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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 22h

Which of these maps describing UK election results works better?
Would representing vote share using circles be an improvement?

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 22h

But this map will have required a huge amount of fine tuning to avoid problems of occlusion and for It to be readable at all. But, I admit, it isn't terrible (though far better because of the sparse distribution of what is being plotted).

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 22h

The question should not be whether readers "like" them, it should be whether they interpret them correctly. The consequences of error are large eg Trump's assertion that the county-level map of the presidential vote was all red as though the US votes by land area not population.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

Artificial Intelligence is neither the huge threat nor great hope many commentators seem to think.

policyskeptic.blogspot.com/2025/10/ai-i...

AI is nether the danger or the solution many think

The biggest danger of AI is not that it will become Skynet and destroy us all. It is that it will make us too lazy to exercise critical thin...

policyskeptic.blogspot.com

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

Or, of you want to emphasise geographic trends or differences, colour coding of a cartogram is superior.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

Hence why many experts prefer cartograms which equalise areas while retain some geographic relationships. Eg when showing election results. But, if you want to show comparative results reliably a table is better...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

But, if the goal is to compare quantities across geographic regions, maps are a bad way to start. Small geographic areas will be overwhelmed by large ones, for example...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

Showing absolute quantities on a map is fraught with difficulties. There are usually far better alternatives (eg superimposing bar charts rather than areas)...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 1d

or, better, never use area as the way to visualise comparative quantities (outside of the rare #dataviz types where area comparison is utterly unambiguous like tree charts)

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 2d

The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology

British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm, L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

🎃It was a Hotblack night🦇 @invalid-handle.com · 1d

Latest news from the circular economy ♻️

Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 1d

"So SoftBank is going to borrow billions of dollars on margin using ARM shares as collateral to invest in the unprofitable and unlisted OpenAI, whilst Nvidia is going to lend OpenAI billions to buy Nvidia's own chips, whilst AMD will sell OpenAI billions worth of chips in exchange for AMD shares..."

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

The constant surprise to me is how much useful land is strongly protected. No wonder housing is so expensive. It is hard to build anywhere where people want or need to live.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

But it is clear that the push for online tools has ignored the difference between good and bad tools and the need for GPs to change how they work to exploit the potential benefits of online total triage.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

Implementation and bad online tools are the problem. It is unclear whether Streeting's goal of keeping online access open contradicts the goals of total triage...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

Consistent total triage systems, implemented well, provide the safeguards needed to retain safe operation (and are more safe than traditional phone-based approaches). But, in practice the landscape is a clusterfuck of bad tools and bad implementation...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

So the majority of practices ended up with bad tools and the majority of who used even the good tools did not change the process they used to handle patient requests, nullifying their potential benefits...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

But the guidance failed to differentiate between online tools that worked well or badly and failed to recognise that how GP practices changed their process mattered even more than installing an online tool...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

The original NHSE guidance promoted the use of Total Triage NOT direct access to booking appointment slots (which is a terrible idea and defeats the point of triage)...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

There is a subtle issue with this complaint that hints at the real problem. It says "the system" lacks appropriate safeguards.

But there isn't one online system: there are dozens and many are badly designed garbage...

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

Ajarn Micha @medialib.bsky.social · 2d

Power creates reality.
#FightFakeFacts

Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 7d

Here's Timothy Snyder on why Trump tells so many lies.

[SOUND ON 🔊]

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 2d

The acting CDC Director has no knowledge, training or experience in science/public health. Trump has no knowledge, training or experience in science/public health.

Both are calling to make the MMR vaccine into 3 separate shots, which makes absolutely no scientific or public health sense.

Acting CDC boss wants to break up MMR vaccine into three shots

Jim O’Neill joins President Donald Trump’s call for three distinct measles, mumps and rubella shots, claiming a separation would ‘reduce the risk of side effects’ and ‘maximize parental choice’

www.independent.co.uk

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 2d

Trump (1) reveals he doesn't know what habeas corpus is and (2) punts to Noem, who famously revealed her own ignorance at a Senate hearing when she defined habeas corpus as "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."
www.npr.org/2025/05/20/n...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Q: Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending habeas corpus?

TRUMP: Suspending who?

Q: Habeas corpus

TRUMP: I don't know. I'd rather leave that to Kristi.

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Reposted by steve the skeptic

James Vaughan @equusonthebuses.bsky.social · 2d

Occasional reminder that the "distracted boyfriend" meme has its origins in a pre-WW1 Punch cartoon about Anglo-German relations...

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

More innovations like this would be welcome, especially compared to expensive cancer treatments that add merely months to life for narrow groups of patients and still cost a bomb.

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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 2d

Indeed, the problem with the current industry isn't high prices, it is poor value. Expensive cures like Sofosbuvir cost £35k per course but are cures for hepatitis C which save the NHS a ton of money over a patient's life...

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