Ely Wananda

The US President is pushing the idea that taking Paracetamol (Tylenol) causes autism in children. I want to quickly semi-rant: One thing I've been thinking for a long time is how the political right are all over the "alternative medicine" scene. Meanwhile, the left seems completely uninterested, only really commenting to ridicule and dismiss any ideas which aren't from mainstream sources. It makes sense because right-leaning political philosophy is all about individualism and taking responsiblity for our own lives. Because they are also distrustful of the State - these guys head into independent research and consider ideas which are outside of the mainstream. I am similar. For example I am convinced that our light environment has a critical impact on our health and wellbeing - something that you won't hear the NHS say much about. But this has to be backed up with robust use of high-quality scientific research. The problem is that most people have no idea how to evaluate claims like Trump's. They are not familiar with the different types of scientific research, the pros and cons of the different approaches, etc. To say "a study showed a link between [inserts drug or substance or anything] and [insert disease] does not prove that one caused the other. But we are in the middle of an intense "idiotification" where a sitting president of the US can go ahead and spread wild claims, thereby influencing millions of his adoring supporters to potentially make terrible decisions about their health.

One of the critics I have of the left in general is that I feel they have ignored the everyday concerns of the "masses" and have focused too heavily on the concerns that affect small chunks of society. I think the left must start covering topics around health and wellbeing. Start fact-checking the Hubermans, the celebrity podcast hosts, etc. And most importantly, start discussing the concerns people have about health, wellbeing, relationships, fitness etc. It's no longer useful to just keep saying "let's take everything into common ownership" as the solution to all problems. Meet people where they are at, and start demonstrating that your politics have immediate answers to people's issues in the here and now too.

2 months ago | [YT] | 31

Ely Wananda

Corbyn and Sultana's "Your Party" is apparently collapsing before it's barely started! Coming days after 150,000 people marched in London under Tommy Robinson supported by Musk - this is disastrous. The momentum is clearly with those on the deep right of the political spectrum right now, and the left has to get its act together quickly. The new Green Party leader Zack Polanski is starting to do some excellent work in shifting the narrative on the big political issues including immigration and currently that appears the only credible option for left leaning people. But time is of the essence, 2029 is not that far off.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/your-party-divisio…

3 months ago | [YT] | 16

Ely Wananda

I have to give Kemi Badenoch praise where it's due. Yesterday she did a great job in pinning down Keir Starmer on Peter Mandelson's Epstein links. With all these scandals and errors, this government feels like it's in its last few months of power, but it's only been in for a year!

3 months ago | [YT] | 20

Ely Wananda

The Labour Party (UK) is losing support mostly to parties to its left. The polling reported in the Guardian adds more evidence that there is a space for left-leaning politics, as I've discussed in my most recent video. Interestingly, the article suggests that Labour might perhaps be losing more support to the right if it wasn't itself moving rightwards. In short, it's all up to play for in UK politics, and we need to stay alert and aware ahead of local elections in the coming year. Source: www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/09/how-keir-…

3 months ago | [YT] | 17

Ely Wananda

Greetings people! I hope everyone's having a fantastic summer. Apologies for the lack of videos recently. It's been crazy busy on my end with a big work project and trying to channel my boys' love of chaos while they're off for summer hols! I've got a couple of videos recorded (about teaching mathematics to young children) which I just need to lightly edit. I'll try my best to get one of them out this week so hold tight for that ✊🏿

4 months ago | [YT] | 57

Ely Wananda

Apparently, Google's AI summaries are leading people to stop searching and to close browsers altogether (source: www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250728-you-might-be… )
Personally, I hate those summaries and scroll right past them. The way I use LLMs (ChatGPT mainly) is to research general ideas, then I use regular search engines and websites to corroborate the info. When searching, I want to see real websites that are well-established in their field. I want to see posts and discussions on sites with strong communities like stackexchange, and even Reddit and Quora (these are good for topics that are more niche). I want to find obscure articles and websites and videos and audios created decades ago by academics and lay experts. This stuff is organic information. The AI summary just gets in my way for accessing this stuff. It's important that children and youth don't become overly reliant on LLMs and AI generated content in general. For further reading, I recommend you check out the "Dead Internet" theory. Just Google it - and skip past the AI summary!

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4 months ago | [YT] | 11

Ely Wananda

Kenya shifts to a more Bitcoin and blockchain-friendly approach: techpoint.africa/insight/techpoint-digest-1140/ This field is still extremely new (Bitcoin was only created in 2009) and as a result, there are loads of hurdles to navigate until blockchain becomes a normal part of the financial system, if it ever does. But the countries such as El Salvador that position themselves ahead of the curve will reap the benefits if blockchain does survive and become mainstream.

I recommend that people take the time to study the basics about blockchain. Forget all the meme coins and hype and NFTs, don't aim to buy the next big thing "crypto," unless you've got the time, money and risk appetite to spend all day trading them. Instead, learn what cryptography is. Look into these people known as the cypherpunks. When I did this a few years ago, I realised that I had very little understanding about how the normal financial system works, let alone blockchain. Same with the internet. We live almost our entire waking hours surfing this world wide web, but very rarely do we stop to think what the internet actually is! (it's simply the name for the network that connects computers together).

Anyways, let's see how things go with blockchain in Africa. Nigerians have been enthusiastic early adopters of Bitcoin, and the Central African Republic actually made Bitcoin legal tender for a while. Give it 10 years and let's revisit this post!

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4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 10

Ely Wananda

If you're a parent, you need to know how your children are doing in school. In the UK, there are "ready to progress" criteria for mathematics. These are things that children should be comfortable with at the *end* of the school year, signalling they are ready to progress to the next year. The National Centre for Excellent in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and the DfE have this comprehensive document outlining all of the ready to progress criteria for Key Stages 1 and 2: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6140b7008fa… In addition, most schools should publish some kind of curriculum that will show what children will be covering in maths, and in which Terms. I strongly recommend that you look closely at these and assess where your children are. Then, start doing activities with them to push them further forward in areas where they are strong, and to build them up in areas they're not as strong. It's never too late to start doing this, and the Summer Holidays can be a great time for it, though I realise this will depend on people's household and employment situations. But it doesn't have to be complex, long lessons. Little and often is great. I'll be posting some shorts sharing some of the things that I'm doing with my boys.

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4 months ago | [YT] | 44

Ely Wananda

There's a chance that sunlight *might* help prevent breast cancer - especially for darker skinned women? I've been meaning to do a video on this study for ages but the time never comes, so let me just share it here. The study title is: Sun exposure is associated with reduced breast cancer risk among women living in the Caribbean: The Atabey study in Puerto Rico" (link: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9190767/ ) The study found that the more sun exposure women had, the lower the chances that they would develop breast cancer. And perhaps most intriguingly, this correlation was strongest among the darker skinner women. The study is from 2023 but I don't think I've found a single video on here about it.

As with all studies, caution is required. These findings do not *prove* that sunlight reduces breast cancer risk. This is an *observational* study, showing correlations - and correlations don't necessarily prove causation (mindfulblackdad.com/correlation-doesnt-imply-causa… ). To prove that sunlight reduces breast cancer risk, you would need to do something like a randomised control trial where you carefully control how much sunlight women are exposed to and then track them over several years to see what happens to women in different exposure groups (very hard to do this). Also, there are other factors that might explain the correlations found in the study. For example, it could be that the Peurto Rican women who spend more time in the sun also spend more time exercising, or are eat healthier, etc.

But with all that said, I think it is very likely that these correlations are indeed partly due to the direct impact of sunlight on the underlying causes of breast cancer. I've discussed sunlight lots on this channel - check my panafrican science podcast. More and more science is emerging showing that light and especially sunlight (and especially infrared light) penetrates deeply into our bodies and triggers positive, systemic effects. It would not surprise me if the positive benefits might be stronger the more melanated the skin is, because they can spend longer periods in the sun without any skin damage, and thus can benefit more from the sun's life-giving power. Also, eumelanin absorbs ultraviolet light - which is known to have several positive impacts on our health.

4 months ago | [YT] | 19

Ely Wananda

When I was little I remember looking in the dictionary to find the meaning of a word. When I read the definition, I would then go searching in the dictionary to find meanings of words used in that definition. This wasn't just about words, it was about history - learning how certain words came about in specific historic contexts, in different places, among different people. I would spend ages just travelling through the dictionary, ending up on subjects farremoved from the original word! When the Internet came around, I started doing the same thing with Wikipedia. And now LLMs like ChatGPT add a new dimension to this kind of thing (though everything on there needs careful fact-checking, more so than Wikipedia even). All of this is to say that I have very strong geek/nerd tendencies. In today's video, I argue that we need more geeks and nerds. Check it out when you get the chance!

4 months ago | [YT] | 38