Good news, everyone! I have a short piece coming out in The Conversation on Monday that explains the main issues with this study. It's impossible for me to have the same media reach as the original press release. So I'd be extremely grateful if people could help me share it as widely as possible 🙏

Causal inference theory and methods should be first introduced at secondary school, and the rest should be taught in all quantitative undergraduate courses. It is far too fundamental to leave to specialist masters and graduate degrees, learnt only by a small minority of quantitative scientists.

Beggars belief that Met Police is in talks with #Palantir about giving them access to highly sensitive data, when there’s already such concern over its links with ICE & Israeli military. Palantir already has UK contracts worth over £500m, incl. with NHS. We should be scrapping them not signing more

New blog post (it's been a while): Make Meta-Analysis Great Again. This is a serious proposal. Please amplify to whoever might be interested, especially if they have money. steamtraen.blogspot.com/2026/04/make...

In this episode, Nate speaks with primatologist and author @christinewebb.bsky.social about human exceptionalism – the deeply embedded belief that humans are separate from and superior to the rest of nature. www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/213-...

Hannah Ritchie has built a fun little tool where you can compare energy usage of various products and activities. This is super helpful imho, because it's so hard to develop intuitions even just about the scales involved here. hannahritchie.substack.com/p/does-that-...

This is basically my villain origin story. "How old are you?" (unique responses)

On Trump, Epstein, and their social circle of pedophiles. From HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT, written in 2019, before Epstein was indicted. "The story of Jeffrey Epstein is one that will define our era..." us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

"Scientific literacy has long been a cornerstone of higher education but the open research movement has redefined what it means to be literate as a researcher" with @flavioazevedo.bsky.social & @drcpennington.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/if-p...

“A striking feature of recent reporting is how much attention is given to preventing and detecting cheating with AI detectors, bans on AI use and invigilated exams, presented as the “only way” forward. Detection is not assurance, and it never was.” www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-c...

good article

Working on a lecture, whilst being watched…

Excellent piece on smart glasses and education - hard not to feel that the sector is far from ready in responding to the widespread adoption of such tech nationalcentreforai.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2026/01/2...

Love United Hate Glazer #GlazersOut 🟩🟨

2nd trip to OT for the nephews ❤️

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability and quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Am generally supportive of a ban (am not sure we need to 'wait for evidence', and a year seems arbitrary), but only if it comes with much stricter regulation for everyone, given its negative effects don't harm just children.

COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS

I am actually very optimistic about the long-run outcome of genAI for the humanities but the reaction *from* humanities specialists is going to delay the benefits to their fields. It's really good when ppl suddenly have a bunch of tools they interact with via effective use of *natural language*.

Even though I absolutely hate reading AI writing, I am getting negatively polarized by the stunning incuriosity of so much of the professoriate about the objectively strangest technology in the last hundred years

One thing that is very interesting in the topic of writing in particular, is that even if you accept the premise that AI is an incredibly powerful and useful tool, the *way you communicate with that tool* is by writing. The technology of AI makes written communication skills more valuable, not less

This is a really great read. Are we now in a period of “reverse” reverse adaptation, as per Langdon Winner? At least as it pertains to LLMs and writing?

YES! We shouldn't have norms for voices.

I do worry about the rush to claim certain things are definitely AI, which people think they can tell with certainty (they absolutely cannot) will lead to bad outcomes as well. A while back I wrote about the hoops my kid went through to try to avoid sounding like AI, which made the writing worse.

Tracking the details of an experiment in successively cited Methods sections

It's good to see that the FDA has done something right, even under Makary. It's more than has happened in most journals. They remain wedded to p values because they are the easiest way to get "statistical significance". Robert Matthews may have been a bit too critical, but there is truth in this:

Cannot recommend @birchlse.bsky.social book 'The Edge of Sentience' highly enough, one of the best things I read last year.

Sesko is actually explaining to Bruno that it would be helpful if he could try to pass the ball to within at least a 5m circle around him.

Happy academic "just circling back on that email from November 22nd" day to all who celebrate 😅

Carrick's selection for his first game in charge in 2021... a 2-0 win over Villarreal. How many of the current squad get into this 11...not sure it's many.

Just block the whole toxic site

Don’t get my hopes up! He dropped Bruno for his first game last time 😬😍

Can add McTominay to the long list of players (Mainoo, Mount, Cunha, Amad, Mbeumo, Pogba, Mata, Pereria, Sancho, van de Beek, Elanga, Hojlund) negatively effected by either trying to play alongside, out of position to accommodate, or denied a place because of, Bruno Fernandes.

Is this actually workable? Ensuring the students are truly random (not influenced by “writing style”) is very difficult in practice. Asking selected students to orally defend their work advantages some learners and disadvantage others. Issue is our reliance on essays as proxies for learning.

ReformUK candidates seem to be largely failed business people, like #LailaCunningham, -or criminals.

Such a naive selection from Fletcher. Cannot play Bruno, Cunha, Mount, Mainoo and Sesko in the same team and not expect the midfield and defence to be constantly exposed.

No more peaceful way to write than with a gently snoring dog behind you 💤🐶

AOC: “ICE has less accountability than virtually any law enforcement agency in the U.S. — yet are some of the most well funded, operating with impunity & we just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood — I hope this is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The agency must be reined in”

Saying things that are OBVIOUSLY untrue is one thing that Trump (and Farage and Putin) and have in common. Yet a lot of people are deceived

I just watched two women get kidnapped right in front of me in Northeast Minneapolis. ICE is still terrorizing our city.

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

Can’t say I’m surprised that the moment we bring back a player who lost the ball 600 times (200 more than the next worst in all of Europe) last season, we no longer have any control or shape. #bruno #fernandes #mufc

What do we prefer: Ole's squad from 20/21 or 25/26?

Manchester United's best 2 signings in a long long time have been a GK no one thought was ready and a £1.5m CB...

REM, Finest Worksong has just come on the radio 🎵 Great start to the day!

If you examine Trump's first-term pardons, you'll understand the criminal networks backing him. And that a disproportionate number are tied to one source: Jared Kushner. Interview here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2l1...

An extraordinary, brilliant line.

Need some help choosing the next audible listen, ideally from this list, but will take recommendations! #books #blueskybooks #bookrecommendations

NEW: How many books did you read this year? If it was more than 2, congrats: you read more than the median American. Read on for way more @today.yougov.com polling from me on America's book-reading habits in 2025. 1/