Pratik Gupte
@pratikunterwegs.bsky.social
RSE at Imperial supporting macro-econ and epi modelling for pandemic response.
PhD in ecology and evol bio - I guess I only work in fields starting with E?
Mostly reposting content I agree with - email me for work stuff.
PhD in ecology and evol bio - I guess I only work in fields starting with E?
Mostly reposting content I agree with - email me for work stuff.
Pinned
Pratik Gupte
@pratikunterwegs.bsky.social
· Jul 25
Not that loads of folks were messaging me, but I won't be verifying my age just because the UK has had a moral panic, so if you need to get in touch, email me at pratik.gupte@protonmail.com. Or find me via work.
Nice, but slightly unexpected, to see serious folks I follow also play WoW. Back when I started, a lot of players online at the same time seemed to be coalition troops in Afghanistan.
The only person in my World of Warcraft guild who actually knows what he's doing is a Ukrainian dude whom Russian attacks have limited to a few hours of power a day, and who frequently has to leave abruptly due to air alerts.
Sometimes I think Putin doesn't even care about our raid progression.
Sometimes I think Putin doesn't even care about our raid progression.
November 11, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Nice, but slightly unexpected, to see serious folks I follow also play WoW. Back when I started, a lot of players online at the same time seemed to be coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
November 10, 2025 at 10:52 AM
What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC.
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting.
iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Yes, the #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge trailer is out today...
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV
YouTube video by Apple TV
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Yes, the #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge trailer is out today...
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants
November 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
I think this constant push for immigrants to feel & act ‘grateful’ is so insidious. Let’s change the narrative. Migration is a normal part of human behaviour, not a charity case. If you’re doing your best to do your best, you don’t need to do even more to be accepted. It’s your right to be accepted.
November 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
I think this constant push for immigrants to feel & act ‘grateful’ is so insidious. Let’s change the narrative. Migration is a normal part of human behaviour, not a charity case. If you’re doing your best to do your best, you don’t need to do even more to be accepted. It’s your right to be accepted.
I think anybody running pandemic response exercises would really benefit from a slide on the difference between forecasts and projections. The weather forecast example is one I think I'll include next time we run one.
New post on poker, decision-support tools and why people conflate epidemic scenarios with forecasts: kucharski.substack.com/p/why-do-peo...
October 29, 2025 at 9:41 AM
I think anybody running pandemic response exercises would really benefit from a slide on the difference between forecasts and projections. The weather forecast example is one I think I'll include next time we run one.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
What if one model could realistically predict the economy of an entire country? The entire world? A month-long working group, co-organized by SFI External Professor @doynefarmer.bsky.social, made the case that agent-based models may bring this vision to life:
Agent-based models move into the economic mainstream
In the 1980s and ’90s, SFI played laboratory to a promising new method known as agent-based modeling. In ensuing decades, agent-based models (ABMs) proliferated across many fields, including economics...
www.santafe.edu
October 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
What if one model could realistically predict the economy of an entire country? The entire world? A month-long working group, co-organized by SFI External Professor @doynefarmer.bsky.social, made the case that agent-based models may bring this vision to life:
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
I built an MCMC painter!
I'm excited to share this project I've been working on for a long time, which sits at the intersection of computational statistics and generative art; mcmcPainter!
Link here: mcmcpainter.davidhodgson.me
I'm excited to share this project I've been working on for a long time, which sits at the intersection of computational statistics and generative art; mcmcPainter!
Link here: mcmcpainter.davidhodgson.me
October 26, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I built an MCMC painter!
I'm excited to share this project I've been working on for a long time, which sits at the intersection of computational statistics and generative art; mcmcPainter!
Link here: mcmcpainter.davidhodgson.me
I'm excited to share this project I've been working on for a long time, which sits at the intersection of computational statistics and generative art; mcmcPainter!
Link here: mcmcpainter.davidhodgson.me
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
I’m seeing some misinformation about pseudo-random number generator best practices going around the internets. Let’s talk about why the pseudo-random number generator seed you use shouldn’t actually have any impact on your results and, consequently, you can choose whatever seed you damn well please.
October 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I’m seeing some misinformation about pseudo-random number generator best practices going around the internets. Let’s talk about why the pseudo-random number generator seed you use shouldn’t actually have any impact on your results and, consequently, you can choose whatever seed you damn well please.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.
October 19, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
October 3, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Wild bird species most at risk of contracting HPAI were those that are gregarious, tolerant of anthropic habitats, are non-migratory, and occupy the upper trophic level
👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....?
👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....?
October 14, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Wild bird species most at risk of contracting HPAI were those that are gregarious, tolerant of anthropic habitats, are non-migratory, and occupy the upper trophic level
👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....?
👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....?
Counting on visiting neighbourhood cats to keep my bulbs safe from squirrels. Had to dissuade a jay from going after my garlic though.
My autumn-planted bulbs are being thoroughly disturbed by squirrels 😐.
October 13, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Counting on visiting neighbourhood cats to keep my bulbs safe from squirrels. Had to dissuade a jay from going after my garlic though.
Very cool stuff.
Want to build an interactive dashboard so others can explore epidemic scenarios? For COVID, @ngdavies.bsky.social spearheaded a great drag-and-drop approach, which made use of the JavaScript-based nature of RShiny... 1/
October 9, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Very cool stuff.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
UPDATE: I saw it happen! At the Birds Canada research station at the tip of Long Point I watched an expert ever-so-gently and carefully put one of these tiny tags on a monarch. Let me walk you through the steps (1/4)
So cool to visit the Motus workshop at Birds Canada headquarters. The Motus community is studying the movement of birds, bats and insects. This tiny radio telemetry device will fit on a Monarch butterfly 😲 #invertebrates #birds 🌿 www.birdscanada.org/bird-science...
September 26, 2025 at 1:03 AM
UPDATE: I saw it happen! At the Birds Canada research station at the tip of Long Point I watched an expert ever-so-gently and carefully put one of these tiny tags on a monarch. Let me walk you through the steps (1/4)
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Want to build an interactive dashboard so others can explore epidemic scenarios? For COVID, @ngdavies.bsky.social spearheaded a great drag-and-drop approach, which made use of the JavaScript-based nature of RShiny... 1/
October 8, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Want to build an interactive dashboard so others can explore epidemic scenarios? For COVID, @ngdavies.bsky.social spearheaded a great drag-and-drop approach, which made use of the JavaScript-based nature of RShiny... 1/
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t
27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs
Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.
go.nature.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.
You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
The next election is not lost, although I think right now it’s more likely than not that they will lose. But it’s a certainty that at some point they will lose and cede power to one or more of the right wing parties. Given their current platforms that is terrifying.
October 5, 2025 at 12:45 PM
The next election is not lost, although I think right now it’s more likely than not that they will lose. But it’s a certainty that at some point they will lose and cede power to one or more of the right wing parties. Given their current platforms that is terrifying.
Seriously time to start thinking about an exit.
Just noticed the Conservatives’ British ICE proposal also involves using mass deployment of facial ID – still an unproven and unreliable technology that particularly struggles with non-white faces – to enable deportations.
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
October 5, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Seriously time to start thinking about an exit.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Just noticed the Conservatives’ British ICE proposal also involves using mass deployment of facial ID – still an unproven and unreliable technology that particularly struggles with non-white faces – to enable deportations.
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
October 5, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Just noticed the Conservatives’ British ICE proposal also involves using mass deployment of facial ID – still an unproven and unreliable technology that particularly struggles with non-white faces – to enable deportations.
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
The government want more coercive powers for the state against protests, and the main opposition party wants more coercive powers for the state against migrants.
Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.
Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.
October 5, 2025 at 7:31 AM
The government want more coercive powers for the state against protests, and the main opposition party wants more coercive powers for the state against migrants.
Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.
Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
Are we doing simulations wrong? This paper convinced me we are. doi.org/10.1098/rstb... Usually we run 2 sets of "worlds" w and w-out intervention. Gives large uncertainties that include negative (harm) effects of interventions that are actually always positive (beneficial)!
October 2, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Are we doing simulations wrong? This paper convinced me we are. doi.org/10.1098/rstb... Usually we run 2 sets of "worlds" w and w-out intervention. Gives large uncertainties that include negative (harm) effects of interventions that are actually always positive (beneficial)!
Just a simple lack of respect really.
Just fuck off with this. How about start the conversation by highlighting how much immigrants contribute to the UK - not least by propping up the NHS and social care system!
Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.
Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.
September 29, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Just a simple lack of respect really.
Reposted by Pratik Gupte
If they don’t pull someone in & fire them by the end of today over this then they might as well give up now. Mass deportation plans are how Reform describe them so this is clearly a sweaty failure panicking at his people finding out what his special friends are actually like
September 28, 2025 at 8:59 AM
If they don’t pull someone in & fire them by the end of today over this then they might as well give up now. Mass deportation plans are how Reform describe them so this is clearly a sweaty failure panicking at his people finding out what his special friends are actually like