Paul Pharoah
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paulpharoah.bsky.social
Paul Pharoah
@paulpharoah.bsky.social
Jack of some trades, master of none: public health, epi and genetics mainly. Arsenal supporter, hiker. Live in LA. If home is also where the heart is England, South Africa, Papua New Guinea. Photos are my own. Views expressed are my own.
Apparently England's tackle success rate (it's not a rate) is 61.49% based. We'd be worried if it were only 61.03%. inappropriate precision all over the place.
February 14, 2026 at 5:19 PM
It always feels wrong to wash down my pills with a martini.
February 14, 2026 at 1:53 AM
www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Brilliant exposition of the pernicious influence of an odious chancer.
Football must reject Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cynical, self-serving electioneering | Barney Ronay
Tax exile has already proven himself a terrible club owner; now his ill-informed diatribe about immigration has poured fuel on wider flames
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
Trump posted a video depicting the first Black president and his wife as apes and his excuse for this is that it's a riff on The Lion King, a movie that does not feature any apes. Somehow this was a one-day story and we've already moved on.
February 13, 2026 at 3:30 AM
The world's number one dipstick continues to make pronouncements to ensure he stays at number one.
Q: What do you tell Americans who are concerned that repealing the endangerment finding comes at a host to public health and the environment based on science?

TRUMP: I tell them don't worry about it. This was all a scam. They'll have more money to spend for healthcare.
February 13, 2026 at 4:01 AM
I know the feeling.
Grant rejection, another one. Glowing reviewer's comments, but didn't even make it to panel. What the hell am I doing wrong?!
February 12, 2026 at 3:40 PM
But not the scientists that I used to interact with on Twitter.
Please enjoy our research paper on how Bluesky is the preferred home of academics of all stripes, including professors of rare moths. (Yes, we actually have lots of entomologists here).

academic.oup.com/icb/article-... 🧪
February 12, 2026 at 3:39 PM
How exactly should protesting the illegal activities of ICE be putting yourself in harm's way? The only disgusting part of this is that doing so does put yourself in harm's way. Johnson is yet another sick apologist for authoritarianism.
Ron Johnson to Keith Ellison: "Two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves into harm's way! And now you are exploiting those two martyrs. You ought to feel damn guilty about it. Yeah, sit there and smirk. Smirk. It's sick! It's despicable. You disgust me."
February 12, 2026 at 3:37 PM
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Who knew that the opposite of many negative words we use did exist once upon a time. E.g. ruth(less), gorm(less), (in)ept, (un)kempt, (un)couth, and (dis)consolate. I wonder why the positives have died out.
Susie Dent’s tips and tricks to add muscle to a child’s vocabulary
To help combat the impact of screen-time creep, the Countdown word supremo has a few suggestions
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:32 PM
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Immigrants are costing the UK too much says billionaire who avoids paying tax by moving abroad and relying on millions in handouts to keep his companies afloat. Cast him and his companies adrift.
Ratcliffe says immigrants cost too much, while Ineos lobbies for state funding
Billionaire’s business has in recent years claimed UK and EU support for refineries and chemicals plants worth about €800m
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:14 PM
1/n #football #thfc I am always intrigued by the timing etc of the sacking of English Premier League football managers. Thomas Frank was sacked today presumably for severely under performing. I would say his squad is no better than the squad from last year.
February 11, 2026 at 8:58 PM
A pardon does not change a guilty verdict to a not guilty verdict.
NEGUSE: AG Bondi, that man works for you now, right? The man in that video from J6 yelling 'kill them!' at cops. His name is Jared Wise.

BONDI: He does work for us, yes. I believe he was pardoned

NEGUSE: And you expect hard-working police officers to believe you take law enforcement seriously?
February 11, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Listening to a talk about digital biomarkers and the concept of screening for pre-diabetes is being discussed!
February 11, 2026 at 6:18 PM
What an odious racist.
February 11, 2026 at 6:10 PM
I have heard about Claude Code. My first Q; what does it do? The 'overview' website seems an obvious starting place. Apparently it "is an agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands, and integrates with your development tools". I am none the wiser.
February 10, 2026 at 10:04 PM
He's not bright enough to work out that that is how the stock market works today. Everything he does is bad news.
Trump: "We have to go back to the old system. When we have good news, the market should go up. When we have bad news, the market should go down. And we'll take care of inflation as it comes."
February 10, 2026 at 9:14 PM
#WinterOlympics These team events like team ski jumping should be taken from the schedule. Ski jumping is not a team sport.
February 10, 2026 at 7:07 PM
1/2 The one publication reporting sensitivity was based on just 200 (approx) stage 1 cases from multiple cancer types, so the sensitivity for any given type is poorly estimated. Overall just 40% sensitivity for stage 1 (based on cross-valdation as no independent data set).
I find drug advertising on US TV distasteful enough. But advertising a 'screening' test for which there is no evidence of benefit is even worse. Encapsulates the driving force behind all our current problems, i.e. the primacy of commercial interests above all else.
February 10, 2026 at 5:13 PM
I find drug advertising on US TV distasteful enough. But advertising a 'screening' test for which there is no evidence of benefit is even worse. Encapsulates the driving force behind all our current problems, i.e. the primacy of commercial interests above all else.
February 10, 2026 at 4:55 PM
💯 percent
I don't think there are words in the dictionary to express how much I hate the ONS website. They must have a team of several dozen there working on making sure whatever data you want is impossible to find. Evil.
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I have thought for years that a computer ought to be very good at taking a medical history and, on that basis, make a differential diagnosis and order relevant tests. The medical exam is overrated. (Hands on healing does have a role).
February 10, 2026 at 2:55 PM
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Inveterate liar seems to be a required characteristic of the key individuals running this authoritarian ship. They lie in order to enable their actions to harm the population economically and physically.
RFK Jr misled Senate during confirmation, Congress members and Hawaii governor say
Newly revealed emails undermine Kennedy’s testimony about 2019 Samoa trip ahead of deadly measles outbreak
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:06 AM
Absolutely
Also: shifting scientific funding towards "government priority areas" is a surefire way to kill creativity and innovation.

Generating scientific knowledge is not like ordering a takeaway. You can't just tick the 'science' that you want and expect anything useful.
February 9, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Pharoah
I wanted to marry my English teacher when she got out of jail..

But apparently you can’t end a sentence with a proposition.
February 9, 2026 at 7:48 PM