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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- This Much is Reality… and This Much is Fantasy
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- Continuing Our Studies of Human Nature…
- Here’s a New One: Terrain Theory
- A Little Knowledge… Is a Dangerous Thing
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Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
Robert Reich on Red vs. Blue
Robert Reich on red vs. blue states; Shorter items about the eagerness of Republicans to kill people (not just dogs); MAGA blaming Biden for Red Lobster; Red states anxious to discriminate against LGBTQ students; a pastor who apparently truly thought … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Religion
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Stupid Lies
Trump’s stupid lies; How conservatives do not trust people to make their own decisions; Heather Cox Richardson on how we got here; A Republican who boasts about cheating homeless people; On a positive note: Ali Velshi on NPR this morning. … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Morality, Politics
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Fundamentalist Simplicity and Autism
A fundamentalist preacher who denies that PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, exist; A New Yorker article about how psychiatric labels reinforce behaviors; and how I think autism is a condition, not a disease. Here’s a short item about a fundamentalist that … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology, Religion
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A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take
I’ve been making notes over the past month for a table of moral polarities, in order to align and summarize some of the concepts and the many news examples I’ve compiled lately. Recall how I’ve mentioned that certain attitudes, especially … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Meaning, Morality, Philosophy, Science, science fiction, Uncategorized
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Friday 10 May 2024
A round of assorted items collected on the web the past few days. Here’s that item about what universities are for, that I couldn’t find the other day. The Atlantic, Derek Thompson, 8 May 2024: No One Knows What Universities … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Morality, Politics, Psychology
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Estate Matters
Busy with estate matters today. It’s not easy being an executor. So many things to take care of. People who do not respond to your emails. One pic for today, almost full-sized, of books he left behind.
Posted in Personal history
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Can Education Account for Evolutionary Change?
Steven Pinker on education, and how it might prioritize overcoming base intuitions that don’t apply in the modern world; The naturalistic fallacy and DeSantis’ and Fetterman’s objections to lab-grown meat. This month I’m working my way through the last ‘big’ … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, Evolution, Psychology
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Trust in Science, Bertrand Russell, and Religious “Truth”
An item about restoring trust in science, which doesn’t say very much except to improve education; A reading from Bertrand Russell, about religion, morals, and science; How a religious thinker thinks historians should only tell history that is “inspiring and … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Philosophy, Religion, Science
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Another Gloss on Philosophy
I think I mentioned this book before. It’s a compilation of rough summaries of twelve general topics, from American Studies to World History, with literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, and others in between, written for people who worry that their … Continue reading
Posted in Cosmology, Philosophy, Religion
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Illiberalism, and the Wood Age
“Illiberalism” and its history in the US; How perhaps the “Stone Age” is perhaps better described as the “Wood Age” — how science can update stale conclusions; How some “smart people” hold noxious conspiracy theories too; Kristi Noem would have … Continue reading
Posted in History, Morality, Philosophy, Politics
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