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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2010-2013)
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- Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, THE MISINFORMATION AGE
- Moving to the Dark Side
- Conservatives Espouse Principles, But Behave Very Differently
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- Outdoing Themselves Every Day
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Meta
Category Archives: Science
Conservatives Espouse Principles, But Behave Very Differently
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
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Richard Dawkins: THE MAGIC OF REALITY
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
Posted in Book Notes, reality, Religion, Science
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Elizabeth Kolbert, H IS FOR HOPE
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
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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MAGA Delusions About Health
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
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Lunacy, Science
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End of Year Summaries
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
Posted in Culture, Politics, Science, Social Progress, Technology
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Notes from Inside the Universe
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
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Science
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Institutions, Tribes, and Faith
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
Posted in conservatives, Epistemology, Religion, Science, Social Progress
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A Couple Interesting Things About Reality
After which, items about toxic masculinity and Trump, Elon Musk stifling news, and others. Let’s begin by noting a couple interesting things about reality, one from a hundred years ago, one new. AlterNet, via The Conversation, 22 Nov 2024: It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Mathematics, Science
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False Realities
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts, as we’ve long heard; Historian Heather Cox Richardson dismantles claims of Trump’s “mandate”; Short items about MTG and NPR; Fox News personalities becoming America’s scientists and doctors; … Continue reading
Dispatches from the Real World
My latest take on the true vs the real; A piece about RFK Jr identifies the three big reasons you’re alive today: clean water, antibiotics, and vaccines; How we know RFK Jr is wrong about vaccines; How red states lead … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Science
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