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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
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Meta
Category Archives: History
Another Day of Examples of Beliefs vs. Reality
Another example of conservatives retelling history, from PragerU; How those with beliefs in subjective truths are more prone to conspiracy theories; How China is now using AI to sow disinformation to gullible Americans, and wondering how long it will be … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Psychology
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Sibley Volcanic Park; the Doctrine of Discovery
Today — yet another pleasant day in the Bay Area, sunny and 74 degrees Fahrenheit — we went for a hike in the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, an area in the hills north of us where an actual volcano erupted … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, History, Personal history
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Laptop Updates; More about the Crisis in Cosmology; Political matters; A History of Labor Day
New laptop updates. Another “calm down” reaction to the recent news about the “crisis in cosmology”; Political matters, including Alabama’s defiance of the Supreme Court; parental rights; freedom and education; And Heather Cox Richardson on the history of Labor Day. … Continue reading
Posted in Cosmology, History, Personal history, Politics
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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
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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
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Living in History
We’re living through the hottest month and year in history. And it’s only going to get worse; Wondering why Trump fans adore him despite his incoherency and insincerity; And how conservative objections to LGBTQ books in a San Diego library … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, History, Psychology
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Human History and World History: Two Perspectives
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
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Climate Change, Founding Fathers, UFOs and Scientific Literacy
Topics today: Insurance companies, whose business depends on understanding risks, are taking steps to acknowledge climate change and its threats, even if many ordinary people still don’t “believe” in climate change; How the “founding fathers” were woke, compared to the … Continue reading
Moving Toward One Kind of Science-Fictional Future
Working from home vs. commuting, a slow social trend we thought might be temporary, but which may be inevitable, and for the good. I have a laptop connected to two big monitors, but otherwise this photo is apt. My cat … Continue reading
Posted in History, Human Progress, Technology
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The Western Tradition
Two related items today. Florida’s idea of a Christian, Western tradition that students should be tested to, instead of SAT; and a professor’s debunking of a “grand narrative of Western Civilization”, via a book review at PW. Hemant Mehta, Friendly … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, History
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