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.
» Full Profile
» Facebook profile
» Previous Views from Medina Road (2003-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
Recent Posts
- Maureen F. McHugh, “The Cost to Be Wise”
- The Consilience of Science Fiction
- Math, Existential Security, and Lots of Links
- Prognostic Myopia: More about Justin Gregg
- Justin Gregg: IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL (2022)
- Why You Should Read Books
- Fifteen Months Out
- Ursula K. Le Guin, “Forgiveness Day”
- Lake Anza
- Surfing the Web, Friday Afternoon
Categories
- Aesthetics
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Cars
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Economics
- Education
- Epistemology
- Evolution
- Family History
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Links & Comments
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Musings
- Narrative
- Notes For
- Paperback Sets
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Quotes
- 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 Book
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- September 2022 (25)
- August 2022 (30)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (30)
- May 2022 (33)
- April 2022 (32)
- March 2022 (31)
- February 2022 (29)
- January 2022 (31)
- December 2021 (34)
- November 2021 (32)
- October 2021 (31)
- September 2021 (20)
- August 2021 (8)
- July 2021 (13)
- June 2021 (4)
- April 2021 (8)
- March 2021 (25)
- February 2021 (16)
- January 2021 (20)
- December 2020 (10)
- November 2020 (11)
- October 2020 (15)
- September 2020 (13)
- August 2020 (23)
- July 2020 (27)
- June 2020 (11)
- May 2020 (13)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (8)
- 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: Mathematics
George Gamow: One Two Three… Infinity
Here’s an oldie, not just for first being published in 1947 (see Wikipedia) but also for being one of the first science nonfiction books I ever read, back when I bought this copy in 1969. (Seen here is the Bantam … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics, Personal history, Physics, Psychology
Comments Off on George Gamow: One Two Three… Infinity
LQCs: Anti-Evolutionists’ Failures at Math
Skeptical Inquirer, Jason Rosenhouse, May/June 2022 issue: The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism And commenting on it, Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True, 2 June 2022: The intellectual vacuity of mathematical arguments against evolution
Posted in Evolution, Mathematics
Comments Off on LQCs: Anti-Evolutionists’ Failures at Math
John Allen Paulos, ONCE UPON A NUMBER: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories (1998)
Here’s another John Allen Paulos book, one from 1998, and one that I had not previously read. When I noticed it on the shelf a few weeks ago I realized this was now of particular interest, since in recent years … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics
Comments Off on John Allen Paulos, ONCE UPON A NUMBER: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories (1998)
John Allen Paulos, INNUMERACY: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (1988)
This slender book was first published in 1988 (I have the 1990 paperback edition) and became a bestseller. It was one of the earliest books on the very general theme of how many people don’t understand the world around them, … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics
Comments Off on John Allen Paulos, INNUMERACY: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (1988)
L&Qs&Cs: Innumeracy and Covid
Humans are intuitively not good at proportions and other statistical concepts, but those concepts can be taught. They are not, and politicians and partisan news sources use public misunderstanding of these concepts to their advantage.
Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Social Progress
Comments Off on L&Qs&Cs: Innumeracy and Covid
Ls&Cs: Two Mathematical Ideas
First: Slate: What Does It Really Mean When a Headline Says “75 Percent of Cases Occurred in Vaccinated People”?, subtitled, “A simple math lesson to calm some of the panic around breakthrough cases.”
Posted in Mathematics, Science
Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Two Mathematical Ideas
Links and Comments: Science Matters, 18 Mar 2021
Catching up on things that have caught me eye the past week or two. How humans have remade the Earth; about Daylight Saving Time; Dark Matter; How time might flow in two directions; the Nature of mathematics.
Posted in Mathematics, Philosophy
Comments Off on Links and Comments: Science Matters, 18 Mar 2021
Links and Comments: The Game of Life; Authoritarianism; Conservatives and the Feudal System
NYT, from last week’s Tuesday Science section: The Lasting Lessons of John Conway’s Game of Life. (Print title: “Life, In All Its Glory” with subtitle “Fifty year on, a game still offers lessons about simplicity, complexity and uncertain.”) The article … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Mathematics, Politics
Comments Off on Links and Comments: The Game of Life; Authoritarianism; Conservatives and the Feudal System
John Allen Paulos, IRRELIGION (2008)
John Allen Paulos, Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Hill and Wang, 2008. John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics who’s become, over the past three decades, well-known as … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics, Religion
Comments Off on John Allen Paulos, IRRELIGION (2008)
Surfing the Web, Friday Afternoon
No backlog of links from this morning or yesterday, so I’m sitting down right now (4:30pm PDT) and surfing all my favorite website to see what jumps out. …Posting at 5:20pm. Slate, Marissa Martinelli, 15 Sept 2022: Deep Space Whine, … Continue reading →