Mark Walker
@amarkwalker.bsky.social
Retired medical microbiologist. Previous interest in biological evolution now largely superseded by interest in the global interplay of language, intelligence and ideas.
Pinned
Mark Walker
@amarkwalker.bsky.social
· May 6
"Truth, though powerless and always defeated in a head-on clash with the powers that be, possesses a strength of its own: whatever those in power may contrive, they are unable to discover or invent a viable substitute for it." Hannah Arendt, quoted by Simon Schama in The War on Knowledge, FT 26/4/25
Reposted by Mark Walker
Saturday's Best Editorial Cartoons of the Week #ABlueView🧵1/4
A lot of news this week has yielded a lot of smart editorial cartoons!
Recent post: Another Tariff 🩴 Flip Flop 🩴 by the Economic Genius bsky.app/profile/abl...
#BestOfABlueView #BestOf2025 #BestEditorialCartoons
A lot of news this week has yielded a lot of smart editorial cartoons!
Recent post: Another Tariff 🩴 Flip Flop 🩴 by the Economic Genius bsky.app/profile/abl...
#BestOfABlueView #BestOf2025 #BestEditorialCartoons
November 22, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Saturday's Best Editorial Cartoons of the Week #ABlueView🧵1/4
A lot of news this week has yielded a lot of smart editorial cartoons!
Recent post: Another Tariff 🩴 Flip Flop 🩴 by the Economic Genius bsky.app/profile/abl...
#BestOfABlueView #BestOf2025 #BestEditorialCartoons
A lot of news this week has yielded a lot of smart editorial cartoons!
Recent post: Another Tariff 🩴 Flip Flop 🩴 by the Economic Genius bsky.app/profile/abl...
#BestOfABlueView #BestOf2025 #BestEditorialCartoons
Reposted by Mark Walker
If you run round a cow 10 times chanting "Family Farm Tax" backwards, an economist will appear and explain why allowing land to be used as a tax shelter causes the very problem you are complaining about.
November 22, 2025 at 11:07 AM
If you run round a cow 10 times chanting "Family Farm Tax" backwards, an economist will appear and explain why allowing land to be used as a tax shelter causes the very problem you are complaining about.
Reposted by Mark Walker
I suppose that ChatGPT is doing what we thought the search engine Ask Jeeves would do, though it lacks the required biting edge of contempt that you needed to ask the question at all.
November 17, 2025 at 7:55 AM
I suppose that ChatGPT is doing what we thought the search engine Ask Jeeves would do, though it lacks the required biting edge of contempt that you needed to ask the question at all.
Reposted by Mark Walker
It's real, and it's mind-blowing.
A complete lack of awareness and a national embarrassment.
A complete lack of awareness and a national embarrassment.
Just some British patriots in Benidorm, taking over a street in Spain to shout in their own language about unwanted foreigners. It’s a blessing that they are too thick to understand irony.
November 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM
It's real, and it's mind-blowing.
A complete lack of awareness and a national embarrassment.
A complete lack of awareness and a national embarrassment.
Reposted by Mark Walker
Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)
November 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)
Reposted by Mark Walker
The fact of the matter is that there is no one path to improved health. When, however, we stigmatize, criminalize, & defund services for people w/substance use disorders, it creates a clear path for worsening health. We must stop the erosion of harm reduction. @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
The Erosion of Harm Reduction | NEJM
The U.S. administration has continuously chipped away at public health interventions
addressing substance use disorders and the opioid crisis, including vital harm-reduction
activities.
www.nejm.org
November 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The fact of the matter is that there is no one path to improved health. When, however, we stigmatize, criminalize, & defund services for people w/substance use disorders, it creates a clear path for worsening health. We must stop the erosion of harm reduction. @nejm.org
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Mark Walker
New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism
Claims that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism regularly appear in
the scientific literature and popular press. Mitchell et al. critically examine influential
studies underpinning these...
www.cell.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
New paper with @statsepi.bsky.social and @deevybee.bsky.social in which we show there's really no evidence for a link between the gut microbiome and autism www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Reposted by Mark Walker
NEW:
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
www.propublica.org/article/kris...
w @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
www.propublica.org/article/kris...
w @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rule...
www.propublica.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:18 PM
NEW:
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
www.propublica.org/article/kris...
w @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
www.propublica.org/article/kris...
w @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Walker
"I have met some very bad people....none as bad as trump.
Not one decent cell in his body..so yes - dangerous."
Jeffrey Epstein 2017
Not one decent cell in his body..so yes - dangerous."
Jeffrey Epstein 2017
November 13, 2025 at 9:23 AM
"I have met some very bad people....none as bad as trump.
Not one decent cell in his body..so yes - dangerous."
Jeffrey Epstein 2017
Not one decent cell in his body..so yes - dangerous."
Jeffrey Epstein 2017
Reposted by Mark Walker
Here's my plea to the government, media and everyone else to stop treating NHS administrators as a problem to be eliminated, rather than the glue which holds the whole organisation together.
November 13, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Here's my plea to the government, media and everyone else to stop treating NHS administrators as a problem to be eliminated, rather than the glue which holds the whole organisation together.
Reposted by Mark Walker
Pity those of us whose job it was to say precisely this. The serious point is that the combination of 24/7 news and social media has been corrosive of nuance, as so much current discussion of government policy shows.
November 13, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Pity those of us whose job it was to say precisely this. The serious point is that the combination of 24/7 news and social media has been corrosive of nuance, as so much current discussion of government policy shows.
Reposted by Mark Walker
1. Placing these two graphs side by side shows why we have a prisons crisis. They can also be seen as a kind of Authoritarianism Index, showing the trend in state attitudes.
On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
On the right is the UK prison population.
🧵1/8
On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
On the right is the UK prison population.
🧵1/8
November 13, 2025 at 6:54 AM
1. Placing these two graphs side by side shows why we have a prisons crisis. They can also be seen as a kind of Authoritarianism Index, showing the trend in state attitudes.
On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
On the right is the UK prison population.
🧵1/8
On the left is the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
On the right is the UK prison population.
🧵1/8
Reposted by Mark Walker
There’s a system of perverse incentives flooding the field with waste. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, learning that you cannot simply chuck all the variables you’ve coded from the medical charts into a regression model and create a story about the p-values will only hinder clinicians’ careers.
November 9, 2025 at 10:03 AM
There’s a system of perverse incentives flooding the field with waste. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, learning that you cannot simply chuck all the variables you’ve coded from the medical charts into a regression model and create a story about the p-values will only hinder clinicians’ careers.
Reposted by Mark Walker
In a field where evidence suggests that a high proportion of papers have serious flaws, a database of "potentially important" papers which appear *not* to have serious flaws might be useful, as well as identifying those that do.
November 9, 2025 at 10:36 AM
In a field where evidence suggests that a high proportion of papers have serious flaws, a database of "potentially important" papers which appear *not* to have serious flaws might be useful, as well as identifying those that do.
Reposted by Mark Walker
Step into the shower. That always makes a delivery arrive at that very moment.
This is how the universe works, it’s called Intelligent Design.
This is how the universe works, it’s called Intelligent Design.
November 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Step into the shower. That always makes a delivery arrive at that very moment.
This is how the universe works, it’s called Intelligent Design.
This is how the universe works, it’s called Intelligent Design.
Reposted by Mark Walker
"A service for the poor tends to become a poor service" as my high school sociology teacher told me.
This is basically the biggest thing I have changed my mind on in adult life. Having been raised in a Land Of Plenty soc dem, I was convinced of the 'insane subsidy to the rich' case for means testing until I came over here, saw the alternative, and I am now an Universal Coverage absolutist
The UK just has incredible attention to detail when it comes to making sure the people who pay all the taxes can’t have nice things. Child benefit? No. Free Child car? No. Cut price bike to cycle to work? No.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
Functionally we are telling people they pay too much tax to get anything from the state.
November 13, 2025 at 10:50 AM
"A service for the poor tends to become a poor service" as my high school sociology teacher told me.
Reposted by Mark Walker
I'm not sure if others have noticed this, but interesting that one of the Prescott criticisms of the BBC is based on those of the 'History Reclaimed' group, which is also associated with the 'Restore Trust' group's attacks on & so far unsuccessful attempts to take control of the National Trust. 1/3
November 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I'm not sure if others have noticed this, but interesting that one of the Prescott criticisms of the BBC is based on those of the 'History Reclaimed' group, which is also associated with the 'Restore Trust' group's attacks on & so far unsuccessful attempts to take control of the National Trust. 1/3
Reposted by Mark Walker
Reposted by Mark Walker
Finally, a bit of a reality check from our 2024 election book (out soon!) for everyone hyperventilating about collapsing public trust in the BBC - free to air TV (mostly the BBC) is still the most widely consumed and widely trusted source of news - blows print, online & social media out of the water
November 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Finally, a bit of a reality check from our 2024 election book (out soon!) for everyone hyperventilating about collapsing public trust in the BBC - free to air TV (mostly the BBC) is still the most widely consumed and widely trusted source of news - blows print, online & social media out of the water
Reposted by Mark Walker
Here are the two plaques that were removed. I am so ashamed of our racist current administration.
November 9, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Here are the two plaques that were removed. I am so ashamed of our racist current administration.
Reposted by Mark Walker
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Reposted by Mark Walker
Bluetorial-Jim Watson
I met Jim Watson a few times but did not know him well. However, I was greatly influenced by his book “The Double Helix”. He was a complicated human being with some very, very bad features, but some good contributions.
What follows is my personal perspective.
1/41
I met Jim Watson a few times but did not know him well. However, I was greatly influenced by his book “The Double Helix”. He was a complicated human being with some very, very bad features, but some good contributions.
What follows is my personal perspective.
1/41
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Bluetorial-Jim Watson
I met Jim Watson a few times but did not know him well. However, I was greatly influenced by his book “The Double Helix”. He was a complicated human being with some very, very bad features, but some good contributions.
What follows is my personal perspective.
1/41
I met Jim Watson a few times but did not know him well. However, I was greatly influenced by his book “The Double Helix”. He was a complicated human being with some very, very bad features, but some good contributions.
What follows is my personal perspective.
1/41
Reposted by Mark Walker
I read this book when I was 15 and fell in love with DNA. I re-read it at 32 with lived experience in Science and it filled me with rage. I cannot pick up that book now. It reveals what women were/are up against.
Based on his self-described behavior in The Double Helix and these actions it is easy and appropriate to write him off as an ignorant jerk.
38/41
38/41
November 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I read this book when I was 15 and fell in love with DNA. I re-read it at 32 with lived experience in Science and it filled me with rage. I cannot pick up that book now. It reveals what women were/are up against.
Reposted by Mark Walker
Hannah Arendt used the phrase "The banality of evil". She meant that these people exist in every society. Hitler never personally murdered the people in the death camps, ordinary Germans did.
Laws and social censure keeps the lid on the evil, until a political leader lifts the lid.
Laws and social censure keeps the lid on the evil, until a political leader lifts the lid.
November 9, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Hannah Arendt used the phrase "The banality of evil". She meant that these people exist in every society. Hitler never personally murdered the people in the death camps, ordinary Germans did.
Laws and social censure keeps the lid on the evil, until a political leader lifts the lid.
Laws and social censure keeps the lid on the evil, until a political leader lifts the lid.
Reposted by Mark Walker
A study I wrote to the journal about in May this year was just retracted: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The review paper claimed that the majority of benefits in clinical trials could be explained by placebo effects.
The review paper claimed that the majority of benefits in clinical trials could be explained by placebo effects.
November 6, 2025 at 12:19 AM
A study I wrote to the journal about in May this year was just retracted: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The review paper claimed that the majority of benefits in clinical trials could be explained by placebo effects.
The review paper claimed that the majority of benefits in clinical trials could be explained by placebo effects.