Mark R. Kelly
-
Recent Posts
- John Allen Paulos, A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER (1995)
- Links and Comments: Socialism, Conspiracy Theories, Religion, Rationality, Liberalism, William Barr, Republicans
- John Allen Paulos, IRRELIGION (2008)
- My Religious Upbringing, Such As It Was
- Sam Harris, THE END OF FAITH (2004)
- Daniel Gilbert, STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS (2006)
- Hans Rosling: FACTFULNESS (2018)
- Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)
- A note about book notes
- Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015)
Bookmarks
Categories
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Economics
- Evolution
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Narrative
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Ray Bradbury
- Religion
- Reviews
- Robert Silverberg
- Robert Wright
- Science
- science fiction
- Science Fiction Nonfiction
- Short Fiction
- Silverberg
- Skiffy Flix
- Social Progress
- Space
- Species Reset
- Spirituality
- Star Trek
- Steven Pinker
- Supernatural
- Technology
- Ten Commandments
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- March 2020 (7)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (12)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (9)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (16)
- January 2019 (3)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (7)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (11)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (8)
- November 2017 (11)
- October 2017 (8)
- September 2017 (14)
- August 2017 (12)
- July 2017 (13)
- June 2017 (15)
- May 2017 (21)
- April 2017 (24)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (22)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (9)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (18)
- May 2016 (11)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (9)
- February 2016 (9)
- January 2016 (18)
- December 2015 (21)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (14)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (16)
- July 2015 (12)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (14)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (19)
- January 2015 (20)
- December 2014 (11)
- November 2014 (15)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (16)
- June 2014 (19)
- May 2014 (34)
- April 2014 (26)
- March 2014 (37)
- February 2014 (27)
- January 2014 (19)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (8)
- October 2013 (10)
- September 2013 (21)
- August 2013 (13)
- July 2013 (6)
Meta
Category Archives: Conservative Resistance
Links and Comments: Socialism, Conspiracy Theories, Religion, Rationality, Liberalism, William Barr, Republicans
First, a David Brooks column from back in December: I Was Once a Socialist. Then I Saw How It Worked. I was a socialist in college. I read magazines like The Nation and old issues of The New Masses. I … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Humanism, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Socialism, Conspiracy Theories, Religion, Rationality, Liberalism, William Barr, Republicans
Links and Comments: Secrets of Success, the 2010s, Gibson’s future, History v. Narratives
Here are a few items from recent papers. 1) Nicholas Kristof: The Four Secrets of Success. Which are: 1. Take a class in economics and in statistics 2. Connect to a cause larger than yourself. 3. Make out. 4. Escape … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Economics, Narrative
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Secrets of Success, the 2010s, Gibson’s future, History v. Narratives
Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
From the book Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays (Tachyon, November 2019), a selection of posts from the blog of Peter Watts, which has been running since 2007. Watts is the noted author of high … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Religion
Comments Off on Peter Watts essay: “Understanding Sarah Palin, or, God Is In the Wattles”: Summary and Comments
Links and Comments: Sustainability and Rural Living
Problem? Or solution? Sarah Smarsh: Something Special Is Happening in Rural America. Subtitle: There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces. Writing from Wichita The nation’s most populous cities, the bicoastal pillars of … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Social Progress
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Sustainability and Rural Living
Links and Comments: Suffering Death without Religion; Fox News; Fundamentalism
New York Times: Surviving the Death of My Son After the Death of My Faith, subtitled, I had lost the one thing that could have numbed my pain. By Amber Scorah. A woman leaves her religion, gets on with her … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Psychology, Religion, Ten Commandments
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Suffering Death without Religion; Fox News; Fundamentalism
Junger: TRIBE
Sebastian Junger’s TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging (Grand Central/Twelve 2016) is one of several short, relatively ‘incidental’, books I’ve read in the past month — ‘incidental’ in that they’re mostly off-topic to my more serious themes of science, philosophy, and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Social Progress
Comments Off on Junger: TRIBE
Links and Comments: Petty Rage; EO Wilson; Rutger Bregman; Conservative Causes; Zealots
Paul Krugman’s March 11 column, The Power of Petty Personal Rage discusses incidents about plastic straws, hamburgers, and Captain Marvel. The point is that demented anger is a significant factor in modern American political life — and overwhelmingly on one … Continue reading
Posted in Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Petty Rage; EO Wilson; Rutger Bregman; Conservative Causes; Zealots
Links and Comments: Anti-Vaxxers
From Sunday’s New York Times, essay by Frank Bruni: The Real Horror of the Anti-Vaxxers, subtitled “This isn’t just a public health crisis. It’s a public sanity one.” (The print title was “The Anti-Vaxxers’ War on Truth”.) How many studies … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Psychology
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Anti-Vaxxers
Kakutani: THE DEATH OF TRUTH
Michiko Kakutani’s THE DEATH OF TRUTH: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (Tim Duggan Books, 2018) is, remarkably, the first book by the long-time and influential book reviewer for the New York Times, now retired. It has extensive … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Politics
Comments Off on Kakutani: THE DEATH OF TRUTH
Nichols, THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE
Tom Nichols’ THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (Oxford, 2017) is one of the better in the batch of recent books I’ve read about current events and how they reflect issues of science … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, Culture
Comments Off on Nichols, THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE
