Monthly Archives: January 2021

Notes and Quotes: Frank Wilczek’s FUNDAMENTALS: TEN KEYS TO REALITY

Posted on Saturday 30 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Frank Wilczek is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, whose earlier book A BEAUTIFUL QUESTION: Finding Nature’s Deep Design (2015) I have but have not yet read. (It looks fascinating – the kind big picture book, that tries to understand history or … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Space Lasers. Being Played. Bizarro.

Posted on Friday 29 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Nicholas Kristof’s letter to his conservative friends; Paul Krugman on the party of bizarro; CNN on the post-Trump era; The Week’s Ryan Cooper on GOP extremity; Slate’s Jeremy Stahl asks House Republicans if they believe in Jewish Space Lasers.

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Links and Comments: Law and Order except for T***p; Capitalism except for the rich

Posted on Wednesday 27 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Republican motivated reasoning about the legality of the impeachment trial; Thomas L. Friedman (NYT) on “Socialism for the Rich. Capitalism for the Rest.”

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Links and Comments: Liars, Fear, Motivated Reasoning, Science Denial, Conservatives

Posted on Tuesday 26 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Slate’s William Saletan on Republicans vs. liars; NPR on vaccine resistance; Salon on reactions of QAnon to Biden’s inaurguration; a long NYT piece about what goes on inside QAnon chatrooms; how science denial is a form of conspiracy theory; why … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Liars, Fear, Motivated Reasoning, Science Denial, Conservatives

Notes and Quotes: Arthur C. Clarke’s THE DEEP RANGE (1957)

Posted on Sunday 24 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a relatively quick take on a 1950s novel I reread this past week — not as long or as polished as my Black Gate reviews have been. (I’ll be resuming those in February.) THE DEEP RANGE was the 8th … Continue reading →

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Memoirs and Site Updates

Posted on Saturday 23 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve updated my Memoirs page with a number of essay posts from the past year, and promoted the whole page to the top level menu. I’ve cleaned up with consistent headers this page and the Family History page. I began … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: True Believers Scorned

Posted on Thursday 21 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The QAnon cult is reeling from the evaporation of the promises Q and a certain former president made about what would happen on inauguration day. It’s like those many examples over past centuries of apocalyptic cults, anticipating the end of … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Farewell to T****, maybe not to his supporters

Posted on Wednesday 20 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Marking the occasion: what happened today, for those looking back (including me) from the future. Joseph Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president and, despite threats from right-wing groups, and honest fears from security officials, there was no apparent protesting … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Conspiracy Theorists, Psychology, and Beliefs

Posted on Tuesday 19 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

What does “belief” even mean? How can people claim to believe things that, to others, are transparent nonsense? Clearly belief has nothing to do with what, based on evidence and reason, is actually real. Belief can simply mean conviction to … Continue reading →

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Notes and Quotes: Ezra Klein’s WHY WE’RE POLARIZED (2020)

Posted on Sunday 17 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized was published a full year ago, in January 2020. Ezra Klein is a co-founder of the ‘explainer’ website Vox, and writes essays and columns for various other outlets. (And he lives somewhere here in Oakland.) The … Continue reading →

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