Max Davie

Death goals

I know the NHS is fond of hard-to-complete forms, but the new habit of sending a pdf which can't be edited, so it needs to be printed, handwritten OVER THE TEXT then scanned back in... that is a doozy.
FFS.

Is there an extent to which you couldn't really make shorter books cheaper, so there's an incentive to keep them long so you look like you're getting good value for money*?

*Obviously if they are wasting your time, it's terrible value

Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? In the early 2020s, readers flocked to books to explain political turbulence. But is the world now too grim to read about – and are podcasters taking the place of authors?

my view on this is that publishers should stop it with the 80k wordcount obsession, so many contemporary non-fic books are obviously 40-50k pieces of work stretched to the extent that they become very boring to read - just let people write cheaper, shorter books! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Really good to see this editorial, very authoritative and very clear, stating that ADHD is NOT over-diagnosed in the UK. Let's hope the government's new review will listen to *literally all the most eminent experts we have* on this question.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Oh god thank you. I've been sitting on this one also.

there are like 50 people in the country who want the UK to get involved in the Iran War, one of them is Kemi Badenoch, one of them is Nigel Farage, and the other 48 are newspaper columnists

Really interesting graph, suggesting a pretty tiny effect.

So... Not really?

This I'm afraid is the endpoint of the whole moral panic about social media, combined with a political and professional culture that regards young people as gullible idiots.
It's enraging, particularly as so many organisations will be cheering them on

Jesus wept. This is the most horribly ill-conceived UK government public awareness campaign I've ever seen. And that's saying a *lot*. It could easily lead a teen to self-harm, or worse.

It should be urgently and immediately pulled. What are they thinking?!

Press Association comment from Quakers in Britain This evening, for the second time in a year, the Metropolitan Police raided a Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists who were meeting there on the grounds that they were conspiring to commit a criminal act. The room in Westminster Quaker Meeting House was let to Take Back Power to hold nonviolent direct action training. Quakers support the principle of nonviolent direct action, which aims to protest without harming people. Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers in Britain, said: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. “Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. “That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.”

Statement from @quaker.org.uk about tonight's police raid on Westminster Meeting House. Guys, I don't think they're buying the Met's line about it all being a cover for plotting "mass shoplifting"

Because it can't possibly get any worse for them?

It wasn't an experiment with open borders, as some new research will show on Monday

Todd @ Why are we bothering with the Strait of Hormuz when we could simply do this? Explain it to me like I'm 5. Canal RIOS 508 MOUNTAIN HARD AND BIG, WATER NO UP. MANY MANY DIG DIG.

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

That is a deeeep cut. Bravo

Winter Paralympics: Watershed moment as Russia's sporting exile ends Sports Editor Dan Roan analyses Russia's controversial return to global sporting action at the Winter Paralympics and what it might mean for other sports.

Obviously, completely understandable that this isn't top of the headlines. It is a total disgrace though.
Watershed moment as Russia's sporting exile ends - www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articl...

God I would last about 15 seconds being spoken to like that before completely losing it

In our postgraduate work room we have a ‘Dark Library’ where we put dodgy or offensive books. One of Uta Frith’s books on autism is there. We take it down to laugh as most of us are neurodivergent, but it does say something about how seriously you should take her opinions on autism.

What do you mean?

Uta Frith is a legend, but she's badly out of touch here.
The fact that making Autism a spectrum has led to conceptual and practical difficulties doesn't make it collapse.
This feels like an attempt to turn back the clock

I love him

Her guys, what if Clippy was the whole operating system?

deep cut. I like it

we do! shhh!

WHO KNEW????

"In a UK survey of over 4,000 trans people, TransActual found that 99% say media coverage has harmed their mental health, 99% have heard politicians express transphobic views, and many have been refused non-transition healthcare simply for being trans."
transactual.org.uk/trans-lives-...

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it.

The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform.

If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

Thank you for the lovely book!