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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- Stages of Wisdom
- Comments from Facebook; What the Conversion Therapy Case is About
- How Tribal Loyalty Overrides Evidence of Incompetence
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- Sometimes They Really Are Out to Get You
- Reactions to the Hegseth and Trump Speeches to the Military. And Christian Music.
- Military Orders, and Coal Obsession
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Meta
Author Archives: Mark R. Kelly
Michael Shermer: CONSPIRACY: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational
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
Posted in Book Notes, Psychology
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Disinformation and Tribal Beliefs
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
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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SF and AI in MSM
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
Posted in science fiction, Technology
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Two Kinds of Wokeism
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
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture
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Assorted Links, early March
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
Mehdi Hasan on Arguing
Two interviews with and a book by Mehdi Hasan, about how to argue, and win arguments, using emotional connections over facts and figures, critical thinking skills, with the difficulty in conducting “good-faith” arguments with the right. How some victims of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture
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Leftover February Links, 2
Science, Culture, Politics A 3-D map of near space, and errors in film and TV science fiction, and a novel; 11 recent scientific breakthroughs; a Lunar time zone. When reading went silent. Ron DeSantis’ freedom crackdown, and a question about … Continue reading
Leftover February Links, 1
Politics, Science, Culture, Religion GOP, NYT and Biden; Evolution, Aliens and Balloons; Movie Credits, Awards; He Gets Us, Indoctrination Camps, Education
There are “Theories” and then there are “Theories”
I have an idea I haven’t heard or read anyone express before: that some of the confusion about science on the one hand, and the legitimacy of crazy, sometimes deliberately fabricated, nonsensical ideas about what’s going on in the world … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Psychology, Science
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Zodiacal Light, and The Well
Two more items for today, which I decided not to squeeze into the previous post.
Posted in Astronomy, Personal history
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