Monthly Archives: December 2022

More Year-End Summaries

Posted on Friday 30 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Three about science and tech, three about politics.

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Another Science in 2022 list; A Reading about the Medea Hypothesis

Posted on Thursday 29 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Smithsonian Magazine, Carlyn Kranking and Joe Spring, 28 Dec 2022: The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2022, subtitled “From Omicron’s spread to a revelation made using ancient DNA, these were the biggest moments of the past year”

Posted in Cosmology, Science | Comments Off on Another Science in 2022 list; A Reading about the Medea Hypothesis

Science, Anti-Science, and Fantasy

Posted on Wednesday 28 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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Self-Replacement?

Posted on Tuesday 27 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today looking at an article about how conservatives worry about the “great replacement” (of US Christian whites by non-white, non-Christian immigrants) and how, ironically, conservative policies invite their being replaced, through simple natural selection. With comments at the end about … Continue reading →

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Mysteries, Stories, and Science

Posted on Monday 26 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I like mysteries, once in a while, but I don’t trust them. They are too often contrived, “too clever by half” as the saying goes. Their narratives double back and re-interpret, like lawyers who revisit a set of testimony and … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies, Narrative | Comments Off on Mysteries, Stories, and Science

Christmas Stories

Posted on Sunday 25 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Over Friday and Saturday evenings we watched Miracle on 34th Street for the first time in a couple decades. (I’m not sure if Y had ever seen it.) After such time goes by, you see things in a film or … Continue reading →

Posted in Narrative, Personal history | Comments Off on Christmas Stories

Mysterious Chords

Posted on Saturday 24 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NY Times ran this piece a few days ago. NYT, Hugh Morris, ‘Everyone Wants to Hear’ This One Chord in a Christmas Carol, subtitled “A moment in ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ is so popular, it’s printed on T-shirts. But … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links from Recent Weeks

Posted on Friday 23 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

About George Santos’s fictional resume, Tucker Carlson’s year of being wrong, Avatar 2’s “ecological Indian” cliche, the hypocrisy of right-wing “free thinkers,” Thomas Frank on the lack of imagination of Democrats, DeSantis and vaccines, book banning, and two religious graphics.

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30%-Earth, Perhaps, With a Catch

Posted on Thursday 22 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

New York Times, Catrin Einhorn, 19 Dec 2022: Nearly Every Country Signs On to a Sweeping Deal to Protect Nature, subtitled “Roughly 190 nations, aiming to halt a dangerous decline in biodiversity, agreed to preserve 30 percent of the planet’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on 30%-Earth, Perhaps, With a Catch

Liberal and Conservative Humor

Posted on Wednesday 21 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

With an endpiece about stars. Here’s an intriguing article, fairly long, that examines how the humor of liberals and conservatives differ. Since its core conclusions are consistent with so many other observations about the differences between liberals and conservatives — … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Psychology | Comments Off on Liberal and Conservative Humor