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Tom King

@acertaintom

overmighty citizen publicstatistic.substack.com

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25.10.2024
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Latest posts by Tom King @acertaintom

I have some nice accounts of development of statistics across Europe in the 80s / 90s, what they were bothered about and who was leading

13.03.2026 13:46 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The English roads at risk of being underwater [FREE TO READ] FT analysis reveals large swaths of vital infrastructure are vulnerable to flooding

This was such an amazing project to work on, it really pushed me to the limits of what I can do with mapping tools

13.03.2026 06:12 πŸ‘ 91 πŸ” 26 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 3

JSS has had this protocol for a long time now. If you write software in your projects you may like to check them out
www.jstatsoft.org/authors

10.03.2026 08:33 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Debate it with serious people on Spectator tv

05.03.2026 16:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

You mention a paper you have written about team incentives but I don't see it in the show notes. Could you give a reference?

28.02.2026 12:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It's taken quite a while for me to see a write-up like this

24.02.2026 06:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

And it is where clinicians landed for statistics

21.02.2026 14:40 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The report does acknowledge many traditional open science practices (data sharing, open materials, open access) occur, and are old. It would have been nice if they admitted the update of these practices is very low - that is the real problem, in my view.

21.02.2026 14:36 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

open science: (re)organising our scepticism?

19.02.2026 07:23 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Starmer cruelly overlooked Jenrick for his shadow cabinet?

17.02.2026 16:26 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

If they really can identify risk factors that make a life of crime more likely, they could make structural interventions ameliorating them or at least mitigating their impact...

15.02.2026 19:37 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Whose podcasts would I listen to if all the philosophers started walking instead of talking?

14.02.2026 17:08 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

These accounts are run by charities which are trained to respond to a cry for help

14.02.2026 17:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
A hand-drawn card celebrating "valam time"

A hand-drawn card celebrating "valam time"

Happy Valam time, people

14.02.2026 11:05 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Looking forward to the inevitable blog post

14.02.2026 11:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…

Follow up from the matplotlib maintainer who got hitbotted theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

12.02.2026 18:01 πŸ‘ 38 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 16
Quote from Gareth Davies, Head of the NAO. β€œIf the unit cost of delivery, and the components making it up, are not well understood, it’s difficult to make sound operational decisions. How do you know where the biggest β€˜bang for the buck’ is?”

Quote from Gareth Davies, Head of the NAO. β€œIf the unit cost of delivery, and the components making it up, are not well understood, it’s difficult to make sound operational decisions. How do you know where the biggest β€˜bang for the buck’ is?”

Second, having relevant financial management data and information is crucial for driving efficiency. Government systems often lack the data they need to make good decisions.

10.02.2026 14:49 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

There is fairly good evidence helmets protect those who fall off: novice riders like children; people on difficult terrain e.g. off road; and, people riding recklessly, so mandated in races

05.02.2026 17:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Many scientists contacted the SITC concerned about UKRI cuts, especially to large Physics projects. Sir Ian said the overall budget was not being reduced but rising costs created a funding gap driving the reductions announced. He admitted a communications failure.

03.02.2026 17:02 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1
Comic. Conjecture: It’s possible to construct a convincing proof without words, pictures, or content of any kind. Proof: [empty box] [caption] Proofs without words are cool, but we can go further.

Comic. Conjecture: It’s possible to construct a convincing proof without words, pictures, or content of any kind. Proof: [empty box] [caption] Proofs without words are cool, but we can go further.

Proof Without Content

xkcd.com/3201/

03.02.2026 20:56 πŸ‘ 2653 πŸ” 295 πŸ’¬ 40 πŸ“Œ 25

@lakens.bsky.social already said that

01.02.2026 11:44 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Hospitals β€˜must be more curious’ to catch rogue surgeons The head of NHS England says trust boards rely too much on poor data and should challenge doctors to avoid another scandal like GOSH

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: NHS England warns of "emerging evidence" of harm across England by surgeons, as it launches new requirements and chief exec Sir Jim mackey tells hospitals to be "more curious" in the wake of @GreatOrmondSt scandal:
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

31.01.2026 23:38 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 6

Try the AI Skills Boost section

28.01.2026 10:22 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive A source trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted me, determined to expose his captors’ crimesβ€”and then escape. This is his story.

Last year, Andy Greenberg was contacted by a source going by "Red Bull" who claimed to be trapped in a Southeast Asian scam compound. The source shared videos, documents, and intel from the inside.

Then he tried to escape.

A must-read from @agreenberg.bsky.social who devoted so much to this saga:

27.01.2026 15:10 πŸ‘ 32 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Events # Open Webinar: What's the use of preregistration for Big Team Science? As part of our open science event series, we are excited to launch registration for our upcoming webinar: **What's the use of…

Tomorrow I will give a webinar on preregistration for the ManyMany's: What’s the use of preregistration for Big Team Science? You can join for free for the talk, and discussion afterwards.
For more info, see: manymanys.github.io/events/

26.01.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Read our learnings and insights from more than 400 financial audits.

Many government departments, other agencies and organisations experience the same challenges, such as data & reporting quality, IT controls, and asset management

Report: nao.org.uk/insights/aud...

26.01.2026 09:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

National Data Library expert advisory group term of reference www.gov.uk/government/p...

"It is <b>not</b> a decision-making forum itself."

Doesn't say who the members are, mostly librarians I expect

26.01.2026 09:50 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Do you think this is a systematic analysis? It is very easy to cherry pick successful outcomes of innovation processes

23.01.2026 08:03 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The plagues up here are different - first it is the shepherd; you find a warning for them in the sky. The reivers are dangerous but the seagulls are deadly - luckily you can hear them coming

22.01.2026 18:07 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

You were warned that if you didn't use AI you would be left behind

22.01.2026 10:47 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0