Category Archives: Astronomy

Daniel Dennett, Exploring the Universe, the Eclipse, and How so Many People have no idea what an eclipse is about

Posted on 10 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Daniel Dennett’s four biggest ideas in philosophy; Why we spend money to explore the universe; Washington Post with images of the eclipse; And SF author CJ Cherryh on how so many ‘people on the street’ have no idea what makes … Continue reading →

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The Awe of the Solar Eclipse

Posted on 7 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three items today. Addressing a piece that claims that the awe of the solar eclipse, tomorrow, will somehow unite humanity (I think not; it hasn’t before); Another appreciation of Daniel Kahneman, who explained how humans think, and established the idea … Continue reading →

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Conspiracy Theories: Solar Eclipse Edition

Posted on 5 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon on how solar eclipses are a breeding ground for conspiracy theories; Rolling Stone on how the far right is subject to conspiracy theories; Free Inquiry on why solar eclipses are nowhere close to being evidence of a creator. While … Continue reading →

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Putting Things Into Perspective: Science, Expertise, Liberalism

Posted on 22 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Items today are follow-ups to items from the past couple days, it turns out. Ethan Siegel at Big Think puts that dark matter claim into the perspective of how science works; Tom Nichols’ update of The Death of Expertise aligns … Continue reading →

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That Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation? Never Mind.

Posted on 20 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

That Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation I posted about four days ago does not seem to have played out (but that’s how science works); A nice summary of the top five astronomical discoveries of all time (so far); And a dicier … Continue reading →

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Cosmic and Psychological Lessons

Posted on 8 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Phil Plait on the scale of the cosmos; Beware of pluralistic ignorance; How math education can be better taught with examples about money. – – –   Today’s cosmic lesson. Scientific American, Phil Plait, 8 Mar 2024: The Scale of … Continue reading →

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Astronomy and the History of Common Knowledge

Posted on 17 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How far away are the stars? and How has the cosmic distance records progressed over time? My speculations about how people throughout history have perceived the size of the world; Veritasium’s person-on-the-street interviews reveal that many people have no clue … Continue reading →

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Items about Science, Math, and Philosophy

Posted on 8 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

There are always looking glass items, as I described topics in yesterday’s post, but for today let’s look at more substantial items. It’s been 100 years since Hubble discovered that our own galaxy wasn’t the entirety of the universe; Steven … Continue reading →

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Another Orion Photo

Posted on 31 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Plus: The wackadoodle conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl; Items about why Trump is blocking the border deal; how Trump would destroy the American-led world order; why Republicans are killing the border deal; and a handy guide … Continue reading →

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Adam Frank, THE LITTLE BOOK OF ALIENS

Posted on 24 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s what looked like a fun, occasional book: a popular summary of a popular topic that’s well-known among followers of science and of science fiction. I bought it to glance through, not necessarily read through. But then I heard the … Continue reading →

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