Interesting - those who've experienced greater hardship may become more susceptible to conspiracy theories when it results in them seeing the world as fundamentally unfair: Dr Daniel Jolley & Dr. Laura Blackie working from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social & @cumbriauni.bsky.social tinyurl.com/yp79992w

I'll be at Raworths Salon North in September talking about why humans are drawn to the supernatural. Professor Adam Zeman will talk about imagination & @maddipow.bsky.social will talk about women in psychology. See you there! thestrayferret.co.uk/event/rawort...

Raworths Salon North: September - The Stray Ferret

Get ready for a night of curiosity, creativity and unexpected connections. This September, Raworths Salon North dives into the extraordinary inner workings of the human mind, exploring how our brains...

thestrayferret.co.uk

'Abigail' Highly recommended. Do you like good characters, great creature & makeup effects, and a new twist on an old theme? Here is your evening's entertainment.

I thought they used beans, but whatever ...

My latest from @newhumanist.bsky.social

New Humanist@newhumanist.bsky.social · 3w ago

In a way, it's not that surprising that AI agents have already founded their own religion. But how much can we read into it?

Being a Dead Can Dance fan is like being in a secret society. There are many of us, but our affiliation isn't a matter of public record & we meet each other in unusual places. When you find a fellow DCDer, there are knowing nods & exchanges of titles in case you have the same favourite.

Great talk from Professor Joseph Uscinski at @GreenwichSitP about institutional erosion - how people's faith fails and the consequences for us all.

Anyone in London on 22 July, why not join us @treadwells-books.bsky.social for a soirée about 'performing magnetism'? www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/mag...

Magnetism in the 19th Century – Talk & Soirée | Treadwells

A panel of scholars explore the cultural power of magnetism across entertainment, medicine and magic. Drinks follow.

treadwells-london.com

... I would like to suggest that Hurtmore Bottom is added to The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Diagnosis 2/2 h/t @sili_faces

Following my *excellent* suggestion that Titz in Germany and Ars in France should be twinned ... 1/2

6/6 But I think we're just seeing the numbers of people who, in the past, would never have had young if they had had the choice. And when you give people birth control ... it seems they use it.

5/6 I suspect we are left with a residual birth rate that represents people who have that abstract desire for young. It's probably malleable with financial support, social myths etc.

4/6 For any animals - and that includes humans - you need two strong drives: to have sex, and to care for your young when they pop out. Until recently sex was an unnegotiable deal: you had sex, you had young. But our technology has changed the terms. tinyurl.com/7pptay8h

The Cost of Loving: falling birthrates, and the increased role of personal choice in procreation - The Skeptic

Jordan Peterson believes falling birthrates are part of a self-hating environmentalist genocide, but it's more likely that people are having fewer babies out of personal choice

tinyurl.com

3/6 So why would the abstract desire to have young be the prime motivator in breeding? It's not that it doesn't *ever* exist (it clearly does). It's that it often doesn't ... and that *it didn't traditionally need to*. tinyurl.com/7pptay8h

The Cost of Loving: falling birthrates, and the increased role of personal choice in procreation - The Skeptic

Jordan Peterson believes falling birthrates are part of a self-hating environmentalist genocide, but it's more likely that people are having fewer babies out of personal choice

tinyurl.com

2/6 There are very-few-to-zero drives in animals that focus on an abstract future & get us to work towards it. On the contrary, humans sweat to develop skills like planning, diligence & delayed gratification. Nature's pay-offs are usually pretty quick. tinyurl.com/7pptay8h

The Cost of Loving: falling birthrates, and the increased role of personal choice in procreation - The Skeptic

Jordan Peterson believes falling birthrates are part of a self-hating environmentalist genocide, but it's more likely that people are having fewer babies out of personal choice

tinyurl.com

1/6 Why have birth rates been declining asks @theatlantic.com? tinyurl.com/yj4a65r8. Government financial support doesn't work over certain limits: something else is happening. Is it a lack of meaning, an existential ennui? I don't think so - and wrote about it in @skeptic.org.uk.

The Great Depopulation

Why is the birth rate declining in every country on Earth?

tinyurl.com

I've recently started an Instagram account- if anyone would like to follow me I can be found at @nearlyknowledgeable_1994 It would be great to see some of you over there! #folklore #folktales #history #localhistory #medieval #churchcrawling #Folkhorror

A man had his phone stolen by a monkey at a Bali temple, only to find the simian scamp had taken selfies & made a video. tinyurl.com/y8pd2nc2. He was lucky not to be charged for the phone's safe return: see my article for @skeptic.org.uk deborahhyde.com/monkey-busin...

Monkey steals man's phone and take selfies on it before it was retrieved

A monkey stole a tourist’s phone at Uluwatu Temple in Bali and kept it for over an hour before it was recovered. While missing, the device captured selfies and video of the macaque. 19-year-old Oliver...

tinyurl.com

Folks - watch 1883. It's the best TV I have seen for a long, long time. And stay hydrated, because you will cry.

Tomorrow night, online. Come along for some poltergeist fun. All ticket money supports the charity bit.ly/flaevents

The Folklore Library & Archive@folklorelibrary.bsky.social · last mo.

#Poltergeists are fascinating. Join us on Saturday to find out just how fascinating, as @deborahhyde.bsky.social leads an exploration into their strange #history. 8pm UK time. Tickets £5, from bit.ly/flaevents Ticket holders get a link to a recording, so don't let your timezone hold you back!

#Poltergeists are fascinating. Join us on Saturday to find out just how fascinating, as @deborahhyde.bsky.social leads an exploration into their strange #history. 8pm UK time. Tickets £5, from bit.ly/flaevents Ticket holders get a link to a recording, so don't let your timezone hold you back!

With hardly any media coverage one of Britain’s few world-leading sectors is, right now, being decimated. The university funding model does not work and anti-immigrant hysteria has deprived the country of the means by which we met the shortfall: international students.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2

The ice-cream van in Ealing is shut, due to overheating. Not over-eating ... overheating. #ContradictionInTherms

This Saturday! Join us for an exploration of what lies behind cases like #Enfield, #Battersea, the Bell Witch... what are #poltergeists and why are we so intrigued by them? Find out with the fabulous @deborahhyde.bsky.social in the next FLA Online talk. Just £5 from bit.ly/flaevents #poltergeist

The first thing on today's list was to water the garden. Nice when the elements get cracking on your agenda before you do.

Has anybody else put the air-conditioning on for the dog and then caught them sunbathing in the garden?

Poltergeist cases have fascinated me for as long as I can remember, so I'm looking forward to the excellent @deborahhyde.bsky.social's deep dive into this intriguing subject. Ticket holders get a recording, too! #poltergeist #ghost #enfield #batterseapoltergeist #flaonline #folklore #cryptid #woo

The Folklore Library & Archive@folklorelibrary.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Don’t forget out next online talk is on Saturday week, and it’s all about poltergoosts… wooooo! Tickets include a video replay. Book now for a fiver (plus EventBrite fee) bit.ly/flaevents

Today we went to see the donkeys and this one was happier about being cuddled than it appears in this photo. Last time I went, I inadvertently electrocuted one on the nose by leaning on the fence. I think they may have been talking about me in the interim.

Are UFO's caused by demons? At least one exorcist thinks so. #doubleMumboJumbo tinyurl.com/4hp83m86

Priest removed as exorcist after his comments on UFOs and demons

Monsignor Stephen Rossetti had suggested that UFO sightings were the work of demons.

tinyurl.com

✨️ New online: Artificial intelligence agents seem to have created their own religion, Crustafarianism. But is that possible? @deborahhyde.bsky.social investigates

Prophet bots

Artificial intelligence agents seem to have created their own religion, Crustafarianism. Is that possible?

newhumanist.org.uk