Sharply rising fuel prices (in particular LPG) have sparked massive protests in #Kazakhstan, to the point the government has resigned, and the new acting-prime-minister has curtailed social-media and tried crushing protests.
cc.@brownecfm, @CathyYoung63
Heating up in #Kazakhstan now. If 8 security staff have been killed, how many demonstrators have been? Unlikely that this is a Rumania-type situation, with security forces battling security-forces, given the firm hold the oligarchy have.
1/n A thread for anti-CRT people. Just kidding. This thread actually is for anyone who has a cause to push; the example here applies to you too. Regardless if you're UK Labour, US conservative, GRC, trans, whatever.
2/n CRT is pretty bad, very over-intellectualized, & just superfluous. You want to teach the bad sides of US history? Or teach racism is bad? You don't need CRT at all to do that; CRT is massive over-reach, more trolling than building. That's the ground foundation, as we proceed
3/n James Lindsay, when he's not focusing on building for himself a reputation as a manic moron, tries hard to build for himself a reputation as Saviour Against CRT In Schools. Etc. He goes on the Dr.Phil show. This is the truly pathetic result.
1/ institute genuine 14-day isolation periods for incoming flights. 2/ immediately buy FFP2 face-masks (or better, FFP3), enough for 5 free masks for every UK resident. 3/ Immediately give test-and-trace + funds back to the NHS. 4/ reinstitute proper wages support for isolated.
5/ Stop the humbuggery of the Nightingale theatre. Increase NHS funds in a large way instead. The NHS is far more efficient. 6/ Institute COVID passes, mandated for non-essential public spaces. 7/ Mandatory vaccines. 8/ Vaccines for children.
9/ After all of that & more (I can do more solid points tomorrow):
Resign. The sheer effrontery of his Christmas parties, his sneering at the public, the debacle of Cummings breaking quarantine scot-free, etc. etc.. Boris Johnson is a walking disincentive
1/n Watching the Norwegian series "The Heavy Water War" (a.k.a. "The Saboteurs", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heavy…). The first episode, in which Werner Heisenberg first attempts to defend/excuse the Nazis, then has to defend himself against the Nazis, is well-done.
2/ The series is in a mixture (depending on context & characters) of English, Norwegian & German. Thank heavens for subtitles, since no dubbing. I can manage the English and German, but the Norwegian leaves me out to sea. It's now on the R0 of neutrons from splitting U236 atoms
3/n The Allies can thank Leif Tronstad for saving them. Not only was Tronstad key to stopping the export of heavy water to Nazi Germany, but he was also responsible for alerting the Allies to Peenemünde & the V-2 rocket.
1/n I repeatedly stress this because there are some who insist on claiming an uncoupling between rate of #COVID19 infections and hospitalizations. #Omicron is less severe, but far more contagious. The coupling rate is reduced, but still very present.
2/n A lot of people also try, "hospitalizations with incidental #COVID19, not because of it". Apparently they fail to grasp that that curve upwards meant the COVID_9 caused other things to happen, thus the hospitalization.
3/n If you don't get this:
imagine you have a RLY bad case of norovirus, & bad vasculature. Hardly anyone dies of norovirus. They're forced to hospitalize you, not because norovirus, but because of the bad dehydration you've gotten, which might kill you
1/n Yes, exactly. I've seen attacks on JK Rowling over Brexit, even though she seems plainly against Brexit (some hold a grudge against her for her pro-Unionist stance, i.e. wanting to keep Scotland in the UK).
2/n It's nothing short of ribaldy hilarious, in a Voltaire-satire way, to see a ton of flamers, all with Palestine flags in their bios (i.e. Westerners fashionably obsessing, not actual Palestinians), denouncing JK Rowling for alleged antisemitism. Pot, kettle, and how!
3/n The attacks on JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis were from three main groups:
a/ authors who wanted to profile themselves (*cough*, Philip Pullman, *cough*);
b/ academics who wanted to profile themselves;
c/ and loose holier-than-thou killjoys.
1/n Agreed, it's a good idea, seeing the Luddites reframed re stocking frames. OTOH, I don't think Cory Doctorow is the right person to do it justice or well.
2/n #Books: Cory Doctorow's latest 'SF' novel, Attack Surface (October 1, 2020) is **cringe**. It's just ***bad***. The forced inclusion of fashionable elements *that bear no relevance to the story* is only too glaringly obvious, a form of pandering without substance or merit.
3/n Then his one single 'SF' idea in "Attack Surface"; using the hacking of self-driving, autonomous 'Uber' cars/taxis as weapon against protestors. It doesn't strike him that'd only be effective as a false-flag operation, otherwise consequences for a city or country are severe