Category Archives: Culture

Cosmos Is Great So Far, but It’s Missing Something

Posted on Monday 10 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

The new Cosmos series seems to be just fine, so far. It celebrates science and our knowledge of the vastness of the known universe, and takes a legitimate stand against the religious resistance that would deny or trivialize this knowledge. … Continue reading →

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Agnotology, Science Denialism, and Joan Slonczewski

Posted on Sunday 9 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A column in the business section of the LA Times this morning, by Michael Hiltzik, Cultural production of ignorance provides rich field for study [curiously the print edition that I read this morning has the title “Sowing doubt about science”] … Continue reading →

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Hollywood, God, Stories, and Cosmos

Posted on Thursday 6 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Lawrence Krauss, physicist and cosmologist and author of The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing, responds in The New Yorker about Matthew McConaughey’s reference to God in his Oscar award acceptance speech. Apparently there was a Twitter … Continue reading →

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Coyne on Bryan’s Myth, vs Reality

Posted on Tuesday 4 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne discusses the Bryan College issue. Bryan College forces its faculty to swear to historical existence of Adam and Eve Coyne is not only a *real scientist* but also a guy willing to address the arguments of those with … Continue reading →

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Frozen and its supposed Gay Agenda

Posted on Sunday 2 March 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

We went to see Frozen today, the Disney animated movie, because Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises wasn’t playing anywhere quite near or convenient enough for today’s schedule, and because Frozen is apparently the favorite for the Oscar this evening… and, thirdly, … Continue reading →

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Panic and Alarm (and Why This Is About Science Fiction)

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria Sad case study of a man whose father disappeared into the paranoid, outraged worldview of Fox News. Like certain kinds of religious extremists, Fox … Continue reading →

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A Better World

Posted on Sunday 23 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne links this item at Prospect by Daniel Dennet: If I ruled the world. His prescription for a better world: educate the children. I would like my first step on ascending to the dictatorship to be decreeing high quality, … Continue reading →

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Conservative values

Posted on Thursday 13 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s long been my impression that conservatives, especially of the extreme Tea Party variety, are motivated largely by fear – of the unknown, of the ‘other’ (people unlike themselves), of the implications of rational engagement with the real world. And … Continue reading →

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Answers for Creationists

Posted on Thursday 6 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Today both Phil Plait at Slate and Mike D on his blog respond to the Buzzfeed listsicle of 22 messages from Creationists who held up questions to those who ‘believe’ in evolution. (‘Believe’ is not the right word; as Plait … Continue reading →

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The Narcissism of Today’s Homophobia

Posted on Wednesday 5 February 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

[Reposted from Facebook a couple evenings ago] The Narcissism of Today’s Homophobia Insightful deconstruction of the motives behind homophobes like Bizzle (who put out an anti-gay version of Macklemore’s “Same Love”, the controversial Best Song nominee that was performed at … Continue reading →

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