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
Monthly Archives: September 2026
Is the World Becoming Too Complex for Ordinary Human Cognition?
The “time tax” and the unavoidable complexity of society; The value of liberal education; – – – Here’s more about the new book about the so-called “time tax.” The Atlantic, Adam Harris, today: How the Government Wastes Our Time, subtitled … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Human Nature
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Alain de Botton: RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS
Subtitled: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion (Pantheon, March 2012, 320pp, including 8pp acknowledgements, picture credits, and index.) This is a book by the pop-philosopher (I don’t think that’s an unfair term) and writer best know for HOW … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Religion
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A Defense of Evangelicalism?
Two items about an evangelist defending her faith; Mahler’s 3rd. – – – Two pieces about an evangelist who is defending her ‘culture.’ Reading them now. What is she defending exactly? Anything about her actual religion? First, from the evangelist … Continue reading
Peter Singer: THE EXPANDING CIRCLE
Subtitled: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress. (First published 1981. This edition, with a new preface and afterword: Princeton University Press, 2011, xviii + 208pp, including 35pp of notes on sources, afterword, and index.) I had thought this book was about … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Philosophy, Uncategorized
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Wendell Berry and Conservative Thinking
Two essays about Wendell Berry and his kind of short-term-thinking conservatism; How Sam Alito makes millions from encouraging climate disaster; Quick links. – – – I don’t have a lot to say about Wendell Berry, the poet and essayist who … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives
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C.S. Lewis: MERE CHRISTIANITY
(First published 1952. This edition: HarperOne, trade paperback, 2001, xx + 227pp) This is famous as one of the most popular ‘apologetics’ for Christianity. (Coincidentally, I did recently see a poll of the most popular books about Christianity of the … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Religion
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Wonder is Appreciating the World as it Is
An essay on wonder in everyday life; The UN’s new world map and US opposition to it; Brief links. – – – Wonder is freely available, in the reality of the world we live in, for people who bother to … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, reality
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Is America Literally Being Sabotaged? From Within?
Is America being sabotaged from within? Robert Reich asks his readers what gives them hope, with four options; Headlines about Haitians, Satan, a terror attack, the end of free meals for children, hiding statistics, how conservatives are realizing Dolly Parton … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Human Nature, Meaning, Politics
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Todd May: A SIGNIFICANT LIFE
Subtitled: “Human Meaning in a Silent Universe” (University of Chicago Press, 2015, xi + 197pp, including 13pp of acknowledgments, notes, suggestions for further reading, and index) This is the first of three slender books I’ve collected over the years by … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Meaning, Philosophy
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We’re a Cooperative Species, Not an Isolationist Tribal One, Mostly
Essay on how the future of independence is interdependence; Short items about JD Vance’s sense of spiritual darkness, and his apparent welcoming of the “end times”; a new Navy Secretary who believes in witchcraft; asking why psychics don’t help in … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Human Progress
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