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: Narrative
American Narratives
Infrastructure note; Robert Reich on America’s four stories; Heather Cox Richardson on how Trump has no apparent plan for governance. Infrastructure note. I’ve installed an initial set of theme pages under the “NF Reviews” menu item above, which appear as … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Politics, Website Issues
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Political Retributions, and Values
Three and a half years after my heart and kidney transplants, I’m doing fine; About Biden’s pardon of his son, and the impending takeover of the FBI to pursue retribution; Robert Reich understands why he did it; Yet another essay … Continue reading
Politics, Tribalism, and the Retelling of History
Book burning and the erasure or retelling of history; Trump’s latest outrageous choice for his cabinet; And how Trump voters are now unconcerned about voter fraud, since their side won. Given that ideology, tradition, and storytelling are more common on … Continue reading
Stories Are Not Evidence
How the right “creates stories” to support their worldview (i.e. they’re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever … Continue reading
Plot Armor
Beginning with this unusual topic. Not about Trump per se; more a general principle of story-telling. And faith. OnlySky, Dale McGowan, 6 Sep 2024: For the Trump faithful, it comes down to plot armor, subtitled “It’s no surprise that Trump … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, conservatives, Lunacy, Narrative, Religion
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Never Mind Policy or Principles, Conservatives Need Only Stories
Politics and the Narrative Drive converge in items today. Robert Reich about how the GOP is courting unions; How J.D. Vance emphasizes his personal story rather than conservative principles; How Republicans cling to the myth of migrant crime; And how … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Narrative, Politics, Religion
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Perhaps There Is Only Story
Now right-wingers are blaming the Trump assassination attempt on women; Those who come out and say that want to impose Christian Nationalism on the nation; Paul Krugman on Project 2025, and it would reverse measures established in the 19th century … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Narrative, Politics
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Fear of Fiction
What is fiction, and why are most people attracted to it? This isn’t just about reading books or short stories; what also is the attraction of movies and TV shows that are all about imaginary people facing imaginary problems? Why … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Narrative, Politics, Religion
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Politics as Fantasy, as Competing Stories
Three topics for today. The Hunter Biden verdict this morning, and how conservatives explain it to fit their conspiracy theories; Religious dimwittery about installing the Ten Commandments into schools; and Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito’s presumptuous allegiance to Christian godliness … Continue reading
Visiting the Profound
Brian Greene on understanding reality as a collection of nested stories; Recalling analogous thoughts by Sean Carroll and others; Big Think’s Ethan Siegel on the success of modern fundamental science. Perhaps today we can step back from the paranoid, delusional … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Narrative, Physics, Science
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