As autumn approaches I'm going to miss my visits to #RichmondPark - I could still drive out there, but a bit far away. It is a bit of a magical place. Photo taken in December 2022.

Steve Silberman is not here to shout it — so it’s up to all of us. Vaccines don’t cause autism. Neither does Tylenol. (I mean seriously WTF?!?!) The “epidemic” of autism is the result of increased testing, broader definitions, and raised awareness. LOUDER.

Autumn Drift

I do media analysis of immigration coverage as part of my job. The BBC is far from the worst, but lack of context for reasons people come to UK, language, repetition of falsehoods, especially without genuine pushback etc, has gotten worse, and is undoubtedly feeding the anti-immigration narrative.

Discworld QOTD, from Soul Music "'What do you do with them?' he said. 'I bang them together.' 'And then what?' 'What do you mean, "And then what?"' 'What do you do after you've banged them together?' 'I bang them together again,' said Lias, one of nature's drummers."

Discworld QOTD, from Pyramids “No one is more worried by the actual physical manifestation of a god than his priests; it's like having the auditors in unexpectedly.”

#OnThisDay 1955 : 70 years ago today, Commercial TV came to the UK with the launch of Independent Television, ITV. Companies within the network Associated-Rediffusion and the Associated Broadcasting Company which later became known as ATV jointly present ITV's first night.

Let's get some facts right. There is absolutely no evidence that migrants "abuse" the NRM. Want to know how many bad faith applications were made in the last quarter? 1, according to the government's own data. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Something very Neil Postman in all this. Having amused themselves to death/Trump, turns out that TV personalities are about the only thing that might cause autocratic pauses

Paul Klee ~ Fantastic Flora, 1922 #PaulKlee #Expressionism

Some spreads from the book.

God, the *pressure* on that monologue. I guess on one level his job’s pretty safe now, but it’s surely going to be the most attention (and audience?) for a late-night monologue this century..?

I’m not sure it reflects all that well on Mason that the most aggressive interview he’s managed with a politician in quite some time is in defence of his own journalism. It’s also a fairly extraordinary attack to make in response to a fairly mild critique. Not sure his judgment on the money here.

A Britain's Lost Masterpieces repeat on tonight; Tatton Park, BBC4, 8pm.

Autumn seems a good time to buy a book full of trees. Like this one perhaps… www.finnhopson.com/photobook-products/woodworkbook Also contains some excellent old English words like ‘nunty’, ‘shimper’ and ‘mizmaze’.

The brave students who landed this week have chosen to answer loss with learning, despair with determination, and war with hope. They are an inspiration and I am deeply relieved that they’ve arrived in the UK & can now continue their education in safety. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

An interesting message of welcome from a cabinet minister against the backdrop of today’s headlines.

France have this evening formally recognised the state of Palestine, while at the UN meeting on peace and a two-state solution. They join the UK, Australia, Canda and Portugal who did so yesterday. Malta, Andorra, Beligium, Luxembourg, Monaco & San Marino man also soon do the same.

My thoughts on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) causation: 1. It's likely not a single condition with a single cause. 2. Parental & *grandparental* age show moderate non-linear correlations. 3. People don't want MECHANISMS, they want something to BLAME, which makes the research fraught & emotional.

Very poor/implicitly hyperpartisan reporting from @lbc.co.uk - a) uses pejorative term ('handouts') b) leaves the false impression that migrants in general receive 'handouts' (rather than those legally resident/contributing for five years) c) omits the deportation element of the policy

Not often that @erictopol.bsky.social posts about one of our papers! The ESC Consensus statement for Long #COVID We reviewed the evidence & reached a consensus on a diagnostic algorithm, intervention, vaccines, cardiac rehab, sports participation. Worrh a Read academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advan...

If you want to show people in your life why doctors say Tylenol DOES NOT cause autism, here are two straight forward explainers: medicalnewsbulletin.com/acetaminophe... medicalnewsbulletin.com/autism-is-no... #AutRes #EduSky 🩺📊 medsky, 🩺,⚕️ #SciPol 🧪

#LongCovid #Covid

New consensus statement on preventing cardiovascular disease in people with COVID-19. #episky #healthpolicy #medsky academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advan...

updated - three charities have now yeeted her

What if parrots were GIANT? What if they came up to your waist and weighed twice as much as the largest living parrot (the kākāpō). Well, nature has an answer for you! Let's meet the extinct parrot with the fabulous name: 'Heracles inexpectatus' (🧑‍🎨: Paul Scofield, Canterbury Museum)

To some extent I think this *is* a "comms problem". Somebody in the media team ought to be a) aware how bad this sort of thing looks and b) able to get that message across internally. It's a communication problem but not necessarily in the communications department.

The COVID enquiry and last night’s ITV documentary shone light on a dark time - when billions of pounds of public money were shovelled into the pockets of private investors rather than public institutions - wasting existing expertise, wasting money, wasting lives in the process.

Happy autumn equinox to my fellow northern hemispherers.

I took paracetamol in both my pregnancies for minor joint troubles. I had a better pregnancy experience because I wasn't in pain. Neither of my kids is autistic. The high-quality studies and reviews confirm there is NO evidence that paracetamol taken by the mother causes autism in the child. 🧪

yep, and (as Flood and Jackson emphasise) when that happens, System 4 tends to atrophy; information from outside the boundary can't get processed because there's nowhere meaningful to report it to

has five authors, lead by Hewish, followed by Bell. In 1974, Hewish won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, along with fellow radioastronomer Martin Ryle. That Jocelyn Bell was not included has been condemned by many leading astronomers. ⁠ Jocelyn Bell Burnell has gone on to a very distinguished

PhD scholarships for underrepresented people including women, ethnic minorities & refugee students in physics! As a grad student in ‘67 she discovered the 1st radio pulsar, a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of EM radiation. This radiation can only be observed

For day 22 of #sciArtSeptember prompt fellowship, I am sharing my portrait of #astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, #histsci 🧪🐡🔭👩🏼‍🔬 who took her $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her discovery of #pulsars & leadership in science and donated money to the Institute of Physics for

The cost to tax payers of #PlasticPatriots flag fetishes spurred on by Reform and excessive MSM attention👇🏼 Removing St George's Cross from road markings and taking down flags has cost North Somerset Council enough money to have filled 200 potholes at £6,000 But hey.. at least DIY shops made £’s❗️🤦🏼‍♂️

"Björk Pulls Most of Her Music From Israeli Streaming Services Amid Boycott Campaign Over Gaza War" " ... the move comes as part of a new initiative called No Music For Genocide"

This week’s Nimby Watch is on the councillors of West Oxfordshire, who rejected a solar farm because they felt batteries were unproven and scary technology – presumably while carrying lithium batteries just inches from their vitals. Live now on @capx.co capx.co/nimby-watch-...

Businessman Richard Allen exposed a Channel Islands export-import VAT scam used by major retailers, saving taxpayers billions. Despite his detailed evidence, HMRC suppressed it, letting the illegal tax evasion continue for six more years. 🧵1/3

If the Reform Party plan to abolish indefinite leave to remain also abolishes settled status for EU citizens, that would be a breach of the withdrawal agreement, liable to lead to the EU retaliating by removing trade preferences.

Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain. They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.

"Our measurements show that wheat and grass-clover mixtures grow just as well between vertical solar panels as in open fields. At the same time, the panels produce electricity in a daily pattern that better matches energy demand. It's a win-win," Get these to Kansas ASAP

I think my timeline would be les depressing if I just mute the word "Farage".

Yes, you can and should argue that Reform’s new policy would lead to an economic crash that could resemble a full-on depression, not just recession. But you should also be able to straightforwardly say it’s *wrong*. Not that it should matter but: It’s not even bad politics to say that!

The Labour Party has a tradition of antiracism campaigning. It’s supposed to be in the party’s DNA. That they cannot say it’s just straightforwardly wrong to alarm families who choose Britain to live, work and raise children in is a total moral failure.

The government is stuck running a 20th century news operation – focused on traditional media – 25 years into the 21st century. But even worse, it’s even losing at that, not because of “comms” but because the government seemingly has absolutely nothing of its own to say.

The government is, y’know, the government. They could announce policies of their own in Monday’s papers, which the media would cover. But instead they just leave an endless news void, and end up chasing their tails trying to keep up with Reform on its strongest issue. It’s woeful.

Reform hold a press conference every Monday, for which they trail a policy announcement in that morning’s papers. Given Monday is a slow news day, that often means they lead the papers – and so the breakfast shows, and so they set the agenda for the week. It’s a good trick, but easy to counter!

Ed Davey, "I'm afraid Nigel Farage should be apologising for helping cause this problem in the first place" "Before Brexit we didn't have a small boats problem because we had 27 return agreements with EU countries and we could return people" -Maybe we should call them Farage's Brexit Boats

#IgNoble prize winner: Painting cows with zebra-like striping reduces biting fly attacks. 💡Painting black-and-white stripes can increase cattle welfare without the use of pesticides, proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment. 🧪🌍🪰🦓🐮 doi.org/10.1371/jour...

A central cause of UK economic stagnation is chronic high skilled labour shortages. If the UK stops allowing migrants to bring dependents, as Farage has announced, migrants will simply choose other countries that do, and the problem will worsen. Reform UK's nativism will economically cripple us.