Sunday 23 August
Today my mother would have been 90 years old but unfortunately she died at 66 instead. She’d been a heart patient for many years and an early quadruple by-pass patient. In the end a supposedly simple angioplasty routine went wrong and a piece of a atheroma dislodged in her arteries and went into her brain meaning a stroke and a few days afterwards she passed away.
RIP Mama!
Bellingcat is a highly respected investigative journalism organisation. Some of their research is awesome.
[embed]https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/08/21/who-director-general-attacked-on-twitter-with-ccp-related-memes/[/embed]
Sir Ken Robinson, probably most famous Ted Talk of all-time. Accurate and extremely funny, passed away on 21 August 2020.
[embed]https://twitter.com/SirKenRobinson/status/1297227635253223424?s=20[/embed]
Here’s his famous Ted Talk from February 2006.
Monday 24 August
I don’t get this at all. Mother, Republican and Senior advisor to Donald Trump is resigning, below her Tweet announcing it.
[embed]https://twitter.com/KellyannePolls/status/1297722282425692160?s=20[/embed]
Father, Democrat, supporter of The Lincoln Project, husband of Kellyanne Conway also resigns from his duties, below his Tweet announcing it.
[embed]https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1297719430697426946?s=20[/embed]
Their daughter Claudia could have been the reason? Below some of her tweets. She’s just 15 and managed to get her parents to step back from their oh so public lives, especially their opposite views of politics. Wow!
[embed]https://twitter.com/claudiamconwayy/status/1297352852021665792?s=20[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/claudiamconwayy/status/1297351852099502080?s=20[/embed]
I am getting very annoyed with a local housing group, who were supposed to fix a roof leak as a matter of urgency, 24-hour response promise and still haven’t repaired it since it being reported on 20 August. Even a temporary patch would help to stop the water coming through into the house. It’s not a normal leak as such either. Especially as storm Francis is about to hit the UK in the next 24 hours.
[embed]https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1297824772215255040?s=20[/embed]
Russian politician and Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny is currently in a coma at Berlin’s Charité Hospital where doctors have conducted tests to find out whether he was poisoned.
German doctors have announced that tests done on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny indicate he was poisoned.
The staunch critic of Vladimir Putin is currently in an artificial coma at Berlin’s Charité Hospital.
Doctors there have said that clinical results confirmed by independent labs indicate poisoning.
Just read this. All I can say is WTF. Those crooks at Facebook!
Facebook has agreed to pay the French government €106m (£95.7m) in back taxes to settle a dispute over revenues earned in the country.
The payment covers the last decade of its French operations from 2009.
The social networking giant has also agreed to pay €8.46m in taxes on revenues in France for 2020 – 50% more than in 2019.
Tuesday 25 August
I’m a massive fan of Hugh MacLeod and Gapingvoid Culture Design. Their latest email definitely struck a massive chord with me. I never thought I was actually creative, maybe it was beaten out of me!
[embed]https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/08/21/who-director-general-attacked-on-twitter-with-ccp-related-memes/[/embed]
When you listen to reports on U.K. and U.S media it’s obvious that many are hoping for a silver bullet to kill off COVID19 with a vaccine. This is very unlikely. We’d stand a much better chance with an antibody drug in order to have massive take up by the world population. Many folks are against vaccines, quite rightly, they are filled with nasty chemicals. And for this reason a better solution is a drug, that is safe and thoroughly tested.
I’m in no hurry to be in large group company any time soon and expect that COVID19 will be with us for many years to come. All major diseases haven’t just disappeared overnight, which is what major leaders expect to happen. Populations believe them, which is very dangerous. All leaders of countries want to be loved, so they will say whatever they like in order to continue to be loved by the masses for their political gain.
By Leo Babauta via his newsletter received today 25 August, it REALLY resonated with me!
Hi there,
On Sunday, I was talking to a group of fellow Zen students, and we were sharing how we’re practicing with the world right now … and I shared:
I’m practicing with being with whatever is coming up for me (frustration, anxiety, fear, anger, etc.), just being with it
I notice just how often I don’t want to be present with all of that!
And what has become very obvious to me is how much I try to control everything as a response to whatever I don’t want to be with.
And I mean everything — I try to control my tasks, calendar, possessions, health, relationships, emotions, thoughts … everything. Most of my life is spent trying to control. So I don’t have to be with whatever is present for me.
This isn’t new, but I’m practicing with it a lot lately. So I’ve been exploring — what happens when I let go of a little of that tendency to try to control? And notice that I say “try to control” — it’s all just an illusion! I don’t really have control over all of this.
So what does it look like to let go of (some of) that control?
I can just be with my fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, pain.
I can just let go of trying to control the world, or other people.
I can start to accept that things are out of my control, that things will fall apart, and that I can just do my best to take care of them without needing everything to be a certain way.
I can fall in love with things just as they are (amor fati, which is both Stoic and Buddhist).
What about you? What does it mean to you to let go?
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Wednesday 26 August
Oh wow I have to share this. Not many of you will know, but I am a Taiko drummer and Kodo with Roland have created an electronic Taiko Drum called the Taiko-1. This is my dream to own. A Taiko Drum, which has all the Taiko Drum sounds inside it. Of course it’s no substitute for hitting those massive majestic drums, but for practising at home it’s ideal.
[embed]https://youtu.be/DnpDiUcpR6U[/embed]
Unfortunately, this is their response to me enquiring about availability in the U.K.
[embed]https://twitter.com/stayingaliveuk/status/1298914772059140097?s=20[/embed]
Being aware of your local Covid19 cases is quite handy. The BBC has done this page where all you need is to enter your post code/area and it will give you some handy stats, plus much more.
[embed]https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/08/21/who-director-general-attacked-on-twitter-with-ccp-related-memes/[/embed]
Thursday 27 August
I’ve started this thread on LinkedIn with words and their definitions, that we are all using now since the commencement of Covid19. You can follow it there, 2 words so far!
[embed]https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/08/21/who-director-general-attacked-on-twitter-with-ccp-related-memes/[/embed]
Coronavirus and Crime, England and Wales Report. Release date 26 august 2020.
Commenting on today’s figures, Billy Gazard from the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice said:
“There was a significant fall in crime at the height of the coronavirus pandemic across England and Wales. This was driven by reductions in theft offences, particularly domestic burglary and theft of personal property. As this period coincided with the majority of people spending long periods at home during lockdown, it is not unexpected. These first findings from our new telephone-operated crime survey support police recorded data which also show lower than usual levels of offending in April and May.
“The exception was police recording of drug offences, which increased through April and May. This reflects proactive police activity as overall crime levels reduced.”
[embed]https://twitter.com/stayingaliveuk/status/1298926847544176641?s=20[/embed]
Tom Cruise is in London and he went to the movies!
[embed]https://twitter.com/TomCruise/status/1298336338434052096?s=20[/embed]
It’s all about the masks!
[embed]https://twitter.com/who/status/1271959433464119299?s=21[/embed]
[embed]https://youtu.be/kosTr4DanjA[/embed]
Remember this one that came out very early on? I shared it when it came out and I believed they were right and I still believe they were and are now being proven right too!
[embed]https://youtu.be/jZtEX2-n2Hc[/embed]
Friday 28 August
I’ve always supported Kamala Harris, even though I’m based in the U.K. I saw her potential back in 2016, so 4 years later she’s vice president to the democratic party. I do hope they win the presidential election, as Trump is causing more damage to the USA and the world then we could ever imagine and not only that he’s just a ‘Fool on the Hill’. We did the cartoon below when he was in the running for president in 2016. We portrayed him as the evil ‘Joker’ and he’s turned out exactly as that.
[embed]https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/08/21/who-director-general-attacked-on-twitter-with-ccp-related-memes/[/embed]
Saturday 29 August
The many words we learnt during the Pandemic.
[embed]https://twitter.com/Tweetinggoddess/status/1299858176809086976?s=20[/embed]
Michael out…