Category Archives: Science

Is Science Partisan? How Could It Not Be?

Posted on Wednesday 19 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The astronauts have returned, and Trump and Musk lie about what actually happened; The idea of blaming Mexico for the overdose epidemic is wrong, and will not work; Short items about eating less, globalism, cutting aid to the poor to … Continue reading →

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Dispatches from Reality

Posted on Saturday 15 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Taking a day off from political posts, for posts about reality. Or at least, the exploration of reality. Mathematicians solve a 125-year-old problem, perhaps; OnlySky’s Dale McGowan about the evolutionary mismatch between the world we evolved in, and the modern … Continue reading →

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Tyson & Walker, TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

Posted on Saturday 8 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Lindsey Nyx Walker Subtitled “A Journey of Cosmic Discovery” (National Geographic, Sep. 2023, 319pp, including 16pp acknowledgements, further reading, illustrations credits, and index.) This is literally a heavier-than-usual book that is nevertheless a light-weight read (even … Continue reading →

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Conservatives Espouse Principles, But Behave Very Differently

Posted on Thursday 27 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

With an example of a Florida Attorney General suing Target for selling products the MAGA folks find objectionable; what happened to free enterprise? Let the market figure it out! Our Orwellian fascist government wants to eliminate past social media posts … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Conservatives Espouse Principles, But Behave Very Differently

Richard Dawkins: THE MAGIC OF REALITY

Posted on Friday 14 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: How We Know What’s Really True Illustrated by Dave McKean (Free Press, Oct. 2011, 271pp, including 6p of index and acknowledgements) When I was organizing my nonfiction books notes and posts last December, I was surprised that I had … Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Kolbert, H IS FOR HOPE

Posted on Saturday 8 February 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Climate Change from A to Z” Illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook (Ten Speed Press, 159pp, c2023, published March 2024) <Amazon> This is a book I bought on the basis of the author’s name (I quite admired her book of a … Continue reading →

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MAGA Delusions About Health

Posted on Tuesday 14 January 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Just finished a book write-up, so a relatively short post today about current events. MAGA delusions about health; How Republican policies will make things worse, and how they don’t realize this. If it’s Tuesday, there’s a Science Section of the … Continue reading →

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End of Year Summaries

Posted on Sunday 29 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

David Brooks’ favorite essays include one about how Trump’s people have no clue about how to fix complex problems, and one about why people believe *true* things; Two pieces from The Atlantic about 77 facts from 2024, and important breakthroughs … Continue reading →

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Notes from Inside the Universe

Posted on Tuesday 17 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox answers questions about the drones; A piece by Rahm Emanual inspires my own thinking about how much it matters which party is in power, every election cycle; Trump wants to expel immigrants but is happy to hire them; Nancy … Continue reading →

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Institutions, Tribes, and Faith

Posted on Monday 9 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman’s last NYT column, in part about what has changed in the past 25 years, including the collapse of trust in the elites; Helen Lewis echoes Fareed Zakaria yesterday: the mainstream media is part of the “elite” system that … Continue reading →

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