Aivars Cīrulis, PhD

Minimum wages in 2026: Who earns the most in Europe? Minimum wages vary widely across Europe. Euronews Business takes a closer look at them in both euro and purchasing power terms as of early 2026.

www.euronews.com/business/202...

When psychological elites dismiss questions about ideological influences on research as improper ad hominem attacks, they either fail to apply their own theories to themselves or are claiming a privileged epistemic vantage point—a claim for which they have yet to produce a compelling justification.

'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans Only recently described by science, the mysterious mushrooms are found in different parts of the world, but they give people the same exact visions.

Mycology is amazing. "Every year, doctors at a hospital in the Yunnan Province of China brace themselves for an influx of people with an unusual complaint. The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures..." www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Uppsala University - 56
Lund University - 80
University of Kiel - 201-250
University of Latvia - 601-800
www.timeshighereducation.com/world-univer...

Politico has an article about how and why the new University of Austin, founded as an "antiwoke" school, is going down the drain. The reason is because it's explicitly embracing an ideology, and doing that is inimical to a good education.

whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/01/19/u...

The second installment of Scott Ritchie's favorite bird photos of 2025.

whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/01/16/r...

ICE Prosecutor Who Runs Racist X Account Returns to Dallas Immigration Court James Rodden, identified by the Observer last year as the operator of an account that routinely posted hateful statements, appeared to be back at work Tuesday.

Update from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: James Rodden, the attorney for ICE which we identified as the operator of a white supremacist account on X, is back on the job in a Dallas immigration court.

Photos of Atlantic puffins by Neil Dawe (taken on an island just off the west coast of the UK):

whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/01/11/r...

“Focus like a laser on merit!” My Interview with The German Skeptics

"Almost anything in social science should be treated skeptically – with few exceptions. Only when findings survive, despite having been treated skeptically over a long time, do they become credible."

Fantastic beasts: ‘giant’ springtails (Collembola) highlight convergent evolution and major changes in the superfamily Neanuroidea Abstract. Collembola are often regarded as inconspicuous fauna inhabiting, but not restricted to, leaf litter, soils, and rotting wood. Within rotting wood

Fantastic beasts: ‘giant’ springtails (Collembola) highlight convergent evolution and major changes in the superfamily Neanuroidea url: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
Beautiful animals! :)

Opinion | ICE's violence is no accident Alan Elrod: The killing of a woman by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis was the raw application of Trumpist authoritarianism.

"ICE has waged a recruitment drive drenched in war metaphors and martial imagery. The type of person sought...is someone with a fervor for guns and an eagerness to apply violence."

Good work by @aselrod.bsky.social putting shooting in context of MAGA's violent ethos:
www.ms.now/opinion/ice-...

Feminist Lesbians as Anti-Trans Villains: A Comment on Worthen and Elaboration - Sexuality & Culture In her recent article published in Sexuality & Culture, “This is my TERF! Lesbian Feminists and the Stigmatization of Trans Women,” Worthen focuses on feminist lesbians and their alleged “anti-trans” ...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Quasi-Darwinian mechanisms: Ecological inheritance and cumulative culture Download Citation | Quasi-Darwinian mechanisms: Ecological inheritance and cumulative culture | There is a remarkable change in the human archaeological record of the Late Pleistocene. It is one of ec...

"As beliefs acquire social functions, it can become more important to believe what others believe than to believe what is true. Very costly belief systems can become entrenched in a community, given the great costs of losing the trust of one’s peers."

Maduro is a brutal and oppressive dictator of Venezuela.

Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law.

Both of those facts are simultaneously true.

Archives of Sexual Behavior The official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR), Archives of Sexual Behavior publishes scientific research on sex, gender, and ...

The full issue with the other commentaries is published here: link.springer.com/journal/1050...

Liberals Should Read the HHS Review of Pediatric ‘Gender Affirming’ Care | Opinion Conservatives and liberals alike can agree that all people, and especially children, deserve ethical, evidence-based care.

"it is worth noting that we, along with most of the other authors, are liberals... those of us on the left side of the political spectrum need to pay special attention"

If you say so Bluesky expert..

New paper in Fishes 📄
We examine how Anisakidae infection intensity affects condition and energy reserves in Eastern Baltic cod.
🔗 www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/11...
@MDPIOpenAccess
#MarineBiology #Parasitology #BalticSea #OpenAccess

Tribalism Corrupts Politics (Even When One Side Is Worse) Opposing the far right isn’t an excuse to indulge our tribal instincts.

Opposing the far right isn’t an excuse to indulge our tribal instincts (literally half my posting on this site, but better stated by @danwphilosophy.bsky.social)
www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/tribalism-...

Standardized Admission Tests Are Not Biased. In Fact, They’re Fairer Than Other Measures This article challenges common misconceptions, providing robust scientific evidence that standardized admission tests are fair, unbiased, and accurate predictors of academic success, ultimately arguin...

"If scientists were to find that a medical condition is more common in one group than in another, they would not automatically presume the diagnostic test is invalid or biased... Sadly, however, that is not the case with standardized tests"

If it makes you feel better about yourself..

Want to try to use your brain more?

If you refer to me as she, then you pronoun people are funny 🤣 The difference between "progressive" activists and normal people is that we know who we are and we don't need to convince neither ourselves nor others ;D

It's based on the phenotype.

Yes, as to the phenotypic sex (recorded sex of an individual at birth), I describe it in the article as bimodal, not binary. Soon a paper will come out in Fishes where we could not sex all the individuals for that matter.

Into rare cases they reproduce. According to your what is the sex of an individual, they are female since they have female sex characteristics.

So how does sperm and egg is not binary? Sexual reproduction happens between these two cells and that's what biologists mean by biological sex, which is binary at the very basic level experienced by the tree of life under anisogamy.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

According to your logic then almost nothing is binary, but you are mixing the concepts. Before you could not understand the binary of being part of a species or not. Having two types of gametes is binary, however when it comes to phenotypes it's not so simple, that's what I mean in my article...

Having no gametes is not a third type of gamete, therefore no sex can take place, however it obviously creates a third category, sperm, eggs and nothing. E.g., you can choose between two restaurants, go to both or don't go. Not going to a restaurant is not a third restaurant, but it's an option...