Kevin Mitchell

Spotted a seal noshing on something, being mobbed by some hungry seagulls… 😊🦭

Morning.

I watched 'Network' tonight. Never saw the movie before but I've heard of the "Mad as hell' reference. All I can say is HOLY SHIT. This movie laid out how fucked up everything is and this was 50 years ago. I'm shocked they even let them make this movie.

Can we all just agree that if your evolutionary theory of humans posits we all evolved to have the social values of 1950s American it’s probably wrong? Thanks.

bsky.app/profile/did:...

"A computer can never be held accountable. Therefore a computer should never be allowed to make management decisions."

You could say the same thing about rich people tbph.

In my own contribution to this special issue, I explore how internalised semantic representations could have evolved from simpler pragmatic control policies philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

The concept of "representations" is a central (though often poorly defined) one across many disciplines and is, IMO, the crucial idea linking brains and minds.

Special Issue of @phimisci.bsky.social on Representations in the Neurosciences and AI philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

The emergence of the language system in the toddler brain | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

YouTube video by The Dissenter #854 Naomi Oreskes - The Big Myth; Learning to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

In episode 854, I talk with Dr. Naomi Oreskes about her fantastic book, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market. #History #Economics

youtu.be/g1XYBSL5118

The quest to understand where atoms end Atomic size measurements like van der Waals and covalent radii are central to chemistry, but are they grounded in reality?

Where is the edge of an atom? My article for @chemistryworld.com on efforts to figure out the size of atoms, and why it matters.
www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-que...

My first academic job was in the UK from 2008-2013 (Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!) & I can remember how crystal clearly we were told that most unis would compete on price and not go to 9k, and that students wouldn't be burdened by debt. We all knew it was a joke, but the VC class can't be trusted

Just a reminder that Trump didn't just bumble us into an unnecessary war -- he deliberately created the conditions that he's now screaming about

You couldn’t make this up.
And if you did, everyone would say it’s too much.

Preprint Editors – Development's next step into the preprint landscape Summary: This Editorial announces a call for Preprint Editors in Development to help expand the journal's relationship with preprints by curating our ‘In preprints’ articles.

New from @dev-journal.bsky.social: we're launching a new initiative and hiring Preprint Editors to help navigate the growing world of preprints in developmental & stem cell biology

Join our community & shape the future of research

journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Boophis reticulatus, a brown tree frog with weird ridges on its back, perched on a serrated bright green Pandanus leaf.

Platypelis pollicaris, a little brown narrow-mouth frog with flecks of gold over its body, sitting atop a bright green leaf

A female Calumma oshaughnessyi, a large green and grey chameleon with diagonal stripes up its body, walking along a branch toward camera left.

A portrait of Liopholidophis dolicocercus (sorry if you’re using a system that reads these Latin names aloud!), a black, brown, and bright yellow snake. In my years working with snakes in Madagascar, I think I have never had a more cooperative subject. It was totally calm and posable!

Yesterday we hiked out of the forest after five days totally off-grid. Hard to believe what’s happened in the world in the last five days! I’m quite glad we were out of signal range and able to focus on just excellent frogs and reptiles. 🧪🐸🦎🐍🇲🇬

That one person can drag us into a war without consulting or even notifying Congress, or our allies, or fully explaining to the American people why this is necessary, is absolutely bonkers.

Reminder that Congress has the power to stop this.

Crow: "Friday night, Trump filmed this tough video where he talked about the cost of war & how hard it's gonna be & how we're gonna lose troops, then he literally went behind the curtain & hosted a million dollar a plate dinner & dance party at Mar-a-Lago. That tells you everything you need to know"

I’ve been reading this book by @wiringthebrain.bsky.social and it’s very inspiring and should be a must read for anyone interested in neurodevelopment

bsky.app/profile/cian...

Biblioburro: The amazing donkey libraries of Colombia Travelling with his two loyal donkeys, Alfa and Beto, Luis Soriano has been spreading the joy of reading to children in rural Colombian communities for over 20 years.

You know what’s even better than a library bus? LIBRARY DONKEY

Peer review would be easier if we stopped treating it like combat with the authors. Results want to be free, and perfect is the enemy of good. Do the data support the conclusions? If so, that’s enough. A paper isn’t a blank slate for projecting your own ideas.

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

“Epidemiological data is being used politically and selectively to create a scapegoat for routine infection rates that rise and fall…” says RFK Jr.’s BFF, Leslie Manookian.

No, Leslie. Measles was eliminated in the U.S.

It’s easy to be an anti-vaxxer because you’re not confined to facts.

Nice! It's well past time for us to move past atomistic "gene action"! 👍

Oil and charcoal on canvas, abstract cubist bodies piled together. Description from MOMA site: "With its varying degrees of finish—you can see traces of charcoal and sections of blank canvas—and vast network of undulating lines and geometric shapes, Picasso seems to have obscured legibility in favor of generating a rhythmic abstraction. As if questioning the ability of painting to represent war, he created a shifting, spectral vision."

Picasso's depiction of a fascist massacre, a murdered family unceremoniously tangled together under a dining table.

[Pablo Picasso, The Charnel House, 1944-45]

You still had 100 characters left to use after the text in this post. You could have included this sentence (69 characters).

There is no evidence that ivermectin works as a treatment for cancer.

New episode!! 🎉🎙️

A conversation w/ @melaniemitchell.bsky.social about metaphors and AI.

Are current AI systems like human minds? Or more like alien intelligences, role players, mirrors, libraries, or stochastic parrots? And does our choice of metaphor matter?

Listen: disi.org/manyminds/

Gas prices up by around 50% today.

A painful reminder that relying on imported fossil fuels is a risky strategy.

There's lots of good philosophy that looks like the diagram on the right, but many philosophers really do spend a lot of time on their own little island...

A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.

“In a pair of recent interviews with STAT, Plotkin expressed dismay at seeing the achievements of his career & his field slip away. He knows what lies ahead…
“All I can say is that I’m beginning to regret having lived so long —because we’re going downhill,” Plotkin said” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social