Monthly Archives: March 2023

The Poetry of Reality

Posted on 12 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items about Daylight Saving Time, Tucker Carlson, Biblical Errancy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Richard Dawkins Salon, Nicole Karlis, 12 Mar 2023: Why sleep scientists think Standard Time is best, subtitled “People love the extra hour of sunlight at night, but … Continue reading →

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Modern Science and Literary Wisdom

Posted on 11 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

and Human Nature and Its Biases and Rationality and The Two Cultures and Consilience. Gregory Feeley, in a friends-only post on Facebook three days ago, linked the two items below and and made some generalizing comments about them.

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Friday Quick Items

Posted on 10 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

About that mask study; about the lab leak theory; and the volume of social media; and about the length of nonfiction books. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 10 Mar 2023: Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work

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Today’s Political/Religious Stew

Posted on 9 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s like a traffic accident; you can’t look away. Recent headlines on political matters as influenced by religion. One particular religion, whose followers apparently do not respect the Constitution (or at least the establishment clause of the First Amendment). The … Continue reading →

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Basic Principles: Passages from Shermer

Posted on 8 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

In the closing pages of Michael Shermer’s new book, he quotes Jonathan Rauch’s list, from his book The Constitution of Knowledge, about social rules for turning disagreement into knowledge. Shermer expands upon them, and for one of them provides a … Continue reading →

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Michael Shermer: CONSPIRACY: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational

Posted on 6 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Michael Shermer’s latest book, a thorough account of why people believe conspiracy theories, why it might be beneficial (for evolutionary reasons) to give them the benefit of the doubt (even if they’re not true), with some deep dives into several … Continue reading →

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Disinformation and Tribal Beliefs

Posted on 5 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Political items? Or items about people who don’t quite live in the real world? Is there a psychological term for them? NY Times, Linda Qiu, 4 Mar 2023: Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech at CPAC, subtitled “The former president made inaccurate claims … Continue reading →

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SF and AI in MSM

Posted on 5 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items about Isaac Asimov and AI, Adrian Tchaikovsky and octopuses and AI, SF magazines and AI-generated stories. The Atlantic, Jeremy Dauber, 3 Mar 2023: What Isaac Asimov Can Teach Us About AI, subtitled “The science-fiction writer imagined artificial intelligence—and what … Continue reading →

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Two Kinds of Wokeism

Posted on 4 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

There seems to be two kinds of wokeism (just, as we saw yesterday, there seems to be two Overton Windows), which might be described as wokeism on the right and wokeism on the left. If wokeism might be described as … Continue reading →

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Assorted Links, early March

Posted on 3 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Politics, The Crazies, Science and Culture, Religion Jeff VanderMeer (and a coauthor) on DeSantis and students in Florida; David French on cancel culture and the now two Overton Windows; Amanda Marcotte on Republican hypocrisy; MTG’s confused timeline; bills to outlaw … Continue reading →

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