Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
» Full Profile
» Facebook profile
» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- The Overton Window of Deviance
- Shocked, Just Shocked
- Continuing Our Studies of Human Nature…
- Here’s a New One: Terrain Theory
- A Little Knowledge… Is a Dangerous Thing
- Politics and Psychology
- There Is Always Long Term Progress and Short Term Retreat
- Rogue’s Gallery
- This Is What Dictators Do
- Other Shoes Falling
Categories
- Aesthetics
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Bay Area
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Cars
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- conservatives
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Decline
- Economics
- Education
- Epistemology
- Evolution
- Family History
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- History
- Human Nature
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Humor
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Links & Comments
- longtermism
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Musings
- Narrative
- Notes For
- Paperback Sets
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- progress
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Quotes
- Ray Bradbury
- reality
- Religion
- Reviews
- Robert Silverberg
- Robert Wright
- Science
- science fiction
- Science Fiction Nonfiction
- Short Fiction
- Silverberg
- Skiffy Flix
- Social Progress
- Space
- Species Reset
- Spirituality
- Star Trek
- Statistics
- Steven Pinker
- Supernatural
- Technology
- Ten Commandments
- The Book
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- Tribalism
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- November 2024 (22)
- October 2024 (32)
- September 2024 (29)
- August 2024 (37)
- July 2024 (33)
- June 2024 (25)
- May 2024 (31)
- April 2024 (25)
- March 2024 (36)
- February 2024 (32)
- January 2024 (32)
- December 2023 (25)
- November 2023 (31)
- October 2023 (29)
- September 2023 (29)
- August 2023 (31)
- July 2023 (31)
- June 2023 (30)
- May 2023 (28)
- April 2023 (27)
- March 2023 (33)
- February 2023 (29)
- January 2023 (30)
- December 2022 (30)
- November 2022 (29)
- October 2022 (32)
- September 2022 (30)
- August 2022 (30)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (30)
- May 2022 (33)
- April 2022 (32)
- March 2022 (31)
- February 2022 (29)
- January 2022 (31)
- December 2021 (34)
- November 2021 (32)
- October 2021 (31)
- September 2021 (20)
- August 2021 (8)
- July 2021 (13)
- June 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (8)
- March 2021 (25)
- February 2021 (16)
- January 2021 (20)
- December 2020 (10)
- November 2020 (11)
- October 2020 (15)
- September 2020 (13)
- August 2020 (23)
- July 2020 (27)
- June 2020 (11)
- May 2020 (13)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (8)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (12)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (9)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (16)
- January 2019 (3)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (7)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (11)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (8)
- November 2017 (11)
- October 2017 (8)
- September 2017 (14)
- August 2017 (12)
- July 2017 (13)
- June 2017 (15)
- May 2017 (21)
- April 2017 (24)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (22)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (9)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (18)
- May 2016 (11)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (9)
- February 2016 (9)
- January 2016 (18)
- December 2015 (21)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (14)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (16)
- July 2015 (12)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (14)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (19)
- January 2015 (20)
- December 2014 (11)
- November 2014 (15)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (16)
- June 2014 (19)
- May 2014 (34)
- April 2014 (26)
- March 2014 (37)
- February 2014 (27)
- January 2014 (19)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (8)
- October 2013 (10)
- September 2013 (21)
- August 2013 (13)
- July 2013 (6)
Meta
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Personal History, Part 1
My parents were Robert Harry Kelly and Helen Elizabeth Pierce, born 1933 and 1934 respectively. They both grew up in small towns in northwestern Illinois – Cambridge and Kewanee, respectively. (This entire post, and others to follow, are advised IIRC.) … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
Comments Off on Personal History, Part 1
ACE and False Witness
When my company was owned by Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies, we were obliged to implement an ‘operating’ system of process improvement procedures called ACE, “Achieving Competitive Excellence”. From my browsing of favorite websites, I’ve gathered there is another ‘ACE’, Accelerated … Continue reading
Posted in Religion
Comments Off on ACE and False Witness
Varieties of Homophobic Experience
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-joseph/getting-up-close-to-homophobia_b_5264373.html Fascinating essay by a woman who reacts to “an intensely homophobic part of the world: the Caribbean”, and describes how… I’ve actually started engaging homophobes in deep conversation, looking for the reasons, spoken and unspoken, that they feel this … Continue reading
Posted in The Gays
Comments Off on Varieties of Homophobic Experience
Rainbows and the Afterlife
Notes for an idea. Had thought the other day to pursue the metaphor about human life being a transient state of a vast collection of molecules that will eventually collapse and disperse, leaving nothing behind, rather analogous to the way … Continue reading
Trek vs Wars
A long Facebook post by David Gerrold a few days ago captures my own feelings about Star Trek vs Star Wars, and since I can’t figure out how to link it, I’ll quote it below, and hope he doesn’t mind. … Continue reading
Posted in Films, science fiction
Comments Off on Trek vs Wars
Passage from Clarke, 1
Science fiction isn’t about prediction, of course, but some SF authors do take seriously the idea of projecting future possibilities. I’ve read several works by Arthur C. Clarke in the past month, and am rallying my notes on them for … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction
Comments Off on Passage from Clarke, 1
What the Bible Says about Homosexuality
(Posted last night on Facebook) The Bible backs same-sex couples: Point by point, why the haters are wrong Matthew Vines has been around making his case about how the Bible does not in fact condemn same-sex couples for a couple … Continue reading
Blessed Are
This is an old Joan Baez song, from her 1971 album of the same title — an original song by her, after she had passed through her folk music phase and begun composing her own songs. Has some nice lyrics, … Continue reading
Hike to Parker Mesa Overlook
Today’s hike, a longer one, about two hours round trip: Parker Mesa Overlook. http://www.hikespeak.com/trails/parker-mesa-overlook-in-the-santa-monica-mountains/ Same area as the Los Liones hike we did a few weeks ago, starting near the western end of Sunset Blvd near Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
Comments Off on Hike to Parker Mesa Overlook
Tonight’s favorite song: John Grant, Where Dreams Go to Die
Wikipedia has this post about the album. There’s a lyric here — “I know you know I know you know that I know that you know…” * — that illustrates the idea that human minds are able to speculate on … Continue reading
