Another not-at-all dated reference from today's lecture.

The BSPS is coming to Leeds! Get your symposia proposals in by Jan 14th www.thebsps.org/news/bsps-an...

Some background – my little piece on Hawking on this issue, from Nature in 1989. prce.hu/w/preprints/...

Some Simpsons references within lectures are easier to justify than others.

Scenic walk to the office, courtesy of a puncture. 🍁🍂

Mid-term vibes.

3 years ago I tweeted that, and it went on to be, by orders of magnitude, the most-read bit of writing I've produced about the philosophy of time. 20 million views, 400k 'likes', newspaper articles, end-of-year Buzzfeed lists, some genuinely bizarre emails, and even being recognised while abroad.

Overheard a university student say “Arctic Monkeys were my dad’s favourite band when I was little.” The passage of time is relentless, unfathomable, cruel, and unforgiving.

The probability of performing well in a marathon is determined by your long-run frequency.

Huzzah! The PhilSci preprint archive for #philsci papers is finally on Bsky! Give them a follow to keep up with latest work in field ⬇️ @philsci-archive.bsky.social

Autumnal.

😬

No they do not. I'll try to write something up in the next few days....

#philsci #causalmodelling

Don’t miss our Lunch Time Talk with Melinda Fagan! 📅 Tomorrow, October 24th ⏰ 12pm EDT 📍 CL-1117 Title: "Explanatory particularism in scientific practice" More here: https://ow.ly/tIgM50XaFt3 Can't make the talk? Join on Zoom: https://ow.ly/JetZ50XaFt2 See you there! #LTT #CenterPhilSci

Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2025/10/20/louvre-thieves-given-immunity-after-confirming-jewels-stolen-for-purpose-of-training-ai-software/

Nailing the lecture slides this year.

Konstanz, January 2016.

Not a PB, but the fastest ParkRun palindrome I can currently muster

New arrival 👀📖

CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science seminar series) is now on Bluesky! Please see our upcoming talks here: www.hps.cam.ac.uk/news-events/...

People write their horror stories about accidentally clicking “reply all.” But I once set up an ‘out of office’ message that somehow went out in response *to every email I’d ever received*.

Sunday night reading: why the Second Law of Thermodynamics is not quite what you probably learned. With quantum systems there's an extra bit that can mess with and even reverse heat flow. And we can use that to detect "quantumness". www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermomete...

What does beauty have to do with science? | https://bit.ly/4gm1LDm Professor Milena Ivanova argues that science does in fact use beauty to trigger feelings of awe and wonder, but beauty can also be a guide to scientific discovery. #philsci 🧪

#OnThisDay 100 years ago, plans for a new University Library in Cambridge were gaining traction. By 2 October 1925, a site had been acquired and architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott RA had begun his sketches and costings. As this picture shows, by 1933, construction was underway! (Cam.a.934.2)

I like the idea of coffee at the hairdressers, but invariably it ends up hair-infused. #thoughtfortheday

Here's a reminder on #InternationalCoffeeDay: It's OK to take a (coffee) break. ☕ "It’s ... helpful to have a venue to share the day-to-day ups and downs of life as a grad student," a #PhD student wrote in this 2019 #ScienceWorkingLife. https://scim.ag/4nvLTBb

New paper with my colleague Aisha Sobey on Critical Epistemologies of AI Healthcare Apps. philpapers.org/rec/IVACEO

I wrote a little thing about time in classical physics, thoughtfully titled 'Time in Classical Physics'. Forthcoming in Nina Emery's 'Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Time'.

Happy 120th birthday, special relativity! Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in the paper "On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies," published in Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 Manuscript: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... English: www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einst...

Turns out the ‘magic’ coffee in the coffee shop just has an extra shot of espresso. And now my hand is trembling somewhat. 😵‍💫

Paracetamol? 🙄

Noted.

You can also be a competent academic and occasionally finish first in the 40-45 category in the local ParkRun. 🫣

Amazing run by Cambridge alumnus Amy Hunt for a silver medal in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships.

Google's "AI mode" is basically a means for paraphrasing without assigning credit to the source. In niche areas (e.g. philosophy of science) the sources used are so narrow that it as good as guarantees that people who use it in the writing process will end up plagiarising the work of others.

Sat on deleting this particular account far too long.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

The Marathon at the World Athletics Championships had both a false start and a photo finish.

It was a smart move for Radiohead to wait for all the Oasis fans to spend their annual gig money before announcing their shows.

When you use your own razor beyond necessity.

I have questions.

Trinity looking nice for a return to work.

I'll be running the London Marathon in April in memory of our recently departed and much loved mum, fundraising for the Macmillan Caring Locally, a charity that provides palliative care for terminal illnesses. You can read more at the link. www.justgiving.com/page/matt-fa...

You’ll have to excuse me…

Rainbow Lorikeet in a Flame Tree, University of Queensland, 2014.

Physicists simplify the universe by studying closed systems. | iai.tv/articles/the... However, philosopher of physics Karim Thébault argues that embracing the openness of physical systems can lead to a better understanding of the world. #philsci ⚛️ 🧪

At Tate St Ives even the windows are artworks.

Questioning the uniformity of the passage of time while waiting for the final minute of the washing machine cycle to elapse.