Ultraprocessed foods

New blog post: Can we really measure how many people die from heat (or cold)?

edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/c...

On the centenary of Thatcher's birth, there have been predictable calls for a memorial to her memory. But Britain's 2300 food banks serve that purpose already.

Yeah, from my kids I have found that everyone is motivated by basic needs of safety and agency.

What I think I've learned from my kids:

Don't let people yuk your yum

Children are real people

Listen to people when they tell you what their needs are

Accommodating needs seems to more often result in better outcomes than forcing adaptation to environment

As the brilliant Michael Kinnucan points out, it's more than a bit strange that there's a debate over whether New York can afford universal childcare. New York already has universal childcare! Every single child is cared for by somebody. Small children are never left home all day by themselves.

Reducing hazards ≠ justice. Unless we tackle the inequalities that shape who suffers harms & who benefits, inequity persists. My new blog on false equity arguments and why “doing one without the other is the injustice”:
👉 edjegasothy.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...

I think there is a puritan streak in public health. Where these ideas that seem logical are popular even if there is no peer reviewed basis for them. The other one that frustrates me is you hear clinicians insist that only water counts towards people’s consumption of liquid

folks are really obsessed with trying to find evidence artificial sweeteners are bad. to date it's basically been a failed exercise, but that hasn't stopped spurious conclusions getting significant overage.

universal Medicare safety net - problem solved

the implication of this is there is only one method for improving low-middle incomes that is reliable, rigorous and evidence-based: redistribution. everything else is just talk.

everyone loves to quote Krugman on productivity growth being almost anything. strangely they never mention his view that productivity is a great mystery, one that is unresponsive to sweeping changes in government policy and ideology, and something that no one knows how to sustainably increase

My contribution to the welfare state debate: Pre-transfers, the Child Poverty Rate is 100%
[Link below]

Two Sydney Uni staff members are being sued in Australia's Federal Court by complainants who claim that statements opposing genocide and Zionist oppression of Palestinians are racist hate speech. Please give what you can to help @nickriemer.bsky.social & @professorjkeane.bsky.social's legal defence

Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com: #AI #Abundance and money. My reflections on #BasicIncome #BasicServices and why we need more than technical solutions to the political challenges of #poverty and #inequality
theconversation.com/if-ai-takes-...

The curve of this building in Darling Harbour is like an archimedes’ death ray

Commonwealth Ombudsman already smashed them and now not even govt's chosen auditing firm can say if the house of cards system of punitive mutual obligations is legal. Quite literally, they say, it is indefensible. Yet it persists. Even after Robodebt. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politic...

Good on you Francis. Principled as always. What a shame for ANU

Hey @sydney.edu.au - Palestinians are starving in a systematic genocide being carried out by the state of Israel. Your pulling this flag down is very clearly partisan and also very clearly not a good look.

Proud to stand with my Sociology colleagues, joined by @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social @damiencahill.bsky.social and the mighty @nteunion.bsky.social against the devastating cuts proposed at Macquarie University

Have the police commended the discipline of the protestors anywhere? Incredible to see 100k people come together, little notice, unpleasant conditions and have no problems, despite the existential urgency of the cause