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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Category Archives: Culture
The Myths Americans Live By
A person’s history affects how he views the world; so too does a nation’s history affects its perceived position in the world, and its place in history. And every nation, or at least most nations, think it is very special, … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Human Nature, Politics
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Further Notes from Our Report on the Third Planet
What would alien spectators taking notes on modern American society observe? Society is unsettled, and political compromises are fragile; yet those advocating actual violence are a minority (Adam Lee) Society has developed high principles to overcome tribal conflicts, but while … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Human Nature, Social Progress
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Alarmism About Culture
A disgruntled French intellectual on “deculturation” sounds a lot like MAGA; Shorter items about how a mother died due to Georgia’s abortion ban; how conservatives see everything they don’t like is a judgement from their God; how Trump supporters are … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Economics, Politics
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The Debate, Politics, and Science
How Kamala Harris defended fracking and did not properly address climate change; How nothing about science came up in the debate; Short items: How MAGA will fall for anything; how Trumps confessed he’s unprepared; how the GOP has become the … Continue reading
About Bureaucracy and the Real World
How bureaucracy is evidence of the complexity of the real world, and the only way to solve global problems; Notes from the fringe: How Tennessee prevents people voting; Trump’s niece on Trump’s dementia; USA Today about covering Trump’s dementia; Candace … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture
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Alternative Political Realities
I continue to find examples like these fascinating. I know they are extreme examples, and not representative of conservatives in general. But that these claims and attitudes still exist, and are widely circulated, suggests to me that, in the big … Continue reading
Essays by Harari and Chiang
Both about technology, about AI. The Sapiens author has a new book out next week: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. This is an excerpt. NY Times, Yuval Noah Harari, 4 Sep 2024: … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Technology
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Borders and the Fringe
A speculation by Adam Lee about what will happen when we give up national borders; Items from the fringe about Trump’s three rules; Musk’s preference for high status males; Christian nonsense about evolution; simply lying about the Arlington story; and … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Culture, Evolution, History, Lunacy
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Cory Doctorow on Marshmallow Longtermism
I read Cory Doctorow’s latest column for Locus Magazine last week, when I browsed through my advance PDF copy of the September issue. It’s a fascinating piece that considers the difference between the political left and the political right in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Psychology
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Lukianoff & Haidt, THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND
Here’s a book that was published six years ago this month, and which I read one year ago last month. Subtitle: “How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure” (Penguin Press, Sept. 2018, 338pp, including … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Human Nature, Psychology
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