iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27/09/2026

Best result of this guy's career btw

Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 13/08/2026

Six of the ten hottest Tour de France stages on record happened this year. The average stage temperature was 29.4°C, nearly 3.5°C above the previous hottest edition in recent seasons. Link: willpball.substack.com/p/was-2026-t...

Title: 'Was 2026 the hottest Tour de France ever?"
Subtitle: Checking claims against a century of temperature records
By Will Ball

A bar chart showing that the 2026 Tour de France was the hottest of recent memory.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 09/06/2026

Instead of funnelling yet more cash to tech companies who over promise and under-deliver, can we perhaps trying to reducing social and economic inequalities first?

"Evidence shows that one to one tutoring can accelerate a pupil’s learning by around five months, but access to tutoring is deeply unequal, with children from wealthier families far more likely to benefit. The government is running a tender for industry to co-create AI tutoring tools with teachers, with the goal of bringing these tools to a similar level of quality, so that we can offer, at scale, the kind of personalised one to one support often only available to a privileged few.

By adapting to individual pupils’ needs, the tools could provide extra help when they get stuck and identify where they need more practice to master their lessons, with the potential to help them catch up with their peers.

From Summer term this year, there will be teacher-led co-creation of AI tutoring tools with industry."

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 09/05/2026

Reasons to be cheerful in the Scottish elections. Reform + Cons have 2 fewer MSPs than Cons got in 2021 SNP + Greens have the same number of MSPs as they got in 2021 A majority for Independence supporting parties once again.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 07/05/2026

Pre-voting relaxation.

A very cute boston terrier lays on a bed being scratched on her belly.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 15/04/2026

My daughter (7) and I have been recording the height of a sunflower she's been growing. Here's the graph so far.

A lollipop chart made using R. It shows days on the x axis and height in cm on the y axis. Height has increased from 0cm on day 0, to 16cm on day 17

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 03/04/2026

It's not bad when you get to see the Northern Lights on a semi-regular basis from your window.

A very faint green aurora borealis in a clear night sky above the lights of some houses

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 21/03/2026

You can grow grass indoors.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 26/02/2026

Looking forward to hearing about some interesting research on the life chances of young people. Talks on free school meals, sure start, mental health and policy. From the delegate list it looks like I'm the only attendee from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A photograph of a PowerPoint slide for the Understanding Society Insights conference. The subheading reads 'Children and Young People's Futures'

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 04/02/2026

You can demonstrate 'feedback' mechanisms by adding a time element to a DAG. In this example E(time 0) has an effect on C(time 1), which also has an effect on E(time 1)

A directed acyclic graph (DAG) showing the relationship between an exposure (E) and outcome (D), including confounders (C) at different time-points (t0 and t1).

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 12/10/2025

Beautiful morning for some CX

A cyclocross course set in the Aberdeenshire countryside. There are low clouds with sun shining through.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 09/10/2025

Thanks. On second thoughts, I'm not sure this can be improved.

A photograph of a laptop screen showing a google sheet with a 3D bar chart in it. The chart shows counts for people's favourite sports. Made by a 7 year old.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 09/10/2025

Preliminary findings from my latest piece of research suggest that butter wouldn't melt.

A cute Boston Terrier puppy sat on a rug, looking innocently at the photographer.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 04/10/2025

Current status: sleepy

A very cute Boston Terrier puppy curled up on a sofa and fast asleep.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 04/10/2025

We have a new family member. This is Frida.

An incredibly cute black and white Boston Terrier puppy is sitting on a green bean bag chair

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 06/08/2025

"Health researchers should take debates about causation seriously because ... these debates shape the questions we ask, the methods we use, the narratives we construct about our study results, and therefore, the knowledge upon which we base our fights for the people's health!"

A book cover for 'Causal inference and the people's health' by Sharon Schwartz and Seth J Prins. The top of the book says 'small books, big ideas in population health' and there is a foreword by Nancy Krieger.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 24/07/2025

Professor Peppy (H-index 250) believes "anyone can succeed in Academia"

A bottle of drink labelled 'Professor Peppy'.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 10/07/2025

We can also look at speed (overall) and within each timing segment. Here you see Plapp's hard start and collapse compared to Pogacar's negative split approach. Vingegaard's overall average speed to the finish is roughly the same as Pogacar's pace at T2!

A plot of average speeds for different riders for each timing segment of the TdF 2025 stage 5 ITT. Plapp and Affini both started the fastest and died off in T2-T3. Pogacar and Evenepoel were slightly more conservative and had very strong T2-T3 and T3-Finish segments.

Vingegaard was slowest by a clear margin until the final segment where he was quicker than Plapp and Affini.

A plot showing cumulative average speed (i.e. average speed overall at each time check). You can clearly see that Plapp went out hardest and died off. Pogacar seems to have had more of a negative split on his pacing plan.

Interestingly Pogacar's average speeds at each time check are over 1km/h quicker than Vingegaard.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 09/07/2025

#TdF ITT pacing comparison for selected riders. Luke Plapp went out strong but couldn't hold it. Vingegaard was always losing time.

A plot showing the difference to best time at each intermediate time check in the first 2025 Tour de France individual time trial.

It shows the time checks for Vingegaard, Plapp, Affini, Pogacar and Evenepoel. Evenepoel won and was less than 10 seconds behind the best time at T2. Plapp was fastest until T3 where he was 30 seconds behind the leader, finishing over a minute back.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 07/07/2025

Live from the UCI SafeR commission. #ProCyclingChatter

Distracted boyfriend meme. Boyfriend is UCI, girlfriend is 'Not having corners in sprint finishes', other woman is 'gear restrictions and banning aero helmets'

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 20/06/2025

Presenting an interactive stall for this small data visualisation I made a while back, demonstrating inequalities in infant mortality. Take a look for yourself. willball.shinyapps.io/infant_morta...

A screenshot of my Infant Mortality Explorer app. It shows a 3D 'lexis surface' plot of infant mortality rates over time by index of multiple deprivation decile for England (2008-2017)

An explanatory sheet for the presentation. The text reads:

Uneven Ground: Contours of Loss

This interactive 3D plot visually represents change in infant mortality rates (z axis) over time (x axis) and across areas with different levels of deprivation (y axis) in England. Combining these three dimensions produces a lexis surface - a visual terrain of uneven health outcomes. Use the mouse to rotate the surface, or hover over any point to see a specific infant mortality rate.

Between 2008 and 2017 the overall infant mortality rate for England reduced from 4.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, to 3.9. However, the surface is uneven and sloping - demonstrating persistent gaps between outcomes of those living in the most and least deprived areas.

The contours you seen here are more than just data points - they represent lives lost and the impact of early life disadvantage. Children born in the most deprived areas have much greater risk of dying before their 1st birthday.

This uneven distribution of infant deaths reflects deeper structural inequalities - shaped not by chance, but by policy decisions. Deprivation is not inevitable, and neither are its consequences. By making these inequalities visible, we can raise awareness, challenge complacency and support action toward a fairer start for every family and child.

A QR code for the following website: https://willball.shinyapps.io/infant_mortality_explorer/

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 11/06/2025

I am not surprised 😋 They should be Virchow's statement...

"Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale. Medicine as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution; the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their actual solution”

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 27/05/2025

Why do news reports always refer to 'cars' and not 'drivers'? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A BBC news headline:

'It missed us by inches': Witnesses describe car driving into crowd at Liverpool FC parade

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 21/05/2025

Some of the co-workers might try to pinch your lunch though - beware!

A sneaky corvid is hiding in some long grass next to the bench I'm sitting on. It is trying to see if I have loose food that can be pilfered.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 21/05/2025

Beautiful day to have lunch outside. This delightful spot is <5 mins walk from my desk! One of the perks of my university being built on a former campsite.

The river Dee as viewed from Robert Gordon University. It's a beautiful sunny day, there is grass in the forground and mature trees in the distance.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 20/05/2025

Really looking forward to giving this a read. 'An essential introduction to concepts of causation and causal inference that explores how our definitions of causes in epidemiology influence how we go about finding them and estimating their effects'

A book cover

'Causal inference and the people's health' by Sharon Schwartz amd Seth J Prins

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 05/05/2025

Can anyone identify this plant for me? The garden is coming to life but I don't remember digging this one in.

A cute cat sits serenely among some plants in my garden.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 11/04/2025

Still on my way.. Scotland is treating me, but the seats are not.

A photograph from the North side of the Firth of Forth, looking South towards Edinburgh and the Queensferry bridges. There is a sandy beach in the foreground and the sun is setting.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 11/04/2025

Live weather update ahead of #Paris-Roubaix2025 from my Eurostar train. Just passing by Carrefour de l'Arbe. Very dry and dusty.

A photograph taken from a Eurostar train looking out over fields in the direction of the Carrefour de l'Arbe cobble sector. It is very dry.

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Dr Will Ball @wpball.com · 11/04/2025

Dank u en tot ziens Gent! 🇧🇪 You were lovely and then I got sick. Heading home earlier than expected and sad to have missed most of #EuroCIM2025 Next time perhaps!