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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Meta
Category Archives: Politics
Remembering Y2k; a Political Commentator admits he was wrong; Fallibilism; Reading Lakoff
Back to interesting ideas. Heather Cox Richardson recalls Y2K, 25 years ago on January 1st, and how since the problem was fixed (by the scientists and tech guys) some people felt the problem had never been real. As always, she … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Politics, Technology
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End of Year Summaries
David Brooks’ favorite essays include one about how Trump’s people have no clue about how to fix complex problems, and one about why people believe *true* things; Two pieces from The Atlantic about 77 facts from 2024, and important breakthroughs … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Politics, Science, Social Progress, Technology
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Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t
Trump doesn’t need to keep his promises because he’ll just claim that he has, and blame his enemies when it’s obvious he has not; How the threat of government shutdown reveals the Republicans as the party of “no”, recalling William … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion
Comments Off on Children, Adults Who Think Like Children, and Adults Who Don’t
So Are We to Live in an Authoritarian Oligarchy?
The un-elected Elon Musk seems to be running the country this week; How the Drone Panic reveals a need to believe, in *something*. So not only is our incipient administration authoritarian, it’s authoritarian and being run by an oligarch! NY … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Supernatural
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Psychological Underpinnings
The drone panic is about human psychology; So is the fear of vaccines. – – – Once again, the drone panic is not about drones. NY Times, Zeynep Tufekci, 19 Dec 2024: How to Make the Drone Panic So … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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The Drones! The Drones!
First let’s finish the second Robert Reich item we began yesterday. Then the drones. Robert Reich, 13 Dec 2024: America’s four stories (Part 2)
Fear, Outrage, and Paranoia
I’ve been curious, but have never been sufficiently tempted, to watch or listen to right-wing media for any period of time. These two pieces confirm my impression that most of its content is about fear and outrage. Fear of a … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, History, Lunacy, Politics
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American Narratives
Infrastructure note; Robert Reich on America’s four stories; Heather Cox Richardson on how Trump has no apparent plan for governance. Infrastructure note. I’ve installed an initial set of theme pages under the “NF Reviews” menu item above, which appear as … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Politics, Website Issues
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Pretty to Think So
One of my running themes — here on this blog, in the reviews I’ve written of SF novels and stories in recent years, in my essay for Gary Westfahl awaiting publication, and in my book if I manage to write … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, science fiction
Comments Off on Pretty to Think So
Or for Worse
We took both our cars into the indie BMW shop we’ve been going to, for routine maintenance. In my case, I needed my car to be ship-shape before driving down to LA in a couple weeks. \ Infrastructure note. In … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Politics, Website Issues
Comments Off on Or for Worse
