Show newer
Badger boosted

@HPIAndyCowper We saw newly fruiting brambles last week. Actual red, unripe blackberries.

Not normal at all.

Reading Robin Ince's "The Importance of Being Interested" - very enjoyable so far, witty and engaging.

Just read this passage and I have questions. Specifically, assuming the moderate effect size is significant, what steps were taken to control for confounders? Because I can think of a *lot* of possible hidden variables.

Going to have to see if I can track down the original study, aren't I?

Cracking by Picaroon in the Guardian today.

Lots to love, but particularly appreciated the four long solutions.

While thinking about how easily we assume a effect stemming from success in a particular field (hi, Elon), I was reminded of the apocryphal story of creating a cat flap for his and a smaller one for her kitten.

A quick search for more details revealed several sites providing chapter and verse on this and related myths (such as Newton actually inventing the cat flap), including the history of the story and the likely origins of it. Unfortunately, it also turned up hundreds more excitedly repeating the claim. :ablobsigh:

Ongoing #Twitter #Meltdown 

So the verification situation is working about as well as everyone predicted. There's a nontrivial chance that could keep it afloat in the short term on the back of people paying $8 to take the piss.

This is a thread of "blue tick" account impersonations, some of them genuinely hilarious. Also functions as a handy list of brands who will almost certainly be actively boycotting the site in future, but so would a data dump of every known global brand.

twitter.com/JoshuaPHilll/statu

@ossifrage Always has to be done.

If only he'd enacted just a small part of her plans, maybe about trenter percenter.

@pom @DaveGorman He is Dave Gorman. What's more, he's the one you mean, not one of the other Dave Gormans he met once.

He sets crosswords as well now. :ablobcheer:

Badger boosted

For those who are interested, I thought I’d explain how the three sample clues I posted yesterday work. First the basics. Most cryptic clues have two elements:
1: a definition.
2: some wordplay.
The definition is basically the clue as it might be in a non-cryptic crossword. The two elements could be in either order - but the definition bit is always going to be at one end or the other, not buried in the middle.

Show thread

Kwasi Kwarteng speaks on Liz Truss's economic plan.

He said he didn't like it, but he had to go along with it.
thetimes.co.uk/article/kwasi-k

T20 #Cricket 

Good - C4 will be showing the World T20 Final.

Bad - The forecast is so poor that they might have shelled out for a non-event.

Uncertain - Where they find the money for stunts like this, and how it will affect plans to privatise the channel.

Badger boosted

New post on my #Brexit Blog 

The first time on Mastodon that I'm flagging a new post on my #Brexit&Beyond blog!

Titled 'In the doldrums', it looks at ongoing rows over economics, the slow intrusion of reality, the stasis over the NI Protocol, Sunak's lack of a clear agenda, and the recurring constraints of the Tory Party.

Will the doldrums continue or will there be a new crisis? And which is the more depressing prospect?

All that and more here:
chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.c

More #Twitter Meltdown 

This is an amazing summary of recent developments at HQ. Every time I think can't get any worse, he goes right ahead and finds a way.

Is anyone still claiming that he's actually a genius with a masterplan that isn't obvious to mere mortals?

platformer.news/p/inside-the-t

Badger boosted

more twexit navel gazing 

@ottocrat Mostly the same. But I suspect Mastodon may be more methadone than I realised. I might be wrong, but it feels like this won't be a good fit for me long-term.

Badger boosted

@Sime0nStylites passed on this article which is frankly gobsmacking and ratchets up the estimate of the amount of chaos internally at Twitter, the risk of losing money via regulatory failure.... theverge.com/2022/11/10/234511

@t0nyyates @Sime0nStylites Looks like another vote for the "idiot in over his head" interpretation of recent events.

UK Politics 

@statsguy Indeed. I'm not naive enough to believe that politics is ever squeaky clean, and clearly, like Braverman, there's a tit-for-tat arrangement here dating back to the leadership contest.

It's both and astonishing and depressing how poor the explanations are, and how easily they expose Sunak's projected self-image.

UK Politics 

@statsguy Now updated to "Yeah, okay, someone mentioned that he was a bit dodgy, but I didn't know any details."

Basically, he needed to be told an incompetent piece of work twice sacked from cabinet was bad news, and considered this information so important that he somehow didn't get round to asking what the issue was.

Not sure how long Sunak's ratings can defy gravity if he carries on like this.

Badger boosted

Ukpol assault westminster 

Listening to the ever wonderful Naga on #bbc5live . Mp Charlotte Nichols saying that when she first came to westminster (very recently), she was sat down and handed a list of about 40 mps she's not safe to be alone with, not in a lift alone with, not to accept a drink from, cross party. She says there's a well established #whispernetwork in Westminster to help women navigate life as an mp without assault. What the actual. #ukpol #politics

Show older
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.