Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 8hIt’s a promising result but the SMH is just exaggerating and creating false hope for clicks 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11hAnother example of AI colourisation (1926 Nat Geo article by Joseph Rock) 000
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 13hWhy is the SMH suddenly doing so many uncritical hype stories about new drug treatments? Yesterday it was Alzheimer’s, today Parkinson’s. A study of 40 people that shows changes in surrogate outcomes is not a ‘staggering’ breakthrough! 130
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 22hBeen fiddling with colourisation of old B&W images from a Joseph Rock article about his Yunnan expedition a century ago 020
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Here's some good coverage of the landmark trial highlighting the failure of Lp(a) lowering to make any difference to heart disease. Big Pharma and some big specialist egos are very heavily invested in this pathway to produce the post-statin blockbusters www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/pel...peoplespharmacy.comPelacarsen Failure: Heart Drug Lowers Lp(a) but NOT Heart AttacksCardiologists are stunned by the Pelacarsen Failure: Lp(a) plunged, but heart attacks, strokes and deaths did NOT. A bombshell disappointment 020
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 07/10/2026A certain professor who is heavily invested in the Lp(a) hypothesis was quite rude to me when I asked him about real-world outcomes vs surrogate endpoints. Will be interesting to see his reaction to these results. #karma 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 07/10/2026What if Mao’s main rival had prevailed? I visited a forgotten battlefield in the Hexi Corridor. On the Long March, Zhang Guotao had three times as many soldiers as Mao. But his armies were annihilated when he marched west instead of north michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/the-lost-a...michaelwoodhead190074.substack.comThe lost army of the other Long MarchWhen the Long March split into two groups in 1935, one group of troops commanded by Mao’s arch rival Zhang Guotao marched west into oblivion. Did Mao want it that way? 040
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Rebel Wilson does not come out well from this archive.li/FT4CVarchive.li 000
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Sign in a Yunnan park says China will defend its interests around the world, including its investments and sea lanes. 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 05/10/2026SMH article on Alzheimer’s ‘breakthroughs’ is all hype. No new treatments have significant efficacy. No cure. No stopping the progress. At best a modest reduction in progression. The two promising therapies cited in the article failed in phase 2 trials. So why talk of ‘game changers’? 000
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 29/09/2026My flight from Zhengzhou to Sydney has been diverted to Manila due to a medical emergency. This is going to be a very long journey … might even have to return to Zhengzhou and start again 😟 030
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 28/09/2026So many people in China playing microdramas or reels on their phones in public, with speaker on. And often at 2x playback speed (or is that how they are posted?) 020
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Another chapter from my 2025 bike ride along the Yellow River substack.com/@michaelwood...substack.comCycling the Yellow River. Chapter 20: LongyangxiaA gruelling mountain ride to a massive reservoir and hydro dam that marks a major bend in the Yellow River 130
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 26/09/2026doesn't go that far, might go tomorrow from Honghe 120
Reposted by Michael Wriwoche རི་བོ་ཆེ་ @riwoche.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Phenomenal travelogue — we seldom hear reports of the Tibetans in Xunhua (or the Salar, for that matter) and the winding route through Hualong Hui Muslim County. In addition much appreciation for the helpful reminder of warlord Ma Bufang and the ransom payment to release the young XIV Dalai Lama: 031
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Awayday on the low speed train: the French-built narrow gauge railway at Kaiyuan station #China 1130
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 26/09/2026My 2025 cycle trip along the Yellow River: meeting the Salar Muslims of Xunhua michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/cycling-th...michaelwoodhead190074.substack.comCycling the Yellow River. Chapter 19. Xunhua and KanbulaThe edge of the Tibetan plateau, where Muslim and Tibetan communities intermingle around the birthplace of the Dalai Lama 130
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The Leica lens on the Xiaomi 17T is not bad. Saying this as someone who is still using a M3 with film #Kunming #Yunnan #China 030
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Postcard from Tengchong michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/postcard-f...michaelwoodhead190074.substack.comPostcard from TengchongWhere else will you find a fake German town in a balmy sub tropical resort just a few miles from a vicious SE Asia civil war? 021
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Yes there was in Tengchong. Jingpaw, Lisu and Dai food 110
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Could be both but just random bouncing around China on the high speed train right now! 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Good things to buy in Tengchong: Burma jade, Burma stout #Myanmar #China 130
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Kunming and Dianchi lake panorama from Western Hills 030
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Today's chapter from my Yellow River cycling trip: pedalling the wide flat horizons of the Hetao plain in Inner Mongolia michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/cycling-th...michaelwoodhead190074.substack.comCycling the Yellow River. Chapter 13. Baotou and the Hetao PlainIn the flatlands of Inner Mongolia 052
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Correction: it’s more like 15km according to AMAP 020
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 15/09/2026What about Harry Enfield and Martin Clunes youtu.be/Zh9XzFhGI8g?...youtu.beHarry Enfield - The PlayboysYouTube video by TheUTubeTeamSucks 040
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Nice reflections at the brand new Xi'an East station 020
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Yes. But almost all trains are some kind of high speed now, aren’t they? 110
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 13/09/2026These hair styles are unusually popular in Xining #China 100
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Did someone say free cake? Xining, Qinghai, #China 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Battlefield of one of the biggest military defeats you never heard of. Bigger than Bataan, Arnhem and with greater consequences. The annihilation of the West Route Army of the Long March, 1937, Hexi Corridor. michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/the-lost-a... 030
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Anyway the nosy dude was impressed. He told his mates the French are more 通情达理 (reasonable and amenable) than Americans! 010
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I must say I think I nailed the accent and bonus points for the body language: shoulder shrugs, pouted lips accompanied by a ‘paf’ or ‘bah oui’ 110
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026On train I pretended to be French to avoid a guy who wanted to practice his English. But he then used a translation app to bombard me with questions in Francais digitale. After exhausting my O level French I had to resort to ‘C’est la vie. Pierre Cardin. Je ne sais quoi.’ Etc. Vive la difference! 120
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Yes exploring a bit of Qinghai and Gansu. No bike this time. 110
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Wonderful weather to be exploring the Danxia landscape of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu. And searching for the Liyuankou battlefield where the Western Route Army made its last stand before being annihilated in 1937. Story here: michaelwoodhead190074.substack.com/p/the-lost-a... 092
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 10/09/2026A key aim of the anti-expertise Project 2025 cultural revolution is to smash the four pillars of fact-based reality: *Evidence-based ideas and inquiry *Evidence based peer reviewed literature *Evidence-based professional associations and standards *Evidence-based findings put into practice 000
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I tried to take a photo of Kumbum monastery from the same spot as this one taken by Mark Kauffman in 1947. Frustratingly I climbed over a fence, slogged up a hill to some prayer flags but the view is now blocked by trees. So only this attempt from lower down 030
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 09/09/2026I am on the 909 city bus to Kumbum, a rather incongruous way to get to one of the most revered sites of Tibetan Buddhism. 261
Michael W @michaelwood8.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Probably some fresh yak meat. And that look between the girl and the dude is just because they both went to see the Abba show in Baotou. 110