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: August 2023
Conservatives and Mental Health
How Republican fears reveal their own mental health crisis; How Trump voters trust him more than family, friends, or clergy; How the worst people run for office (from Adam Grant), and how SF has anticipated this (from Isaac Asimov). This … Continue reading
Posted in History, Social Progress
Comments Off on Conservatives and Mental Health
Insecurity and Inequality
A long NYT piece about the US economy, feeling bad, inequality, and insecurity; Shorter items about hearing dialogue in movies; the latest anti-woke tantrum; and that “First they came for…” poem. Here’s a big piece in NY Times, that could … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Decline, Psychology
Comments Off on Insecurity and Inequality
Veritasium, Star Talk, Sapiens
There is so much nonsense on the web — and so much news about nonsensical, irrational people — it’s refreshing to find occasional pockets of knowledge and wisdom. I should try to pay more attention to these, and less attention … Continue reading
Jocks In, Academics Out
How that college in Florida is transforming itself to focusing on jocks, rather than academics; How at least one commentator thinks Trump is doomed and will go to jail, while I’m not so sure; Then several items about conservatives’ explicit … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Religion
Comments Off on Jocks In, Academics Out
Corridors
The way I would have reimagined the Enterprise for Strange New Worlds; Five rules for reading the news, from Big Think, and my thoughts about them; Apocalyptic rhetoric from the right; conspiracy theories about the Maui wildfires. I’ve enjoyed the … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology, Star Trek
Comments Off on Corridors
Scales of the Universe
The 13 scales that define our physical universe; A video that maps the Milky Way onto the United States, where on that scale our sun would fit between the ridges of a fingerprint; Recalling again the famous Powers of Ten … Continue reading
Why I Hate Pop Concerts
Today’s lead article is about those of us who dislike attending pop concerts, even of singers and bands we otherwise admire and adore; Then, about PragerU; the “lost boys” on the American Right; and Lukianoff & Haidt’s book about Coddling, … Continue reading
The Slow Death of Lawns in Deserts
Major item today about the slow death of lawns in deserts, especially in the US southwest; Then a few quick items, about the decline of Christianity, and Scientology’s psychological torture; And a musical piece by Ludovico Einaudi. – – – … Continue reading
Feeding Voters a Fantasy World
The most alarming thing I’ve learned in the past decade is how so many ordinary people are not smart, not well-educated, are susceptible to political ideology and religious zealotry, and are driven by ideology and zealotry to try to take … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, History, Politics, Science
Comments Off on Feeding Voters a Fantasy World
American Fragility and the Latest Political Hijinks
David Brooks on a kind of American decline, echoing some points of a 2018 book I happen to be half-way through reading; Quick links about slitting throats, Republican credulity, and firing Democrats; John Scalzi on that Ohio ballot measure. Here’s … Continue reading
