Anthony Atkinson

‘I wish I could push ChatGPT off a cliff’: professors scramble to save critical thinking in an age of AI As AI has upended the way students learn, academics worry about the future of the humanities - and society at large

www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

The first lesson of war is ‘know your enemy’ – and Britain’s enemy now is Donald Trump | Simon Tisdall As the Iran disaster escalates, the US president should be seen as an enemy whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdal...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

FFS

I'm SO tired of people looking for "the neuroscience of X" (meaning uninformative neuroimaging pictures) when *the psychology of X* is right there, doing a perfectly good job...

Why are so many academics in the Epstein files? It’s not just about money | Christopher Marquis In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A short note to Kristi Noem To a current Cabinet secretary from a former one

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.

The No Body Problem: Intelligence and Selfhood in Biological and Artificial Systems osf.io/preprints/ps...

After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel | Janine di Giovanni It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned, says war correspondent and author Janine di Giovanni

"I know state terror when I see it. It is not just Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Russia’s FSB or Egypt’s National Security Agency. It’s lawyers in suits and bureaucrats at desks and journalists spinning a narrative so the truth is distorted.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place. Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it." With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike, It is so ORDERED. SIGNED this 31st day of February, 2026. 7um Jing FRED BIERY UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE Credit: Bystander Matthew 19:14 John 11:35 There is also the photo of the boy from the viral stories included.

Federal judge has ordered the release of Liam Ramos (the bunny hat boy) and his father. A brief and rather remarkable order. Clearly written to be shared widely, so please do. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

And if he had played no role at all in helping people, he would still merit the right to life under the rule of law and his wrongful death would still be murder. In our shared humanity we are all equals.

Yes, a strongly felt admonishment to what Trump said. Good. But he clearly weasels out of giving a straight answer to the question of whether he would ask Trump to apologise - by saying that if he had said what Trump had said, he would apologise. Argh.

Congressman Huffman from california. indeed.

🚨 New paper out in Science Advances 🚨
With @suryagayet.bsky.social and @peelen.bsky.social, in two fMRI studies we investigate mental object rotations that are driven by the scene context, rather than purely by cognitive operations. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How the brain predicts objects in a changing world | Radboud University In everyday life, we often encounter objects that are partially hidden or only seen from the corner of our eye. Our brain is remarkably good at keeping track of objects, and new research reveals how t...

New research from @peelen.bsky.social, shows our brain actively predicts how they should look based on the 3D structure of the environment. Even when objects are temporarily hidden from view, their expected orientation can be decoded from activity in the visual cortex. 👇

www.ru.nl/en/donders-i...

Meanwhile, senior management teams are hellbent on asserting (not testing, asserting) the overwhelming virtues of generative AI for students and “the student experience”. If we vacate this dispute without pragmatic pedagogic and ethical research, universities are sunk.

Banner advertising the joint EPC-APCV conference in Auckland, 1st-4th July 2026.

I'm excited to be organising the joint EPC*-APCV^ meeting in Auckland this year, with @sampendu.bsky.social @courtneybhilton.bsky.social @paulcorballis.bsky.social & Chris Erb.

Info here!
visualneuroscience.auckland.ac.nz/epc-apcv-2026/

*Experimental Psych. Conference
^Asia-Pacific Conf. on Vision

Europe needs a dramatic strategic revolution - now: historian Robert Kagan YouTube video by The Nerve

NEW | VIDEO

‘Europeans need to understand that it’s over’: historian Robert Kagan talks to @carolecadwalla.bsky.social about Trump’s coming ‘dictatorship’, the end of the western alliance - and why Keir Starmer needs to change course, fast

Prefer to read? 🔗⬇️

youtu.be/0goGamFRtO0

Primates’ same-sex sexual behaviour ‘may reinforce bonds amid environmental stress’ Behaviour among non-human species could help keep groups together in face of social challenges, says study

A new study in @nature.com demonstrates the prevalence of same-sex sexual behaviour in primates (59 species) and its possible ecological and social functions. My comments on the study feature at the end of this coverage in @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...?

Making faces Facial expressions are produced through a coordinated system of voluntary and emotional pathways

Our Science Perspective on Ianni et al - neural control of facial expressions involves voluntary pathways

@jamiewhitehouse.bsky.social

www.science.org/eprint/EKJTZ...

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say

EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Conscious awareness, sensory integration, and evidence accumulation in bodily self-perception | PNAS Conscious awareness refers to the subjective experience of perceiving, thinking, and feeling and the ability to report these experiences. These per...

Happy to share our new and groundbreaking study on the relationship between conscious awareness and the sense of bodily self! With @brainself.bsky.social at @ki.se and out today in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A Faculty Member’s Self-Evaluation at the End of the Semester Dear Committee Members, As part of the faculty review process, I am pleased to report to you on my work. In this letter, I will offer information ...

"Under my leadership, we have instituted an assessment program where we assess how we assess what we already assessed, using learning outcomes that include all of the buzzwords someone in admin told us were important."

Finally, the 12th issue of the 50th anniversary series (tinyurl.com/ayb66xvs) reviews the JEP:HPP’s policies on research transparency and looks back at all the 27 articles in this series. Thanks everyone for reading and contributing!

I know there are a lot of worse things in other parts of the world but what is happening in Vietnam breaks my heart. My family in the South is safe but Northern and Central regions are facing flooding and landslides.

The most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by climate crisis.

What AI doesn’t know: we could be creating a global ‘knowledge collapse’ | Deepak Varuvel Dennison The long read: As GenAI becomes the primary way to find information, local and traditional wisdom is being lost. And we are only beginning to realise what we’re missing

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

Durham’s Lumiere festival was a beacon of hope and togetherness – we cannot let the lights go out on the rest of the arts The UK’s culture sector needs financial, political and public support to survive. Funding is not a ‘favour’. It is an investment in imagination, in our shared experience – and in inspiration and joy

On the demise of a shining light in the local arts here in northeast England and of funding of the arts more generally in the UK. Sad and shameful 😢 …

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

So, lots of people picking up Kevin's post to declare all Evolutionary Psychology/ists misogynistic pervs. And I get why but look:
I trained in Evo Psych. I trained in Behavioural Ecology too which maybe helps but I came into academia an enthusiastic researcher of sexual selection.
1/

A shout out to my Durham University colleagues Lynda @drboothroyd.bsky.social and Linda Lidborg, authors of the study you refer to that pours evidential cold water over the ‘feminine body traits signal reproductive potential’ claim. Nice work!

There is a thriving shadow economy in Britain – but migrants are not to blame | Emily Kenway Labour is desperately trying to mimic Reform’s line on the cash economy, says former policy adviser Emily Kenway

There is a thriving shadow economy in Britain – but migrants are not to blame | Emily Kenway