PaulDenvir

Reading lots of books. Love London.

[Retep Retals @retalsp]

@Dickwith2dogs This is my fave, just beautiful.

[Chris Ferguson 🇺🇸🎇🎆 @CJFerguson1111]

It is amazing just how much bad information and misimpression people have about data during this social media moral panic. Things I hear a lot:

1.) There’s a growing body of research finding at least a correlation between social media use and youth mental health. There isn’t in fact, quite the opposite: https://t.co/kGM1uxCQw9

2.) Cellphone bans in schools have produced measurable improvements for students (they haven’t as I’ve covered on my substack several times, see: https://t.co/HOQw8AuK3s). US standardized testing has continued on the same modest declining trajectory.

3.) Bullying has increased due to social media (according to National Center for Education Statistics, bullying in fact DECLINED during the social media age).

4.) Reducing social media time improves mental health in experiments (it does not…experiments are pretty flawed but, overall, show little evidence for improvements).

5.) Children had healthier childhoods prior to the high-tech age (they did not in fact. According to government statistics, the children who grew up in the 70s and 80s, had the highest suicide, violent crime, drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, school dropout, etc. rates. Today’s youth are, by contrast, doing far better…even the mental health stuff seems to be downstream of their parents’ mental health struggles, not something done by tech).

Be alert for these false statements. I see even a lot of critics of bans repeating them, but they are false and probably are only fueling the moral panic.

Of course, I heard most of this stuff during the video game era as well.

[Saganism @Saganismm]

Carl Sagan's prediction of America, made 30 years ago.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

20 photographs taken in the right place at the right time, either intentionally or by chance 🧵

1. Can I take a picture of the moon?
Pisa Tower: yea sorry

[Tom Holland @holland_tom]

I would beg everyone, if they possibly can, to sign this petition: a request for the Government to legislate to stop the shooting of hares during their peak breeding season.

Mad that this is currently permitted...
https://t.co/amCUmG4s74

[Dan O'Brien @danobrien20]

Totally nails the scale of the self-harm announced yesterday.

https://t.co/8BhlEn55tt

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

The most beautiful domes on Earth 🧵

1. Church of St. Joachim's starry dome, Rome

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

The best short piece I've read on Trump's new Predator America- Brilliant and crucially important @FT editorial

America has turned on its friends - https://t.co/pVsC3aoObN via @FT

[PaulDenvir @pauldenvir]

@Baddiel Peter Green

[PaulDenvir @pauldenvir]

@Baddiel Peter Green

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

Just sent out a post about how US foreign policy now seems designed to weaken the US in relative terms more than anything the country has done since 1945. The question, I suppose, is whether its a mistake, or whether its deliberate.

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Musk, the politicians, and the rape gangs scandal

https://t.co/bnwG1wsJjV

[Jerry Coyne @Evolutionistrue]

Dawkins has a nice article in the Spectator about why we shouldn't accept the view that we have a "God-shaped" hole in our psyche that must be filled with religion lest pesky atheists dispel religion and lead the hole to be filled with quasi-religious woo

https://t.co/1DDILJP5LM

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

If you're interested in energy/climate you've probably heard the nugget that "kerosene/crude oil helped save the whales", by reducing demand for whale oil in lanterns.
I've even trotted it out myself🤦‍♂️
But there's a problem with it. A BIG problem...
🧵

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.

[David Smith @dsmitheconomics]

My Times piece today, in which I come to the defence of Rachel Reeves and argue that the economy is performing much as expected, despite a difficult budget:

Everyone should calm down about both chancellor and economy

https://t.co/Bs071es4oj

[Private Eye Magazine @PrivateEyeNews]

Allison Pearson claimed police accused her of a “non-crime hate incident” after a tweet misidentifying a protest photo. Essex Police say that never happened, releasing footage to prove it. Pearson now says she might have “misheard” – but not before the Telegraph ran three front pages on the claim.

Full story online and in the latest issue: https://t.co/Q7ucsmu6yc

For the rest, including cartoons, Pseuds, Dumb Britain and all the other regulars, you’ll have to buy the magazine.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

One more: UY Scuti is the largest star in the Universe observed so far.

The red supergiant is 1,708 times wider than our Sun, with a radius of 1.2 billion km (738 million miles).

[Michael Spicer @MrMichaelSpicer]

labour minister questioned about historical trump tweets

[David Baddiel @Baddiel]

Excellent from @kenanmalik https://t.co/5oawh3JFnG