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.
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Meta
Monthly Archives: September 2021
Ls&Cs: Letters to the NYT
Two letters in NYT’s SundayReview section yesterday capture two obvious objections to religion claims that have been around for eons but which the religious have never satisfactorily answered.
Facebook Memes 19Sep21
From this past week, about philosophy, billionaires and Fox News, the flawed Ten Commandments, what expertise is about, fear the Covid plan will work, conspiracy theories defined, and a protestor’s spelling.
Posted in Links, Philosophy, Politics, Religion
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Ls&Cs: More About Thinking, or Not
Once again, the general theme is how some people think things through, and how others prefer “stories” or being told what to think. Heroes and villains; conservative media vs. coastal elites; when an enemy is not a speaker of a … Continue reading
Personal History: My Lost Week
I’ve written twice here about my most recent hospital stay, beginning in late April and moving through heart and kidney transplants in May and returning home in mid-June. First was this fairly lengthy one, 2021: My Heart & Kidney Transplants, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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Ls&Cs: Training, Education, Belief
Two items today. The first is a post by Jerry Coyne about an article from Inside Higher Ed about the difference between training and education. Here’s his post: Training versus education.
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Science
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Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science
Following up from yesterday, some more thoughts and links about the notion of thinking, and how that’s what science is all about, while so many people seem to have no understanding of what thinking, let alone science, actually is.
Thoughts for the Day: About Thinking and Evidence
I am still formulating a thesis (or, provisional conclusion) that many, perhaps most, people don’t “think” in the way rationalists and scientists think that everyone does. Some people have never encountered the idea that the evidence of the real world … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science
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Facebook Memes 8Sep21
I will start compiling memes I see on Facebook, mostly without comment. These of course are anecdotes; they’re the equivalent of “people are saying” comments from a certain former president, though unlike him, I have Facebook share counts to indicate … Continue reading
Ls&Cs: Vaccine Regrets and Horse Paste
Have a backlog of links, of course, with new ones now that Christians in Texas are coming closer to matching the achievement of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But for now, a trend of the past couple weeks: right-wing vaccine deniers … Continue reading
Posted in Links & Comments, Lunacy, Religion
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Ls&Cs: Elections and Mandates, Rights and Responsibilities
Status today 14 Sep 2021: Today is election day for a bid to recall California governor Gavin Newsome. Meanwhile, President Biden is trying to implement vaccine mandates, to howls of Republican objections. (As usual I’m behind posting links and comments, … Continue reading →