Category Archives: Culture

Ls&Cs: The Fiction Novel

Posted on Friday 17 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

About how language changes, how some cultural assumptions are common among some but unknown by others, and how some people don’t know any of the things that anyone reading this blog know. With my own personal experiences of such matters, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Isaac Asimov, Notes For, science fiction | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: The Fiction Novel

Ls&Cs: Is DNA Safe to Eat? Is America Undergoing a Mass Psychosis?

Posted on Tuesday 14 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman on Republican resistance to investments in the future; a concern about whether DNA is safe to eat; about watching Fox News every day; and about Carl Jung’s warning about mass psychosis.

Posted in Culture, Economics, Lunacy | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Is DNA Safe to Eat? Is America Undergoing a Mass Psychosis?

Pursuing Books During the Pandemic and Supply-Side Crisis

Posted on Tuesday 7 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Via book reviews and Fb posts, I’m aware of 2 or 3 new nonfiction books published every week that look interesting enough to consider reading. I restrain myself; at most I buy 2 or 3 new nonfiction books a month … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Economics | Comments Off on Pursuing Books During the Pandemic and Supply-Side Crisis

America is a gun

Posted on Saturday 20 November 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

This is circulating again on Fb; it’s been around for years. This is America’s reputation in the world!

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Ls&Cs: Interviews and Excerpts: Pinker, Harari, Graeber & Wengrow

Posted on Thursday 11 November 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Michael Shermer interviews Steven Pinker about Rationality; NYT interviews Yuval Noah Harari about the simple story that can save the planet; and an excerpt from Graeber & Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything.

Posted in Culture, Science | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Interviews and Excerpts: Pinker, Harari, Graeber & Wengrow

Ls&Cs: Stuff, Terms, Panics, Rules

Posted on Saturday 30 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Maybe we should all just buy less stuff. How citizenship has given way to consumerism. Why partisans deliberately confuse terms like expenses and investments. And how some rewrite history in support of ideological narratives.

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Links & Comments, Social Progress | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Stuff, Terms, Panics, Rules

L&Cs: Christakis on COVID and Altruism

Posted on Saturday 23 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

A Big Picture item: what does our COVID response say about humanity’s capacity for altruism?

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on L&Cs: Christakis on COVID and Altruism

Ls&Cs: Problem-Solving, Ethics, Out-Group Prejudice, and Padding Bestseller Lists

Posted on Monday 11 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Several links that I collected on April 20th, the day I went to the hospital for what led to my heart transplant.

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Links & Comments, Psychology, Technology | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Problem-Solving, Ethics, Out-Group Prejudice, and Padding Bestseller Lists

Ls&Qs: Rationality and Fear

Posted on Sunday 26 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two long quotes today, from opposite ends of the spectrum from rationality to fear.

Posted in Culture, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Ls&Qs: Rationality and Fear

Ls&Cs: Interesting Times

Posted on Saturday 25 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The latest on strategies to avoid long-term calamities, knowing of calamities and lying about them, the US compared to South America and Europe, and Americans’ grasp of reality.

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Links & Comments, Lunacy, Politics | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Interesting Times