Thomas House
@tah-sci.com
Professor of Mathematical Sciences, working mainly on epidemiology although partial to a bit of non-commutative algebra, social science and basic biology.
https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/thomas.house/about.html
https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/thomas.house/about.html
The thing here is that ChatGPT has shown it's a better commentator on social sciences than the credulous commentators who took the idea of AI Panels seriously, meaning that they are in fact first in line for replacement with AI chatbots.
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM
The thing here is that ChatGPT has shown it's a better commentator on social sciences than the credulous commentators who took the idea of AI Panels seriously, meaning that they are in fact first in line for replacement with AI chatbots.
My general theory is that most "official" social media outlets are quietly dropping explicit promotion of X in favour of here and Threads, but at the same time know that video-dominated media like Instagram and TikTok is currently most important anyway.
November 2, 2025 at 11:29 AM
My general theory is that most "official" social media outlets are quietly dropping explicit promotion of X in favour of here and Threads, but at the same time know that video-dominated media like Instagram and TikTok is currently most important anyway.
Fun new mural at 吃吧 in Piccadilly, which for some reason they translate as the unidiomatic but charming "Do Eat" rather than "Let's Eat" or "Eat Up".
November 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Fun new mural at 吃吧 in Piccadilly, which for some reason they translate as the unidiomatic but charming "Do Eat" rather than "Let's Eat" or "Eat Up".
A photo my great grandfather took in World War 1.
October 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM
A photo my great grandfather took in World War 1.
Show us the last four albums you listened to
October 5, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Show us the last four albums you listened to
October 2, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Rufus Wainwright and the BBC Philharmonic playing a symphonic arrangement of Want (One) this evening. Absolutely magical. Dream team.
September 26, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Rufus Wainwright and the BBC Philharmonic playing a symphonic arrangement of Want (One) this evening. Absolutely magical. Dream team.
There's some wonderful pictures like this from the Pan African Congress held here in Manchester just after WW2.
August 7, 2025 at 8:06 PM
There's some wonderful pictures like this from the Pan African Congress held here in Manchester just after WW2.
The people pushing this nonsense can take a running jump. There's no such thing as resetting your vagus nerve and no known benefits to stimulation of it outside of some already determined specific conditions.
August 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
The people pushing this nonsense can take a running jump. There's no such thing as resetting your vagus nerve and no known benefits to stimulation of it outside of some already determined specific conditions.
Of course, so where does that 100bn come from if it's not derived from the asset price? Lots of people are throwing around 100bn when one searches for this and it seems like a bit of a mess of number theatre.
July 23, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Of course, so where does that 100bn come from if it's not derived from the asset price? Lots of people are throwing around 100bn when one searches for this and it seems like a bit of a mess of number theatre.
The data journalists were so busy wondering if they could do something they never stopped to think if they should.
www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...
www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...
July 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM
The data journalists were so busy wondering if they could do something they never stopped to think if they should.
www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...
www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...
A way of thinking about what things looked like to the Vikings, Anglo Saxons etc. (Saw a similar map elsewhere online but didn't like the choice of area.)
July 6, 2025 at 12:11 PM
A way of thinking about what things looked like to the Vikings, Anglo Saxons etc. (Saw a similar map elsewhere online but didn't like the choice of area.)
Dealing with a fraction of this year's gooseberry crop - a bumper harvest despite a sawfly infestation, which I followed current RHS advice and removed by hand. This turns out both to work reasonably well and to be quite a relaxing / mindful activity.
July 1, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Dealing with a fraction of this year's gooseberry crop - a bumper harvest despite a sawfly infestation, which I followed current RHS advice and removed by hand. This turns out both to work reasonably well and to be quite a relaxing / mindful activity.
So you (maybe) heard it here first: The vagus nerve is the new microbiome, with the associated endless stream of podcast bros, shady companies and other grifters trying to sell vulnerable people something with enough prima facie scientific legitimacy to sound plausible.
June 27, 2025 at 10:33 PM
So you (maybe) heard it here first: The vagus nerve is the new microbiome, with the associated endless stream of podcast bros, shady companies and other grifters trying to sell vulnerable people something with enough prima facie scientific legitimacy to sound plausible.
So I saw this online. First, it looks like the photo is AI generated - that isn't quite what Coltrane looked like, and the sax levers and mic positioning are wrong. Then when you try to Google it to see if it's real, there's an AI response that says it's an upcoming Netflix documentary.
May 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
So I saw this online. First, it looks like the photo is AI generated - that isn't quite what Coltrane looked like, and the sax levers and mic positioning are wrong. Then when you try to Google it to see if it's real, there's an AI response that says it's an upcoming Netflix documentary.
Related is this tapestry of the century from the South Bank Centre in London - made for the century 1850-1950. More than a century ago seems somehow incredibly distant, but people are all walking around with different representations of that.
May 24, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Related is this tapestry of the century from the South Bank Centre in London - made for the century 1850-1950. More than a century ago seems somehow incredibly distant, but people are all walking around with different representations of that.
Deansgate Waterstones is where they remainder nice hardback visual books and, well, being able to get this kind of thing for a few quid is pretty dangerous.
April 26, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Deansgate Waterstones is where they remainder nice hardback visual books and, well, being able to get this kind of thing for a few quid is pretty dangerous.
Oh wow this meme really is brilliant
April 23, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Oh wow this meme really is brilliant
Alan Turing, 1954. He was a bit misrepresented in the Imitation Game movie, apparently: while slightly odd as many of us nerds are, he was friendly and well liked.
April 22, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Alan Turing, 1954. He was a bit misrepresented in the Imitation Game movie, apparently: while slightly odd as many of us nerds are, he was friendly and well liked.
This kind of thing is good practice and well-intentioned, and should definitely be followed, but given the likely state of the H5N1 outbreak in the US at the moment it's hard not to see it as a bit of an arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic intervention.
April 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
This kind of thing is good practice and well-intentioned, and should definitely be followed, but given the likely state of the H5N1 outbreak in the US at the moment it's hard not to see it as a bit of an arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic intervention.