Just finished the Christmas Eve Muppet Christmas Carol watch, and so now it is time for this traditional Christmas read: sentimentalgarbage.substack.com/p/the-though...

i had to drop what i was doing to make this

Hard not to see this as an extension of Trump's legal assault on higher education. Not like the FBI exactly covered itself in glory here.

Scientists scanned people in an fMRI as they listened to me talk about my book She Has Her Mother's Laugh. I altered their brains! (Or at least my semantics did...)

Fantastic responses here--obsolete technology frozen in time in our lexicon!

Paper alert! (1/2) We examined brain activation for each content word in a podcast relative to incrementally larger ngrams (1-word, 5-words, 10-words) that precede each word with a focus on semantic distance. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

90% of the art of making chili crisp is frying shallots to *just before* they are the color of toasted coconut. It takes forever and you can ruin by under/overcooking. The other 10% is keeping the chili dust and Szechuan pepper out of your nose.

Good news: one tank of fuel keeps our generator going all night Bad news: 3 AM intrusive thoughts about carbon monoxide poisoning Good news: it has enough juice to power the espresso machine

This is Just to —— I have —— the —— that were in the —— And which -— were probably —— for —— —— — — — ——— — —— — — —

Annnnd no restoration time in sight and we can’t get the generator started. Bite me, rural Connecticut.

Power line is down across the road, blocking us in. No power, very spotty cell connection. Time for an analog day, I guess!

love starting a carol with "god rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing ye dismay", it's the equivalent of starting a phone call with "okay so it's all fine, DON'T freak out"

Is “Ruth’s Chris Kennedy Center” anything?

📣 Faculty line in cognitive psychology in my department at Western Washington University. We just, finally, received permission to search. Details will be posted in early January. But hey, I just want to get this out so people will be watching. Nice place and university. I’ve liked it.

The mutual sigh of relief when we both decided to flee to Google Docs.

McGill is recruiting top-tier researchers working abroad through the federally funded Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program, addressing global and national challenges. The first round is due in early 2026. Learn more and submit your candidacy: https://mcgill.ca/x/5Zh

I cannot express how much Microsoft 365 has wrecked my productivity. Trying to work on a shared Word document with a colleague today was like dueling with string cheese. At one point it randomly inserted the same two words seventeen times in the document. 😡

I'm reading some great studies on cognitive aging and have come across variants of "we are aging more quickly than ever" several times. Like surely, we are all aging at the usual rate of one year/year, right? (They mean the population is skewing older. It's still funny.)

It's that moment in the semester when I can put down "work for other people" and pick up "work for me." And by "work for me" I mean actually reading literature and doing data analysis. This is a weird job.

when a reviewer asks you to cite their work in your revised submission and so you grudgingly insert a footnote but in no way discuss their ideas in your work, so that it’s there and you can’t be dinged for ignoring it, but also you did nothing to address it… this is called a “sightation”

New business venture: A service that for a nominal fee ($20) threatens to send someone to your house to clean, motivating you to scurry around tidying up. Not quite as effective as a cleaning service, but way cheaper.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is reading this review of “Love Actually” by the great Lindy West. www.jezebel.com/i-rewatched-...

Here’s how the NIH became the backbone of American research and a major driver of economic growth theconversation.com/how-the-nih-...

Two-year post-doc position in my department working on a cool project applying cognitive science (transmission chain experiments and natural language processing) to study cultural evolution: tinyurl.com/bdeju6kw

Just us, regarding the frost and the boughs of the pine trees crusted with snow.

My very favorite moment in Spinal Tap comes at 0:40 in the clip below when Reiner as Marty DiBergi goes to fold his arms and then awkwardly decides not to. It's subtle and silly and it kills me every time. What a loss. www.facebook.com/share/v/1GUE...

I don't mean to seem bossy about it, but one MUST have a mind of winter.

“Most of us live off Hope” Ever true 💔

No student journalist should ever have to write this kind of story www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...

Friendly holiday reminder that people rush to submit before the holidays and declined reviews get even worse than usual. And editors want to enjoy holiday time, too. Patience and grace to all (and to all a good night)!

Teaching in the age of smartphones is like putting 30 Gollums in a room, telling them they can’t have the precious for an hour, and then asking them to analyze story structure

Our middle aged but active dog started on a supplement that seems to have utterly cured her stiff joints. Sooo…. It’s ok if I start taking it too, right? I’m not sure I’m on board with the beef flavor.

This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.

Deadline Jan 15: Open rank (tenure-track/tenured), language (open sub area), Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins apply.interfolio.com/178813

I'm going to need a stronger reinforcement paradigm to make it through grading. These candy rewards are insufficiently motivating.

Timely update: apparently our silly study names nearly broke the university billing system because admins thought they were part of an outside attack on the system.

Open until filled: Asst prof (tenure track), "human cognition and neural systems, with interests that may include decision-making, attention, memory, language, aging, and/or computational modeling", Psych, U. Arizona arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Lecturer position in Neurobiology at UMass Amherst. Come join a great group of instructors teaching in the Biology, Psych & Brain Sci, and Neuroscience majors. Review starts Jan 5, 2026. Please forward/apply! careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u... #NeuroJobs #Neuroscience #AcademicJobs #HigherEd

For anyone who uses archival methods, we’ve offering a $4,000 fellowship to use any of our holdings on site in Storrs, CT. Easy application! Please apply! Please repost! library.uconn.edu/location/asc...

I'm excited for our second episode to be released tomorrow. "Is Learning Multiple Languages Confusing My Kid?"

Our lab names studies thematically, starting from a tortured backronym. Favorites include: SPLATS, THUD, VROOM, WHOOSH BaDaBoom, BaDaBing JabberTalky, Jabber2ky, Jabber3ky CONOCO, GAS, ELECTRIC, HYBRID RapTrack, DissTrack ASIA, Holland, Hollaback How do you name your studies?

Help! Trying to find a gift for a 4 yo boy and his parents don’t have any ideas. “What he really wants is world domination and for everyone to bend to his will.” People who hang out with pre-k kids… any toys your kids have loved?

Happy "a mouse must have died in the walls" season to all of my friends who live in old houses.

Hey Editors! Join our community for support in navigating challenging editorial work, developing a better understanding of how individual editors (and editors as a collective) can work to improve our peer review system for everyone.

I had a joke about Theseus but I changed all the bits.

I just refuse to believe that downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers are different species. It’s a scam.

My male role models were my grandfathers and uncles. WW2 and Vietnam vets. Small business owners. Blue collar workers. A cop. All of the “manosphere” stuff I hear is just so odd. Like, every man I grew up around — inarguably macho guys — would just call these people creeps, not “manly.”

Connecticut researchers: Check out our tip sheet with information about how best to tell policymakers about your research and how to stay informed about state legislation. csch.uconn.edu/wp-content/u...

The office Christmas party in Desk Set.

Idea for a new Journal of Overlooked Papers. It's a regular journal, but your citation list has to be entirely legitimate papers that have never been cited before. Just think how many authors you'd make happy by bestowing the first citation on some forgotten paper!