Here's a talk in which I tell the full story of how I discovered the central secret of the ancient "mystery religion" of Mithraism! Based on my book, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World (Oxford Univ. Press). youtube.com/watch?v=ezr71f…

What makes me laugh most loudly about the responses by gender ideologues to #CassReview is their protestations that the report cannot be evidence based, because Dr Cass and her team of academics rejected the evidence of so many substandard papers. In their groping dimness, what

First they came for Uyghurs And I did not speak out Because I didn't see anything on social media. Then they came for the Ukrainians And I did not speak out, Because they’re white. Then they came for the Iranian women without a hijab And I did not speak out Because I'm not

The trends that Jonathan Haidt & I first highlighted in Coddling have only gotten worse. The data on the mental health consequences of "social justice fundamentalism" (Tim Urban's term) should serve as a stark warning & a call-to-action for a major course correction in higher ed.

Would refusing to talk to Daniel Kahneman when he was at Hebrew U have made the world a better place? If I stopped corresponding with 93-year-old Nobelist Robert Aumann about his groundbreaking work in game theory, would Palestinians be better off? The Academic Boycott of

Democrats Deny Basic Biology In Push To Change Gender Of Children Governor Gavin Newsom’s allies have passed legislation to block schools from telling parents when their kids think they’re the opposite sex For the last 30 years, Democrats have attacked Republicans and others as

Columbia University Task Force on Antisemitism: "One professor encountering a Jewish-sounding surname while reading names before an exam asked the student to explain their views on the Israeli government's actions in Gaza. Another told their class to avoid reading mainstream

The March of Dimes Syndrome | When a problem is mitigated, activists have to deny the progress, magnify micro-problems, or pivot to a new problem to stay in business. city-journal.org/article/the-ma…

Kant's public lectures. The painting is in the Kant Museum in Kaliningrad. Kant's open lectures were published. Among Kant's lectures that were open to everyone were on anthropology, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and pedagogy. #Kant #lectures

"Emotion...reflects the changing value of different actions given our bodily state...It is a kind of marker of our embodied attunement (or lack of it) to the world." Andy Clark shows us how predictive processing and embodiment give rise to experience: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608016/t…

Talk at Heterodox Academy on astronomy (and its unfortunate politicization) by Beatriz Villarroel Beatriz Villarroel

While slavery was common to all civilizations, only one civilization developed a moral revulsion against it: Western Civilization “Rather than be ashamed as Westerners, we should stand proud for having led the world out of a mentality where slavery was the norm.” 🔥🔥🔥

The one thing linguistic prescriptivists and pedants are correct on is that "begs the question" should not be used as a synonym for "raises the question". Hold the line comrades.

Be thankful for small mercies!

Robert Irwin's Untitled (1968), at the UC Berkeley Art Museum.

Eva Hesse's work on display at the UC Berkeley Art Museum. Vicky said they were deliquescent. I said that like the narrator's "good" leg in Beckett's *Molloy*, they had begun to stiffen.

nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/nato…

THREAD: The Double Standard at UPenn UPenn sanctioned Amy Wax, a tenured professor, for "racism" and "unprofessional conduct." Meanwhile, antisemitic, anti-American faculty face no similar consequences and have full classes next semester. The hypocrisy is stunning 🧵

A New Year's rant, for 2025 😊:

Here's the greatest example of a town coming together to give all of their kids a play-based childhood: Piedmont Unplugged. They're doing all 4 norms! Check out their "free play Friday" -- kids just meet at a local park! Try it in your town. piedmontunplugged.org