses the book is writing very clearly about the gay male experience and acknowledges that the broad strokes it paints with could apply to lesbians too but are expressed in different ways. No acknowledgement is made however in highlighting the exp of non cis, non white gays

Topping that off, the book feels horribly upper middle class; talk of clients from executive backgrounds being ashamed of who they are. That may not be the experience of every gay. Theres also an assumption that most gays come from a home with a caring mother and distant father

It takes a certain view on non-monogamy and promiscuity, framing it as a symptom of trying to overcompensate for a lack of validation in teen years and while that's certainly probably the case for some, it doesn't frame anything other than monogamy as intrinsically rewarding.

Remembering those we lost in 2020

Soumitra Chatterjee (Nov 15)
SP Balasubrahmanyam (Sep 25)
Bhanu Athaiya (Oct 15)
Irrfan Khan (Apr 29)

#Thread

Rishi Kapoor (Apr 30)
Basu Chatterjee (Jun 4)
Jagdeep (Mar 29)
Saroj Khan (Jul 3)

B Kannan - Cinematographer, Tamil, Malayalam (Jun 13)

Budal Krishnamoorthy - Actor, Filmmaker, Kannada (Dec 19)

P Krishnamoorthy - Art Director, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada (13 Dec)

Zero Babu - Singer, Malayalam (Oct 21)

Theatre

Usha Ganguly (Apr 23)
Ratnakar Matkari (May 5)
Ebrahim Alkazi (Aug 11)
HG Somashekhar Rao (Nov 3)

Kishori Ballal (Feb 18)
Ranjit Chowdhury (Apr 4)
Nishikant Kamat (Aug 8)
Yogesh Gaur (May 29)

10 Most Impactful Books Of My Life

1. Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It by @kamalravikant

Kamal is honest, open, and authentic. But what I love most about this book is that it actually works.

2. Conscious Living by @GayHendricks

My life changed dramatically from August 2019 to August 2020. This book helps explain why: I started to follow the principles in this book without even realizing it.

3. A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose by @EckhartTolle

Recommended to me by an Uber driver in October 2019. Couldn’t put it down. The first “spiritual” book that clicked for me.

4. Resilience by @EricGreitens

Incredible writing, timeless lessons, historical examples. I can’t remember the last time I annotated this much in a book. Wisdom from so many different sources. Highly, highly recommended.

Want to be a better thinker?

"Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows is the top book on Amazon for System Theory with 1,000+ ratings.

Here are some highlights (thread ↓)

"Donella Meadows (1941–2001) was a scientist trained in chemistry and biophysics (Ph.D., Harvard University), followed by a research fellowship at MIT. There she worked with Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics."

"This book is about that different way of seeing and thinking. It is intended for people who may be wary of the word 'systems' and the field of systems analysis, even though they may have been doing systems thinking all their lives."

— Donella Meadows

"Today, it is widely accepted that systems thinking is a critical tool in addressing the many environmental, political, social, and economic challenges we face around the world."

— Diana Wright

"A system is a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time."

— Donella Meadows

A Drazverse Tale: A Bedtime Story For Little Devils

"What's that, little one? A bedtime story? You can't sleep until you hear a tale? Oh, my little devil-child, you're adorable. Listen then to your mother.

Many millennia before our time, before our time's time, Satan decided to be God.

But of course, you know that, little one. You know as well as I do that Satan warred against the Most High and failed, falling to Hell. But do you know what really happened, my child?

Many facts and truths in the stories have been lost to the ages, however. Some "facts" are very over-exaggerated, or downright changed. Some "facts", my little one, are outright lies.

Listen to me, my child. Listen to your bedtime story, just as I listened to it when I was your age."

Many, many millennia ago, in times before times, God sat with all of his angels, his angels of wrath and peace and justice and hope, and said "I will make a world, and on that world, yea, I will place mankind." And so he did, and by his will and word, it was done.