So that’s how I went to Idu Station yesterday to see the new Automated Fare Collection system at work. Told that 85% of tickets bought for the 7am to KD were bought online. People are abandoning their initial skepticism and starting to trust the system more. Here’s what’s changed

Anyone familiar with rail travel between Kaduna and Abuja in the last few years is fully aware of just how stressful getting tickets can be. People showing up several hours ahead and not even sure they’ll get a ticket. A whole industry of touting arose to fill the gap. Naturally.

In Dec 2020, NRC finally launched its Automated Fare Collection (AFC) System, for the Abuja-Kaduna Line. The contract (I’ve talked about this in a previous thread) covers among other things Speedstiles, Validators and Ticket Vending machines at all the Stations. Rollout ongoing.

A couple of things to note:

You either buy on web or download an App (Android / iPhone)

You have to create a profile to log-in. So all tickets linked to profiles

For now you can only buy a day in advance - i.e. tickets for today or tomorrow. Will eventually expand that window

Here’s what happens when you have an invalid ticket ie a used or expired ticket. Also if you buy a ticket to Station 3, get on train and then travel past Station 3 and come off at Station 5, the system will not allow you to exit the station. You’ll have to pay penalty fare.

🇺🇲🇺🇲Roman Empire🇺🇲🇺🇲
The main cause of the fall of the Roman Empire wasn’t one event, but a series of factors and events that caused a steady decline...to eventual collapse.

History will repeat itself when we forget or deny its examples...

1/PRESS BRIEFING BY GOVERNOR HOPE UZODIMMA ON THE SECURITY SITUATION IN ORLU ZONE, MONDAY, JANUARY 25 2021

2/This afternoon, I received a very disturbing report on the activities of a group of Militants who unleashed a shooting spree in the Orlu area of the state,killing and maiming innocent citizen in the process.

3/I am totally appauled by this sad report which appears to paint a picture of near breakdown of law and order in the Orlu area. The government condemns in its entirety this act of extreme hooliganism and brigandage.

4/This is completely unacceptable to this administration. Those behind this callous barbarism will surely regret their actions.

5/Consequently, I have directed the security agencies to fish out without fail, all those behind the carnage and immediately bring them to book.

The latest focal S:N501 build is now up! It includes data from 4 Jan 2021.

We have new sequences in 501Y.V1/B.1.1.7 from Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Pakistan & the USA.

1/12

https://t.co/FTjvV7T7wL

Denmark has 43 new sequences (in orange). These indicate additional introductions, as well as further expansion of the existing large local transmission cluster we saw previously (shown in zoomed divergence view).

2/12

10 new sequences from Portugal (orange) indicate additional, separate introductions.

3/12

Singapore has 5 new sequences (yellow). These indicate at least 5 separate introductions for the total of 6 sequences, with two identical sequences likely being 1 introduction.

4/12

5 new sequences from the US, from Florida & California (older sequences crossed through).

Zooming in (divergence view) on the California cluster, the relationship between these samples is difficult to infer from phylogenies alone.

5/12

POLICE ARREST 5 FOR MULTIPLE ABDUCTION, CAR THEFT AND ABUSE OF WOMEN, 2 OTHERS FOR INT’L CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

• A total of 2,792 others arrested for SGBV offences in 2020

The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has said that the action plan being implemented by the Force to curb Sexual and Gender Based Violence, particularly all forms of abuse on women and children in the country, is yielding positive results.

The IGP made the affirmation on the heels of the arrest of five (5) members of a kidnap for ransom gang which specializes in the abduction of women and the girl child, sexually abusing them and obtaining ransom from their families before their release.

The five (5) suspects were arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team following massive manhunt by the Force for the perpetrators of the recent trend of abduction of women in some States in the South-South part of the country, especially Port Harcourt

and its environs. The victims are subjected to series of sexual abuses and ransom demanded from their families before their release. The suspects are Osinachi Ngwakwe 'm' 22yrs from Ubaka Community in Umahia South LGA, Abia State,

In the Middle East, such as Syria, the CIA assets operate under splinter cells with different names.

We are seeing the same MO with Antifa, who were trained by CIA terrorist cells in Syria.

First we learned of John Sullivan's Insurgence USA

Now the Boogaloo Boys.

[thread]

1/ Wow, what an essay, trying to distill thoughts from this masterpiece: https://t.co/bxR3cnNJrM

Hat tip: @NSKinsella

The essay is about inflation's effect on culture, through the analysis of a short story set in Weimar Germany. I've selected some quotes and will comment.

2/ "With all points of reference gone, the only law...appears to be perpetual change."

When money changes, everything else anchored on money starts to change as well. Prices being the most obvious one, but crucially, not the only one.

3/ "...if we seek an explanation for the dissolution of authority in the world he is portraying, we should look to the monetary madness of the Weimar Republic."

The insanity and disorder of society, in other words, can be traced back to monetary policy.

4/ "Everything threatens to become unreal once money ceases to be real."

Unreal, in this sense is counterfeit or fake. Societal attitudes become as fake as the money we use because it no longer just represents value provided, but also value fraudulently obtained.

5/ "By making money worthless, inflation threatens to undermine and dissolve all sense of value in a society."

Money helps us to know where we can expend our labor to best provide value. If our sense of value is skewed, we will no longer properly value our labor, time or energy.

Unconfirmed points that Pashinyan might sign in Moscow on his official visit:

1- Withdrawal of all Armenian troops from Karabakh, the surrender of 16 settlements in Armenia, a corridor to Azerbaijan through Meghri.

2- Aliyev will demand from Pashinyan to agree to disband the OSCE Minsk Group. Instead of this group, a trilateral or 4-way negotiation format will be created.

3- Aliyev will demand that Pashinyan no longer raise the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, since Azerbaijan has already resolved this issue, and the maximum that the Armenians can count on is cultural autonomy within Azerbaijan.

4- Aliyev will demand from Pashinyan that official visits from Armenia to Karabakh be stopped. All official visits should have permission from Baku. Only private visits, as well as humanitarian visits, can be carried out without the permission of Azerbaijan.

5- In the process of establishing the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Yerevan must cede 16 villages to Azerbaijan and this process must be legislatively enshrined in a special agreement dated January 11.+

THREAD: Presidential Spokesperson @attyharryroque holds a media briefing in Malacañang | LIVE https://t.co/0X6MAKcUyB

Tweets by our digital producers @pplmanuel and @lisbetesmael

Roque recaps the recent hearing of the Senate Committee of the Whole on the government's COVID-19 vaccination plan

Roque: Magkakaroon po ng legal na pananagutan ang drug companies 'pag nagbenta sila ng bakuna for commercial use kahit Emergency Use Authorization use pa lamang meron sila

Roque reiterates government is not favoring Sinovac or any particular vaccine: Dahil napakataas po ng demand, gagamitin natin kung ano ang available

Roque: Kung gusto mo makakuha ng supply, dapat bultuhan ang order mo. Halos lahat ng bansa centralized ang purchasing. Wala pa tayong alam na pribadong kumpanya na bumibili dahil hindi pa pwede

[THREAD]

@azulfeehely describes Jules Koundé as one of Europe's most promising centre-backs. Let's take a look at why that might be.

#SquawkaScout x @LaLigaLowdown

@LaLigaLowdown "There’s few with as high a ceiling as the young Frenchman."

The full lowdown from @azulfeehely. 🔎

@LaLigaLowdown Koundé is an excellent defender, but when you consider the amount of space he has to cover due to the buccaneering Jesús Navas his work becomes even more impressive.

Just look at that coverage.

@LaLigaLowdown First and foremost, defenders should love defending. Koundé does.

Since the start of last season, he’s made more goal-line clearances (5) than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues - a testament to his awareness, anticipation & concentration.

A busy boy inside the box.

@LaLigaLowdown At 5’11, Koundé is relatively small for a centre-back. But it doesn’t seem to have an impact on his aerial ability:

He contests 5.7 aerial duels per 90 with a win rate of 61%.

Who is behind Moldova’s Twitter Revolution? (Prelude to all-out civil war 2009)
“A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” -Allen 🕎 Weinstein #Transnistria
https://t.co/Y8uKJPgVF2

2020

Jan 1st - Australia’s fires (impacting nearly 3 billion wild animals)
Jan 3rd - US military killed Irans’ General Qasem Soleimani at the direction of Donald Trump
Jan 7th - Chinese authorities identify a novel coronavirus

Jan 8th - Both Prince Harry and Megan Markle stepped down from their position as senior royals
Jan 9th - China recorded their first coronavirus death in Wuhan, China
Jan 20th - USA recorded their first coronavirus case in Washington state

Jan 25th - Australia recorded their first coronavirus case in Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Jan 26th - Kobe and Gigi Bryant were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California
Jan 28th - Worst locust swarms in decades hit east Africa destroying crops

Jan 31st - The UK leaves the European Union

Feb 8th - First American Citizen died of the coronavirus in Wuhan
Feb 9th - Parasite wins the Best Picture Award, making it the first non-English making film to win the award

March - Panic Buying
March 1st - Australia records 1st coronavirus death
March 9th - Stock markets crashed, suffering its worst single day joint drop ever
March 11th - WHO (World Health Organisation) declared coronavirus a pandemic

🧐Who is the MB whisperer spinning fairy tales about Egyptian military + USAID?

🤫Who is Sisi a super pain in the arse for right now?
✅🐷🇨🇳 sugar babies 🦃 + Qatar + 🇵🇰MB 🚗
✅UN selected EXPIRED GNA unable to take Sirte
@sherifa78060270 @BenKTallmadge @ScottC20012

Thread: Have just realised it’s the traditional season for journalists & ‘opinion writers’ to trot out their ‘science v religion’ rants. Science is not a religion; if u think it is you’re not a scientist. Scientists are generally not all atheists either. 👇

I once had a chat with a respected & heroic Scottish professor of science (won’t be too specific as I don’t want to share his identity) which turned into a real heart to heart. This man was a personal hero to me.

He was born into extreme poverty as a child in the Gorbals in Glasgow. His dad died when he was 14 & he got a job to support his mother. Later he put himself thru A-Levels & was awarded a scholarship to a famous University. That’s heroic.

His abilities, kindness, understanding & support to colleagues, staff & students was legendary. As were the books & papers he wrote. His campaigning ranged from social issues to conservation. It’s no exaggeration to say he changed his adopted country.

So in the heart to heart, amongst ancient oak bookshelves, I asked him what did he make of ghosts (rather than how I’d ask now - what does the scientific community think of ghosts). Maturity means thinking how you pose questions (& maybe one day I will!).

Thread on Libertarianism

1.
Libertarians are useful for one thing: highlighting government inefficiency. Other than that, they’re almost useless and have little to no understanding of human nature.

2.
The fatal flaw of Libertarians is that they can’t see that their ideology contains a programming error that ensures the death of that ideology: an ironclad belief in democracy.

3.
Arthur Conan Doyle was correct when he said: “While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.”

Libertarians (outside of a few in the Mises Institute) all believe in democracy.

4.
Democracy has proven to us that, regardless of what people say as _individuals_ about freedom or taxes, they _collectively_ vote for benefits and larger gov’t.

Example: simply look at US debt and what its government's largest expenses are.

5.
This ensures the death of the libertarian experiment because more benefits & bigger govt also expands govt authority and regulation. Govt has no reliable subculture of restraint to prevent this, because representative govts exclusively comprise those who WANT to be in govt

Behind our backs, world travelers are using Pakistan's unfrequented North as a pretty comfort couch while badmouthing & resenting the rest of Pakistan... without going in depth about our crises and issues that require an extensive attention and compassionate intersectional look.

So I called this kind lady traveler out. The casual disregard that the hedonistic, escape-seeking mostly-Western travelers flick towards "South Pakistan" is chilling in its disrespect and almost unintentional but certain cruel outcome. (See next).
CC: @samirashackle

Continued from previous.

Travelers who are causing a schism between "North and South Pakistan" are doing great disservice to "both", AND objectifying the people of the North by forcing them to act as prize catches in a trophy hunt.

One byproduct of this "playing favorites" in the house of Pakistan by our honorable guests who often enjoy near complete laissez-faire as the colonial-minded us sit around is the entrapment of mountain people in the objectified hero roles... and it prevents them from having