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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Meta
Category Archives: Music
Living in Space; Detox and Cleanliness
Today some more substantial links from the past week or so. Going into space for art; Why detox treatments are nonsense; Our obsession with cleanliness. There have been thoughts recently about the very plausibility of mankind living in space, or … Continue reading
Posted in Aesthetics, Culture, Music
Comments Off on Living in Space; Detox and Cleanliness
Sources of Meaning
How the Catholic League finds meaning at Christmas only in its own teachings, while presuming everyone else must be miserable; How Republicans have found tribal meaning in Christian Nationalism; How Republicans search for voter fraud only among populations who would … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Meaning, Music, Religion
Comments Off on Sources of Meaning
A Way to Talk Around the Problem
The “same color” illusion — an example of how we cannot trust our senses; How Rudy Giuliani descended into MAGA, and whether we’re all equally susceptible; How right-wingers are triggered by tap-dancing in the White House to The Nutcracker; Brief … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history, Psychology, Science
Comments Off on A Way to Talk Around the Problem
Personal Jesus and Other Fantasies
How Russia is cracking down on the Gay Rights Movement, just as American evangelicals would like to do; A laughable debate about whether the Earth is flat or round, based on Biblical theology; A take on the economy that suggests … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Economics, Music, Psychology, The Gays
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End of Thanksgiving Weekend
Late afternoon, Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. Just finished putting lights up on our two second floor balconies, that should come on automatically an dusk. — 5:10pm, they’ve just come on. Oops, except for one string that came on only half-way. … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Music, Personal history, Politics, Religion
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Just ’cause you feel it / Doesn’t mean it’s there
Comments about that article that distinguished between “liberals” and “progressives”; Yet another piece about how “voters feel one way about the economy but act differently”; An historical overview about how the US economy is no longer the greatest in history; … Continue reading
The New Speaker of the House and Delusional Reality
Items about newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson from the NYT editorial board, Paul Krugman, and the LAT editorial board; Specific items about Johnson’s claims that fossil fuels don’t cause climate change, that the US is not a … Continue reading
San Francisco, according to The New Yorker
A long New Yorker essay about San Francisco, which acknowledges the minuses and the plusses; An ethereal track by Enya: “Exile”. – – – Another piece about San Francisco, a long piece in The New Yorker. Reading it now. Is … Continue reading
Posted in Bay Area, conservatives, Music
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Human Extinction and Climate Change
Émile P. Torres at Salon on the history of ideas about human extinction; The latest data on climate change is scary; September was the hottest month ever. Peter Gabriel’s “I Grieve”. – – – The scary thing is that … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Music, Science, Species Reset
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Planets, Scientific Certainty and Placebos, and Peter Gabriel
Phil Plait on the history of planetary discovery, since 1992; Flossing and the quest for scientific certainty; How placebos sometimes work; Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street”. – – – Good summary of the past thirty years’ discoveries of new planets. Phil … Continue reading
