The scaffolding is finally down, just in time for Christmas at Wolfson College.

🎉Warmest congratulations to Dr Jessie Munton on the publication of her book, Priority and Prejudice: The Epistemology of Salience and Attention (OUP) 📘 @jessiemunton.bsky.social @oupphilosophy.bsky.social @stjohnscollege.bsky.social @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Thanks to the huge work of @milenaivanova.bsky.social history and philosophy of science will now be taught at the Professional and Contunuing Education at Cambridge. Bravo, Milena! Please share so she recuits a strong first cohort to start in autumn 2026. #philsci #histsci #hps

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

As Trump prepares to accept the FIFA Peace Prize (?!) and make the World Cup draw (?!?!), a reminder that he previously did the quarterfinal draw for the 1992 Rumbelows Cup.

This is a really nice discussion about Game Theory, if you can get past the initial coffee slander.

Here’s one for the first lecture of my Probability course next term: India’s men’s cricket team have lost 20 consecutive coin tosses in one-day internationals.

Leftovers?

On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪 Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...

"Runctitiononal features"? "Medical fymblal"? "1 Tol Line storee"? This gets worse the longer you look at it. But it's got to be good, because it was published in Nature Scientific Reports last week: www.nature.com/articles/s41... h/t @asa.tsbalans.se

I approve of the cover 👌

Time passes, but Radiohead are still Radiohead.

Merry Ozmas.

And like clockwork, the Catz ginkgo is looking good.

Damn, and Andy Rourke just a couple of years ago.

Cambridge researchers have uncovered the earliest evidence of ‘animal GPS’ in tiny magnetic fossils from 97 million years ago. What left them behind? And what insights can they shed? Dig in: bit.ly/3LQxykH @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social @stcatharines.bsky.social @gfz.bsky.social 🧪

Occam’s meta-razor: Do not use Occam’s Razor beyond necessity… 🪒👨‍🦲

Looking forward to ParkSwim in the morning 🏃🏻☔️

The tweet that won't die.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics. #ParkRun

Another not-at-all dated reference from today's lecture.

The BSPS is coming to Leeds! Get your symposia proposals in by Jan 14th www.thebsps.org/news/bsps-an...

Some background – my little piece on Hawking on this issue, from Nature in 1989. prce.hu/w/preprints/...

Some Simpsons references within lectures are easier to justify than others.

Scenic walk to the office, courtesy of a puncture. 🍁🍂

Mid-term vibes.

3 years ago I tweeted that, and it went on to be, by orders of magnitude, the most-read bit of writing I've produced about the philosophy of time. 20 million views, 400k 'likes', newspaper articles, end-of-year Buzzfeed lists, some genuinely bizarre emails, and even being recognised while abroad.

Overheard a university student say “Arctic Monkeys were my dad’s favourite band when I was little.” The passage of time is relentless, unfathomable, cruel, and unforgiving.

The probability of performing well in a marathon is determined by your long-run frequency.

Huzzah! The PhilSci preprint archive for #philsci papers is finally on Bsky! Give them a follow to keep up with latest work in field ⬇️ @philsci-archive.bsky.social

Autumnal.

😬

No they do not. I'll try to write something up in the next few days....

#philsci #causalmodelling

Don’t miss our Lunch Time Talk with Melinda Fagan! 📅 Tomorrow, October 24th ⏰ 12pm EDT 📍 CL-1117 Title: "Explanatory particularism in scientific practice" More here: https://ow.ly/tIgM50XaFt3 Can't make the talk? Join on Zoom: https://ow.ly/JetZ50XaFt2 See you there! #LTT #CenterPhilSci

Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/louvre-thieves-given-immunity-after-confirming-jewels-stolen-for-purpose-of-training-ai-software/

Nailing the lecture slides this year.

Konstanz, January 2016.

Not a PB, but the fastest ParkRun palindrome I can currently muster

New arrival 👀📖

CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science seminar series) is now on Bluesky! Please see our upcoming talks here: www.hps.cam.ac.uk/news-events/...

People write their horror stories about accidentally clicking “reply all.” But I once set up an ‘out of office’ message that somehow went out in response *to every email I’d ever received*.

Sunday night reading: why the Second Law of Thermodynamics is not quite what you probably learned. With quantum systems there's an extra bit that can mess with and even reverse heat flow. And we can use that to detect "quantumness". www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermomete...

What does beauty have to do with science? | https://bit.ly/4gm1LDm Professor Milena Ivanova argues that science does in fact use beauty to trigger feelings of awe and wonder, but beauty can also be a guide to scientific discovery. #philsci 🧪

#OnThisDay 100 years ago, plans for a new University Library in Cambridge were gaining traction. By 2 October 1925, a site had been acquired and architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott RA had begun his sketches and costings. As this picture shows, by 1933, construction was underway! (Cam.a.934.2)

I like the idea of coffee at the hairdressers, but invariably it ends up hair-infused. #thoughtfortheday

Here's a reminder on #InternationalCoffeeDay: It's OK to take a (coffee) break. ☕ "It’s ... helpful to have a venue to share the day-to-day ups and downs of life as a grad student," a #PhD student wrote in this 2019 #ScienceWorkingLife. https://scim.ag/4nvLTBb

New paper with my colleague Aisha Sobey on Critical Epistemologies of AI Healthcare Apps. philpapers.org/rec/IVACEO

I wrote a little thing about time in classical physics, thoughtfully titled 'Time in Classical Physics'. Forthcoming in Nina Emery's 'Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Time'.