Very good news for my dear friend whose green card the Trump administration is unjustly attempting to overturn 🎄

Christmas morning cinnamon buns ❤️ Delicious but I forgot how many the recipe made so there's now 12 bins for 2 people 😂

This is NGC 2264, also called the "Christmas Tree Cluster." It's a cluster of young stars about 2,500 light years away. They were 'born' during the Pliocene Epoch (2-5 MYA), about the same time as early hominids like Ardipithecus or Homo habilis, so they're barely older than humanity. 🎄💫🔭

This is not a “duel,” which suggests both sides are equally culpable, but the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s ideological war on Harvard and higher education. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...

One of my favourite little tidbits in all this is that many people learned this line from the Muppet Christmas Carol because of Gonzo's amazing line-read, but don't know he's literally quoting the original story:

#PsychSciSky, gather ‘round: New quiz just dropped!

An advent calendar for every month besides December, where you get a little treat each day because life is hard

A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty: My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media. Huh? When did I say that?!

The 2 sentences in this paragraph are not consistent with each other

Once again: an authoritarian using the government to punish private institutions is not a "duel". www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/u...

Quick explainer I did last night for the other apps. Please watch and share- the Trump administration is trying to bury this arbitrary and cruel restriction of our colleagues’ rights during the holidays. Don’t let them.

The Trump administration sells us lies wrapped in the rhetoric of public safety as an excuse to censor those who speak out against its leadership, its allies and their policies. How it draws this line between acceptable and unacceptable speech solely depends on whether Trump approves of the message.

“I’m 84 years old. Threats against my life expectancy are kind of hollow. I don’t have much time anyway. I’m more concerned that our democracy is at risk because of the trends against the rule of law.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

This is so good 😭

Superb video by @simonoxfphys.com Simon Clark on how truth on climate change is twisted and dismantled by Trump administration: www.youtube.com/watc.... 1/2 1/2

The act of writing the crap is IMPORTANT. I struggled with it because I knew something needed to be there. Something important. Something that would establish (A, B, C, and D). I did not have the right form. I did not have the right set up. I did not have the right tension in place before hand.

This is the real cancel culture. Using the full force of the government to punish perceived enemies, aid their billionaire tech cronies, and protect pedophiles, neo-Nazis, and other extremist, antisemitic hate groups. THIS is the threat to our rights and freedoms. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/t...

These strange trees are called 'pewen' or 'piñonero' in their native Chile, but when they reached England as an ornamental, barrister Charles Austin commented: "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that" So now, in English, they're called "monkey-puzzles." They get weirder up close...

🧵

The State Department has just banned five Europeans from entering the U.S., falsely alleging they are involved in censorship of American citizens. The only censorship here is coming from the Trump administration. My statement is below. www.state.gov/releases/off...

1/ Last week, you probably heard about RFK Jr.'s sudden plan to move the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule to Denmark’s. He was supposed to have a press conference on Friday, but it was canceled for legal and political concerns. For now, that move is off the table, but this idea isn’t going away...👇

The US State Department is now going to be deporting people and/or revoking visas over Benz, Taibbi, and Shellenberger’s “censorship industrial complex” hoax. Let that sink in. This is what the Twitter Files pretext was actually about. Water boys for authoritarians. www.state.gov/releases/off...

Reading graduate papers and for the most part they are interested and well written. But pretty much all of them skip the step of just giving me descriptive statistics for their data and jump right into fancy modeling. Show me descriptives! I want to see the means and distributions!

👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

So you’re telling me that when your country welcomes talented people from around the globe, and brings them together in world-class universities, they make discoveries that save lives? Interesting. UM researchers make breakthrough to treat form of leukemia www.detroitnews.com/story/news/l...

Help reimagine how @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social communicates about the amazing research and researchers in cognitive psychology. Psychonomic fellows - Apply for the role of Science Communication Editor by Feb 28th. www.psychonomic.org/page/2026_Sc...

Tell me again how schools are biased against boys? "Boys at her school shared AI-generated, nude images of her. After a fight, she was the one expelled" apnews.com/article/scho...

Make no mistake, this is competitive authoritarianism. The regime is using the power of the state to coerce the press away from critical coverage. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

Here’s a gift link to this stunner Washpost story, quoting the 60 Minutes correspondent on the CECOT story, who accuses Bari Weiss of spiking the piece all because the Trump Administration wouldn’t comment. “Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.” wapo.st/3YL4T3D

Sharyn Alfonsi is an award-winning journalist who has worked for 60 Minutes for 20 years. Before that she reported for ABC, CBS & local news outlets. If Alfonsi says her story was spiked by Bari Weiss political reasons, that’s exactly what happened. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

UPDATE: in point of fact there is not an innocent explanation for this.

I wish we pushed for research on the political economy of academia more. It's what takes us beyond "oh why did this one person cite a fake journal article?" into "why do we have a system that rewards people who do not engage with prior research and simply churn out pubs?"

So reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) can't fly, but they are VERY MAGICAL. For example, their EYES CHANGE COLOR during the year & they're one of the few large mammals that can see UV. Golden brown in summer, deep blue in winter. Let's talk about the unique visual adaptations of Rudolph and company.

Question: When the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division tweets out a false statement about an individual that results in them being barraged with death threats based on their religion and ethnicity, which governmental agency would look into whether that student’s Civil Rights had been infringed?

4. Yglesias instead seems to implicitly argue that politicians should only do what wins elections, virtue be damned. One wonders what he thinks of those foolish 1850s abolitionists. As Condleeza Rice once said, politics is the art of making the impossible inevitable. That ain't this.

3. Leadership is about doing what is necessary, not just what is popular. Read literally anything our founders wrote about virtue, and the inherent risks to a society based on democratic processes to sustain the rule of law to the extent that unvirtuous people gain power.

2. What he says about climate is patently false (more on that later) but to the extent he's saying "politicians shouldn't do the right thing unless it's popular", I'd note only that that is a toddlers view of leadership. If the popular kids are mean, should you be mean?

"Did you redact the Epstein Files?" "Sure did boss, real fucking suspicious just like you asked." "What."

It’s the entire point. There’s no plan to make this meaningful for students. No plan to use it administratively. Its design and implementation signals its only real intent. It’s best and easiest use case is for systematic harassment and to scare faculty into complying in advance.

This baseball frame from Efrén helped get me through grad school and kept me balanced since. It's a good way to think about this gig.

This is why we all should participate in @skypeascientist.bsky.social 💙. Sign-ups for spring are happening now.

SAVE THE DATE! I am excited to announce the 4th annual LONESTAR (un)Conference on Strategic Learning, to be hosted at Texas state University in San Marcos on May 19-20, 2026. Applications to attend will open on Jan 15, 2026 and close on Feb 1st, 2026 For more: sites.google.com/view/lonesta...

new from @washingtonpost.com on the ridiculous H1b situation in india that barely any other media is covering. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Goodnight everyone, I hope you all have a very comfy pillow just like Q

Yup

Not only did I get to publish my first developmental study this year, but also it was recently featured in GGSC's "Top 10 Insights from the 'Science of a Meaningful Life' in 2025" feature! Links to the feature and manuscript are below!

The Diversity & Inclusion Committee is now accepting proposals for a new initiative, EMBRACE, offering up to $5,000 in funding for activities that increase participation among marginalized and underrepresented groups. Learn more and submit a proposal by March 1: buff.ly/fdFujh5

Ok Popular Science just made me cry a bit.

This month, OpenAI announced "up to $2 million" in funding for research on AI safety and well-being. This may seem generous, write J. Nathan Matias and Avriel Epps, but following in the footsteps of other tech giants facing scrutiny over mental health impacts, it's nothing more than grantwashing.

"tumultuous" is doing A LOT of work in this headline.