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Dr Mike Ward - @Schroedinger99@social.anoxinon.de Profile picture
Dr Mike Ward - @Schroedinger99@social.anoxinon.de
@Schroedinger99
Retired data-modeller with background in genetics & philosophy of science. grandfather, sceptic, deracinated cosmopolitan, citizen of nowhere, & angry old man.
Sep 22 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
1) One of the joys of being a new(ish) grandparent (cf a new parent) is you have a bit more time to observe and reflect on the amazing development of small children.
Our GS (just turned 1) has his 1st word: "cat" (or sometimes just 'at) which he applies when pointing at cats ... 2) ... or sometimes foxes or other animals. It seems easy to make sense of this development, though I suppose this new skill is already something more sophisticated than superficial consideration of its character might suggest.
Aug 31 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
1) A Brexit tale: Son & DiL have just been to Algarve with @jet2tweets (who were splendid BTW and always have been for us). During their flight, however, there was an announcement "Thanks to Brexit you can now buy duty-free". True, of course, but profoundly misleading. 2) There are now far greater restrictions on the amount of alcohol you can bring into the UK from the EU (thx to Brexit) and EU booze is almost always cheaper than "duty free" on planes and ships.
Feb 23, 2023 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
1) Perhaps I should tell my @QPark_UK story? It's not the most interesting anecdote you'll ever read (by some distance) but it contains a number of useful object lessons in how not to do things - lessons which apply in the virtual or real world. 2) We booked and paid online for a stay at a Leeds @QPark_UK and received our instructions:

You will observe that, in the helpful example, the man reads out a 6 digit number.
Sep 27, 2022 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
On "taking back control of our borders". A thread ... 1) Of course we have not taken back control of our *borders* at all. Our only land border with the EU remains entirely unpoliced and open, and, at our ports and airports, we (by and large) simply check the passports of other Europeans as we have always done.
Sep 26, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I'm not qualified to say whether this a is fair assessment (@jimalkhalili ?). I suspect not. What interests me more ...

"No one in physics dares say so, but the race to invent new particles is pointless" | Sabine Hossenfelder theguardian.com/commentisfree/… ... is how even proper scientists cite Popper's falsifiability criterion as though it were entirely unproblematic. It isn't!

I mean there's something in it ....

For example, ...
Dec 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
.@TomTom seem to have returned to their "Ignore him and hope he'll go away" strategy.

My daughter actually gets paid for fixing data for companies whose business models involve providing data services. I'm trying to do this for free for TomTom and they're not interested :-( The reason (I think I've discovered) for the problems that people who try to find us using @TomTom's products is that TomTom (or their software engineers) make the false assumption that UK addresses always take the basic form:

# NameOfRoad
NameOfTown
Postcode
Sep 3, 2021 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Dreadful and tragic story which, inter alia, highlights the problem of finding addresses in the UK. This is a can of worms in its own right. For example, many addresses in these parts (including ours) take the form:
# <name_of_group_of_dwellings>
<name_of_road>
<name_of_town>
<postcode>
Aug 25, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
With every passing day, Brexit Britain reminds me more and more of the GDR - where once I lived for 2 years: The poorly stocked shops, the endless paperwork, a disingenuous political elite who couldn't admit that their project was a failure, a media that colluded with their lies, ... living in a country that was - to some extent - an international pariah, controlled borders .... the list in my head goes on and on. Of course, people will retort, at least *we* don't shoot people who cross our borders "illegally" (though I sometimes think that Priti Patel
Jun 14, 2021 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
Does evolution result in viruses becoming less "potent" over time?
(a claim I keep hearing)
And, if so, might this help us in the context of Covid-19?
A thread: 1/ One way in which this can occur is at a kind of meta-evolutionary level. Let's suppose we had 2 different viruses that were specific to 2 different dinosaurs:
virusD (that killed all its Ddinosaur hosts stone dead)
&
virusP (that just made all its Pdinosaur hosts a bit poorly)
Jan 15, 2021 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
The problem is not that everything Young and his fellow "sceptics" say is wrong (though much of it is). The problem is that they inhabit an alternative world where they imagine that the experts here in the real world are all too stupid to have considered their clever objections. Trying to engage with "lockdown sceptics" is like trying to engage with creationists or proponents of "alternative medicine" in this respect.
Aug 28, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The replies to this tweet, from @DAaronovitch, (and the fact that he was prompted to write this tweet) are "interesting". Most are supportive but it's the ones that aren't that are striking. Many of them condemn David - the descendent of poor Lithuanian immigrants and the son of a man who (though he still somehow contrived to appear before an audience as an imposing figure) clearly shopped for his clothes at jumble sales - for being "middle class".
Jul 16, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
1/
Back in 2016 June 1, @BorisJohnson , @michaelgove, @GiselaStuart and @pritipatel famously issued the following statement on behalf of the official Vote Leave campaign: 2/
"There will be no change for EU citizens already lawfully resident in the UK. These EU citizens will automatically be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK and will be treated no less favourably than they are at present."
Jun 16, 2020 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
1/ The Bolton Wanderer

The tale of a cat called "Mouse" 2/ Yesterday this cat appeared outside my son & GF's house in Y Fflint, North Wales and demanded to be admitted. It kept this up for half a day so my son started making enquiries with neighbours.
Sep 10, 2019 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Just taking a look at the document @GregHands cites
prosperity-uk.com/wp-content/upl…
""One example of this is the US-Canada border" - which has infrastructure and border checks of course. "This requires the UK and IE to agree that [...] IE will not join the Schengen Zone." Why on earth should IE commit to never joining Schengen? It's the UK that's tearing up the existing arrangements not Ireland. We're not in a position to start making demands like this on them.
Dec 17, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
I understand why people like @JohnRentoul are minded to support May's "deal". They wish to cleave (like all of us) to the illusion that we are led by grown-ups who know what they are doing and who have a coherent plan. But we need to grow up and face reality ourselves.
1/ The first thing to note is that May doesn't have a "deal" or anything approaching one. She has a Withdrawal Agreement. This provides
1) a commitment for us to pay ~£40bn to the EU;
2) gives us a "transition" period
/2
Nov 1, 2018 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
1/ Let me try and explain the issue with EU citizens in the event of no deal - the issue that @carolinenokes, Minister of State for Immigration, got so wrong: 2/ Currently, if you apply for a job or try to rent a house or register with a GP, you will probably be asked to show a passport or provide similar proof of ID. If such a check establishes that you are British or an EEA citizen, you've passed.
Oct 23, 2018 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
@David_Goodhart Don't get me wrong, I accept that politics is the art of the possible & that (like the man going to Dublin) we have to set off from where we are rather than from where we'd like to set off from. I also accept that we treat the other 1/3 of our "2/3 society" with v little "respect" - something that is the result of politics I've never voted for, much less "rigged the vote" for, but for which many of the 1/3 do vote.
Oct 22, 2018 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
1/
 It's funny how your brain draws connections between things. @JonnElledge tweeted thus: as my head was still pondering Ryan's question on Dr Who: "Rosa Parks? Wasn't she the first woman to drive a bus?" 2/
 I was born in the same year that Dr Who was set this week. I, like @DAaronovitch (see google.se/imgres?imgurl=… ) grew up in a household with more than its fair share of Paul Robeson, Ian Campbell Folk Group, and Pete Seeger gramophone records; and a wireless set.
Sep 21, 2018 • 9 tweets • 1 min read
"We cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of our Union" =
We have to stay in the SM and the CU or create a hard border across Ireland "Just as they cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of theirs" =
We cannot stay in the SM and not accept Freedom of Movement of people, capital, goods, and services.
Sep 13, 2018 • 20 tweets • 6 min read
1 What happens to EU citizens resident in the UK in the event of no deal?

Nobody knows of course and nobody in government is prepared to say (see eg or ). 2 The bad news is that we've had @Nigel_Farage basically suggesting we should deport EU citizens living here if there's no deal: (see )
Sep 7, 2018 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
So @Jacob_Rees_Mogg makes it clear that he rejects the promises made by the official Leave campaign to EU citizens living here - the promises that 52% voted for.

docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fc5611_cb1… And this was the official Leave campaign promise signed by @BorisJohnson, @patel4witham, & @michaelgove: