Author Archives: David Modic (admin)

About David Modic (admin)

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The abuse of science

In this case it all starts with a screenshot of a poll. Here it is. I do not know more about this than that. A “science communicator” posts it online. Without a link to the source or the opinion piece … Continue reading

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O tem kako “vsi” “lažejo”.

Moja poanta sicer ni bila ali obstaja opioidna “kriza” ali ne. Tudi ne poznam nikogar, ki bi zanikal, da so opioidi problem, tako kot jih naslavljamo zdaj. Je pa res, da je moje mnenje verjetno obarvano z več leti dela … Continue reading

Posted in Kultura, science, SLO | Leave a comment

Giving home birth and the failure to understand stats

Ok. This post will mostly not be about safety of home delivery, versus hospital delivery. Really quick and dirty google search will answer this for you. Very briefly, in the U.S. on average about 14 out 10.000 home deliveries results … Continue reading

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About vaccine scepticism

In the past weeks I have been bludgeoned with vaccine scepticism several times. In most cases I stumbled into those conversations totally unsuspecting, as I assumed that rational people know that it is preferrable to take a miniscule risk now … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Politika, science | Leave a comment

O nedovoljenih posegih v prvobitnost človeka in COVID-19

Vsake toliko časa nas, zainteresirano javnost, kdo malce poduči o pandemiji. Če kliknete na sliko boste videli cel post, tukaj pa citiram samo dele, na katere se odzivam. Iz nekega razloga ne morem napisati mnenja pod napisanim, pa ga objavljam … Continue reading

Posted in education, Izobraževanje, science, SLO | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Of Strawmen and fake equivalency (New Zealand vs. USA elections)

Jacinda Arden (NZ Labour party) puts out a press release saying that national elections will be postponed from 19th September to 17th October (here, here). The white supremacists and Trump apologists around the world cry about the injustice of it … Continue reading

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On remorse and psychopaths

I’ve gotten an email the other day: … I am doing a project on the broad focus of language and identity. There were 4 sub categories, one of which was ‘self-representation’ which is what I went for. The aim of … Continue reading

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Watch stuff is moving to https://tinker.crq.systems !

This was all getting untidy. Politics and computers and watches. So I created a special page for watch stuff, here: https://tinker.crq.systems/ . The previous watch stuff will be slowly phased out from here (it is all on the new site, … Continue reading

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The Double Red Sea-dweller (ref 1665)

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2019/10/25/the-double-red-sea-dweller-ref-1665/ [replaced malicious code]

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Playing with the Hulk (116610LV)

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2019/10/16/playing-with-the-hulk-116610lv/ [replaced malicious code]

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Playing with the Submariner (update)

This had now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2019/10/03/playing-with-the-submariner-update/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Playing with the Submariner

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2019/09/12/playing-with-the-submariner/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The no-deal rationale

A narrative emerges: “The EU anti tax avoidance laws will come into action soon, therefore the UK billionaires want to get the UK out of the EU asap with no extension to ART50”. Panama papers shoud give one a clue … Continue reading

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Leaving Cambridge

After five years and a bit, we are leaving Cambridge. It is somewhat bitter-sweet parting. I’ve met some good friends here and people that I genuinely like (and some of them seem to like me). I’ve met a bunch of … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, work | Leave a comment

Omega Seamaster PRO Chronograph (2599.80.00)

This post has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2018/09/22/omega-seamaster-pro-chronograph-2599-80-00/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG, Watches | 4 Comments

Omega Seamaster PRO GMT (2535.80.00) Revisited (Update #3)

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2017/10/30/omega-seamaster-pro-gmt-2531-80-00-revisited-update-3/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in education, ENG, Watches | 2 Comments

Stop attempting to hack my page, please.

Seriously, guys. I know it is fun, but stop trying to reset my wordpress password. There are sites out there that have a lot worse protection than this one. Why don’t you set your bots on that? If you are … Continue reading

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Omega Seamaster PRO 300 GMT

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2017/09/14/omega-seamaster-pro-300-gmt/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in education, Watches | 1 Comment

The Brexit choices, Brexodus and rocky road ahead

It occurs to me that there is fundamental disconnect between reality and the expectations of English people. It looks like the tories expect to crash out of the EU without a deal, but attempt to pin it on the EU. … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Politika | Leave a comment

New Immigration rules

New immigration rules leaked to the Guardian. For those who are still interested in this freak-show: – no more indefinite right to remain. At most one could stay in England is for five years. So, better not plan to attend … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Politika | Leave a comment

The rise of fascism in the West and the need to be loved

A colleaugue of mine, posted a note on Facebook, comparing Trump to Berlusconi. This is what I think about it. I think, actually, that a comparison to Mussolini would be more apt. What, with the planned military parades (and here), the … Continue reading

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The fight for the interpretation (or: After the Brexit speech on January 17th, 2017)

  There is now a fight going on about what the British people wanted when they voted to leave the EU. The first rational thing to do in this case is to look at the referendum question. It was exactly … Continue reading

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Restoring the Rolex DeepSea Sea Dweller [Updated! 05.jan.2017]

This has now moved to: https://tinker.crq.systems/2016/10/25/restoring-the-rolex-deepsea-sea-dweller/ [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG, Watches | 24 Comments

iPhone 7 audio jack saga

OK, the fallout begins. Here is a story from VOX about why apple abolished the headphone jack: How badly is this written? The arguments are if I briefly list them: (a) Apple has done this before. Initially with the iMac … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, IT | Leave a comment

Mladina about Brexit

I translated an article in Slovene about Brexit from a popular Slovene Magazine Mladina. To be clear, the following text is not mine, it was written by Grega Repovž and the original can be found here: https://mladina.si/175145/cas-za-delavsko-internacionalo/ All the rights are retained … Continue reading

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Brexit postmortem as it is happening

    Well. Hard to say anything really. I was ambivalent before and still am. On one hand I am childishly expecting the screws to start tightening, on another I still cannot believe someone could be so insane. The markets … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, gospodarstvo, work | Leave a comment

Brexit

OK, let’s talk about Brexit. I have only peripherally been following this overly politicized storm in a tea cup. It is not that I think it is impossible for Britain to shoot itself in the foot and “leave”. I guess … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Politika | Leave a comment

About nationalism

Recently, I came across posts on Facebook, claiming that politicians are importing refugees and migrants into their countries in order to get their votes. Since this is exactly what I proposed about six months ago I don’t have an issue … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Politika | Leave a comment

The resurrection of bigotry; and naiveté of the left wing

I have been thinking about this for a while now. I keep getting exposed to vile facebook posts from sad specimens of human race, who try to disguise their smallness behind ideology and in the same breath try to convince … Continue reading

Posted in SLO | Leave a comment

About stealing articles and free knowledge

There was recently an article about a Russian researcher running an article hub, here. In a nutshell, they made most of the world’s scanned journal articles available online, free of charge. I say ‘made’, because while the site is still live, … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Izobraževanje, science, work | Leave a comment

After Paris

I actually wrote this some weeks ago. But it is still topical. D I keep seeing posts on the Internet about how it isn’t good that the person or person(s) responsible for the Paris attacks had their passport stamped in … Continue reading

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The human condition

I wrote this on a trans-Atlantic flight several years ago. I just came across it and thought I’d put it here. DM I am on this flight to L.A. and it is taking a while. 10.000 mile flights do.  A … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Restoration of Sector STE200 part 2

The Restoration of Sector STE200 part 2 This post has moved to a new, dedicated, watch blog. [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG, Watches | 2 Comments

Waterproofing replicas part 2

Waterproofing replicas part 2 This post has moved to a new, dedicated watch blog. [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG, Watches | 3 Comments

Waterproofing replicas part 1

Waterproofing replicas part 1 This post has moved to a new, dedicated watch blog. [replaced malicious code]

Posted in ENG, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Restoration of Sector STE200 part 1

The Restoration of Sector STE200 part 1 This post has moved to a new dedicated watch blog. [replaced malicious code]

Posted in SLO, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

About academic fraud

I have done a presentation for a web-security firm in 2011. The presentation is here, and it is live, my voice and picture included. I talked to a crowded room. I was nervous but it went fine. Recently, I needed … Continue reading

Posted in education, ENG, work | 2 Comments

Improving the science

Here is a post about how science could be improved. To sum up: Stop people from hitching themselves up on work of other, junior, researchers (stop ghost or honorific authorship). Rethink REF and implement other measures of academic merit Support … Continue reading

Posted in education, ENG, work | Leave a comment

O družinskem zakoniku

Ko grem na Facebook, se srečam z različnimi mnenji o noveli družinskega zakonika. Tisti, ki ne veste, novela družinskega spomenika je bila sprejeta 51:28. Bistvena sprememba je, da so istospolne družine in tradicionalna družina izenačene. Slovenija zdaj pozna samo še … Continue reading

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Anti-Vacci

Imam to smolo ali pa morda srečo, da sem periodično izpostavljen viharjem v žlici vode na temo cepljenja. Obe strani sta dodobra vkopani. Sam sicer cepim svojega otroka, ker ocenjujem, da je zanjo tveganje dovolj majhno, da se izplača biti pro-socialen … Continue reading

Posted in Izobraževanje, Kultura, SLO | Leave a comment

O nadpovprečnosti

V Mladini (19.02.2015) je v izjavah tedna tudi tale: “Čedalje več je takih ljudi, ki so nadpovprečni” (Vlasta Nussdorfer na Valu 202 o inflaciji nadpovprečnosti) Na prvi pogled je to smešno. Sej ne more biti več kot polovica ljudi boljših … Continue reading

Posted in Izobraževanje, SLO, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On Deception and Conflict

  My research area is psychology of: persuasion, deception, fraud etc. I have an interest in other connected areas – decision making under risk, altruistic punishment, self-regulation…   I am not an expert in politics or psychology of war. I … Continue reading

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O malih ljudeh in malih politikih

SDS opozarja (po Twitterju, mensezdi), glej zgodbo, da se moramo varovati (parafraziram) “instant strank, z instant politiki in instant programom”. Ja, ker instant stranke z instant programom so nekončno slabše kot etablirane stranke z vedno istim programom, ki ga nikoli … Continue reading

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About fleecing them for all they’re worth

There is an initiative by the Slovene Tax Authorities to tax … carpooling, essentially. Here is the link to the article (in Slovene language): dnevnik.si There is a platform similar to uber operating in Slovenia. People advertise where they will be … Continue reading

Posted in ENG, work | Leave a comment

About educational policy

There is an article in the Guardian, titled: “Advent of Google means we must rethink our approach to education” I generally agree with the premise that we could change the education process, but I think this article is somewhat skewed. … Continue reading

Posted in education, ENG, Izobraževanje | Leave a comment

O plagiatih in odgovornosti

V Dnevniku je 25.02.2013 objavljen tale članek: Plagiat je najprej huda sramota za mentorja Mislim, kako je to najprej huda sramota za mentorja? Malo treznega razmišljanja, prosim. Kot sem že večkrat rekel: npr. na področju psihologije na leto izide 60.000 … Continue reading

Posted in Izobraževanje, Kultura, SLO, work | Leave a comment

O visokem šolstvu in begu možganov

    Polno potovalko imam analfabetov in ludistov, ki se čutijo poklicane za to, da nam povejo kako bi moralo funkcionirati šolstvo in kdo je tisti kader, ki ga pa res potrebujemo. Celo vrsto zmot in zablod najdem v dnevnem … Continue reading

Posted in Izobraževanje, Politika, SLO | Leave a comment

David Modic, PhD

Štiri leta. Štiri leta! Če vštejemo prijave, čakanje, organizacijo financiranja, intervjuje.., potem šest! Od trenutka, ko sem prvič vstopil v svojo pisarno in se instantno spričkal s sistemcem, ker mi ni hotel dat mrežnega kabla za moj leptop (“Univerza ne … Continue reading

Posted in Exeter, Izobraževanje, SLO, work | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

No Pasaran!

Ko sem l. 2008 odhajal v Anglijo delat doktorat se mi je zdelo, da je Slovenija v dobrih rokah. Majer je bil poražen, levica je prišla nazaj na oblast, ljudje so dali vedeti intelektualnim pritllikavcem in nemoralnim apartčikom, da jih … Continue reading

Posted in gospodarstvo, Kultura, Politika, SLO | Leave a comment

Janša ne bi razlagal kolegom iz tujine zakaj imajo njegove akcije posledice

  J. Janša v Dnevniku: “V zadnjih dneh imam težave razložiti svojim kolegom iz Evrope, kako je možno, da je Slovenija v treh letih padla praktično iz vrha na dno in drugič, da tudi sedaj, ko še imamo možnost, da … Continue reading

Posted in gospodarstvo, Politika, SLO | Leave a comment