Terrific thread on the ‘Christmas is being cancelled by people we don’t like’ shock horror.

The rich have ensured that the discourse around poverty is that it is a personal failing, not a policy choice. And largely people with means have bought this propaganda. It means that those who are most vulnerable like the unhoused are essentially abandoned.

Would love for women to ruin billionaires next.

“That kind of thinking cultivates empathy and challenges your assumptions. It's also something you have to practice. If we can offload that cognitive work, it's far too easy to become reflexive and hateful, while having a robot cheerleader telling you that you were right about everything all along.”

I'm loving this philosophical and neuroscientific exploration of play, uncertainty, learning and more. @jdkiverstein.bsky.social backs up my conclusion that the surprise-minimisation principle in the predictive processing approach is useful, but a little off: we often enjoy *just enough* surprise!

The observation that play usually only happens when an animal feels safe feels significant. I would tie that with the difficulty of learning anything when we don't feel safe; I see play and learning as very closely coupled things. I wish more schools were more directed towards safety, play & flow.

Want to help with autism research? The Social Experiences of Loneliness of Autistic Adults (SELA) Project at the AJ Drexel Autism Institute is forming a Community Council of autistic adults (ages 18–35) to help guide a 5-year study on loneliness and social connection. Info in flyer and alt-text.

1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad 2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices. www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...

this story is horrifying and universities NEED to accept that ChatGPT is actively harmful

It is 2025 - we really shouldn't need a petition for this! Require schools to let children use the toilet at all times in the school day. Do not lock toilets so that they aren’t accessible during certain times of the day. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Here is my November update with everything I am offering to Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people. Feel free to pass this on to anyone it may help. dghndconsultancy.co.uk/2025/11/05/n... #ActuallyAutistic #autism #ADHD #AuDHD #MentalHealth

Research Associate (Fixed Term, full-time post). Come work with me and amazing colleagues at University of Cambridge. An excellent post for a dynamic post doctoral researcher and thinker... www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Wow. A new report presented to the Fast Track panel shows the TTR Taranaki seabed mining project could lead to sediment flows which knock over rigs and damage wind turbines - and have impacts that last for a thousand years! newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/28/s...

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...

This is superb .. Autism research by #AutisticAcademics @emergentdivergence.com @tanyaadkin.bsky.social Chris Papadalpolous of @lagcharity.bsky.social “Predictors of Depression and Anxiety Among Self-Medicating #AutisticAdults” journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

March seems far, far away, but we've a #CRAEwebinar planned with Sarah Parsons, who will be talking about research that seeks to use a more creative toolkit of methods to enable a whole range of voices to be included in autism research.

Harry Shukman's recent book is an excellent piece of undercover journalism inside the contemporary far right, ranging from violent gangs in Britain to Sillicon Valley eugenicists. I highly recommend it. www.penguin.co.uk/books/468856...

I absolutely loved this conversation with @tiakofi.bsky.social. I just had a look at the comments - and brilliant to see people loving it just as much as I did. Check it out. 👇🏼 youtu.be/EJEsWArJsLU?...

Excellent news for all you dormice enthusiasts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Important update from two months into my “experiment” (lol) assigning college juniors and seniors to read whole physical books and then having a seminar where they use the physical book and physical notebooks and their ideas and questions to fill three hours of class time: It rules

I’m so angry about this—killing these gorgeous bats for trinkets. Learn some f*cking felting skills if you want your own fuzzy creature and leave nature alone!

Here is @lucia-oc.bsky.social at @qedcon.org talking about rape myths uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

rushing to integrate undercooked, misrepresented, and misunderstood technology into every corner of our lives just so a handful of terrible people could make more money might have been a bad idea

Important but deeply depressing analysis here:

So, in order to fix the imaginary problem of cis boys allegedly pretending to be girls to gain an advantage at sports they are... trying to force a cis boy to play on the girls' team? Have we actually reached peak absurdity? Can there possibly be more?

We’ve been asked to share this autistic survey ! Are you autistic 18 or over? Do you want to feed back on your care over the last 12 months? OR a radiographer experience of radiography or radiotherapy as a patient 20-minute, online, anonymous survey For autistic adults tinyurl.com/5x89thpb

billionaires should not be allowed to exist because the downside of "one of them loses their mind" is simply too dangerous for a functional society also, having a billion dollars tends to make you lose your mind

I am giving the keynote for the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) virtual conference, October 27, during the opening ceremonies. That's 11am-12pm US Eastern time, and it's on Zoom. This bit is free but needs you to register for specifically it.

Some less common symptoms of #Perimenopause. Itching ears, anyone?

This highlights one thing. Manchester & Liverpool are thriving not because of cuts, but because of smart investment. Populist austerity politics don’t resonate here. You can’t budget your way to prosperity. But that doesn't fit the narrative does it?

Award-winning pain researcher here. This is not something that can be done. Hope this helps.

Proud papa moment: my son J published a letter in the @nytimes.com today (in print tomorrow) on the need to think our definitions of autism.

Yep I agree. We have a duty to students to protect the ability to learn without selling it out to AI. Also from a Ed point of view the best use of technology in schools is in making information accessible for example speech to text or changing font sizes, or captions. AI isn't teaching anything.

I don't think it's ok that openAi, Meta, Anthropic and chums are indirectly dictating the direction of publicly funded research. There, I said it. I want to research things that help people, not the new predictive text generator.

*** Call for abstracts *** Please click below for further details and to submit your abstract: sapc.ac.uk/article/2026... Submission deadline: Midday 23rd January 2026

Free training from @vivdawes.bsky.social and myself: Supporting Autistic Children and Young People through Burnout. Shared via Autistic Burnout Network - lots more resources available! autisticburnoutnetwork.com youtu.be/LzBaTGZos8s?...

Beautiful thread ⬇️ 💗

🤔 What if the key to a stronger #NHS isn't a new technology but human connection? In our latest blog, @jtaylor001.bsky.social explores how a lasting relationship between patients & GPs: ✅ improves patient health 👛 lowers system-wide costs 😀 makes the GP job more satisfying #ContinuityOfCare

🍂 Welcome to the September 2025 NIHR SPCR newsletter! Discover research on: 💫 Ovarian cancer detection 🤝 Public co-applicant collaborations 🔦 Latest Researcher Spotlight Plus more blogs, news & publication updates 👉 bit.ly/3J8WItR #SPCR #PrimaryCare #Research

A fantastic closing plenary from Hazel Everitt and Miriam Santer on “The Best Careers Advice I’ve Ever Received.” 🌟 A key takeaway: the importance of perseverance — staying motivated and resilient throughout every stage of your research journey. 💪 #SPCRtrainees

✨ What a wonderful and inspiring two days at the #SPCRTrainees Event 2025. Thank you to everyone who joined us, shared ideas, and made it such a memorable event. Wishing all our trainees and speakers a safe journey home🚆💼

Don't know how many times I need to say it but advice giving and harm prevention are important, specialist skills. All of us can learn them, but automating 'help' via the massive environment-destroying plagiarism generator is not the answer and remains a danger. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The Spectator (owned by GBNews owner Paul Marshall - estimated wealth of £800 million) doesn’t like taxing wealth fairly. I wonder how they got to this editorial decision? Let’s tax wealth fairly, fund front line services & make hope normal again. join.greenparty.org.uk

This is possibly THE best video about stimming I have ever seen by Sophie Broadgate. I have shared quite a lot over the past few years but may be not shared here... enjoy! pikaiafilms.co.uk/In-Motion-2022 Read more here from @stimpunks.org : stimpunks.org/glossary/sti...

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison. Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion. The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion. Read that back. When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

I am presenting at The Gestalt Language Processors Conference 2025 with Cathy Shilling from The Speech Den this week. We will be exploring all things GLP and Monotropism related. This is one of our summary slides. Find out more: registration.glpconference.co.uk/glp25

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm