Category Archives: Science

We’re Not Asking the Right Questions, Perhaps

Posted on Monday 20 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The more I read on a wide range of topics that touch on various deep questions — is there a God? do we have free will? — I’m thinking that these are probably the wrong questions. Considering the biases of … Continue reading →

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Conservative Priorities

Posted on Wednesday 15 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Conservative principles: none. Priorities: power, and money; More about Lindsey Graham and those who are most against gay rights; The recurring nonsense about “Daylight Saving Time”; Brief items about how facts are stubborn things, and Hegseth’s ongoing campaign to enforce … Continue reading →

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Motivated Reasoning and Human Gullibility. UFOs!

Posted on Monday 13 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

UFO fans aren’t impressed by the latest government doc’s; More about supposed geo-engineering. – – – This is funny. And sad. NY Times, 11 Jul 2026 (though in today’s print paper): Non-Disclosure: In Roswell, New U.F.O. Docs Are a Declassified … Continue reading →

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Human Limitations and Potential

Posted on Friday 10 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Rethinking categories and provisional conclusions; XKCD on holes; A new Atlantic column on The Wonder of Everyday Life; A Star Talk video about the limits of human intelligence. – – – Rethinking again the categories of posts I do here, … Continue reading →

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Lost Potential

Posted on Wednesday 1 July 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The families conservatives want; Heather Cox Richardson on the Republican motives to strike down the Fourteenth Amendment; Brief items about mandating the Bible in class; yet another study finds no link between Tylenol and autism; a conservative wants to sterilize … Continue reading →

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Facebook Saves

Posted on Monday 29 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard, still out to discredit Dr. Fauci, only reveal their scientific illiteracy; The difference between science and science’s pretenders, pseudoscience and science denial; A crude but apt characterization of Christian theology; Things theists claim as evidence … Continue reading →

Posted in LIteracy, Science | Comments Off on Facebook Saves

As Others See Us

Posted on Wednesday 24 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How World Cup tourists are impressed by the US; And an earlier piece about tourists were impressed by San Francisco, in both cases despite right-wing apocalyptic propaganda; Amanda Marcotte on why MAGA buys Trump’s reflecting pool hoax; Hegseth reverses the … Continue reading →

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

Posted on Sunday 21 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter (Simon & Schuster/Simon Six, May 2026, 226pp, including 28pp of acknowledgements, notes, index, and image credits) This latest by Tyson is irreverent and casual, even lightweight, in the way Tyson’s books often are, … Continue reading →

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Reflecting Pool Fiasco

Posted on Wednesday 17 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How the reflecting pool fiasco is emblematic of Trump’s manner of government; Facebook’s AMV about how the reflecting pool is a miniature Anthropocene; Why Trump keeps talking about voter fraud: he has specific ideas about the kind of people who … Continue reading →

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Asymptotic Progress

Posted on Friday 12 June 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How the news about adjusting climate change predictions is good news, and how science is always about increasingly approaching the truth, while never claiming (as religion does) to have found it; Trumps guts a line of oceanic defense; there’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Science | Comments Off on Asymptotic Progress