Monthly Archives: July 2020

About the Pandemic and Individual Liberty

Posted on 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 →

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Quotes: Opening Lines: Carl Sagan, Gene Wolfe

Posted on 20 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Carl Sagan, COSMOS (1980) The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tinging in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Search Engines; Responses to Disease

Posted on 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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Quotes: Edward Abbey, David Deutsch

Posted on 18 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Some things are relative, and some things are not. Edward Abbey, DESERT SOLITAIRE (1968) This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the … 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 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 →

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Skiffy Flix: Things to Come

Posted on 17 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is an ambitious film from 1936, based on a treatment by H.G. Wells depicting future history from 1950 to 2036. Again, Wikipedia has a fairly detailed plot at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come. I’ve read that for decades after, Things to Come was … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: King Kong

Posted on 16 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This very famous and popular film, from 1933, isn’t exactly science fiction, but somewhat adjacent to SF: a variation of the “lost world” story popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when there were still unexplored areas of the … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: Son of Frankenstein

Posted on 15 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This third Frankenstein film, Son of Frankenstein, from 1939 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Frankenstein), again features Boris Karloff as the monster. I saw this film decades ago, likely in the 1990s when there was a fine, independent video rental store around the corner from … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Psychology Trumps All?

Posted on 12 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items came up today on very similar topics. They both play to my interest in the psychological underpinnings of belief and apprehension of the world. As I’ve alluded, this is one of my major themes (as on my Principles … Continue reading →

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Skiffy Flix: The Wolf Man

Posted on 11 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

As I’ve said, the basis for these posts, and for my taking the time to watch these rather primitive films from the dawn of the movie era, is to revisit the predecessors of the earliest science fiction films; I have … Continue reading →