Category Archives: Science

Link and Quotes: Frank Bruni on the pandemic and freedom

Posted on Wednesday 22 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw this via Facebook, and I can’t just now find a cleaner URL: NYT: Frank Bruni, So This Is Your Idea of Freedom? He’s says more eloquently what I was trying to say a couple days ago. What does … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Science | Comments Off on Link and Quotes: Frank Bruni on the pandemic and freedom

Andrew Sullivan: Inspiration for this Blog; essay on Pandemics

Posted on Tuesday 21 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

[draft] Trying to look away from all the stories about crazy protesters who object to wearing masks and who think the pandemic is all a conspiracy theory they can blame on people they don’t like… To look at long thought-pieces … Continue reading →

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About the Pandemic and Individual Liberty

Posted on Monday 20 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

There’s a point to be made about the zealots insisting on individual liberty, when they go ballistic about refusing to wear masks (example links below). Do they bristle at the intrusion on individual liberty that there are laws that prevent … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Science | Comments Off on About the Pandemic and Individual Liberty

Links and Comments: Search Engines; Responses to Disease

Posted on Sunday 19 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I found the piece mentioned two days ago about London reforms after the Black Plague. Actually it was New York reforms after the 1860s. It’s an opinion piece in the NYT that was online four days ago, and that appeared … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: How Science Really Works; How Pandemics Can Trigger Cultural Renewal; Newton’s work during a Plague Year

Posted on Friday 17 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

(updated 18jul20) Slate, Shannon Palus: How Public Health Experts Feel About Being Wrong. Subtitle: “That they change their advice is actually why we should trust them.” The subtitle is precisely right. Experts, scientists, anyone with intellectual integrity change their minds … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: How Science Really Works; How Pandemics Can Trigger Cultural Renewal; Newton’s work during a Plague Year

Links and Comments: Wars on Science; Epistemology; Conspiracy Theories

Posted on Wednesday 27 May 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

A facebook friend comments: “Research” isn’t just googling to find someone saying what you want to hear. That’s confirmation bias, and cherry picking. \\ My own thought, a week ago: The big political conflicts aren’t about asking the same questions … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Loners, Law and Religion, Our Anti-Science Leaders, the Roots of Science Denial

Posted on Saturday 23 May 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Atlantic: How Loners Are an Evolutionary Insurance Policy This echoes my comments about how diversity is needed in the human race because different attitudes and skills may be needed in situations that require different ways to survive. Though the article … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Loners, Law and Religion, Our Anti-Science Leaders, the Roots of Science Denial

Links and Comments: 28 Apr 2020

Posted on Tuesday 28 April 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

One of today’s news sites links to an article about how Trump, and science-deniers in general, aren’t trying to fight science per se, but are trying to “claim the prestige of capital-s ‘Science.’”. Adam Laats at the History News Network: … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: 28 Apr 2020

My History with Pseudo-Science (Briefly) and Science

Posted on Monday 13 April 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I went through a brief phase of interest in pseudo-science. Beginning at that 7th grade book fair when I bought (in addition to Blish’s Star Trek), an early edition of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and a book by Frank … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history, Science | Comments Off on My History with Pseudo-Science (Briefly) and Science

Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)

Posted on Friday 7 February 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is, in effect, a sequel to SAPIENS. Top level summary: It opens with a long prologue: now that humanity has largely overcome famine, plague, and war, what next? Three possibilities: immortality, happiness, divinity. However these are predictions; this book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Progress, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)