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Mark Elliott

@thatmarkelliott.bsky.social

1.3K followers 530 following 8.2K posts

Cycling, music, political and other random ramblings. Work: language assessment/psychometrics/computer science in some order. Once drew trees and was told it was "better than felling them", which is a start, I guess. Views my own; cat photos will happen.

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · Jan 11

This is Hněvín Castle – a picturesque little Czech castle atop a hill, poking out above a sea of clouds. But what fairytale village lies beneath those clouds – are you perhaps already packing your bags to visit? If so, hold on for one moment before you do, for this is The Most 🧵. It will be long. 1/

A small Czech castle atop a hill. The castle has a large walled courtyard, dominated by a chateau-like building with a large lookout tower. The landscape is shrouded in low clouds, with the top of the hill just emerging. There are mountains in the distance. Photo from: https://hradhnevin.cz/en/

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 3h

Whenever I read a "superfan" story like this, it actually makes me a bit sad. People like this almost certainly have issues, and would benefit more from help than encouragement, and even less from being held up as something almost to aspire to, as if the more "super" a fan is, the better somehow.

‘My name is Manchester United’: the superfan who fought to change his identity

There are supporters and then there was the Bulgarian Marin Levidzhov, who died this week aged 62

www.theguardian.com

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 7h

As a general point, the people who are most likely to call for "rigour" are the invariably among people least likely to last five minutes if actual rigour was demanded of them.

Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 8h

So this was an interesting article by the wonderful @becksup.bsky.social in today's Chronicle of Higher Ed, and while its focus is primarily the trump "compact" and its attention to grading, I was struck by this passage, part of a larger discussion of the purported lack of "rigor". Brief 🧵:

Frederick M. Hess, a senior fellow and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, linked the pro-Palestinian student-protest movement to grade inflation and a lack of sufficient academic expectations at elite colleges in a 2023 article in the National Review, calling out “studies” majors on gender and race in particular. “There’s the sense here,” Hess said in an interview with The Chronicle, that “by focusing on rigor, you are also addressing the areas where those of us on the right fear that there’s been the most drift into self-indulgence and ideology.”

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 8h

Just about the most sensible thing I've read on UPFs. Sure, a lot of them are really bad for you (although mostly we knew about that before the term UPFs came along), but categorising bran flakes, tofu etc. as intrisically more unhealthy than red meat? Come on. We need better, more precise terms.

From The Atlantic:
Most nutritionists still agree that eating a bag of corn chips is far less healthy than eating an ear of corn. But some are now acknowledging that the “ultra-processed” category, which makes up about 60 percent of the American diet, has become too broad and difficult for many families to understand. “It’s insanity to me that bran flakes is in the same category as sweets,” Nicola Guess, a dietitian and researcher at the University of Oxford, told me. (Guess has consulted for companies that make plant-based meat alternatives—which are also ultra-processed foods.) Jimmy Chun Yu Louie, a dietitian at Swinburne University of Technology, in Australia, pointed out in a recent review paper that tofu is sometimes categorized as an ultra-processed food, despite being “a nutritionally rich protein central to many Asian cuisines for generations.” He concluded, “The evidence suggests that not all UPFs are inherently ‘bad.’”

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 10h

The house in The Ladkillers (the original one, not the remake which I refuse to watch) - a lone house at teh end of a street in London

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 10h

Strong Ladykillers vibes

Andrew Male @andrewmale.bsky.social · 11h

Beautiful house for sale in Crystal Palace. Previous occupants: soulless weirdos who put a toilet in a bedroom cupboard, a bath in a bedroom and transformed the spare room into a prison cell. No need to reply saying “I like it”, ya weirdo. www.inigo.com/sales-list/m...

Maberley Road, London SE19 | Inigo

A sensitively updated 19th-century villa with smart fitted storage and calming taupe walls

www.inigo.com

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 11h

[Checks to see how England got on in the World Cup in 1970...]

England have their best chance of winning World Cup since 1970 – and Tuchel is the key | Barney Ronay

This new realistic, pragmatic approach, with no snags or celebrity bodge-jobs, means that this time could be the one

www.theguardian.com

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 11h

"we don’t always understand cats very well. This can result in all kinds of misunderstandings"

Oh, I understand our cat very well, and our cat understands me very well. We have an ... arrangement.

4 common cat myths, debunked

What the science says about milk, sleep, and if your cat really loves you.

www.popsci.com

Reposted by Mark Elliott

Essi Lindstedt @essi-lindstedt.bsky.social · 11h

1/4 My analysis and suggestions on social policy from a civil society perspective, for the UN World Summit on Social Development is here (happening in a few weeks, in Doha). In English, French, Spanish, Portuguese - language button top right corner. www.forus-international.org/en/pdf/fingo...

Fingo Policy Brief on the Second World Summit for Social Development, in Doha, Qatar 4 -6 November 2025 | Forus

Find recommendations for governments, UN as well as civil society for the Second World Summit for Social Development.

www.forus-international.org

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 11h

Ah, sorry - I don't know the other films. I shall make a point of watching them, then come back here to laugh at your joke when I'm in a position to get it

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 11h

You're right that it does have some hints of optimism (at least at the end), but before you get to that you have to read an entire book of boiled down, distilled Dad Anxiety Nightmare...

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 11h

Sorry, you've lost me a bit there - I don't think The Road was part of a trilogy? The only trilogy I'm aware of by Cormac McCarthy is the Borde Trilogy, unless I'm missing something?

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 12h

I mean, it's not as traumatic as The Road or Blood Meridian, but...

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 12h

Lenny from the Simspons "0 days without..." meme":
"0 days without the French government collapsing"

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 12h

This story reads like the winning entry in a challenge to pack everything that's wrong with corporate culture into 1,000 words, and to throw in a couple of quick asides about how easy it is for the wealthy to corrupt democratic oversight while you're at it. Profoundly grim.

Faulty engineering led to deadly Titan sub implosion, US investigators rule

NTSB report finds OceanGate company did not adequately test submersible before 2023 voyage to wreck of Titanic

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

*parasitic 🤦‍♂️

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

So I see the Grauniad have decided to go with zombie paratic death fungus pictures on their landing page today. I guess that's about par in terms of cheeriness for a 2025 news story, mind you...

From the Guardian:
Magnifying the minuscule: Nikon Small World photomicrography 2025 – in pictures
Weevils, spores, slime mold and cells are in extreme closeup for the 51st anniversary of the Nikon Small World competition. For more than five decades, the award has brought scientific wonders under the microscope, with scientists, artists and enthusiasts from 77 countries contributing 1,925 photo entries this year alone. Judges have arrived at this stunning top 20.

Picture: mushrooms bursting out from inside the body of a fly freshly killed by a zmobie parasite death fungus

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

We need a Venn diagram of people complaining that "immigrants can't speak are language" and "won't integrate into are culture" and people complaining that immigrants are getting English lessons and art classes.

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Reposted by Mark Elliott

bródnodig 👻🕷️🦇 | werewolf tóin 🐺🍑 @kweenmedb.bsky.social · Jul 31

they tried to warn us 😢

Patrick McCray @patrickmccray.bsky.social · Sep 17

If you're having a rough day, remember that in 1991 Tim Berners-Lee's paper for the World Wide Web was rejected and he was relegated to the poster session.

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Reposted by Mark Elliott

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 1d

University administration:
"We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible."

Also university administration:

Stolen from the Internet, a sign that says "If Elevator does not move do a small jump it should move after", and a dirty-white freight elevator wall and aged elevator controls with only floors 1 and 2."

I have no idea where this really is, I just stole it off Wikimedia.

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Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

GB should be renamed the Greater Shetlands. It would make everyone happy - those who feel a swell of pride in their chest at the word "Great" in "Great Britain" can go one better with a "Greater", no one could possibly find the Shetlands offensive, and it's scientifically correct (paper to follow).

Casmilus @casmilus.bsky.social · 1d

What's your most unhinged Britain opinion?

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

#2 - the psychopath's choice - with a fixed, unblinking stare and an unnerving smile. I would pat the seat next to me "invitingly" whenever anyone approached.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

I feel seen.

Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2d

“Keep vast numbers of DVDs, CDs and vinyl in case of cyberattack, middle-aged dads told”

Steve Beresford @lostinmilbury.bsky.social · 2d

Then: the office of the future will be paperless

Now: keep paper records

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

Government by Rasch models

Garvan Walshe @garvanwalshe.org · 1d

Extend a sigmoid function in both directions and you have a welfare system too

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

The whole idea of marginal rates with a few stepped thresholds is a bit archaic, tbh - a marginal rate that increases gradually, e.g. raises every £1,000 (or even a lovely continuous, differentiable function) would be much fairer, although communicating it might be trickier. No cliff edges.

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

But your point stands, of course.

Mark Elliott @thatmarkelliott.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not thinking so much here in terms of debates, but more of commincating facts, where there's only so much you can reasonably expect someone to know/understand. Finding the right grain to summarise it while still keeping the information useful (i.e. meaningful) can sometimes be tricky.

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