Martin Michaelis (he/him)

Another good reason to outlaw donations to politicians and political parties...

Crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne no longer interested in Reform-Tory pact Donor who has given £12m to Reform UK had previously wanted Nigel Farage to keep open mind about deal with Conservatives

Why is it that the greatest patriots always seem to live abroad? I assume, it has nothing to do with avoiding taxes in the place that they love so dearly and that they care so much about?

Tory peer to leave Lords after investigation finds he breached standards over Covid PPE deals Lord Chadlington introduced government to company in which he had financial interest in 2020

Imagine a world, in which the aim is to make it a better place and not to make money. If we want a better world, we will need to think about an appropriate incentive system. #economy #economics #Democracy #capitalism #PoliSky #EconSky

UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns Prof Tim Lang says country produces far less food than it needs to feed population and is particularly vulnerable

Long-term thinking and planning beyond immediate personal gain is unfortunately out of fashion... #PoliSky #EconSky

UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns Prof Tim Lang says country produces far less food than it needs to feed population and is particularly vulnerable

Long-term thinking and planning beyond immediate personal gain is unfortunately out of fashion... #PoliSky #EconSky

Global Warming Has Accelerated Significantly During the last decade, the rate at which Earth warmed increased substantially After removing the influence of known natural variability factors, the increase of the warming rate is statistically...

The temperature rise is accelerating. An intelligent species would not dig its own hole, would it? 🧪 #PoliSky #EconSky

Climate change will increase forest disturbances in Europe throughout the 21st century Wildfires, insect outbreaks, and storms cause large pulses of tree mortality. Climate change amplifies these forest disturbances, yet their future magnitude and extent remain uncertain. Here, we simul...

We know that we are causing global warming and how to stop it. However, we sleepwalk into the disaster out of complacency, convenience, ignorance, indifference, short-term self-interest... Future generations will bear the brunt and not consider us fondly in their history books... 🧪 #PoliSky #EconSky

Musk tells jury 'people read too much' into his posts The billionaire is accused of misleading investors in the run-up to his 2022 Twitter purchase.

The more power you have, the more responsibility and accountability you have for your comments and actions. If you do not want to be taken seriously, be quiet.

South East Water faces £22m fine for supply failures The firm was unable to cope during high demand, Ofwat says, leading to

Does this make sense? A company prioritises profit over the functioning of the service that it sells. If it is fined, the fines will eventually be paid by the customers, who already suffer from the poor service. This may be an area, in which privatisation does not work? #EconSky #PoliSky

Polanski and Farage have more in common than you might think Despite huge political differences, the Green and Reform leaders have much in common, writes Laura Kuenssberg.

Articles like this try to answer the wrong question. They focus on predicting who will win an election in a sports-spectator-like manner. However, the real question that we should discuss is what are real solutions and who can offer them? #politics #PoliSky

COVID’s origins: what we do and don’t know Researchers summarize key insights from the world’s first comprehensive investigation into how a pandemic started.

A long-winded, but also realistic way to say that we do not know were SARS-CoV-2 came from. It does not even matter what is the most likely origin, because unlikely things also happen all the time. Just look at football results... #COVID19 #pandemic 🧪 #MedSky #PoliSky

#Evidence that you do not want to put your trust in #AI when it comes to health advice (at least not yet), even when they are designed for this purpose... 🧪 #MedSky

Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis after Measles Infection | NEJM A 7-year-old boy was brought to a hospital with a 3-month history of cognitive deterioration and seizures. He had contracted measles at 7 months of age while living in an area where the ...

Subacute sclerotising panencephalitis is one of the scariest complications of #measles and almost always fatal. #MedSky 🧪 #PoliSky

Primary Measles Infection | NEJM A previously healthy man presented with a 5-day history of fever, nausea, and vomiting and a 2-day history of an itchy rash. Examination showed an exanthem consisting of minute macules and subtly e...

Medical journals start to provide images of #measles again. Can anyone think of a reason for this? #MedSky 🧪 #PoliSky

Earth's heat to produce electricity for homes in UK clean energy first Water super-heated by rocks will also provide the UK's first domestic supply of the critical mineral lithium.

The question is not whether we can transfer from fossil fuels to renewables but whether we want to. The solutions are all there and a majority is in favour. We are only held back by a loud minority spurred on by the fossil fuel lobby. 🧪 #PoliSky #EconSky

‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it? Researchers find 89% of people around the world want more to be done, but mistakenly assume their peers do not

A reminder: If you wonder why not more people realise the severity of the #ClimateCrisis and ask for change, you will find if you look that a large majority actually does. We are just fed misleading propaganda... 🧪 #PoliSky #EconSky

Under water, in denial: is Europe drowning out the climate crisis? Even as weather extremes worsen, the voices calling for the rolling back of environmental rules have grown louder and more influential

We are knowingly digging our own hole? Why? #climate #climatechange #climatecrisis 🧪 #PoliSky #EconSky

Donor suspended from Tories pays £50,000 for dinner with Kemi Badenoch Exclusive: Rami Ranger, who was suspended temporarily in 2023, makes successful bid at party fundraising event

In a #democracy, money should enable you to buy access to power. If you read the article to the end, you may also wonder about the moral compass of the Conservative party and the code of conduct of the House of Lords... #PoliSky

‘Reimagining matter’: Nobel laureate invents machine that harvests water from dry air Omar Yaghi’s invention uses ambient thermal energy and can generate up to 1,000 litres of clean water every day

Imagine a world, in which everyone uses their ingenuity to make it a better place, instead of focussing on making money... #economy #economics #capitalism #PoliSky #EconSky

Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Deepfakes showing grim taxpayer-funded waterparks have gone viral and drawn some racist responses.

Beware of #disinformation and #misinformation fabricated by reckless irresponsible individuals, who do not care about anything or even have ill intentions... #PoliSky

More or Less - Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers? - BBC Sounds Investigating a claim that 100 made-up claims were found in AI papers

This is funny: #AI researchers use non-existing references made up by AI in their accepted submissions to an AI conference...

It is also a telltale of what is wrong in a world, in which money is the #incentive... #ArtificialIntelligence #capitalism #AcademicSky #PoliSky #EconSky

KFC, Nando's, and others ditch chicken welfare pledge as demand soars Wingstop, Burger King, and others have walked away from an industry commitment to avoid using fast-growing chickens

When #ethics, #morale, and #compassion become too expensive in a world, in which money is the only real incentive... #EconSky

This also means that universities with a more diverse student populations will be punished by the league tables and by the government via TEF due to the employment data, which starts a vicious circle and sets wrong incentives.

Blood test for 50 cancers fails key goal in NHS trial The company behind the test said there were positive signs that some of the most aggressive cancers could be prevented.

A reminder that #cancer screening (and improving cancer therapies in general) is difficult and not straightforward.

Moreover, I wonder what the point is of such press releases that come without the data needed to enable an informed assessment? 🧪 #MedSky

Mucosal vaccination in mice provides protection from diverse respiratory threats Traditional vaccines target specific pathogens, limiting their scope against diverse respiratory threats. We describe an intranasal liposomal formulation combining toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and 7/8 l...

Interesting article about an interesting approach, but the pedant in me thinks that this is not a #vaccine in sense that we have understood #vaccines so far? 🧪 #MedSky

I am not responsible for the photo. My post is about the content of the article.

But the question poses itself now in a democracy.

Firm assessing Covid vaccine harm replaced after costs spiral to £48m The figure paid to Crawford & Company Adjusters is eight times the original estimate for the work.

In the UK, 249 individuals received compensation for harm caused by #COVID19 #vaccines. Given that more than 50 million people were vaccinated, this reflects about 0.0005% of the population and appears not to be an unrealistic number. #vaccination #vaccine #MedSky 🧪

Intermittent fasting for adults with overweight or obesity - Garegnani, LI - 2026 | Cochrane Library Select your preferred language for Cochrane reviews and other content. Sections without translation will be in English.

There does not appear to be an obvious difference between the outcomes of intermittent fasting and other forms of calorie restriction diets. Beware of health topics that are dominated by belief and ideology instead of evidence and by influencers, who make a living out of their advice. 🧪 #MedSky

Plan to increase youth minimum wage could be delayed Government sources tell BBC News they could slow down plans to make minimum wage equal across age groups.

What is the human benefit of an economic system that thrives on exploitation? #economy #economics #capitalism #PoliSky #EconSky