Peter Ellis

I don’t have a problem with GMOs, I have a problem with #ColossalBio misrepresenting GMO grey wolves as Dire wolves™️ 🐺 🧪 #ExtinctionIsForever

Hi, It’s Me, Wikipedia, and I Am Ready for Your Apology “Wikipedia, the constantly changing knowledge base created by a global free-for-all of anonymous users, now stands as the leading force for the dum...

"Listen, in some ways, I get it. When I came on the scene in 2001, I probably seemed pretty unsavory compared to the competitors. But that was when academic research happened in libraries and George W. Bush was considered the stupidest president."

Getting better at images too:

Will be discussing ChatGPT with students this week - decided to populate my sidebar with a couple of silly queries for them to spot when I share the window. Have to say it knocked this one out the park - particularly point 2.

This one *hurts*

“Can’t tell shit from Shinola” used to be a US saying for someone with suspect judgement - Shinola being a brand of boot polish.

Well, so much for THAT ceasefire. AGAIN. ...No Peace Prize for whatsisface, then? 😏

Heck, Labour appointing someone decent to a women & equalities position. I should put some money on the lottery.

Delighted to announce that I have joined the Women & Equalities Committee, alongside @kimleadbeatermp.bsky.social and Kevin McKenna MP.

I’m looking forward to scrutinising the government’s work in this area and championing equality for women and marginalised groups.

holy hell

What percentage of politicians in your country are still relying on this site as a primary means of public communication?

It feels slightly maddening that this isn't being treated as an extremely urgent problem.

Comic. [two connected spacecraft hovering in space above the Earth] Houston, the view is superb. We can see the continents spread out below us, right where they’ve been since the Earth formed. [caption] I still can’t believe we developed spaceflight before we figured out that the continents moved.

Continents

xkcd.com/3159/

Is there a per capita version of that anywhere? That would give the clearest view of quality of life I think.

I think I should quote this post every week

Just discovered the phrase Schroedinger's Douchebag, and I need to add this to my vocabulary.

I know the stereotype is that college profs want everyone to learn their subject. Interestingly, if I had the power to reshape undergraduate requirements, I wouldn't make my subjects (various forms of bio) required.

I would make a substantial probability and statistics class required. For all.

Does the game have to provide both the stakes and the comfort? The world is giving us quite enough stakes at the moment. This argument feels to me at least as much about escapism as cosiness - and Tolkien had a very perceptive comment about that.

When you're designing an assessment where AI is permitted...

I honestly don't understand how the president consistently confusing a dementia test with an IQ test (and talking about how hard it was!) is not of interest to the media that put 100 reporters on the 'Biden stuttered' beat.

is it good or bad that the president of the united states is bragging about the difficulty of a test he took that started with identifying an elephant

“Ok, happy to accept the quote for the guttering.”

My music references are mostly focused from 1500-1900 so I’m not sure where I fit here. “Mentally old” doesn’t feel quite right, more like there’s some other dimension at right angles to actual temporality.

For what it’s worth I hazarded a guess it was a Doctor Who reference.

If you’re making several you might lay out all the bottoms before adding the tops

I honestly wouldn’t know, I haven’t watched a single TV ad in ten years. Who are these morons who don’t know how to work their set top boxes?

The average brit: black, white, or brown, just wants to live peacefully. Co-exist with their neighbours and live a decent life with dignity The vast majority of brits do not want nazis crusading through our streets, nor equally absurd "counter-demonstraters." Calm down

Some of us are terrified for the vulnerable members of our own families. We want and need real solutions, we don't want to add to the flames we want to find the solutions that will help put them out. If a counter-demo adds to the anger, then we must stop and question why We can't afford to experiment, this is a question of our very lives in this country. We must get it right. And protection of our most vulnerable must be at the forefront of any decision we make and action we take

Hope the Green to Your Party transfers are happy with their new "people protesting against Nazis are as much of a problem as Nazis" party

“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register. Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”

reading slaughterhouse 5 for the first time and i was absolutely knocked senseless by this passage, which is so true and relevant that it feels like it was pulled from a history book

Google Scholar tool gives extra credit to first and last authors Researchers welcome the initiative, but say it doesn’t go far enough to capture the nuance of researcher productivity and impact.

🧪For those of us who do complex collaborations with multiple corresponding authors this is terrible . I suspect it will also hit female authors disproportionately as they tend to have more collaborations across fields…https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03281-4

"We are not going to train more doctors unless I get my way" is one hell of a strop.

Well it’s obvious what the “Sh” stands for then…

You evolve a new proto-Y chromosome

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...