Recent posts by Computational Cognitive Scientists on Bluesky

My flight to Boston is cancelled (understandable) and for the past 30 min I have been talking to a Delta AI chatbot that is as intelligent as a person who has been huffing paint from birth

'BABE or BABY, n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex, or condition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies and antipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion.' - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

JD Vance's convert energy is off the charts. No one who grew up Catholic would have the audacity to invite the Pope to their holiday party.

Storms make me nervous because my medically fragile kid is not amazing at body temperature regulation and a multi-day power outage is not where he thrives. Happily my parents are in Florida and their house has a generator so we have a place to hunker down!

In case you want a six part podcast documentary series to explain why this is a Bad Idea boy do I have one for you! www.tested-podcast.com

A female Pileated Woodpecker working on a fallen log next to the nature trail.

One of the things I’ve been very curious about over the last few days (I really enjoy) is how, I think the spiders have learned the pattern of when I walk through the pieces of tropical forest, because I see them moving out of my way and then moving back after I pass ❤️ like clearing the way 🕷️🌊!

Female Cardinal Quietly attentive...

Red-bellied Woodpecker If I can't see you, you can't see me...

Modern social media requires massive server farms; water-cooling these sprawling facilities often significantly reduces residential water pressure and creates droughts

Opened the clock app on my phone and realized I left the stopwatch running for over 342 days.

American Mink A little nonplussed...

They didn’t stand a chance #Caturday

Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We just installed an attic ladder, and we’ve discovered there’s hardwood floor under the insulation up there (thought it was just joists). Found this rad old wood crate for “Varnishes,” but no other name or info on it!

Pro-tip: it’s not only for rice; you can cook most grains in a rice cooker.

The Philippines' Mayon volcano - one of the most beautiful active volcano in the world - is erupting, and its about to be sunrise over there. Enjoy the beauty live: www.youtube.com/live/UDAZWxe...

sound on for some of my evening hummingbird shenanigans 🔊 #birds #birding

Steven Tendo is free! (for now at least) www.sevendaysvt.com/news/judge-r...

I could write for days, months, years. I could read decades of sci-fi from the most annoying Golden Age authors. I could peruse the most cringe things on TikTok. And still, I could never come up with the deeply embarrassing things Sam Altman says on any given Tuesday

I wish the self-parodies were at least funny.

Hey @waiterich.bsky.social @mikegrunwald.bsky.social what is regenerative beef?

My sky has it's 2026 usual cloudiness. Last year I made a lot of plans for Autumn/Winter pictures, however the weather had its own plans. No luck this year so far. Although it's months away I'm still hopeful of capturing August's Solar Eclipse. 🔭 🧪 #astrophotography

what does every 4 year old’s birthday party need? it’s obvious: a hand painted depiction of the cat from the oscar-winning latvian animated film Flow on the ceiling

“Vim for writers”? I guess forgetting how to exit your writing app *is* one way to ensure you don’t fuck off and do something else. github.com/preservim/vi...

Hey, what a vile thing to think.

This is a fun reading exercise! I managed to get pretty far with knowing some German and some obsolete letters and saying things out loud!

My new weather app (weatherunderground stopped working) says we'll get less than an inch of snow, but my neighbors, my electric company, weather alert emails, and the rush of shoppers at the grocery store say between 12-17 inches between Sun-Tue. I'm starting to think my new weather app isn't great.

During the breeding season American White Pelicans have a bump on their beak. It's an ornamental display to attract mates, and both females and males have them. This photo was taken in Michigan; these pelicans are primarily found in freshwater lakes and rivers.

8-year-old drew this with markers this morning and instructed my wife and I to “show it to everyone.” I asked if I could share it on Bluesky and he said “are they nice,” and I said “yeah they’re all weirdos like you and they’re nice” and he said “okay.”

Vowing to never read David Brooks again many years ago was one of my best decisions

Historians, I have a question for you. I'm reading some older books that all suggest a shared assumption by historians that in the past (often defined very broadly, but generally from the emergence of humans up through the middle ages-ish) humans had no real conception of "the future." (1/3)

I don’t have the space for a rice cooker and mostly eat Kokuho Rose brown so here’s my approach

PayPal has yet to let me close my account after I had a fraudulent charge and they claimed it wasn't. When I contested it they blocked me from deleting my account. It's been sitting there in that state for over a year now. (Also, I think this is a genAI image, the keyboard is nonsense)

I have two full mugs of coffee in me and I still want to sleep, so it took "chegi" and basically told her "you did not let me sleep now you are sleeping with me whatever you like or not!" She stayed with me for 15 minutes until it basically decided that she wants to sleep alone in the corner... 😅

Gmail, Facebook, even Twitter all provide for bulk data export. The chances that bsky locks this down is basically zero. If you’re angry that no one uses alternatives, then go yell at 1 billion users, not the devs who…<checks notes>.. are LITERALLY BUILDING ALTERNATIVES TO CENTRALIZED APPS. ffs 🙄

Here are three more different Red-tailed Hawks I saw last weekend of the 12 or so I saw while on my drive west. Two in the air and a shy one behind some sticks. #birds #Red-tailedHawk

New Hampshire is Vermont’s Wario

There are signs of other birds coming back to the area which is a hopeful sign that spring may not be too far off. There was a flight of Starlings perched on a wire. #birds #starlings

prepping to make Samin Nosrat's oat and honey dinner rolls (to accompany roasted tomato soup for dinner, as requested by Boy #2) and listening to Jill Scott's new album #SaturdayMorning

When you accidentally walk within a couple feet of a ~5-6 ft gator and are dumb enough to stop and snap a photo. #photography

i worked really hard on this tiktok please clap

Finnish people are cool. My latest obsession: angry Finnish girl. www.tiktok.com/t/ZThqA3b4K/

“Stare. It’s the way to educate your eyes. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” Walker Evans

So much great art to see 🎨

Truly can't imagine a better use of your time and money than traveling to see the world. I am genuinely a better person now for having experienced places like this, a person with more empathy, more resilience, and a broader understanding of the world and the people in it.

When undergrads ask me to write a rec for grad school, I'm thinking of quietly adding a proviso like "absolutely! — I'd be thrilled to write a letter and send it to 𝚞𝚙 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚕𝚜," just because in some cases where it goes north of twenty that's like a part-time job.

Forget the time

Signal boosting an awesome band!

That little basement window in Georgetown 😊

Rainy Saturday

Memorials will do nothing to make up for the lives we should have saved, for the people we should have kept out of the concentration camps.

@morgfair.bsky.social Nice to see you on BlueSky, Morgan🙂

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting.” — Carl Sagan 🎥 @wonderofscience.bsky.social

This is especially true for journalists, media figures and celebrities. Anyone with a big following. There is no excuse not to use alt text.

Seen today at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK. "Still Life" By Silvia Levenson (2015) #PsycSci 📷

#BirdOfTheDay theme is #WaterDroplets A Whooping Crane looking for food and two Mallards having some bath joy.

Social isolation does seem to be increasing, but the loneliness epidemic appears to be vastly overstated ourworldindata.org/loneliness-e... This articles adds some nuance to this important public health debate.

Had a minor panic when I saw my new book edition is probably gonna be about 60 pages longer than the original edition, which is probably more than my publisher wanted. Then I realized that that is roughly 10% longer, which seems not bad. Context matters.

Now I need to find a physics topic to blog about again. Been struggling a bit to find something fun to write about.

Submitted revisions for an optics paper yesterday, and considering the reviews were overall positive and the changes small, hopeful it will get final acceptance. This will be a significant one for me cause the research started somewhere around 2022 for this project.

Yet another good reason to mute or block the trolls in your life These negative social ties--known as 'hasslers"--are chronic stressors and are linked to impaired physical health and faster aging. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"FDA retreats from plan to ban artificial colors in food" In other words, the bribe check cleared.

It was faint so I couldn't hear it clearly, but pretty sure my local coffee shop just played Prisencolinensinainciusol. I would recognize that beat anywhere.

Fascinating to watch some of them struggle with these. Whatever you think of the specific issues I love this format and hope it gets replicated elsewhere.

It’s very unlikely Artemis II will launch in March. NASA announced this morning that due to a helium flow issue in the ICPS (the second stage of the rocket), they will need to roll back SLS to the VAB. This would put the next target launch date at 4/1. www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

My favorite moment of this one is here: youtu.be/LJmkPILudYY?...

A misty dawn... #photography #photo #lake #sunset #nature #rocks #dawn #sunrise #sky #landscape

Attending a “three under the sea” 3rd birthday party and impressed people by having a squid expert on speed dial. Thanks @sarahmackattack.bsky.social for your taxonomic evaluation of the snacks.

It's infuriating that they have to submit to biometric anything, but in order to get social benefits you have to submit to biometric everything.

This plus I really want election coverage in general to dig into candidate's policy positions rather than focusing on horse race coverage.

Look, now you can get trapped in a metal oven and burn to death because the doors won't open even cheaper than ever before

There's just no plan at all in anything he does anymore. It's just pure tantrum.

A short thread of high drama!

Student: What are you going to do on vacation Mr. Freeman, just physics stuff? Me: Oh, yeah, haha Me on vacation: Ooh @veritasium.bsky.social has a video about the Aharonov-Bohm Effect! 🎢⚛️

The strongest version of this illusion I’ve seen! Absolute head-wrecker!

New 150-day Trump Tax.

For those of you in Austin, the UT insect collection is having an open house today, 10-3pm. 3001 Lake Austin Blvd.

Turtles! #Herps - ... Fancy reticulated reflections in the pond

Featuring work by @tukohbin.bsky.social on what numerical relativity can teach us about the Big Bang!

The blind cat decided to sleep in bed. The blind cat wanted to pee, then didn’t want to pee, then wanted to pee again *an infinite cycle*. So I had to stay awake until 3:30 until “Chegi” was finally able to pee in the litter tray. Then I fell asleep until 4:30. How is your morning, lovely ones?...

And yet there is always some idiot in one of these, using a turn lane to pass and cut me off in rush hour traffic.

This polish isn’t really my jam, but it’s called The Narrow Limits of Academia and that delights me so much I’m tempted to get it anyway.

At $80 to $100,000, the Cybertruck is an objectively terrible value for a truck. The only reason to get it is identity-based. If we start seeing them at $35,000, it'll be much harder to know for sure that the driver is a huge loser.

Several replies to my post yesterday unintentionally illustrate the problem with many American gun fans: they think they’re being attacked when they’re not and they lash out like children with no self control. It’s ok to talk honestly about the limits of one gun versus an authoritarian force.

Obviously going for a GARish look 😎👍

Well, that was very satisfying indeed.

Oh dear. So very sorry to hear that.

Common Loon showing off for today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #WaterDroplets (birds with water droplets on them). I love how the droplets are in perfectly straight lines and patterns on the loon's head. #birds #photography

Measles was declared eliminated in 2000* and yet here we are 🙃 *Source: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Book 5 of my book reading and blogging for the year! Conan the Barbarian: A Nest of Serpents, by Jim Zub! skullsinthestars.com/2026/02/21/c...

Pileated Woodpecker Sometimes you need to take the measure of the situation...

Beautiful — Cléa Badaro, Untitled (Paysage), 1950.

My dearly departed dad was quoted in the NY Times today. I miss him and his wisdom so much www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/t...

They've created a tech environment that's just so hostile to elders, y'all..

as the facct rebuttal period is in session, let me repeat what i've always said: critique is service! identifying & mapping the problem space is in & of itself a legitimate scientific contribution. we can’t proceed to “solve” a problem if we don't have a clear & comprehensive understanding of it 1/

LAUNCH at 0904 UTC Feb 21 of Starlink Group 17-25 from Vandenberg Space Force Base

My tax man and I have an adversarial relationship because he is a man of order and paperwork and I am a woman of chaos and deadline anxiety.

One solution to the problems posed here has already been tried: Make OpenAi Coca-Cola, w/the models as cloying, sycophantic, and engagement-optimized as possible, and hope people get addicted to your chatbots and find the others don’t taste right. But that causes many other problems, as we’ve seen.

We are apparently getting somewhere between 2 and 30 inches of snow tomorrow, so I am going to pretend this is just not happening at all. In utter denial. Will not be entertaining the idea, no thank you!