Category Archives: Personal history

After Holiday Break: Trip Report: LA and LV

Posted on Sunday 31 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

We were away from home for a week, from Saturday the 23rd to Friday the 29th. Here’s a summary.

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People Prefer a Softened Reality

Posted on Wednesday 20 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A Big Think piece about over-hyped science and astronomy claims from this past year; Adam Lee on Benjamin Franklin’s “noble lie”: that people need religion in order to behave; And an Endpiece about current holiday activities. I’ve mentioned before that … Continue reading →

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A Way to Talk Around the Problem

Posted on Monday 18 December 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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End of Thanksgiving Weekend

Posted on Sunday 26 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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My Essay Accepted for Publication

Posted on Sunday 29 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The news this late October is that I’ve had an 11,000 word essay, the one I’ve been working on since June, accepted by Gary Westfahl for publication in a volume of essays to be published in a year or so … Continue reading →

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Larry Kramer RIP

Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I discovered today that my long-time friend Larry Kramer — no, not the writer Larry Kramer, but one Charles L. Kramer who lived in Los Angeles for decades, until his move to suburban Austin TX back in 2006 — has … Continue reading →

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Planning, and Semesters

Posted on Saturday 16 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

When you’re retired, not working or going to school or driven by any particular schedule, as I’ve been more or less for a decade now, you tend to mark the passage of time by the holidays or vacations or family … Continue reading →

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Sibley Volcanic Park; the Doctrine of Discovery

Posted on Sunday 10 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Laptop Updates; More about the Crisis in Cosmology; Political matters; A History of Labor Day

Posted on Saturday 9 September 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

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 →

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Computer, Glasses, Theories

Posted on Tuesday 29 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

My new laptop; My new glasses; The populist vs. scientific ideas of “theory”. I ordered a new laptop from Costco, and it arrived today about 4pm, and I’ve spent an hour getting it up and running. My old laptop has … Continue reading →

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