Category Archives: Personal history

Mental Illness, Gun Violence, and Lying

Posted on Monday 8 May 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s hard to get through a week without more incidents of gun violence in the US, and Republican claims that they’re all due to mental illness. So why is the US an extreme outlier in gun violence? Why would more … Continue reading →

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Addicts and Free Will

Posted on Wednesday 3 May 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today, an interesting article about whether addicts have free will. Here’s a piece that’s interesting for its take on a still contentious philosophical issue. Do humans have free will? Intuitively virtually everyone would agree that we do. People “make decisions” … Continue reading →

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May 1st

Posted on Monday 1 May 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s post is the completion of yesterday’s post.

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A quiz about which personality quiz applies to you

Posted on Saturday 22 April 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The Atlantic, Kelly Conaboy, 18 Apr 2023: What Your Favorite Personality Test Says About You, subtitled “Are you a Myers-Briggs person, an Enneagram person, or something else? The Atlantic made a quiz to help you find out.” (Updated Sun 23 … Continue reading →

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Our New Hillside, and the usual political matters

Posted on Friday 21 April 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

First of all, tree trimmers have been near us for two days, trimming and potentially cutting down the eucalyptus trees on the hillside next to our house. This is welcome news because eucalyptus trees are fire-prone, and because a couple … Continue reading →

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A Day at the Bay

Posted on Saturday 15 April 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today we did an afternoon walk, on a chilly, breezy, but sunny afternoon, around the Emeryville peninsula surrounding the marina there and ending with Emeryville Marina Park. We’ve done this walk before, perhaps three times; we park at the “Watergate … Continue reading →

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Enid Blyton via Sarah Bakewell

Posted on Monday 10 April 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I mentioned Sarah Bakewell in my post of March 29th, for two reviews of her new book on the history and meaning of humanism, Humanly Possible, a very long book on one of my primary interests, but so long that … Continue reading →

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Trip Report: LA to Attend Michael & Honey’s Wedding

Posted on Tuesday 4 April 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This past weekend Y and I drove down to Los Angeles to attend his younger son Michael’s wedding. (Thus the absence of daily posts here for five days.) It was our first trip out of town in 3 1/2 years, … Continue reading →

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Saturday Updates, and Progress

Posted on Saturday 18 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

(These are photos from a late 1980s trip to Vandenberg to see a rocket launch.) First of all, I spent another hour polishing and expanding yesterday’s post, about 6 short literary novels I read in 5 days last week while … Continue reading →

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Zodiacal Light, and The Well

Posted on Monday 27 February 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Two more items for today, which I decided not to squeeze into the previous post.

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