Nathan Gower

What an absolute let down.

I remember doing a piece on this a few years ago where the really worrying thing was that you can build up significant pockets of low vaccination without the spark needed to start an outbreak.

But once that spark appears, an outbreak can spread frighteningly quickly.

Everyone staying up for the big event?

More or Less - Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time? - BBC Sounds Did a Roman charioteer really earn the equivalent of $15 billion dollars?

Absolute delight to talk to @wmarybeard.bsky.social for an episode of More or Less.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The ONS vs Industry The stats agency / prestige television beef we didn’t know we needed

The ONS vs Industry www.ft.com/content/12c6... The ONS vs Industry

@tommckinney.bsky.social

What a sensational piece that I'd never heard before. Feel like it's transformed my day already.

"Your AI engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should."

IF ONLY THERE WAS A SNAPPY ACRONYM

'We are totally in line on Christmas
We can do great things on the patio
I do not understand what you are doing on your pension'

Big revelation of the morning for me is that Macron texts like your dad.

YouTube video by Ragna Þórsdóttir Neanderthal voice

the greatest documentary ever broadcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTkF...

Since when did the terminology shift from 'recruit' (HR approved) to 'seduce' (very weird)?

Keep 'em coming.

First saw this on @benansell.bsky.social and @jim.londoncentric.media's feeds. Also of interest to @paulmainwood.bsky.social, I think.

Fwiw, Ofcom’s figures say 8 and a half million individuals use X to access news.

tl;dl version:

We can't access gov's data. Ofcom say 3% of population (roughly 1.8m individuals) say X is their most important news source.

Gov has corrected Hansard and now says '10.8 million families use X as a news and information source'. But it's unclear how many individuals this equates to.

Almost right, Tom. Ofcom figures say 1.8m individuals (not families) say X is their most important news source.

The gov now says 10.8m families use X as a news and info source (not main source), but it's unclear what that means in terms of individuals. Ofcom say 8.5m individuals use X for news.

More or Less - Have more than 100 private schools been forced to close because of VAT? - BBC Sounds Tim Harford investigates closing schools, X users, Covid deaths and churchgoers

Did you see the claim from the Government in the House of Lords that "10.8 million families use X as their main news source"?

Well, the government has admitted it was wrong.

I investigated for Radio 4's More or Less - you can hear it here, starting at 14:55.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Hi Tom, Nathan from More or Less here. We have actually looked into a similar statistic, cited by Baroness Anderson in the Lords last Monday.

You can hear the results tomorrow at 9am in Radio 4.

*Rachel Reeves banging table*

safe haven, safe haven

*Andrew Bailey joining in*

safe haven, safe haven

*entire DMO chanting as one*

SAFE HAVEN, SAFE HAVEN

BBC Radio 4 - Stand-Up Specials, Why in the Name of Pierre Novellie Pierre Novellie focuses on the deep and the shallow in a comedic answer to In Our Time.

Check out my BBC Radio 4 stand up show! First ep is already out, three to come!

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

@adamjkucharski.bsky.social did a great analysis of the series two years ago.

We did it for More or Less and he also wrote it up for the Times, I believe.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

If only this had happened during Radio 3's Christmas broadcast from Peak Wildlife Park three weeks earlier.

Would have made for possibly the best Outside Broadcast ever.

A grey and red transit bus on the road in a city. The bus’ destination sign reads “NO? ?? ???????”

My response to anything over the next two weeks

(pt.2)

You love to see it (pt. 1).

And for the same week last year it was about 39 minutes. So ambulance handovers (which tells you a bit about how hospitals are coping) are doing substantially better than they were this time last year, despite the flu wave coming early.

Good news on ambulance handovers (and it was already quite good)! Looks like average time taken to hand patients over to hospitals in England is at about 31 minutes, down from about 38 minutes last week.