Prof Neil Martin

a power pole sign reads please like and share this post

I have many. All of which would make me unemployable.

Just once: Can you hear me, Clem Fandango?

How slopaganda exploits features of human cognition: https://osf.io/3zbdn

Bumblebee Queens Can Breathe Underwater

NEW: for @nytimes.com, I wrote about a new study showing that queen bumblebees can breathe underwater, surviving submerged for a week

the “remarkable” study stems from a lab snafu, when a co-author thought she accidentally drowned several bees—but later found that they were alive 🧪

gift link 🎁

The BBC are really going out of their way to not call these The Peter Files.

a bald man in a suit and glasses says there is only one way to find out ALT: a bald man in a suit and glasses says there is only one way to find out

"Now, I like like badgers. I also like Winston Churchill. But which is better?"

works for visual arts too

"After 35 years, Ig Nobel ceremony to leave the U.S. — Finances and Trump policies underlaid the decision to move the satirical science event to Switzerland" Science] [https://www.science.org/content/article/after-35-years-ig-nobel-ceremony-leave-u-s

The Conservative party logo is a tree.

The Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurobridges_Spijkenisse showing a table including a picture of each of the seven bridges as built, and in each case what the banknote version looked like. This is based on Chris Addison's post just now, which is QT-disabled. Chris Addison ‪@mrchrisaddison.bsky.social‬ Could be worse. In order to avoid controversy, all Euro notes feature bridges. In order further to avoid controversy, they're all fictional. Or they were until the folk of the Dutch town of Spijkenisse took it upon themselves to build them. Now all Euro notes feature bridges from just one Dutch town https://bsky.app/profile/mrchrisaddison.bsky.social/post/3mgs46imjns2h

LRT: amazing, I had no idea (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurobri...)

Could be worse. In order to avoid controversy, all Euro notes feature bridges. In order further to avoid controversy, they're all fictional. Or they were until the folk of the Dutch town of Spijkenisse took it upon themselves to build them. Now all Euro notes feature bridges from just one Dutch town

These authors wanted to know whether mothers face discrimination in hiring, even when they are equally qualified as other applicants.

So they ran two experiments...

'Setting Up The Roman', Bow (2025) by Lawrence Brand
lawrencebrand.com

A long shot, but does anyone know if Bawabet Dimashq (Damascus Gate) in Syria is still open? I mean, not now but in general.

A Cybertruck owner in Texas is suing Tesla for $1,000,000 in damages for “ grossly negligent conduct” following an accident on a Houston highway that involved the vehicle’s self-driving feature. Here's the dashcam video.

@mjgault.bsky.social has the story: www.404media.co/cybertruck-t...

Judge: why are you using AI to do run of the mill issue spotting which is a basic part of your job?

(I am also interested in this question)

I would copy in the permanently inert @dantomlinson.bsky.social to make him aware of this stupid, unLabour policy but I wouldn't expect much of a reaction

My book on my Kindle

Book update! Today I finished the third and most intensively-edited draft of the DIE HARD book. Now I’m sending it to a handful of trusted friends for feedback and dropped it onto my Kindle, where I’ll give it another read on the plane to Austin and between movies at SXSW.

Thrilled to be working with @channel4tv.bsky.social on a new documentary on Keir Starmer's govt. It'll examine how he became the most unpopular PM on record and how the seeds of the unpopularity were sown long ago. And whether he can recover.

Out end of March!

www.channel4.com/press/news/c...

At this point, Lee Mack and David Mitchell would just walk out.

The cover of 'Margaret Calvert: Woman At Work,'

Such a handsome book about such a brilliant designer.

I mentioned this to Gavin earlier, but a few years ago I heard a cracking talk by Ellen Sandseter in Aarhus on her work on risky play and using VR. I was so impressed by it, I used the work in a new Psychology in Action section in the next edition of Psychology. Sneak peek.

Interesting study this. But I'd also adopt a belt and braces by using an experimental control (non-animal for the meat item) and images for the non-meat menu items to exclude any image effect.

a woman with red hair is sitting in a chair and holding a remote control ALT: a woman with red hair is sitting in a chair and holding a remote control

What’s a film or piece of media you think feels like horror, even though it isn’t technically a horror film? I’m collecting examples of weird, unsettling, disturbing horror‑adjacent texts...

Well, this looks excellent (and funny)

A DOGE staffer assigned to the National Endowment for the Humanities to flag grants for "DEI" tries to explain what "DEI" is. This deposition is part of a lawsuit by the @acls1919.bsky.social, @historians.org and @modernlanguage.bsky.social.

Piglet?

Another Nature Medicine article with highly restrictive data availability statement.

This 18-year-old Afghan girl nearly escaped the Taliban – then we took her visa away She resisted a forced marriage and studied in secret, winning scholarships to leave Kabul and attend a British university. But now the home secretary’s ban on study visas has removed her one chance of...

This 18-year-old Afghan girl had offers from York and Reading – thanks to Shabana Mahmood, she will now never escape the Taliban | The Independent www.independent.co.uk/news/people/...