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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» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
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Recent Posts
- Conservative Disregard for Science; Projections and Untruth; That Famous British Take-down of Trump
- Choice, Binary Matters, and Projection
- Personal Jesus and Other Fantasies
- Newsom, DeSantis, Santos, and the Threat of a Trump Dictatorship
- Con Men and Bespoke Realities
- Bathing, Evidence, Control, Dating, Social Security
- Last Questions and Possible Answers, 4
- I Don’t Know. Not Everything has Meaning. And Nihilism. Not What You Think.
- End of Thanksgiving Weekend
- Just ’cause you feel it / Doesn’t mean it’s there
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Meta
Category Archives: Cosmology
The Extent of the Universe, and Our History of Understanding It
NY Times with a photo spread of images from the James Webb telescope; Big Think with a timeline of our history of understanding our universe. —— NY Times, Kate LaRue, 5 Nov 2023: The James Webb telescope is a giant … Continue reading
Science and Art and Predictions and Immortality
Carlo Rovelli on science and art; Big Think on failed predictions; Immortality as a philosophical paradox; Michio Kaku on the four types of planetary civilizations. —— NY Times, guest essay by Carlo Rovelli, 16 Oct 2023: The Secret to Unlocking … Continue reading
Laptop Updates; More about the Crisis in Cosmology; Political matters; A History of Labor Day
New laptop updates. Another “calm down” reaction to the recent news about the “crisis in cosmology”; Political matters, including Alabama’s defiance of the Supreme Court; parental rights; freedom and education; And Heather Cox Richardson on the history of Labor Day. … Continue reading
Posted in Cosmology, History, Personal history, Politics
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About New Books by Phil Plait and Jamie Green
Phil Plait’s Under Alien Skies Jamie Green’s The Possibility of Life And a Facebook cartoon about the cynicism of anti-intellectuals Phil Plait on John Scalzi’s blog today, about his new book Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe, … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Book Notes, Cosmology, Lunacy, science fiction
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Recent Science Matters
What fetal tissue actually looks like; how humans inbreed dogs to the point of their inability to survive in the wild; the discovery of the enormous universe and who did and didn’t get credit.
Cosmic Websites; Recent Headlines
Let’s begin with an item from December, on a website called Topia: A World of Good, promoted on Facebook today by David Brin since it reproduces a list Brin compiled on his own blog some time ago. 21 COSMIC WEBSITES … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Cosmology, Politics, Science, science fiction
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Another Science in 2022 list; A Reading about the Medea Hypothesis
Smithsonian Magazine, Carlyn Kranking and Joe Spring, 28 Dec 2022: The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2022, subtitled “From Omicron’s spread to a revelation made using ancient DNA, these were the biggest moments of the past year”
Maps of the Universe
More things in heaven and earth. As a palette cleanser from my 26th, 23rd, and 16th November posts (and many previous), here’s a status check on the latest of what human beings have discovered, through systematic investigation (i.e. science), of … Continue reading
Neil deGrasse Tyson, STARRY MESSENGER: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
Review: Rather similarly to a couple three other nonfiction books I’ve read lately –- Ari Wallach’s LONGPATH (review here, Jim Al-Khalil’s THE JOY OF SCIENCE (review here), and even Justin Gregg’s IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL (review here) -– this … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Science
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World Views and Cosmic Views
Two items today by Adam Lee. OnlySky, Adam Lee, 17 Jul 2022: How to tell if you’re in a bubble OnlySky, Adam Lee, 19 July 2022: My humanism comes from the stars
