Monthly Archives: November 2019

Isaac Asimov: THE EARLY ASIMOV (1972)

Posted on Monday 18 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a book I’d never read before, and debated recently about whether to ever read it. On the one hand, life is too short to read every book one might have accumulated, and this book consists, frankly, of all … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Sustainability and Rural Living

Posted on Friday 15 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Problem? Or solution? Sarah Smarsh: Something Special Is Happening in Rural America. Subtitle: There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces. Writing from Wichita The nation’s most populous cities, the bicoastal pillars of … Continue reading →

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Robert A. Heinlein: SIXTH COLUMN (1941/1949)

Posted on Thursday 14 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

This was the earliest novel-length work by Heinlein, though it was serialized in Astounding magazine (Jan, Feb, and March 1941) and not published in book form until 1949, by which time two or three other Heinlein novels had been published … Continue reading →

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Link and Comments: Scientists Underestimating Climate Change

Posted on Thursday 14 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Eugene Linden: How Scientists Got Climate Change So Wrong, subtitled, “Few thought it would arrive so quickly. Now we’re facing consequences once viewed as fringe scenarios.” Because, despite the cynicism of the anti-science crowd, scientists as a group are … Continue reading →

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Link and Comments: Why Trust Science?

Posted on Monday 11 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Naomi Oreskes, a professor at Harvard, just published a book, Why Trust Science?, which has gotten a fair amount of coverage in various review and interview venues. Her main point, I gather, is that science isn’t so much about the … Continue reading →

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Link and Comments: School Debates and Motivated Reasoning

Posted on Monday 11 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

From last month: NYT, Are School Debate Competitions Bad for Our Political Discourse? subtitled, They can be a good credential for aspiring leaders, but they favor a closed-minded and partisan style of argument. By Jonathan Ellis and Francesca Hovagimian, at … Continue reading →

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Robert Silverberg: REVOLT ON ALPHA C (1955)

Posted on Friday 8 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Robert Silverberg’s first novel was published in hardcover by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1955 and then went through many printings as a thin paperback edition from Scholastic Books; see http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2796 for a list of all editions, and cover images. I … Continue reading →

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