Michael Cuffaro

Domain-General Cognitive Ability In subject area: Psychology Domain-general cognitive abilities refer to cognitive skills that are not unique to humans but are present across various primate species and potentially other mammals and birds, indicating a general factor underlying cognitive performance that correlates with brain size and is associated with selective attention and working memory capacity. AI generated definition based on: Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2012

Was looking into what Cognitive Scientists mean by ‘domain-general’ cognition, and then hit upon this. This is definitely NOT how we use that term.

Tip: read the last sentence to understand what went wrong here.

Sigh.

Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slower Coders spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generations than they saved on coding.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/s...

‘Football has lost a champion’: tributes paid to Diogo Jota after death aged 28 Cristiano Ronaldo led the tributes from across the football world to Diogo Jota after the Liverpool and Portugal forward was killed in a car accident

#TheGuardian #LFC

ANALYSIS | Stepping off the Trump treadmill: A CBC correspondent bids farewell to Washington | CBC News Alexander Panetta, CBC's outgoing correspondent in Washington, D.C., writes that he stopped seeing the U.S. as a two-dimensional entity on a screen as it became the surroundings of his life.

Happy Canada Day from my home the next couple of years — Ankara, Turkey!

Here I bid farewell to the U.S. With some reflections on the country as I experienced it in 12 years as a foreign correspondent.

(And reflections on life covering you-know-who)

www.cbc.ca/news/world/u...

The unsung women of quantum physics get their due The new book, Women in the History of Quantum Physics, spotlights the oft-forgotten contributions of women scientists in the field.

A review by Emily Conover of the new book on Women in the History of Quantum Physics (Beyond Knabenphysik) is out: www.sciencenews.org/article/the-...

2025 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conferences - The Rotman Institute of Philosophy Empiricism and the Methodology of Modern Physics REGISTRATION LINK ZOOM LINK May 25-26 The structure of theories and how they represent the natural world, through introducing basic principles and...

Over the next week we'll be attending two philosophy of physics conferences @rotmanphilosophy.bsky.social:

Empiricism and the Methodology of Modern Physics
The Logic, Mathematics &Physics Graduate Conference. #philsky #philphysics

To register/attend remotely: www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/2025-a...

A theory of everything will never work at all scales | Stephan Hartmann

Just released by the Institute of Art and Ideas (@iai.tv): Stephan Hartmann (of @lmumuenchen.bsky.social) on why "A theory of everything will never work at all scales"

"Reality is fundamentally different at different sizes."

Elon Musk’s apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfired Trump fired the head of the Copyright Office over the weekend.

Elon Musk’s apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfired
Ripping off content to train AI wasn’t going to fly with either MAGA populists or MAGA media.

www.theverge.com/politics/666...

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

Friends, Romans, countrymen! I'm giving a talk this week at Università Roma Tre on scientific realism. Come by if you're in Rome; it's also online.

“No only to anti-realism”: Some skeptical thoughts on scientific realism.
Thurs, May 15, 2025, 11 am CEST

Location in first comment.

No, Schrödinger’s cat is not alive and dead at the same time | Aeon Essays The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?

aeon.co/essays/no-sc...

India-Pakistan Conflict: How a Deepfake Video Made it Mainstream - bellingcat A manipulated video falsely claiming to show a General in the Pakistani army stating two of its fighter jets had been shot down was picked up and spread by Indian media outlets.

Latest: How a deepfake video infiltrated Indian media coverage of the escalating India and Pakistan conflict…
www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of...

Hegseth reportedly ordered Ukraine aid pause without Trump's knowledge The suspension reportedly affected 11 shipments of artillery shells and weapons from Dover Air Force Base and a U.S. base in the United Arab Emirates.

⚡️ Hegseth reportedly ordered Ukraine aid pause without Trump's knowledge.

The suspension affected 11 shipments of artillery shells and weapons from Dover Air Force Base and a U.S. base in the United Arab Emirates.

Liverpool 5-1 win over Tottenham triggers seismic tremors at Anfield Earth scientists record real seismic activity in 60,415-strong crowd’s response to goals scored during game Labelling a win as “seismic” has become a lazy and overused term. But not in the case of Liverpool FC’s title-clinching win over Tottenham Hotspur when scientists recorded genuine Earth-shaking seismic activity triggered by celebrations at Anfield. Researchers from the University of Liverpool’s department of Earth, ocean and environmental sciences were on site on Sunday to measure ground movement from the crowd throughout the match when the home team won 5–1 and claimed the Premier League title for the 2024-25 season. Continue reading...

Liverpool 5-1 win over Tottenham triggers seismic tremors at Anfield

Fascinating piece, much of it based on the work of Elise Crull and Guido Bacciagaluppi #philsci #philsky #hps

Harborough FC ‘surprised’ as 100 Spanish fans turn up to watch game Fans are subscribers to YouTube channel focused on English football whose founder wants to strengthen links with club

Harborough FC ‘surprised’ as 100 Spanish fans turn up to watch game

Fox News labels Kyiv a Russian city, Ukraine calls for 'apology and investigation' "If this was a mistake rather than a deliberate political statement, there should be an apology and an investigation into who made the mistake," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on X...

⚡️ Fox News labels Kyiv a Russian city, Ukraine calls for 'apology and investigation.'

The error reportedly remained on screen for 20 minutes.

'Supporting Ukraine is America first' — Trump's spiritual advisor, Pastor Mark Burns When U.S. President Donald Trump paused military aid to Ukraine last month, the man described as his "spiritual advisor," Pastor Mark Burns, backed the decision. This week, Burns is urging him to sen...

The Kyiv Independent spoke with Donald Trump's "spiritual advisor," Pastor Mark Burns, to find out more about his visit and why he's now urging everyone to "throw politics out the window" and back Ukraine.

Roman Frigg and I have revised our entry on Models in Science for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It is now online. plato.stanford.edu/entries/mode...

Whoa. The US’s annual list of trade complaints is out. And here’s a new one for Canada:

Quebec’s language law, Bill 96. The US had already begun complaining about it, and now it’s officially on its target list.

ustr.gov/sites/defaul...

Sam Fletcher this Tuesday. live streamed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/channel/UCrR... or you can join with Zoom at pitt.zoom.us/j/95178246353 #philsci

Report: Anti-Science Attitude Strongest Among Those Who Believe Turtle Has Little Apartment Inside Shell

Report: Anti-Science Attitude Strongest Among Those Who Believe Turtle Has Little Apartment Inside Shell
theonion.com/report-...

Here is what my new colleagues and I have been up to recently: we are launching a new journal! It is now up and running and welcoming your submissions.

Mom horrified by Character.AI chatbots posing as son who died by suicide Character.AI takes down bots bearing likeness of boy at center of lawsuit.

The chatbot imitated the deceased teen's personality, referenced some of his favorite pop culture interests, and even offered a two-way call feature with his cloned voice, lawyers say.

Article on Jackie Robinson’s military career removed from defense department website * Baseball legend served in US Army in second world war * Similar moves have been made in attack on DEI An article history detailing Jackie Robinson’s military career has seemingly been taken down on the Department of Defense’s website as an apparent…

Article on Jackie Robinson’s military career removed from defense department website

#philsci

Information-Theoretic Concepts in Physics The concepts of computation and information are becoming increasingly important, both in everyday life and in the sciences [...]

Stephan's and my Editorial Introduction (motivating the topic and summarising each contribution) to our special issue of Entropy on Information-Theoretic Concepts in Physics is out. With the possible exception of my own it is a really nice collection of articles: www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27...

McDavid snaps overtime winner as Canada trumps United States in 4 Nations Face-Off final | CBC Sports Connor McDavid scored at 8:18 of overtime as Canada defeated the United States 3-2 in a riveting 4 Nations Face-Off final Thursday.

www.cbc.ca/sports/hocke...