So we survived the multi-national Christmas in Italy (much simultanoeus translation), travelling by train (a miracle, basically), and coming back with an extra suitcase with 3-months worth of gifted cheese, wine, preserves, and oil. Now let's wait at least a year before repeating.

Sign above my train seat. 'Centaurs not allowed'?

I forgot to say, the paper has happened. Just took longer because as usual there's also the cutting down of the over-the-wordcount paper part.

Excuse me, what. It's christmas in a week from now?!?* *apologies to those who noticed. I'm clearly out of the loop.

In Alba (Italy) you can smell nutella all day long because of the Ferrero factory. I honestly think it's a bit much but complaining about bakery smell is truly beyond my comprehension.

On a different note, looks like I'll be at the BSHP conference at KCL in April. With actual historians of philosophy.

Immersed in work for this historical paper and have to say: incredible how many things used to 'at once follow' in the early 20th century.

‪It may be time for a re-watch of this absolute gem of a show (esp. season 1). In the meantime, its top-notch soundtrack. If you don't know Utopia, you're missing out. youtu.be/hAcxIMiKZKo?...

Pearl of the day.

Me: Why are the guy's papers so long and so many?!? 😭 Writer of his memorial notice:

Why did this man write so much though?!? Average lenght of papers is 60 pages and he's in *every* Aristotelian Society Symposium.

Have been having crumpets for breakfast and realising how much I missed that texture. Still no clue how it's achieved as it seems unreal.

Putting together a new historical paper (hey 20th century counts as history) and in the next 10 days I have to turn a whole of notes and quotes into a 10,000 word paper. Aka stop reading and write! Documenting progress here for accountability.

Took myself to the playground aka the new exhibition The Secret Power of Scents at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. Smells to bring new life to the collection and its history...and a lot of fun. Was grinning the whole time Thread of highlights! www.kunstpalast.de/en/event/die...

📢Time is running out to enter the #Philosophy Essay Prize for 2025.⏳ This annual competition is an opportunity to get your work seen by a wide audience: the winning essay and the runner-up will be published in our journal, Philosophy. Details here: buff.ly/HKRN7PD

Guys, this is now less than 14,000. Merciless!

Doing a 3-hour taster course of Mandarin starting today. Have modest goals, i.e. learning how to pronounce zha jiang mian and Sun Yingsha properly, and if you know you know.

I will say: for many papers, there is a reason why we forgot about them.

Little gets me more excited than discovering a little paper from the 30s or 50s in Mind or the Proceedings called 'Appearing' or 'Seeing' or 'Perception and thought'. Afraid I'm becoming a very British philosopher...and also getting older 😁

Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back! Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary. Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest! #MundaneHalloween

Something very funny just happened: I was trying to remember the relationship between two characters in 'Infinite Jest' and googled their names. No results. Removed due to data protection law?!? 'The right to be forgotten'. Some work for philosophers here! DFW would have loved. #philosophy

What can I do with this thing between now and ttt (table tennis time)? Let's see.

Ouch, miss Japan so much.

15,794. One section to go.

16,335.

Somewhat disappointed to discover that this does not involve doing a philosophy interview whilst playing ping pong. Could be a new professional (and fitness) goal. ‪

16,870. Slow also due to cold but happy with the changes (more than with the cuts).

So my paper needs cutting down (surprise). Will be posting updates for accountability. Starting at 17,356 words.

Turns out I have no idea how to cook for one person. And I don't have a microwave to warm up leftovers. Then tonight I made a ramen with all kinds of leftover bits and now I have leftover leftover ramen. Tough life.

There is a youtube recording of Dretske's lecture on seeing objects!!! Here's his brick wall example: youtu.be/yLr-HsxT4zI?...

Ahahah

Turns out that back in 2010 folks used to have proper philosophical discussions on Philpapers (e.g. on Dretske on seeing)! What have we lost... philpapers.org/bbs/thread.p...

Turns out that on my to-do list today for the purposes of dreaded paper revisions is read Dretske. Rarely does revising get better than that!

Coming up at Warwick University: Workshop on temporal experience, 14th Nov 2025

Hey everyone, a reminder to submit to our special issue on smell, taste and flavour! Deadline 1st November! philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Shocking discovery: Pret at Luton airport has filter coffee at £1.50 (?!?) and it's not even bad.

A problem I didn't expect to have: I'm flying to Lisbon to give a talk and it'll be 26-27 degrees. I only got my winter clothes with me in the UK 😬

Great interview with content creator Molly Burke on why, as a blind person, she does not want, and does not need, to be cured. Good video for a philosophy of disability class! Good job from Dr. Mike with challenging his beliefs. youtu.be/3eTQEju-cOg

This week we're playing a game: how many of these couches can I see whilst viewing flats to rent in the UK?

A film to recommend! 50yo Icelandic choir director is secretely a radical environmental activist conducting sabotage operations. Funny, stunning landscapes, and a live band musical score mubi.com/en/nl/films/...

Then I discovered that there is in fact no instructions to play this 840 times! It's actually a conditional. "In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities." Shall we tell the guy?

Was there for the end bit of this somewhat mad performance of *840 repetitions* of Satie's very short 'Vexations', 14 hours or so. Pianist was visibly suffering, but the piece is weirdly compelling once you repeat it enough youtu.be/cPqIULsfOAU (too long for youtube, apparently!)

Due to many requests, we extended the deadline for the special issue 'Philosophy and the Chemosenses' to 1st November! Any philosophical issue related to smell / taste / flavour welcome, so submit away: philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Ponderosa pine smells like butterscotch. Go ahead, sniff one the next time you're in the western US. Some say "vanilla", some say "oh no, my nose is covered in sap." Let's talk about birds, butterscotch, forest fires, blue wood, & boring beetles. But mostly this thread is about terpenes.

I don't have a flat in Notts yet, but I do have membership of a table tennis club and a list of 9 coffee shops to try. Priorities.

New Cocoon web address: philosopherscocoon.com

Delighted to welcome @giuliamartina.bsky.social as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Senior Research Fellow, 2025-2027. She'll be working with Craig French on a project entitled 'Imperfect Perception' on sensory impairments in philosophy of perception. Web: tinyurl.com/3arb5fp8 #philosophy #perception

To brighten up your Sunday, let me introduce you to Stenokranio Boldi, an early amphibian recently discovered in Germany. This is the only image we have to know what it looked like:

There's still one month left to send in your submissions for MindGrad 2026! #philsky #philmind #philconf

A final push to get this paper submittable, then tomorrow a very Dortmund day with table tennis Bundesliga match and amazing food at the Tamil festival.