Sounds like one of those policies that's so counterintuitive there must be some Scandinavian country where it worked surprisingly well.

Common Ground on Animal Ethics – When Anthropology Meets Philosophy The workshop will feature keynote dialogues and paper presentations.

Don't miss this in London on 30 April and 1 May - attempts at "Philosophy meets Anthropology" dialogue are always 🔥🔥🔥.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/common-gro...

A poster in which comedian Diane Morgan says "The meat industry calls gassing pigs humane slaughter - I don't buy it. The pigs get gassed and you get gaslit."

I'm very impressed by Diane Morgan and those few celebs who will put their heads above the parapet to oppose factory farming. I suspect every celeb has an agent saying "just stay out of it" and it takes integrity to listen to the voice of conscience over the voice of the agent.

... tend to reflect computer science adjacency rather than quality of work. But what really means a lot is substantive discussion of your work and ideas, and I've been lucky to receive a lot of that, especially from the emerging animal sentience research community, and I'm grateful for it. (2/2)

I'm reflecting on reaching 5000 career citations. I've seen both sides of citation inequality: my first paper cited 9 times in 17 years, my most recent cited 37 times since November. The meaning of a citation is very different in philosophy and computer science, so tallies for philosophers... (1/2)

DEGREES OF DANGER e S TROUBLING times for UK universities with outposts in Dubai, as students are warned to stay indoors and study online due to what campus leadership is variously describing as, ahem, "regional developments" (De Montfort University) and "the ongoing circumstances" (Middlesex University). De Montfort's campus at Dubai's Internet City has been shut since early March, when missile debris fell nearby, thanks to what it calls, er, "heightened regional tensions". It has reassured students that "UAE maintains strong security infrastructure" and reminds them to rely only on announcements from the UAE government, the university or their home country's foreign affairs advice. "Avoid sharing or acting on unverified information circulating on social media," it warns. Middlesex likewise has encouraged students to stick to the "guidance" issued by state authorities not to photograph or share images of any incidents

or debris to "avoid unnecessary concern or confusion". But there's no mention from any of the UK universities of the risk of arrest, under UAE's harsh "cybercrime" laws, for sharing any information about missile and drone activity, which has seen hundreds of people detained for as little as private messages reassuring family that they're safe after an incident.

UK Universities with campuses in West Asia issue student warnings (minus "war") via Private Eye magazine

Somewhere I should never visit because it's better as a mythical land of wondrous photographs (like Patagonia).

Great review on the validity of abnormal repetitive behaviours as welfare indicators, assessing them against multiple validity tests to show they are (somewhat) robust, and providing potential explanations for observed patterns of failure.
doi.org/10.20944/pre...

The ethics of non-stun animal slaughter | LSE British Politics Religious freedom allows for an exception to the legal requirement of animal stunning, but it doesn't justify the high levels of non-stun slaughter.

UK law requires that animals killed for food should be stunned. An exception is made for religious reasons.

But @birchlse.bsky.social @lsephilosophy.bsky.social @lseanimalsentience.bsky.social argues that the resulting high level of non-stun slaughter is unjustified @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social

Consciousness and the Overton Window of Science, Part 1 — The Brains Blog By Jonathan Birch (See the other posts in this series here!) Part I: Cognitive neuroscience as usual?  In politics, the ‘Overton window’ is the range of positions that can safely r…

Seems well aligned with my philosophyofbrains.com/2023/09/11/c...

#philsky #philosophyforeveryone

Is AI sentient? Professor breaks down the evidence around AI, plant, fish and insect sentience YouTube video by Earthling Ed

Ed Winters interviewed me for his podcast and we spent over 1he covering sentience, why it matters for ethics, how to manage uncertainty, and what to think about the idea of sentient AI. He's good at this - I have to admit the preview image encapsulates me very well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLPF...

'to adopt a totally nonviolent life, makes one immediately vulnerable to lethal violence from others—as vulnerable as a stray dog'

I need to read more Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others I think, to unpick the stray dog framing, but some deeply thoughtful, uncomfortable challenges here 👇🏽

On the tension between liberalism and animal rights My friend and comrade Jonathan Birch has gifted me with another guest post. The first of his, which I also enjoyed, can be found here . I ...

This is a noteworthy specific instance of a more general tension I wrote about last year and continue to think about: sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/09/on-t...

The quandary of non-stun slaughter | LSE British Politics While religious freedom reasons allow for an exception to the legal requirement of animal stunning, that doesn't justify the high levels of non-stun slaughter.

Almost 1 in 3 sheep slaughtered in England are not stunned. It's a case where two important values - animal welfare and religious toleration - collide. But mandatory labelling and an export ban are consistent with religious freedom, I argue, and should be enacted now: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Earth Sciences.

It has been a lifelong dream to be chaired by Coffee itself

sounds legit

I saw some really beautiful forms of life in the woods today.

Nomad bees on the Isle of Anglesey this week 🌊

Thanks!

Loved this book, especially Birch's opening framing, approach to uncertainty, commitment to engaging the public in policy formation, and exploration of edge cases, all written so that a nonspecialist could understand it. Anyone interested in animal welfare should check it out. It's free!

Drones are probably the most impactful technology of the 21st century so far. Both Russia and the US comprehensively thwarted by the hit Christmas toy of 2014.

New open access publication in Topoi! @kristinandrews.bsky.social and I explore the ethics of AI animal translation projects. 🖥️🐬Before we build it, we need to take stock of the ethical implications.
rdcu.be/fbZwv 🧵👇1/13

A pet hate: carbon emissions metrics compute the business vs economy class difference using seat size (irrelevant) rather than revenue contribution (relevant). This leads everyone to greatly overstate the climate impact of regular tourists and to greatly understate the impact of businesses.

I photographed my first Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria) of the year yesterday in Hyde Park 🪺

One of my greatest fears is that I'll read so much giant-subheadings, bold-keywords breathless blather from AI that I will myself become a giant-subheadings, bold-keywords breathless blatherer.

Oat milk always expects to have its consciousness acknowledged before responding.

Another day, another confirmation of my poor English skills.

Me: "Dummett says that some words could just be eliminated, for instance "consciousness" and "ought"."

Other person: "How would we then call oat milk?"

If the 🔥🔥🔥 emoji did not exist it would have been necessary to invent it.