1/n Let's deal with a few *facts* here. On 10/6 2023, 06. October, the Gaza Strip was self-governing. It had a higher standard of living than the Egyptians bordering the southern Gazan border. Its rulers were billionaires. Hamas *owned* ≈10% of all land. nypost.com/2023/11/07/new…
2/n Pre-10/6 2023, *despite* a ruinously incompetent, dicatorial admin by Hms, Gaza was doing economically quite well, owing to the huge subsidies poured in by the West (Gaza per capita was the most heavily donor-funded place on Earth).
2021:
3/n Again owing to the generosity of the West and Western Christians, Gaza had more hospitals per-capita than practically any other Arab region. Gaza had it *good* compared to most Arab countries. And it was self-governing, under Hms' dictatorship.
2/n It's not just weaselwords, it's also a set of two completely false claims that "primarily as a civilian healthcare facility, making those buildings a protected civilian location". First claim is the "primarily".
1/n I want you all to think very hard about this. "The modern economy rests upon a single road" in the Appalachians, and you didn't know that.
#NCRealTime
2/ A 2018 WIRED piece about Spruce Pine, #NorthCarolina: archive.ph/JGtCb
3/n With thanks to @FossilLocator for bringing this up; as he says, if that one road and/or quarry go down, there are alternates that can be producing inside a year, but can the global economy last that long?
1/n A short history of the #flu. This will be another very slow thread, but with several points. "In a typical year, 5~15% of the population contracts #influenza. There are 3~5 million severe cases annually, with up to 650,000 respiratory-related deaths globally each year".
2/n There are four main branches of the flu:
Influenza A (alphainfluenzavirus): infects 🐦⬛🦆, 🐕,🐈⬛, 🦇,🐖, 🐎, 🐄, 🦭, ferrets, 👱❗️.
—
B (betainfluenzavirus): 👱❗️, ferrets, 🐖 , 🦭.
—
C (gammainfluenzavirus): 👱❗️, 🐖.
—
D (deltainfluenzavirus): , 🐖, 🐄.
3/n It's thought that a common ancestor virus existed around 8,000 years ago, which then split into 2 new ancestor viruses, one for later flu A & B, & one for C & D. It's then thought A & B split from each other around 4,000 years ago; then A split into subtypes 2,000 years ago.
1/n Let me talk about Rebecca Watson for a while. It's history-time. As observed here, she came in for a lot of flak in #ElevatorGate; but fewer know why so few showed her much sympathy at the time, even the semi-anti-Dawkins types like me.
cc.@MPMacLachlan, @JamesPurple77
@MPMacLachlan @JamesPurple77 2/ Rebecca Watson started off her online life on the (then very large) Skeptics community bulletin-board. She was well-known there as principally a vivacious semi-troll. Few if any took her seriously as a person, but for the most part she was liked or at least tolerated.
@MPMacLachlan @JamesPurple77 3/ At the same time Rebecca Watson trolled the skeptics, while being one, just for fun, there was an ongoing war between the very large IIDB bulletin-board for atheists, and the skeptics on their own board. This had some influence on later events.
1/n I said in my previous thread that @IlhanMN's remarks in her speech were incendiary, and that in different ways inside Minnesota, in the USA, and in Africa. To explain why is going to need some background history.
@IlhanMN 2/n #Somalia's a failed state kept alive by foreign troops (most Kenyan, battling Al-Shabaab terrorists) & foreign money (👋 USA; >3 billion $ since 2006). Below:
Yellow= #Somaliland, de facto independent nation;
pale red= notional control by #Somalia govt;
dark grey= Al Shabaab
3/n If you look at the top right-hand corner, you can see a tiny area marked in darkest grey, near Bosaso & Qandala, towns on the coast. That small area in darkest grey is controlled by the jihadists the Islamic State – Somalia Province. They do much terrorism everywhere.