Category Archives: Science

How Language Changes, Sometimes for Political Purposes

Posted on Tuesday 25 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three items from the news the past few days. First, some quotes from a piece about how climate change deniers have refined their game. TNR, The New Republic, Genevieve Guenther, 24 Jun 2024: The New Climate Denial Is Based on … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 3

Posted on Monday 24 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Summaries and comments about three more chapters of Steven Pinker’s THE BLANK SLATE; And YouTube tracks from one of my favorite film scores: Richard Robbins’ for The Remains of the Day. I’ll try to get through the rest of book … Continue reading →

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Beware Intuition and Common Sense

Posted on Tuesday 18 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three tracks today: Steven Pinker on how democracy and enlightenment values are not intuitive (even though they’ve led to the betterment of humanity); Items about conservative meanings of ‘truth’ and ‘facts’; how evangelicals think sex is only for purposes of … Continue reading →

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Emergence, Complexity, and the Potential for Human Understanding

Posted on Sunday 16 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here are a couple scientific topics that I don’t pretend to understand, at least not in any depth. What I find fascinating is how, while the big-scale scientific conclusions have been fairly stable for several decades (as noted two weeks … Continue reading →

Posted in MInd, Physics, Science | Comments Off on Emergence, Complexity, and the Potential for Human Understanding

Visiting the Profound

Posted on Sunday 2 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Brian Greene on understanding reality as a collection of nested stories; Recalling analogous thoughts by Sean Carroll and others; Big Think’s Ethan Siegel on the success of modern fundamental science. Perhaps today we can step back from the paranoid, delusional … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Narrative, Physics, Science | Comments Off on Visiting the Profound

Floating

Posted on Tuesday 28 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

After three days summarizing recently read nonfiction books, today let’s capture recent items from the news. A conservative blames the unpopularity of an ice cream flavor on Biden; Conservatives are eager to impose Christian indoctrination in Florida and Texas; Paul … Continue reading →

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Climate Change and Conservative Denial

Posted on Sunday 19 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Like any journalist or storyteller or blogger, I am alert for items with thematic connections. Here are two, or three. About climate change and conservative denial. NY Times, today’s front page, 19 May 2024: Mexico City Has Long Thirsted for … Continue reading →

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A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take

Posted on Saturday 11 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been making notes over the past month for a table of moral polarities, in order to align and summarize some of the concepts and the many news examples I’ve compiled lately. Recall how I’ve mentioned that certain attitudes, especially … Continue reading →

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Trust in Science, Bertrand Russell, and Religious “Truth”

Posted on Tuesday 7 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

An item about restoring trust in science, which doesn’t say very much except to improve education; A reading from Bertrand Russell, about religion, morals, and science; How a religious thinker thinks historians should only tell history that is “inspiring and … Continue reading →

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Third Essay of the Weekend

Posted on Sunday 21 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

An Elizabeth Kolbert essay about the debate about the term “Anthropocene”; And Neil Finn’s beautiful lullaby “Faster than Light”. * This is Elizabeth Kolbert (author of The Sixth Extinction, one of the best nonfiction books of the 21st century; review … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Music, Science | Comments Off on Third Essay of the Weekend