Country based organisations such as the National Farmers Federation will need to distance themselves very clearly from Barnaby Joyce and his anti city comments.If they don’t they will face a policy mix determined by the majority a Australians.1/2

“Jim Chalmers could reduce the deficit to zero within three years by increasing the ratio of tax to GDP from the 22.4 it is now to 24.4 per cent – still among the lowest in the western world.” (Alan Kohler.) Alone that’s wow. But it also means something else. /1

As I always say, the Economy is a fiction. It literally doesn’t exist. It’s these ideologues’ substitute for society, designed to funnel collective wealth into a minority of hands, of themselves and their mates. So much is held back by that nonsense, it’s time to end it. /end

That feeling you get when watching the news these days

This is so funny.

You know I said two of the nurses on the unit were positive? They are all testing positive now and the nurse on overnight doesn't know when she can go home as there's no one to replace her. We are 400km from the next hospital. But sure, no need to cut transmission.

Research can be hard, but there are ways to make it simpler. Here are some tips for working in the lab 🧵⬇️

Instead of “don’t trust nutritionists, it’s not a protected term so they might have no education & be a quack” try “before you trust a nutritionist with nutrition information check that they have university level qualifications & participate in continued professional development”

If the question is “is it ok for me to have X food for dinner?” The answer is almost always* yes. Because if you’re asking that question, you probably just need to eat something. Not every meal needs to be perfect, the human body is complicated & so are lives.

I handed in my final uni assignment last Friday. Which is why I'm now sipping coffee and browsing twitter at 10am on a Wednesday. And I no longer have a mountain of clothes to fold...

The most worrying thing about scientific fraud is that most of the people we catch tend to make stupid, basic mistakes What about the people who put a bit more effort in?

I’ve been thinking about the ‘doctors defraud Medicare’ piece for hours. It’s my considered view that it’s a shitty piece of investigation. Not because doctors don’t defraud Medicare - a minority do; this is abhorrent. But because most of what’s in the piece isn’t fraud.👇🏽

An important point in the whole "death of expertise" discussion is that experts tend to be cautious in their statements because they understand complexity, but arrogant fools are often extremely confident even when wrong

I have been asked for some basic material on Covid. I made a quick YouTube video. Please forgive all the “umms” in it. This is just meant to be basic knowledge for people. If you find it helpful please share. youtu.be/AYwoNpa6fq0

My thoughts on bulk billing & greedy doctors. When Medicare started, we did 6 years of medical school, hung up our shingle & became GPs. Medicare subsidised most of the cost of care so we could privately bill those who could afford it to subsidise the gap for those who couldn’t.

Things that count as "doing your research": - advanced degrees - expert specialisation - years of running (or at least reading) original scientific studies Things that don't: - watching YouTube - anonymous blogs - following random shouty men online

Trauma Surgeon: What was the indication for an automatic trauma activation on this patient? Me: He’s a farmer.