After a zoom meeting ended and the 'boss' people had left, the subordinates lingered back for a little casual banter. Nothing much, the same old "how-we-miss-office-and-how-the-old-normal-should-return" stuff. (1/10)

The most bubbly lady was uncharacteristically silent. She got talking after a little prodding.

"My kids have rebelled. I had introduced this idea of a reward system. We would never step out with the kids in the lockdown earlier. Now that things are getting better... (2/10)

… I promised them weekly longdrives if they behaved, cleaned up their rooms and did their homework. I also thought I could increase their pocketmoney, that there are no major expenditures since lockdown."

"Wow, that's good!" (3/10)

"The kids don't think. They've vetoed the whole idea and are raking more fights. They said they always deserved more pocketmoney!"

"They're right!" Said a perpetually single colleague in his late twenties. (4/10)

"No! Pocketmoney is based on how they behave. How regular they are with their homework, or how do they do household chores!"

"So, you paid them less for the same chores earlier?"

"Doing homework is their duty, chores are a way of roleplaying adulthood!" (5/10)

Ok, time for a big thread on a general theory of history and society.

Every human society has to navigate the relative importance of the individual versus the group. You can think of every society as being placed somewhere on a spectrum between "Everything is about the individual" and "Everything is about the group."

Human society--tribal society--starts out at the extreme "group" end of the spectrum, because the overall imperative is survival. The individual needs to defer to the group because that's how the group survives. Natural selection means we're all descended from such a society.

Then over time society generates some surplus and there's more scope for the individual. And I do believe that the particular genius of the West is that it decided, earlier and more firmly than the rest, to shift the cursor further to the side of the individual.

First with the Greeks, then with Christianity, then with Modernity, we collectively pushed that cursor further away from the "group" end and towards the "individual" end. And lo and behold, each time we did, amazing things happened!

1/ The Evidence-Based Social Work Alliance has written an open letter to the Chief Executives of all four UK social work regulators, CAFCASS and BASW.

A request for policy review and practice guidance

https://t.co/xfISp9y9Vd

2/ "EBSWA gathers and considers evidence on the questions of sex and gender identity in order to inform professional discussion. We are concerned by the uncritical use of gender identity theory in social work and other professions".

3/ "Of immediate concern is the increasing numbers of children and young people with gender dysphoria who are presenting to the profession. The welfare of gender-dysphoric children is increasingly being discussed within the child-protection context...

4/ "...and yet our attempts to explore alternatives to the affirmation model are being met with accusations of hateful conduct and referrals to our regulator for investigation. We are being silenced in our attempts to understand and discuss the evidence-base approaches to this".

5/ "The recent high-profile Judicial review of the Tavistock and Portman Trust’s treatment of Keira Bell...will change the way in which professionals approach this issue. Social work policy and practice must engage and respond in line with these developments".

Thread: Can we be honest for a brief moment? There are 5 main arguments believers are having about racism. The conflict over race is not about CRT and its validity. The (1st) conflict is really over the evidence that proves or disproves the existence of systemic racism

What I mean is, who’s/what evidence is empirical to prove or disprove the existence of systemic racism? For those who affirm CRT, it is proof. And others go to Civil Rights Legislation for disproof. Saying that “Systemic Racism” ended in the 1964 Civil Rights
Era.

The second most prevalent argument is over the definition of systemic. And depending on the definition, it may be accurate to say there is no systemic racism. But that depends on the way one is using the word systemic. Yet ppl seem to rarely define what they mean by systemic

The third argument is over the validity of experience. How much does personal experience count in one’s evaluation of racism? Some say none. That is just Standpoint Epistemology. Personal Agency matters not Personal Experience. But how does one do that?

How does one say your personal experience is not truth, but your responsibility to act against that experience is? Personal Agency comes out of personal experience. There is no agency without experience. I’m responsible for what? My actions stemming from my experiences.

A THREAD: Since today brought on a greater desire/focus to follow the prophet, I felt like it was a great time to review some of his many invitations he has given us as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

#DezNat

Keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere. (“New First Presidency Broadcast”)

I’m extending a prophetic plea to you, the women of the Church, to shape the future by helping to gather scattered Israel. (“Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel” – Women’s Session)

So, I invite you to study prayerfully section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants and discover what the Holy Ghost will teach you. Your personal spiritual endeavor will bring you joy as you gain, understand, and use the power with which you have been endowed. (“Spiritual Treasures”)

Repentance: Teach that repentance is a joyful opportunity to change and grow, something all of God’s children should do with appreciation for the privilege. (Official First Presidency Letter)

LASG HAS ANNOUNCED ADDITIONAL ADJUSTMENT TO THE CURRENT TRAFFIC FLOW ARRANGEMENTS ON THIRD MAINLAND BRIDGE.

#ForAGreaterLagos
#3MB
#ThirdMainlandBridge
#tmbrehab

@jidesanwoolu @tundefashola

In order to accomplish the planned reopening of the 3rd Mainland Bridge on February 22nd, 2021 due to the on-going rehabilitation/maintenance works, ..

... the Lagos State Government hereby announce the shifting of the current diversion point on the bridge to a closer position for traffic coming from Iyana Oworosoki going to Adekunle or Lagos Island.

This adjustment is to allow the removal, replacement and casting of joint No. 23 in addition to the two other joints (16 and 17) that are presently being worked on by the Federal Ministry of Works contractor.

The planned two (2) weeks temporary traffic flow changes shall be from 12 midnight 15th January, 2021 to 12 midnight 29th January, 2021. The current traffic status shall then resume at 00.01 hrs 30th January, 2021.

A Black couple put in $400k in home renovations, but their home appraisal barely budged.

When a white friend posed as the homeowner for a new appraisal, the home appraisal went up by $500k!

This is outrageous but unsurprising. Let me explain. /1/

Home ownership is *the* single biggest wealth generator for most families. It builds your retirement nest eggs, allows a family to pass on generational wealth, and you can borrow against a home to pay for big expenses, e.g., children’s college education. /2/

Yet, home ownership is out of reach for many Black people for many reasons. First, discrimination in lending makes it difficult for Black borrowers to obtain a mortgage. Black borrowers are denied mortgages at DOUBLE the rate as white borrowers. /3/

Second, less generational wealth for Black borrowers means they don’t get help from parents and grandparents who can you pay the outrageous down payment that most borrowers need to secure a mortgage. /4/

Finally, Black borrowers on average owe about DOUBLE the amount in student loan debt than white borrowers, and owe more than when they started college(!), which means the dream of home ownership is delayed if not denied. /5/

The Baku pogrom was directed against the ethnic Armenian inhabitants of #Baku, Az SSR. From January 12, 1990, a 7 day pogrom broke out against the #Armenian population in Baku during which they were bеаtén, murdеréd, and expelled from the city.
🟦🟩🟦GRAPHIC THREAD🟦🟩🟦

Thread 🧵
The number of deaths in the nuclear research facility presents a horrific story as 73 suicides, including by many scientists, were reported between 1995 and 2016.
1966 Dr. Bhabha had died in an air crash after he publicly said India could produce a nuclear device
1

On June 13 2009, India’s television channels reported the death of Lokanathan Mahalingam, a not-so-well-known nuclear scientist. Mahalingam was working for eight years in the Kaiga atomic power station, located in the South Indian State of Karnataka
2

Uma Narasimha Rao, aged 63 and a retired scientist of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), committed suicide at her house at Govandi owing to chronic depression. In a suicide note, she said none was to be blamed for her “extreme step.” 2011
3

Ravi Mule
Another employee of the Nuclear Power Corporation India Ltd, Ravi Mule, went missing and was later declared murdered. His brother made his own efforts to investigate after police failed to make any headway. 
4

On February 2010, M Iyer, an engineer working with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, was found dead in his residence. Police investigations reached a dead end, with forensic experts declaring, as in all cases of unexplained deaths of employees involved in nuclear programme
5

Feeling cute, still mad at cis gay white men, idk, might still be mad at them later.

For the straight folks out there, feel free to observe, but for a lot of you this probably isn't your lane, but just from my personal experiences, here's why a lot of people are mad about it.

Seems silly, right? Just a bunch of mostly white gay guys saying they'd let a white supremacist hate fuck them and expecting to get no pushback on that statement.

Your non-white gay friends see you and remember that, in most cases, you'd want to hit that before you even see us.

We shouldn't be surprised though, we see your online crushes and thirst posts. We see you fuckability rating the "White Chris Squad". We see your profiles saying how you "love guys with blue or green eyes" or "if you look like [insert popular white actor here] front of the line!"

And we see the other profiles, the ones that even you'd scowl at, the ones that specify non-white guys shouldn't even bother saying hello. We see the porn, the party fliers, the magazine covers, even the gay magazine covers that will put straight white men on before any gay POC.

We've been out to bars and parties where we're one of the few non-white people in the room. We've been equally ignored or fetishized. We've watched your uniform/cop fetishes. We've had to fight to get fetish spaces to even be inclusive. We've constantly had our concerns ignored.

You know how occasionally you get glimpses of just how casually racist the world we grew up in really was & you get like a vertiginous lurch in your stomach? Heads up, this thread does need a content warning.

Background, I worship The Kinks & rate Ray Davies as one of THE great songwriters, but they're ruined for me by one song - 'Apeman' - a cod calypso in a comedy Caribbean accent with the chorus "wanna live like an apeman" & I thought it was about the most racist pop hit ever >

Well last night I happened upon a 1971 song by Harry Nilsson, a white man from New York, called 'Coconut,' which is another cod calypso etc in an even more offensive comedy accent ("put me lime in de coconut" etc.) I was appalled enough by it, but then >

I looked it up on Youtube & there's an old promo performance video of him doing the song. And it's just him and a guitarist and they are wearing actual monkey suits. I'm not going to paste the vid here because it is genuinely horrible.

But the moral of the story is, people my age (54) & older, we grew up SWIMMING in this stuff. Surrounded by it. People talk about the horrors of the Black & White Minstrel show as if it was in isolation. The truth is our culture, from films & TV, drama to sitcom >

My Da Tom (90) is coping with #Lockdown3 by consuming ribs & cabbage, marmalade & soda bread, fancy cakes & tay, drawing, painting, playing his fiddle, reading papers, watching snooker, scrolling through Facebook & Insta, playing with dogs & strong whiskey every night.
#Legend

Here is his fridge.
The dude with the fag is called "Lucas Batteries"
He has been drawing him for his whole life.
On school copy books, hotel napkins, and the backs of envelopes.
And on one memorable occasion with a blue marker on a glass door.
"I always give him a #smoke!"
✒️

I bought him a canvas and lent him his late brothers painting set. Filled with colours and brushes, rulers and the nub of a little yellow pencil.
He did this with a sharpie and wax crayons I also brought
And stuck those elves on with Superglue
He tells me it's done an hour later.

Here he is reading the review of #TheScourge by @Katy_Hayes in the @Independent_ie at the weekend
He's quietly orating like the 1st reading at Mass but I can't hear him above the noise of #FlogIt
He's as deaf as a post
And as stubborn as a mule
"Spell it" says he when I'm hoarse

"I finished that in FIVE minutes sure" he laughs when I ask about the canvas, as if it was a competition.
He knows I have one too. Are you done says he to the child sleeping in her clothes.
I haven't had time to brush my hair, says I truthfully.
"Sid is waitin on ya" -
His dog..