theonion.info

What are we explaining, and is it what we are trying to explain?
(Available open access)

Amazing work by voters of Hungary today. Ending democratic backsliding requires a public that chooses to embrace democratic norms and reject autocracy - and the Hungarian people did just that.
Since my recent work explores authoritarianism, thought I'd share some observations from the literature:

🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences.

Steps to counter this are in motion.

If you
- have an SBE proposal under review
- serve on an SBE grant panel

You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2

During this incredible, unifying moment of inspiring international cooperation and spectacular technological achievement, I would really appreciate it if the US president would stop threatening to murder an entire country with bombs.

“Why would you expect me to remember that?” Thomas Kuhn and the uses of oral history AIP History Weekly Edition: April 3, 2026

In today's AIP History Weekly Edition @janpotters.bsky.social looks at Tom Kuhn's frustrations interviewing ~100 physicists for the landmark Sources for History of Quantum Physics project. An important lesson in what we want from oral history and what it can give us.
📷Niels Bohr & Homer Dodge #HPS

Federal employees are not ok A new survey shows collapsing federal employee morale

New, from me: The federal government is required to track job satisfaction among its employees.
The Trump admin stopped collecting the data, so a nonprofit stepped in.
The results show that a collapse in morale and zero trust in Trump agency leaders. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/federal-em...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers say they'll change name of César Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day following sexual abuse allegations.

Picked my bracket the scientific way, running a bunch of simulations on an xgboost model based on 20 years of tournament data; eyeballing the results; deciding I don’t like them; and picking based on logos, mascots, and previous teaching affiliations.

The Removed DOGE Deposition Videos Have Already Been Backed Up Across the Internet On Friday a judge ordered those who uploaded the videos to YouTube to remove them. By Saturday, a backup of the videos was available online as a torrent and on the Internet Archive.

torrents are undefeated:

www.404media.co/the-removed-...

I've made some small revisions to my Genetic Drift entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy... probably not worth checking out if you have seen the entry before, but if you haven't seen it, might be worth checking out!

plato.stanford.edu/entries/gene...

🐋🌱 #evolsky #evobio #popbio

SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26

NO - 41%
YES - 38%
UNSURE - 21%

The Secretive Company Filling Video Game Sites With Gambling And AI After being sold to Clickout Media, sites like GamesHub, The Escapist, Videogamer, and others have added gambling and casino stories and AI content

This is why you support independent media.

Portrait of Bill Wimsatt

I’m excited to finally announce a Festschrift SI at Acta Biotheoretica honoring the work of Bill Wimsatt with the SI’s first publication by @consume.red and @philosofir.bsky.social! The editors (@caitlinmace.bsky.social and I) are delighted! #philsci #hpbio link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I wrote a paper with @philosofir.bsky.social about the relationship between the work of Bill Wimsatt & Mark Wilson. We talk about their shared interest in knowing how limited beings know a complex world, and explore the deep sympathies between the answers they find. You can read it here :^

The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM In one email, an AI researcher suggested it’s “hard to be brilliant if you are worrying if you look fat or why another woman hates you.”

19thnews.org/2026/02/epst... “During his [Summers’] time as [Harvard] president he was also scrutinized for the lack of women in tenured positions. The Guardian reported that under his reign the share of tenured positions offered to women fell from 36 percent to 13 percent.”

“no really smart women - - -none”

that’s right

A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study.

The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.

PhD Scholarship

My Centre is a unique place to do a PhD in Philosophy, because you can be in constant contact with experts in veterinary medicine, psychology, zoology and policy and be part of a team united by a shared interest in animal minds. We now have our 1st ever PhD scholarship: www.lse.ac.uk/sentience/phd

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

Stats

Journal metrics: impact factor, cite score, and downloads on the rise, processing time shrinking, and an acceptance rate that does not make you lose the will to submit. #philsky #philpsy

GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

whoa excited to revisit @iphilluh.bsky.social and rejoin the #SOCRATESgroup as a fellow this coming spring and summer!! very grateful 🥹

ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA A DAY OF TRUTH & FREEDOM

MINNESOTA: Friday is a statewide day of non-violent moral action and reflection. That means no work, no school, and no shopping — only community, conscience, and collective action.

Plus, there will be a peaceful march and rally in downtown Minneapolis: iceoutnowmn.com

FDA deletes warning on bogus autism therapies touted by RFK Jr.‘s allies The agency used to warn of chelation, used by RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine ally David Geier.

There’s a big story everyone is missing—but this article hits on it.

We aren’t just seeing public health dismantled bc we’ve been taken over by conspiracy theorists and lunatics.

What we’re really seeing is the giant, predatory, underegulated wellness industry come to Washington.

hi, political philosopher here! this is not funny, central banks only do this when they're in extreme distress

This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.

AIDE Summer AI + Data Ethics (AIDE) Summer is intended for graduate students with advanced training in applied ethics, ethical theory, philosophy of science, metascience, epistemology, or other areas with potenti...

Thanks to generous funding from the @sloanfoundation.bsky.social, John Basl and I are thrilled to be running the AI and Data Ethics summer school in 2026! ~12 graduate students, $10k stipend, 9 weeks to learn about scientific and ethical issues raised by AI. Please apply! aidesummer.org