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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Small plea for the journals which do cascading internally (plos genetics -> plos one; Nature / NG -> Nature Comms) - please stick wherever possible for the same set of reviewers and then genuinely if the paper is sound *and* the authors responded to 1st reviews ok, let in
Each new reviewer is likely to add their own shopping list of tweaks/hobby horses (we all have them!) - as long as the main reviewers don't believe there are major flaws in the first round of review, adding another reviewer mainly just adds to the shopping list of change/rebut
This does go to the usefulness of review; inside the shopping list from reviewers its crudely - for me - 1/3 of 'good point, we should do that/that looks confusing', 1/3 'its not an important point, but if it makes you happier...' and 1/3 'you don't understand the paper'
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There is this odd thing when I say I am "European" (or "a committed European", or "pro-Europe") for a certain audience (usually in a friends+family setting, not work) they assume this is a zero-sum game with my pride for being British.
As if there some fixed amount of "patriotism" and to have fondness/pride for Europe means less for the UK. I've always been a proud Brit and committed European, and my support for Europe is I hope clear sighted - I don't think it is perfect, just that it is reasonable.
There is also sometimes an immediate listing of all the fudges, complications and messiness of EU (from arcane Eurozone finance aspects to the MEP Brussel/Strasbourg annual migration ... there is a long list)
Read 7 tweets
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This is a bad idea on multiple levels; the science is less solid/applicable than realised (though not invalid); we should be seriously cautious about embryo selection for anything; embryo selection needs robust regulation that society can be confident in. I will expand on each >>
The science on multiple genetic scores - called sometimes GRS, sometimes PRS on traits you can measure has a very long academic history (the theory is laid down in the 1930s/1940s) and debated/explored in science publications (and twitter)
For this thread the take homes are that (a) the science is robust (b) there are huge numbers of gotchas and complications. One complication is 'cryptic population structure' which these methods can latch onto. The methods are best set up when there is good randomisation
Read 22 tweets
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Watching @AdamRutherford chat with @toadmeister on twitter about racism and genetics reminds me again of the communication problem around sensibly talking around genetics, genetic ancestry and race - which are, counterintuitively, surprisingly separate concepts.
Race is complex mixture of visible physical characteristics (skin colour, hair type, facial features) mixed with many cultural signals (dress, accents, gestures); most people will self classify themselves confidently and other people
Although most people will acknowledge the continuum of people ("mixed race") most people are confident in the major groupings and assign labels, use heuristics around them for good and bad (bad more common than good!)
Read 22 tweets

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Since ginagawa na rin naman natin UP friends HAHAHAHAHA what's the most UP thing you've ever done lol mine was living off of Bread Pan & C2 or, on worse days, monay with cheese and refilling my water bottle sa Lola Lita's sa Shopping Center hahahahuhu ang tagal ng DOST stipend e!
Hoy bakit hindi ko alam 'to HAHAHAHA hindi kayo nagyayaya! :))
Read 101 tweets
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There were no migrations in the Middle ages except towards empty steppes. #genetics #scholarshipwithoutBSishardIknow
2- Even places that underwent yuuuuuge ethnocultural changes such as Turkey show little gene flow. Turkey has tiny Turkic genes.

Historians are clueless about migrations.
3- Tiny rates of migration such as .5% per century can lead to big cumulative effects such as Subsaharan gene flow into Egypt ...
Read 8 tweets
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One of the best things that ever happened to the opposition forces in Nigeria pre-2015 was the loss of five AD states in 2003, leaving Gov. Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Capo Di Tutti of the AD - and I once highlighted this in a previous thread.

Whatever Bola wanted done, the AD did.
Bola Tinubu literally financed the AD in many states, determined who was candidate and oftentimes imposed them on his colleagues the past Governors - none of whom could disagree (except Pa Adefarati in Ondo) since Tinubu was sole financier.

By 2007, he changed the party name.
From AD to AC to ACN - Tinubu determined the pace and tone of opposition all alone.

If he wanted Lai Moh’d to demand GEJ as VP declare his assets publicly and GEJ complied then asked Fashola to do same, then same Tinubu asked same Lai to hypocritically defend Fashola - he did.
Read 28 tweets
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hey a quick tangent here, as I've heard second-hand that apparently Ken Zucker (who's a proponent of gender-disaffirming approaches) is pushing back on this bit of my piece, saying that "many serious researchers" are published in PLOS One. this is quite true...
...in fact, LOTS & LOTS of researchers have been published in PLOS One! (as the journal publishes a shit-ton of papers). admittedly, not all of them are crap - some may be quite sound...
...many of the PLOS One in my previous field (evo devo) were simply smaller studies that weren't important enough on their own to be published elsewhere, or which didn't fit neatly into larger papers. PLOS One is useful in that it fills this niche...
Read 5 tweets
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One of the major advances in our understanding the craftmanship of Kufic Qurans is the word done by Alain George on the Geometry of Kufic Qurans. The main two articles on this are readable online:
academia.edu/2643185/The_Ge…
academia.edu/2643183/The_Ge…
This photo essentially tells you all you need to know. The Quran of Amajur follows a strict geometrical grid. Every line is strictly 9 pen-strokes high; and these 9 penstrokes form the grid that dictate all proportions.
The 'doubled' letters, dāl (ḏāl), kāf, ṣād (ḍād) and ṭāʾ (ẓāʾ) are almost exactly two penstrokes high, leaving only a tiny bit of room between the two lines.

The 'serif' of the dāl reaches just past the third interline. The shape of the initial ʿayn towards the fourth.
Read 13 tweets
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1) This is my #Qanon proofs thread—a series of posts by Q with related news articles and Twitter posts.

This thread will allow you to compare selected posts by Q to see if his (or her) claims are true.
2) #Qanon posts can be found here: qanon.pub
3) I've done my best to research #Qanon posts, relevant articles and twitter posts for accuracy. In preparing this thread, I discarded posts that others claimed as proofs because, under close inspection, the claims made by the posters were found to be incorrect.
Read 118 tweets

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