It is 80 years since Beauvoir and Sartre gave the word 'existentialism' a definition ... ... in a campaign of publications and events that Beauvoir later called 'the existentialist offensive'. To celebrate, this feed will mark each key moment (including political events) for the next three months.

"No Woman Could Have Painted This, They Said. They Were Wrong. For years, Michaelina Wautier’s paintings were attributed to men. Then a chance discovery in a Vienna museum helped bring the truth to light."

Nobody expects the ... Tony Blair?

Looks like Russia is losing in Moldova 💫

latest by the dream team of @pasliwa.bsky.social and Tom McClelland #philsky

"Living through the rise of a dictatorship just means inhabiting a space that is gradually shrinking. There’s no point in resisting, not at first. You just make do with whatever breathing room you still have—until you lose that too." Read Gisela Salim-Peyer: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Fascinating. "Our results suggest that urban development, not unlike labor market transformation, represents an important and so far neglected source of economic insecurity and social concern with important political implications."

A new issue of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly! Vol. 11 No. 3 (2025): Symposium Katharine Jenkins’s Ontology and Oppression: Race, Gender, and Social Reality. ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/fp...

I’m starting to notice a trend in the polling data… —Top Public Worry: Corruption —Biggest problem in Fed Gov: Corruption —Top fear: Corruption —What one word would you use to describe American government?: “Corrupt” It’s almost like voters are trying to tell us something.

Fascinating. "Our results suggest that urban development, not unlike labor market transformation, represents an important and so far neglected source of economic insecurity and social concern with important political implications."

"Our study of nearly 2.5 million births in Sweden published in 2024 shows no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases a child’s risk of autism. This is the largest study conducted on the subject to date."

Intressant, FHM kommer tidigarelägga en planerad omorganisation: "Där ingår det att skapa en ny avdelning med fokus på beredskap och smittskydd." Regeringen vill också säkerställa att FHM tagit lärdomar av pandemin och Coronakommissionen. Forssmed: "Vi vill se en mer aktiv och proaktiv myndighet."

Eight Swedish glaciers have melted away since 2023 and are unlikely to recover. "We should care because it's a very, very clear sign that we are imposing or triggering irreversible changes to nature."

In my life I've seen treatments for AIDs developed, vaccines for Ebola and malaria, and now this. Medical science is one is the areas that still consistently seems to make these miraculous advances and I'm genuinely grateful to everyone involved. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great opportunity for PhD students interested in phenomenology. The Copenhagen Winter School (29 Jan.-30 Jan. 2026) is a PhD course that offers close reading of classical work. In 2026, the selected text is Edmund Husserl’s Ideen II. Keynotes: Sara Heinämaa & Dan Zahavi. Apply before Nov. 1, 2025

The thing that is making me hopeful in this past week is summed up nicely in this concluding para by @gregsargent.bsky.social in the linked piece. Core ideals, such as free speech, still hold great power in our culture. We're floundering, but not completely lost. newrepublic.com/article/2008...

When a typo in your Google search leads to new and exciting philosophical positions

"Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." Looking forward to seeing Jimmy back on the air.

The Swedish director of the V-Dem institute, which measures democracy, states that the US no longer qualifies as a democracy. "The USA no longer qualifies as a democracy. Many researchers agree on this."

Hans Adolfsson från SUHF kommenterar också: "Dagens konstruktion bygger på att staten är god. Att staten förstår vikten av att värna den akademiska friheten, och att värna den institutionella autonomin för lärosätena. Men den dag staten inte är god ... vad händer då?"

Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg pekar på en intressant paradox i synen på universitetens organisationsform. S ser staten som bästa garant för akademisk frihet. SD vill kunna styra – bort från "woke" etc. Båda landar i samma organisationsform och ser inget behov av utredning. Ur senaste Universitetsläraren.

Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg pekar på en intressant paradox i synen på universitetens organisationsform. S ser staten som bästa garant för akademisk frihet. SD vill kunna styra – bort från "woke" etc. Båda landar i samma organisationsform och ser inget behov av utredning. Ur senaste Universitetsläraren.

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

someone said of Wikipedia: “it is a thing that does not work in theory but turned out to work in practice”

"According to Erika Kirk, her beloved grandfather immigrated to the United States from Sweden and then fought for his new homeland in World War II. After that, according to her testimony, he was knighted by the King of Sweden. But by that time, nobility had long ceased to exist in Sweden."

Love these kinds of databases. "The accompanying database provides descriptions for all 102 U-Turn episodes from 1900 to 2023, differentiating between three types: authoritarian manipulation, democratic reaction, and international intervention."

Love these kinds of databases. "The accompanying database provides descriptions for all 102 U-Turn episodes from 1900 to 2023, differentiating between three types: authoritarian manipulation, democratic reaction, and international intervention."

the history will continue until morale improves

Medical misogyny & racism – but automated "The findings by researchers at leading US and UK universities suggest that medical AI tools powered by LLMs have a tendency to not reflect the severity of symptoms among female patients, while also displaying less 'empathy' towards Black and Asian ones."

New research on defense willingness in Sweden by Ralph Sundberg & Gina Gustafsson: Positive link to national attachment, cultural national pride, and civic conception of nationhood. An ethnic conception of nationhood shows no significant effect, and uncritical patriotism has a negative effect.

Polen just last week. Now Estonian airspace. "Nato responded immediately and intercepted the Russian aircraft."

Fun article about “outsider” scientists and their breakthroughs. “Academia filters most funding, publishing, and hiring decisions through senior insiders, which favors ideas within existing paradigms.” worksinprogress.co/issue/why-sc...

New research finds that #longCOVID may affect women’s menstrual cycles – and that their periods may in turn affect their long COVID symptoms.

Good news that the government is now opening up to treating nuclear and wind power equally. This means there can be state support for offshore wind power. No concrete commitment from all political parties – but still a better outcome than focusing just on nuclear.

Mina kollegor som driver Queerseminariet vid Stockholms universitet har bjudit in Sam Hultin för en stadsvandring i Eva-Lisas spår – imorgon kl 17.30. Registrering här för att delta: www.su.se/institutione...

If you're on academia/.edu, there’s a nice workaround for deleting your account in this thread below.

The Royal Society is finally discussing whether to expel Elon Musk.

Åsa Wikforss idag. Extra obehagligt att Busch och Teodorescu Måwe menar att "Sverige är under en värderingsattack" pga "den radikala" palestinarörelsen. Vad är ens en värderingsattack? www.dn.se/kultur/asa-w...

Robert Redford (RIP) survived a childhood bout of polio though bedridden for 2 weeks In 2014, he directed a short film on the architecture and mission of La Jolla's Salk Institute—honoring founder Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine that has saved countless lives, and architect Louis Kahn

I'll do references when I am done writing. Me doing references:

Interested in a take that situates the Cook saga -- and concerns about the erosion of Fed independence -- in a broader theoretical framework? Then, check out the updated version of this working paper by @grattonecon.bsky.social and myself. gratton.org/papers/Techn...

When Kafkaesque is an understatement.

Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to -17 in our tracker, the worst of his second term www.economist.com/interactive/...

New article, ‘Tense Concepts: Obstetric Violence, Structural Injustice and Moral Injury’ published online today in ‘Gender and Justice’ ➡️➡️ bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

At the Villa Malcontenta this morning

Does anyone want beautiful historical depictions of celestial phenomena? Anyone? Well, here you go publicdomainreview.org/collection/f...

Kulldorff och den amerikanska vaccinstriden ikväll i Agenda.

Saturday in the woods 🌞 Tyresta National Park, +18°C

Intressant text av Stefan Svallfors som väver samman Max Webers patrimonialism, Hochschilds deep story, med Curtis Yarvin och libertianismens attack på staten.