Interesting Links for 20-07-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Sweary staff, burnt pizza and soggy chips: these are the worst-rated restaurants in Edinburgh

(tags:Edinburgh epicfail reviews restaurant food )

2. I don't know why my children love this teeth-brushing song, but they really do

(tags:teeth song video children )

3. Pointing out the government's latest nonsense on how denying trans children access to care leads to suicide

(tags:suicide transgender lgbt uk nhs OhForFucksSake )

4. Loss of oxygen in lakes and oceans a major threat to ecosystems, society, and planet

(tags:oxygen Doom ocean rivers )

5. The ICJ Advisory Opinion on the illegality of Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

(tags:Palestine Israel law )

Comments

[nameandnature]

Maugham's sounding increasingly grandiose and bonkers: oh no, the DHSC didn't give us notice before criticising us, talking of "facing down" the villians (Putin must be quaking in his boots), (edit) and most notably, no apology for ignoring guidelines on discussing suicide. If I were Streeting, I'd probably ignore him too. Health secretaries ignored a variety of Twitter experts who'd done their own research during the pandemic, Maugham doesn't get a pass because he's politically on the opposite side from the anti-vaxers.

The DHSC response is worth reading and contrasting with Maugham's approach. This critical response is also good, I reckonned.

[andrewducker]

I'm confused. Maugham's response is *to* the DHSC piece that you've linked to there.

And point2 #28-#30 are specifically about the guidelines on discussing suicide.

I don't really understand what you're objecting to.

[nameandnature]

My objections are that he's grandiose (in the psychological sense) and bonkers (in the psychological sense). I'm aware he's responding to the DHSC report, which itself is responding to his earlier thread about suicides.

Points 28 to 30 don't really addresses his previous statements about protesters pouring out the cremated remains of suicides outside Downing Street, which cannot be compliant with any guidance about discussion of suicides. To say, as he does, that he's sorry if he gets the balance wrong but it's a tough job facing down the likes of Putin and Trump is a delusion of grandeur: Trump and Putin probably don't know who he is. He is not excluded from consideration of suicide contagion (let alone consideration of the stats of thankfully small numbers) by his belief that he's a very important hero on a very important quest.

The message I drew from the debate (from mentions on the science correspondant side of Twitter, I'm not following Maugham directly) is that Maugham did his own research, got some dodgy numbers, and then shouted about them enough that someone in the DHSC corrected him and point out the suicide contagion potential. Going and reading Maugham's threads didn't change this opinion.

There's a C. S. Lewis quote (I think) about how you can judge someone by their response to finding out some circumstance is not as bad as they thought. It's a bad sign when the reaction is disappointment because they no longer have the ammunition for their argument. Edit: found it!

[andrewducker]

There is proof in his thread that his numbers aren't dodgy at all: https://x.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1814368680656154972

Plus, of course, the massive issue that's also linked in the other thread you linked - that the research he's responding to is clearly based on different figures: People being treated vs people sitting in a queue for years.

I don't see why you think that he's got dodgy numbers at all.