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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Meta
Search Results for: how the mind works
But What’s at Stake? Hal Clement’s Needle
Needle (Astounding Science Fiction, May-June 1959; expanded to book form: Doubleday, 222 pages, $2.50 in hardcover, 1950) by Hal Clement Hal Clement (legal name Harry Stubbs) was one of the stable of science fiction writers developed by John W. Campbell … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
From the book Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays (Tachyon, November 2019), a selection of posts from the blog of Peter Watts, which has been running since 2007. Watts is the noted author of high … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Religion
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Principles
This page summarizes principles and guidelines for understanding the world, in particular how to evaluate claims made in politics, by advertising and the news media, and by religion, science, and pseudo-science. These principles fall into roughly three groups: logical fallacies, … Continue reading
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Isaac Asimov: THE EARLY ASIMOV (1972)
This is a book I’d never read before, and debated recently about whether to ever read it. On the one hand, life is too short to read every book one might have accumulated, and this book consists, frankly, of all … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Isaac Asimov, science fiction
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Robert A. Heinlein: SIXTH COLUMN (1941/1949)
This was the earliest novel-length work by Heinlein, though it was serialized in Astounding magazine (Jan, Feb, and March 1941) and not published in book form until 1949, by which time two or three other Heinlein novels had been published … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Heinlein, science fiction
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Richard Dawkins: OUTGROWING GOD: A Beginner’s Guide (2019)
This book, clearly aimed at younger readers, repeats many of themes from his earlier 2006 book THE GOD DELUSION, boiled down and made even more pointed. The first part of the book is structured as a series of “but what … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Religion, Science
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Martin Rees: ON THE FUTURE: Prospects for Humanity (2018)
Martin Rees is a British astronomer and astrophysicist who looks rather like Richard Gere (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Rees); he holds or has held all sorts of high positions in British science and academia. He’s published several books, of which the half dozen … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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Asimov, I, ROBOT
(The photo shows a 1969-era Science Fiction Book Club edition of a Doubleday hardcover, with the jacket copy claiming the book is “Long out of print and in great demand”; a 1984 mass market paperback from Del Rey; and the … Continue reading
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Links and Comments: Sapiens; Leaving Religion; Conspiracy Theories; Weather Forecasting
1. From yesterday’s NYT Book Review. Chuck Klosterman likes Harari: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/books/review/chuck-klosterman-likes-writers-who-arent-self-absorbed-sociopaths.html What’s the last great book you read? I picked up “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari. I thought: “This will probably be O.K. I’ll probably … Continue reading
Posted in Human Progress, Psychology, Religion, Technology
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Asimov, Six Lucky Starr novels
In the 1950s Isaac Asimov wrote six short science fiction novels for the ‘juvenile’ market, what today we would call ‘young adult.’ These were: DAVID STARR, SPACE RANGER (1952) LUCKY STARR AND THE PIRATES OF THE ASTEROIDS (1953) LUCKY STARR … Continue reading
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