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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Monthly Archives: February 2022
Berlin in 1993; The Dark 21st Century; Wordle
Today’s L&Qs&Cs, about where the 21st century is heading after the optimism of the 1990s, with a recollection about being in Berlin in 1993. Today’s endpiece, about Wordle.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Games, Music, Personal history, Social Progress
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Ls&Cs: How the Right Counts on Conspiracy Theories
Links today about how conspiracy theories advantage the right, and how this implicitly acknowledges that conservatives can’t win elections based on positions, arguments, or values.
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Psychology
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Timothy Snyder, ON TYRANNY (2017)
Subtitled: “Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” and published in February 2017 by Tim Duggan Books. This is the third book I’ve read or reread recently with a numbered agenda, following the Zakaria book covered in previous post, and Harari’s … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Politics
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Fareed Zakaria, TEN LESSONS FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD (2020)
Here’s the next book with a numbered agenda up for summary (following Harari’s 21 Lessons). It came out in October 2020, with journalistic promptness just six or seven months after the beginning of the lockdown, though before vaccines became available … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Science
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Albany Mudflats and Bulb, and Costco
Today we went for a walk along the Berkeley bay shore, thinking to avoid traffic by setting off while that big football game everyone is talking about was playing. But we weren’t paying close attention and left about half an … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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L&Qs&Cs: Separation of Church and State
Pleasant day today, warm and sunny. We did a half-hour walk along Robinson to Skyline and back to Crestmont. I read 150 pages of the popular Mary Robinette Kowal novel, the one that won the big awards. Of my collected … Continue reading
Posted in Links & Comments, Politics, Religion
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L&Qs&Cs: Obesity; Access Queries
A few days ago — in my Feb 8th post — I linked an article from MSNBC that showed that the major issue in the US lack of response to the covid crisis was, not trust in science, but trust … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
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Doctor’s Visit
On Thursday I posted a “placeholder” post just so that any of my tens of readers would know I was still alive and posting and not missing a day. Today as I write is Friday and this post will replace … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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Ls&Qs&Cs: Rights and Responsibilities; Authoritarian News Filters
Quotes and comments about an essay by Thomas L. Friedman about rights and responsibilities, and an article about what Fox News doesn’t cover.
Posted in Culture, Links & Comments, Politics
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L&Qs&Cs: The Unfortunate Built-In Trend of American Politics
Vox, Ian Millhiser, 14 Feb 2022: Why Democrats can’t get a fair shake in the Supreme Court, in one chart, subtitled, “Republicans get their dream nominees, while Democrats struggle to confirm moderates.” The core issue is the familiar one that … Continue reading →