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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- Party of Hypocrites
- A New Cycle of Doom: Trump’s Second Inauguration
- For Certain Values of Great
- Immigration, Economic Growth, and the Limits of the Planet
- Lakoff on “Privateering,” and the Consequences of Shrinking the Government
- Cynics, Conspiracies, and the Oligarchy
- Jonathan Haidt, THE ANXIOUS GENERATION
- Competence Is Beside the Point
- MAGA Delusions About Health
- Zack Beauchamp, THE REACTIONARY SPIRIT
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Meta
Category Archives: Human Nature
Zack Beauchamp, THE REACTIONARY SPIRIT
Subtitled “How American’s Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World” (PublicAffairs, July 2024, 262pp including 16pp of acknowledgements, selected bibliography, and index.) Here’s another recent book, which I bought mainly because I’ve seen the author’s name quite a number of … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Politics
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Human Nature and Existential Crises
Yesterday I had an item and some comments about how the inability of many people to recognize existential dangers like climate change may in fact doom the species. (And explain the Fermi Paradox.) Too many people live in fantasy cultural … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Music, Politics
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The California Fires and What They Reveal
The despicable Donald Trump ignorantly criticizes California politicians, rather than offering any sympathy for the victims of the recent fires; How well-intentioned policies from decades ago are partly responsible for the fires; How humans might be doomed by their own … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Human Nature, Psychology
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Conservative Reactions to the Los Angeles Fires
The past few days have been fodder for examples of (conservative) lies, evasions, and misrepresentations, as they react to the fires in Southern California. Conservatives blame the LA fires on the vast world-wide conspiracy theories they are obsessed with; Two … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Politics
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George Lakoff, THE POLITICAL MIND
Subtitled “Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain” (Viking, June 2008, 292pp, including 20pp of acknowledgements, notes, and index.) Note that the paperback edition from 2009 changed the subtitle to “A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Nature, MInd, Politics
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Knee-Jerk Conservative Reactions
Conservatives react to the incidents this past week in New Orleans and Las Vegas by blaming their favorite bogeymen. Immigrants! Diversity initiatives! Without evidence, or rationale. As conservatives reject reality, reality-based scientists are rejecting the coming conservative administration, by moving … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics
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Remembering Y2k; a Political Commentator admits he was wrong; Fallibilism; Reading Lakoff
Back to interesting ideas. Heather Cox Richardson recalls Y2K, 25 years ago on January 1st, and how since the problem was fixed (by the scientists and tech guys) some people felt the problem had never been real. As always, she … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Politics, Technology
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Muddling Through Somehow
Since today is Christmas Eve, yesterday must have been Christmas Adam, right? (First I’ve heard about this.) NY Times, 22 Dec 2024: Behold! ‘Christmas Adam’ Is Born., subtitled “First there was Christmas Eve … and then a new celebration was … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Religion, Social Progress
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The Certitude of the Religious
David French asks and tries to explain why Christians are so cruel; David Brooks writes about his experience of faith; And Kurt Gray about misunderstanding human nature. – – – Of course I’m sure they would deny this. Passing the … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Religion
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Or for Worse
We took both our cars into the indie BMW shop we’ve been going to, for routine maintenance. In my case, I needed my car to be ship-shape before driving down to LA in a couple weeks. \ Infrastructure note. In … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics, Website Issues
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