Category Archives: Science

L&Cs: More Misleading Maps; Piedmont Park

Posted on Sunday 30 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

More interesting juxtapositions showing how flat maps, especially Mercator projections, give misleading impressions of the relative sizes of areas on Earth. Plus, an endpiece, about Piedmont Park.

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Ls&Cs: Harari on Climate Change

Posted on Wednesday 26 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Yuval Noah Harari has an essay in the current issue of Time Magazine about the cost of tackling climate change.

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Ls&Cs: Engagement with the Universe

Posted on Monday 24 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Two contrasting perspectives, today, both passages I just happened to read during my morning web browsing. Rival worldviews. One characterizing religious myths, the other about Kim Stanley Robinson.

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Ls&Cs: Misleading Maps

Posted on Saturday 22 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s one of my favorite counter-intuitive facts: how our impressions of the sizes of countries and continents that we get from (flat) maps are wildly inaccurate.

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L&Q&Cs: Neal Stephenson on What Might Save Us

Posted on Thursday 20 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had an interview with SF writer Neal Stephenson, whose latest novel is Termination Shock. NYT Times Magazine: Neal Stephenson Thinks Greed Might Be the Thing That Saves Us

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Myths About Science

Posted on Friday 7 January 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Another overcast, damp day, with occasional sprinkles. Today was partner Y’s last day at his current job; he signed his severance package, returned his laptop and badge. He’ll be home everyday now until/unless he gets another job; he does seem … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson, HALF-EARTH (2016)

Posted on Wednesday 29 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

E.O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, Liveright, 2016, 259p This is one of Wilson’s last four or five books, the first one following The Meaning of Human Existence in 2014. These books seem slighter that most earlier Wilson … Continue reading →

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E.O. Wilson

Posted on Monday 27 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The great evolutionary biologist and author E.O. Wilson died on Sunday. He was 92. He had been publishing new books right up to the end, with Tales from the Ant World in 2020. Several of his earlier books, from On … Continue reading →

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Extinction Debt

Posted on Thursday 23 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Henry Gee is a long-time editor of Nature, one of the two (along with Science) general interest scientific journals. Gee came to notice of the science fiction community in the 2000s (iirc) when he commissioned short science fiction stories from … Continue reading →

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Carl Sagan, OTHER WORLDS (1975)

Posted on Sunday 19 December 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Continuing my stroll through my nonfiction library, of books I’ve read that I think are worth remembering. Carl Sagan, Other Worlds (produced by Jerome Agel). Bantam, 1975. This is a thin little book (160pp) with text by Carl Sagan but … Continue reading →