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 (2010-2013)
» Blogspot Views from Medina Road (2003-2010)-
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- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 6
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- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 5
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- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 4
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- Kindergarten Anthropology, and Ordering Things Into Existence
- Steven Pinker, ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 3
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Meta
Category Archives: Personal history
Documenting My Reading; Holiday Shopping; and Tr*mp
Infrastructure note: I’ve updated all the pages under the “Nonfiction Books” tab in the menu above. I set up those pages a year ago, in December 2024, and updated a few of them in May 2025, and now have updated … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Personal history, Politics, Website Issues
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Rituals and Routines, and Fonts
Personal health updates; Big Think on the need for everyday rituals; Boing Boing on the origins of Calibri and Times New Roman, and stupidity; Short takes on approval ratings, European leadership, earning more, and Trump’s image. – – – It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Lunacy, Personal history
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Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving with an Asian family; A Facebook graphic about hospitals and who gets the money; Carl Sagan on Who Speaks for Earth? Recalling quotes by E.O. Wilson and Robert A. Heinlein; Don D’Ammassa on humanity’s death spiral; NYT articles on … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Narrative, Personal history, Politics
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Status on a Gloomy Day; Why Anyone Should Care
It’s a gloomy day in the Bay Area, with one rainy storm moving through last night, another due tonight, with clouds and patches of sunlight today. We visited the Farmers Market in Montclair Village today, bought some produce, and a … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history, The Book
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Busy Weekend: Quick Summary
Friday I had a PCP (primary healthcare physician) appointment; an annual checkup, though they don’t use that word anymore. Insurance difficulties. Just a 10-minute chat. D Frey had already seen all my blood work. No problems. On Saturday we did … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history
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LA Weekend Trip, and Certain Types of Principles
We drove from Oakland to LA (Santa Monica area) Friday, and returned home today, avoiding all the predicted holiday weekend traffic by leaving early each time, around 9am. We celebrated my birthday and my partner saw his new granddaughter for … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Personal history
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Music as Language
John McWhorter on Bruce Springsteen, and my own takes; About modern music. I mentioned that I had a couple thoughts about music recently. The first is inspired by this piece: NY Times, John McWhorter, 7 Aug 2025: Springsteen Isn’t Who … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history
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Incompetence, Greed, or Sabotage?
Elizabeth Kolbert on the Texas floods and the administration’s undermining of climate research; How the Trump administration wants to discourage wind and solar projects; Recalling the Scopes trial, 100 years ago this month, and America’s continued antipathy toward science and … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Personal history, Politics, Religion, Science
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Locus Awards and Being Busy
Locus Awards; publisher prospects; recent reading. \ It’s a truism that the busier one is, the less time one has to jot notes in one’s journal, or write posts on one’s blog. The past few days have been busy, but … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history, science fiction
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Four Years; and Primitive, Atavistic Tendencies
Four years since my heart transplant; David Brooks on loyalty to home vs loyalty to abstractions; human nature; and how Trumpism is an attempt “to reduce us to our most primitive, atavistic tendencies.”; Thus: Trump fired the historians whose job … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Personal history
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