Monthly Archives: May 2014

What Would Make Someone Change Their Mind

Posted on 23 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Fascinating essay in The New Yorker by Maria Konnikova, I Don’t Want to Be Right, which addresses the various results that show you just can’t change people’s minds with evidence. Could various pro-vaccination campaigns change parental attitudes toward vaccines? They … Continue reading →

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My Sect Is Right and Yours Is Wrong — Obviously

Posted on 23 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

This Skepticblog post has a review of a book called God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States by Dr Karen Stollznow, has this opening passage: When I grew up in the Presbyterian Church, … Continue reading →

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Thoughts about Family Pics

Posted on 23 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

In the past couple weeks I’ve been looking through metal boxes and plastic carousels and mail order packages of the slides I inherited from my father 10 years ago, and have the following thoughts. In my father’s days — and … Continue reading →

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Philip Kitcher: Soft Atheism?

Posted on 19 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Fascinating interview with Philip Kitcher, a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, about how he rejects religious doctrines but feels nevertheless that religious practice has certain features that are best not abandoned. Some quotes: [emphases mine] So asserting the doctrines … Continue reading →

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Mining Family History

Posted on 19 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

When my father died in 2001, I acquired his boxes of slides. The earliest were in three or four metal boxes with rows of slots that would hold two slides each. These were mostly taken from my early childhood and … Continue reading →

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Climate Change, Denialism, and History’s Judgment: With a Prediction

Posted on 17 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I love Andrew Sullivan’s blog, The Dish, since he gathers comments about many topics as well as responses to them, and is willing to post long reader comments that challenge earlier posts. (Sullivan is gay, but he’s also a self-described … Continue reading →

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Favorite Songs – Natalie Merchant

Posted on 17 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Listening the new, self-titled, album by Natalie Merchant, but haven’t listened to it quite enough to pick out a favorite song. So here are two from her 1995 first solo album Tigerlily. First, San Andreas Fault: San Andreas Fault Moved … Continue reading →

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Personal History, part 3 (photos)

Posted on 17 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Again before moving on, let me mine my own photo albums for relevant print photos. As I said in the first installment of this personal history, I visited England for the first time (since my birth) in 1990, and made … Continue reading →

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Personal History, Part 2

Posted on 16 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

A bit more family history, as far as I can recall it, before I get to my personal memories of growing up in the high desert, and how that affected me. In Felixstowe [England, where I was born], the family … Continue reading →

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Thoughts About the Legal Profession

Posted on 16 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Aside from the occasional TV series about lawyers (I followed L.A. Law while it ran, and recently we’ve been watching DVDs of old Perry Mason episodes), I’ve never had much interest in the legal profession, intellectually, and find it hard … Continue reading →

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