Monthly Archives: July 2023

Some Sciency Bits

Posted on Tuesday 11 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Richard Dawkins on the ancestral language of DNA; How humans have interpreted fossils throughout history; Recalling the scientifically inaccurate and intellectually hostile movie Armageddon, from 1998; How an article about a refinement to our understanding of human evolution overstates its … Continue reading →

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Follow-up Links on Current Themes

Posted on Monday 10 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Let’s catch up on links from the past couple weeks that I haven’t already used, beginning with some follow-ons to topics already covered. Climate Change: Scientists have reached the “I told you so” moment; The DeSantis video: Republicans are now … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Follow-up Links on Current Themes

Blinks Status, and Recalling Locus Online

Posted on Sunday 9 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today I collected another batch of SF-related items to post on Locus Online: Locus Online: Around the Web: Samuel R. Delany; John Scalzi; Reviews by Higgins, Barnett, Tuttle, and Kunzru of books by Leckie, Djuna, Atalla, Siddiqi, and others; “The … Continue reading →

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How American is Great, yet a Hellhole, According to Conservatives

Posted on Saturday 8 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s theme, and topics: WaPo’s Paul Waldman on this contradiction; Mike Pence’s record of saying things that conservatives believe that are not true; The conspiracy theories of Moms for Liberty; And how this all makes sense given ancestral human nature’s … Continue reading →

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Three Items by Paul Krugman

Posted on Friday 7 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

About why people don’t believe, or understand, that the economy has gotten better; Conspiracy theorists who think the government is simply faking the data about an improving economy; How ‘tech bros’ like Elon Musk are given to reflexive contrarianism and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Three Items by Paul Krugman

Ignoring Evidence vs Paying Attention

Posted on Thursday 6 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The hottest day on Earth, as scientists have anticipated; David French on the mindset of MAGA America As the scientists have been predicting for decades. NY Times, 6 Jul 2023: Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Science | Comments Off on Ignoring Evidence vs Paying Attention

Three Profiles of the Modern Republican Party

Posted on Wednesday 5 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

It used to be a respectable party. But even some inside it are questioning its extremists. Three groups of items today. Moms of Liberty, Republican appeals to famous dictators, and their take that apologizing, for anything, is a weakness; DeSantis … Continue reading →

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A Predictable Trend; Ideas about Patriotism

Posted on Tuesday 4 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items about the decades-long trend of the decline (even) in the US of allegiance to organized religion, and how this fits into the theme of primitive v. mature moralities; Heather Cox Richardson reflects on the stages of American independence; … Continue reading →

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Ideology vs. Reality, Endlessly

Posted on Monday 3 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Is this the core issue to rule them all? Since the survival of humanity seems to be in the balance? Item’s today: How the Supreme Court’s anti-LGBTQ case should never have been brought; How the rise of the religious far … Continue reading →

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Human History and World History: Two Perspectives

Posted on Sunday 2 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Carl Sagan on human history as “a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group” and how conservatives counter this; Peter Turchin about his theory of world history and how he identifies the US as a plutocracy. … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, Human Progress | Comments Off on Human History and World History: Two Perspectives