The alt: Arthur Caplan, the founding head of the division of medical ethics at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine, wrote: "The announcement on autism was the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recyling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies and dangerous advice I have (cont)

This ought to be engraved somewhere.

📚 Autism, free ⬇️

Subtly downgrade a band. Crowded Hut

Misinformation, straight from The White House 😞 You’ll need a subscription to read it all, but even without it there’s still lots useful here: www.nature.com/articles/d41... - the criteria for diagnosing autism was widened some time ago, creating an _apparent_ increase - the rate of autism is low

"too much liquid" 😆 What a goon. Hilarious if it weren’t misinformation can affect people badly. Seriously: that long pause before 'liquid' makes me wonder what was actually on the prompter, compared to what he decided to say 😑

#NZpol Worth reading with the local elections on ⬇️

🥣🧪 More blue soup: a microbial mystery ⬇️

Good thread that quickly covers talking points RFK Jr’s lot are likely to twist in their "autism report" later this month ⬇️

🚴 Forgot to add the cycling tag! 🤦 In time this will become a riverside counterpart to the coastal route out to Sumner. There are some planning details in this web page, and the linked PDF file: ccc.govt.nz/parks-and-ga...

The days are long but the years are short

Prior infection with human H1N1 provides some cross protection against H5N1 in ferrets. Here, vaccination human seasonal flu vaccines = partial protection in ferrets against disease caused by H5N1 due to cross-reactive antibodies. 👉 wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

Seen around #Christchurch #NZ

I strongly second this! 👏🏾 When talking about science communication, I also always stress that *all* forms and forums of communication matter 🔄 Whether it’s a big, factually correct but details-lite TV show or movie…or just chatting to granny or your mates in a pub 🗣️

#Christchurch #NZ This bridge is now open. It’s in the red zone, to be part of a continuous route from the City to New Brighton on the coast. It’s funded by an independent charity that administers public donations raised by the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. (Not rates, as many are whingeing 😔)

My first thought was "Gollum". Clearly known of long before JRR Tolkien wrote about him.

Happy August. Here is a little surprise for everybody: The english version of my book is finally available. You can get it on Amazon. You can also read and listen to it on my blog, where I will release the book as freely accessible serialized novel. 1/ www.protagonist-science.com/p/lab-leak-f...

#NZpol For anyone wanting to look it up Dr. Fleischer’s comments are on 1News last night (Sunday 21st Sep). The previously aired footage is available on their website: www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/one-ne...

Want to be able to start micro-editing on Wikipedia in a few minutes – and know why you could be very glad you did? Then my new post @plos.org is just what you need! absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/09/21/w... #Wikipedia

Weird some scicomm accounts gave the new “Tylenol in pregnancy & autism” review some weight. They don’t know the lead author, Baccarelli, had the exact claims thrown out of federal court for having ZERO scientific merit, when he was a paid “expert witness” in lawsuits against Tylenol makers. 1/

💉 So the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) panel is flip-flopping because they don’t know what they’re doing… @bethmariem.bsky.social writing at @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

🎥 Is there any other service but Disney+ streaming Andor?

“… the incoherence is the point. Fascism is a temper-tantrum disguised as an ideology”

This would be quite something!

#Christchurch #NZ Police are asking for information about the man who died in Horatane Valley. Aged 30s or 40s, with a distinctive birthmark on his left forearm. Police info contact details in the article. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

#NZ Management of Alzheimer’s is a *lot* work. A bit rise like this will need a big lift in support - www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

#NZ 224 km/p/h at Mt Hutt 😳 – then the station stopped recording; see left screenshot ⬇️ (No ALTs on their images, sorry.)

#NZ This warning is still active ⬇️

#NZ For Canterbury that’s a red warning, from 10pm Sat, 20 Sep - 3pm Sun, 21 Sep, "about and west of SH1". Severe gale northwesterlies with damaging gusts of 150 km/h in exposed places. Stay indoors, avoid travel, potential for flying items, falling trees, etc.; see website for details.

UN treaty to protect marine diversity in the #HighSeas was struck this week after Morocco and Sierra Leone ratified the agreement, clinching the threshold of at least 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law www.france24.com/en/live-news...

🚨 BREAKING: Three Russian fighter jets flew into Estonian airspace today in a serious escalation on NATO’s eastern border. Read the developing story: ow.ly/rBwh50WZpov

🏉 OK, kick-off soon for NZ v Canada semi-final. (Free-to-air on Sky’s open channel.)

💉 Silencing people as if that will mean the criticism offered will then no longer exist… as if. Good luck USA 😞 Internationally, though: I’d like to see regulatory groups step up and say they’re no longer using advice from the USA administration.

😖

📚 Interesting list of books to think about -

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change. Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

minimap2.com is potentially a phishing site. Please don't use anything from that website. github.com/lh3/minimap2...

Lady taking my passport photo: Do you want me to retake tour photo? You look angry. Me: I am angry Her: But you’ll look angry on here for the next 10 years. Me: I’ll still be angry in 10 years

Not good 😔 Also I’d like to see the focus widened from "resulting in death", to including making a condition more severe, etc.

🤦

📚 #Christchurch #NZ, on tomorrow ⬇️

Come work with me as my #bird #scicomm team is growing! @abcbirds.bsky.social is hiring an #ornithology writer/editor! They'll be reporting to our Senior Writer/Editor, Molly Toth (who is the hiring manager too!). More info/apply by Oct 14 deadline: recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/J...

😢 #Christchurch #NZ www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

I’ve programmed on 6502s, in assembler, and also via BASIC and UCSD Pascal (and a little p-code), and in one memorable case cross-compiled from C into an over-lapping RAM device, debugged with an oscilloscope 😊 Robust little CPUs!

🦠💉 #NZ: Methane reduction vaccines for cattle/cow farmers maybe available from next year. The vaccines aim to suppress the bacteria that produce methane in the animals’ gut. Will Harvie writing at The Press: www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3608... 1/2 🧵⬇️

Seems power is out for a big chunk of south-east #Christchurch. Apparently it’ll be fixed later this morning - ?

Users of older Apple iPhones and iPads may have received a security update, to bring iOS/iPadOS up to 15.8.5 Some details here: support.apple.com/en-us/125142 My ancient little beast gets it too 😊

There’s a scientific way of putting everything 😄

📚📀🧩 #Christchurch #NZ Bookarama start their collection for books, CDs, DVDs, LPs, jigsaws & games tomorrow, Mon 15th September, until 12th October. Collection point locations are listed on their website: rotaryinfo.org.nz/projects/boo... (There’s no preview for their page; just click on the link)

#NZ For next week, 22 Sept. –