Category Archives: Evolution

Dan Savage on “Sex Dread” Education

Posted on 6 August 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox: “Sex dread” education could be on the rise under Trump. Dan Savage is ready to fight it.. Subtitle: Dan Savage on why abstinence-focused education doesn’t work. Of course. Because conservatives just *know* things to be so, despite evidence. Excerpt: … Continue reading →

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George Lakoff on the Conservative Moral Hierarchy

Posted on 14 July 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Retired UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff answers Two Questions About Trump and Republicans that Stump Progressives, a piece that has gotten some circulation the past couple weeks. The questions are: 1) Why don’t Trump supporters turn against Trump even though … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Reality and Fantasy about Abortion

Posted on 22 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I don’t have any horse in the race about abortion, per se, except how it is an example of right-wing authoritarian, anti-science thinking. (I’ve seen but need to document the historical background about how abortion wasn’t on the conservative religious … Continue reading →

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Big History

Posted on 3 March 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve just recently become aware of the concept, and term, “Big History”. It happened when I saw a coffee table book, shown here, at Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago, and glanced through it, noticing two names I recognized: … Continue reading →

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Anthropocene and Harari

Posted on 23 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

From last weekend’s New York Times Magazine, Is the ‘Anthropocene’ Epoch a Condemnation of Human Interference — or a Call for More?, by Wesley Yang. Noticed firstly as continued evidence of the currency of the term ‘anthropocene’ to refer to … Continue reading →

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Rereading LORD OF THE FLIES

Posted on 17 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Even before the reaction to Tr*mp’s election brought renewed attention to the famous dystopian classics like Nineteen Eight-Four [that’s the proper, bibliographic, title; ‘1984’ is a sort of nickname] and Brave New World, I had contemplated returning to some of … Continue reading →

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An Intelligent Design Video

Posted on 1 January 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Decent video that debunks “intelligent design”, triggered off Michael Behe’s claims of irreducible complexity and the human eye, showing evidence of partial eye evolution in other species. And it pinpoints the human psychological issue– the “personal incredulity” fallacy, i.e., claiming … Continue reading →

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Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths

Posted on 7 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book I had forgotten I had, relatively speaking; I obviously bought it back in 2006 or so, but I didn’t read it right away and so it sat on my shelves among many other books (by Sagan and … Continue reading →

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Sean Carroll, THE BIG PICTURE

Posted on 3 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Sean Carroll’s THE BIG PICTURE: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself, just published May 10th, is an ambitious, wide-ranging book not so much about cosmology (Carroll’s specialty at CalTech), as about the perspective we gain through … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Terrorists and Threats

Posted on 24 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Cartoon by Mark Fiore: Thank You. Love, ISIS. Why? A piece by Nicholas Kristof in today’s NY Times explains. It’s called Overreacting to Terrorism? online and “Terrorists, Tubs and Snakes” in the print paper. The basic problem is this: The … Continue reading →

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