there was some discussion on here recently about the scientific legitimacy of cognitive dissonance research. as someone who has spent years investigating this literature, i wanted to make a thread to explain why pessimism is not justified by careful inspection of the evidence 1/

Hey babe wake up. New periodic table of the elements just dropped

If your annual income is $100,000 (a good salary by European standards), then you'd earn a million dollars in ten years. But to earn a trillion dollars, you'd need to work for ten million years--which is about 30 times longer than our species has existed.

I appreciated the debate yesterday about how to interpret the results of the cognitive dissonance replication study Scroll up to read the points made by researchers on both sides

Once upon a time, reality TV meant scenes like this one, with the wonderful Julie Goodyear: youtu.be/5Xpw4LCb320?...

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

I have just deleted my academia.edu account. There are eprints of many of my papers on my website. If you can't find what you want there, email me.

Fine acting in this episode from Pat Phoenix and Alan Browning -- Manchester's own Burton & Taylor. Coronation Street - 9th September 1970 (Episode 1006) - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=73mp...

These are excellent!

On Oct. 21, nearly 350 people visited the Physical Archive to see the collection & learn how the #InternetArchive processes donated materials for access & preservation. 🧵 Full story ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/10/29/a... #Wayback1T

Growing up without the distinction between blame and responsibility, the child’s natural tendency to personalize, catastrophize, and engage in black and white thinking is reinforced, which makes one feel that being held accountable is akin to punishment. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/perf...

Last week I gave a talk to the British Postgraduate Philosophy Association. What advice would you give to philosophy postgraduates in 2025?

Interesting thread on The Lost King film.

Does anyone here remember Minnie Caldwell?

It’s 6 November, and you know what that means, don’t you? YES, THAT’S RIGHT. It’s the 156th anniversary of the death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s pet wombat

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

Big Train - Showjumpers & Firefighters - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCPh...

Indi talking to @petemandik.bsky.social on yesterday's episode of The Persuaders

Pete and I discuss Jonathan Birch's book on sentience. Featuring a special guest appearance by Indi! www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ue... @birchlse.bsky.social

Re the death of Dick Cheney, it is worth reflecting on the inflection point in this chart when considering his legacy.

Why do the poor Aδ-fibres never get a mention in philosophy of mind?

Live persuasion today at 1pm EST, 6pm GMT!

The Persuaders have been reading Jonathan Birch's The Edge of Sentience, and they will be asking which animals are conscious and what policies we should adopt to minimize animal suffering. Live tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1pm EST, 6pm GMT! www.youtube.com/live/J9ueoVk... @petemandik.bsky.social

'A Lady by a Fireside,' (c1890) is a lovely example of Scottish artist Robert Brough's characteristically flamboyant brushwork. After training in Paris, he established a studio in Tite Street, London near to that of his friend and mentor John Singer Sargent.

Population By Continent in 10,000 BC More about the data: brilliantmaps.com/world-pop...

The Persuaders have been reading Jonathan Birch's The Edge of Sentience, and they will be asking which animals are conscious and what policies we should adopt to minimize animal suffering. Live tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1pm EST, 6pm GMT! www.youtube.com/live/J9ueoVk... @petemandik.bsky.social

Consider yourself an academic? But where is your hat with tassel, the hair worn in a plait, the spotted suit and checked tights, like this fella from 1773 - called: the Academic Mac - is wearing? #academicchatter

Smethwick , Peter Griffiths and Edward Heath in the 60s (area already notorious as Oswald Moseley's Constituency in the 30s) from Peter Oborne in @bylinetimes.bsky.social

“If only to see what girls might make of themselves with proper training”

Finally made a #Blackademics starter pack! Let continue to build community here. This is part of #Blacksky so please show your appreciation to the architect, @rudyfraser.com

As a teen or young adult in the 1990s you had constant encounters with people in their 50s-80s who were combatants, victims or perpetrators during catastrophes of the mid-20th century That direct link to realities of Nazism and other forms of oppression such as Stalinism or colonialism is now gone

Dominic Grieve’s superb response to Farage’s ‘let’s leave the ECHR’ stunt in parliament, is spot on.

World's largest commercial sailing ship, the 136-metre Neoliner Origin, successfully completes first Atlantic, voyage crossing, from St Nazaire 🇫🇷 to Baltimore 🇺🇸

There are six Frankishes with Wikipedia entries -- three of them cricketers!

“Individuals on the ground sent a message that reached us Monday morning that 1,200 were dead,” Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said. “By that evening, they said 10,000. By Tuesday, we couldn’t reach them anymore. We assume our ground contacts are dead.”

My own take on panpsychism, from 2016 www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

As a long-time fan of Time Team, I was delighted to find that Carenza Lewis once liked a piece I'd written!

"panpsychism is very far from the neat solution to the problem of consciousness that it’s cracked up to be" Indeed!

It turns out that if I delete my X account I will lose all the replies to questions I have asked, which I don't wish to do. So instead of deleting the account I have locked it.

Fun trivia: the British right is much more right wing than the US supporters of Donald Trump.

Why aren't we all talking more about what's happening in Sudan? www.bbc.com/news/article...

I understand why some people here want to remain anonymous, and of course I respect their preference. However, I'm not comfortable interacting with anonymous posters; I'm very open myself, and I feel at a disadvantage. So I hope anonymous posters will forgive me if I don't always respond to them.

Gary Marcus was right.

Is there a way I can download *all* my Twitter/X data -- including photos and DMs as well as posts -- before I delete my account? I know the site has a download option, but does it scrape everything?

Right. That's it. I'm going to delete my X account. I rarely use it, but I couldn't bring myself to delete it. I've put so much into it over the years. But I'm not sticking around on a site owned by a man who holds views like this.

Blast people with yellow energy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RR...

This could have been predicted once Brexit had been voted for. Voted for for the most appalling of neo-imperial reasons. The question I ask is how the hell Cameron sleeps at night. He betrayed Britain by handing it over to those whose only form of political expression is race hate and abuse of power

I don't know why people who want cultural homogeneity should be annoyed by adverts with black actors. The adverts invariably depict minorities as having a stereotypical white middle-class lifestyle. You'd think the cultural cohesion people would love that. But maybe it's not really about culture.