Category Archives: Science

Chris Mooney, THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE

Posted on Tuesday 29 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Basic Books, 2005, 342pp, including 86pp of interview credits, other credits, notes, and index.) This is journalist Mooney’s first book, from 20 years ago, and it’s especially apropos to look back at now given the hostility to and/or misunderstanding of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, conservatives, Science | Leave a comment

Who’s Happiest and Why?

Posted on Monday 28 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Phil Zuckerman on that World Happiness Report; A NYT article about alternatives to religion; Recalling mythos and logos; Richard Dawkins on how reality is so much more interesting than religion, And Vox on social trends that may affect religious affiliations. … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Religion, Science | Leave a comment

Tribal Warpaint

Posted on Sunday 27 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Trump doesn’t want to govern, and rejects the idea of American government as a collaboration; How the idea of consumer choice led to the idea of being gay; Trump and covid.gov rewrite the history, as authoritarians do; How Trump … Continue reading →

Posted in authoritarianism, Culture, History, Lunacy, Politics, Religion, Science | Leave a comment

The Cowboy Myth, Presidential Corruption, and Disingenuous Cuts to Science Research

Posted on Friday 25 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richard on the “cowboy myth” that informs the Trump presidency; How Trump et al are giving billionaires a bad name; How Trump has done the most corrupt thing any president has ever done — getting rich from anonymous … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Lunacy, Politics, Science | Leave a comment

Conservative Intellectuals, and the Wrong Way to Do Science

Posted on Thursday 24 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Robert Reich collects comments from conservative intellectuals about the Trump administration; Reich summarizes ten points that demonstrates Trump’s ineptitude and incompetence; Similarly, Salon’s Brian Karem on how Trump has turned the White House into a joke; How RFK Jr.’s approach … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Science | Leave a comment

The Most Sublime Moment in Classical Music

Posted on Saturday 19 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Asimov on Heinlein, about libertarianism; More about “viewpoint diversity” in science, and how scientists react; About another stupidly doctored photo by Trump, to prove something to his dimwitted followers; How the history Trump wants to erase hold the answer to … Continue reading →

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In a Sense, It’s All About Tribal Conformity

Posted on Thursday 10 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s deep thought about religion and conformity; How US scientists have withdrawn their names from a scientific paper about evolution, for fear of reprisal — one of them coincidentally mentioned in a piece posted yesterday; Short items about Trump’s lapel … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Lunacy, Politics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on In a Sense, It’s All About Tribal Conformity

Daughter of Dispatches from Reality

Posted on Wednesday 9 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Two pieces today: about the complexity of the universe, and the current cosmological crisis. – – – Quanta is one of those magazine/websites that, like Big Think and Nautilus and perhaps Noema and no doubt others, cover general concepts in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Science | Comments Off on Daughter of Dispatches from Reality

Is Science Partisan? How Could It Not Be?

Posted on Wednesday 19 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The astronauts have returned, and Trump and Musk lie about what actually happened; The idea of blaming Mexico for the overdose epidemic is wrong, and will not work; Short items about eating less, globalism, cutting aid to the poor to … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science | Comments Off on Is Science Partisan? How Could It Not Be?

Dispatches from Reality

Posted on Saturday 15 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Taking a day off from political posts, for posts about reality. Or at least, the exploration of reality. Mathematicians solve a 125-year-old problem, perhaps; OnlySky’s Dale McGowan about the evolutionary mismatch between the world we evolved in, and the modern … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Mathematics, Music, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Dispatches from Reality