Adam Frank, THE LITTLE BOOK OF ALIENS

Posted on 24 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s what looked like a fun, occasional book: a popular summary of a popular topic that’s well-known among followers of science and of science fiction. I bought it to glance through, not necessarily read through. But then I heard the author do an interview on Science Friday a couple weeks ago – here’s the link — and heard him make a couple key points that I wasn’t aware of. So I picked up the book and read it after all.

(Harper, Oct 2023, xviii + 215pp including Notes, Recommended Reading, and Index)

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Healthy, Yet Furrowing My Eyebrows

Posted on 23 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Today, another trip into the city, to CMPC, to see one of the cardiologists and status my health, two years and eight months after my heart transplant. Had bloodwork done last Friday, and chest X-ray, and echo-cardiogram done today just before cardiologist visit.

Everything’s fine: blood, x-ray, echo. Earlier symptoms have almost all gone away. We didn’t have any issues to discuss except the precise amounts of two blood pressure meds I’ve been taking, and we decided to make no change. Then we went to Mel’s Diner and I had huevos rancheros for lunch.

Today, two items that caused me to furrow my brow. Then some fringe topics.

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Late Afternoon and the House is Warm

Posted on 22 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Another storm blowing through the Bay Area today. Jets are flying into SFO from the north, a rare circumstance. (I can see them from our balcony.) Our three kitties lie near me in my living room office, to be near the gas fireplace. It’s cold and wet outside, but the gas fireplace keeps the living room warm.

  • How solving the climate crisis will challenge human nature;
  • Short items about Republican hypocrisy, about the stock market, and infrastructure votes;
  • How the media isn’t focusing on Trump’s mental acuity;
  • Robert Reich discusses Trump’s Brownshirts.
  • R.E.M.’s “Sad Professor”

Is this restating the obvious, or is there something new here?

The Guardian, Rachel Donald, 13 Jan 2024: Human ‘behavioural crisis’ at root of climate breakdown, say scientists, subtitled “New paper claims unless demand for resources is reduced, many other innovations are just a sticking plaster”

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Tribal Psychology and Racism

Posted on 21 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • What evolutionary psychology reveals about American politics — nothing new here, except to note that these ideas have reached the mainstream press;
  • A former Republican speechwriter summarizes Trump’s vile racist remarks;
  • Short items about Trump’s confusion of Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi; a gay couple’s caving to torture from a Christian MAGA neighbor; and how conservatives don’t see diversity as a strength;
  • R.E.M.’s “Bang and Blame.”

First let’s visit the article I noted yesterday, about what “science” is revealing about American politics.

Washington Post, Joel Achenbach, 20 Jan 2024: Science is revealing why American politics are so intensely polarized, subtitled “Political psychologists say they see tribalism intensifying, fueled by contempt for the other side”

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Killers and EvoPsych

Posted on 20 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Quick post.

We spent all afternoon watching Killers of the Flower Moon — a very good film, worth the 3 1/2 hours — so I only have a moment to post something before dinner.

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Washington Post, Joel Achenbach, 20 Jan 2024: Science is revealing why American politics are so intensely polarized, subtitled “Political psychologists say they see tribalism intensifying, fueled by contempt for the other side”

Joel Achenbach has written at least one book that I have (Captured by Aliens, from 1999). Haven’t read this piece yet, but it’s notable for how the whole field of evolutionary psychology and its understanding of tribal forces that rule basic (dare I say, conservative) politics is rising into the common parlance of ordinary journalism, rather than being confined to books only science nerds would read. Something similar has happened with the related field of psychological biases — motivated reasoning and so on — terms once confined to textbooks. Will read the article and comment tomorrow.

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Math and Beauty

Posted on 19 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Big Think’s Ethan Siegel on the Fibonacci sequence;
  • Big Think’s Adam Frank on biological and technological information flow;
  • Shorter items on inflation and human irrationality; how calls for securing the border are political theater; how anti-science (vaccine “hesitancy”) is rising; and how Republicans would reject a border deal rather than lose a campaign selling point.

Here’s an item about mathematics and beauty, and the lure of intelligent design.

Big Think, Ethan Siegel, 19 Jan 2024: Ask Ethan: What explains the Fibonacci sequence?, subtitled “The pattern 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., is the Fibonacci sequence. It shows up all over nature. But what’s the full explanation behind it?”

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40,000 Stars in the Evening

Posted on 18 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • An article about what “fandom” means today, and my brief reflections on science fiction fandom;
  • Fringe items about blaming the devil, why only Christians should hold political offices, book banning, what Trump’s “best people” have said about him, and an incoherent speech that Trump’s fans applauded;
  • R.E.M.’s “Texarkana.”

I said I would downplay political and religious items on my daily posts, but this item today is as much about culture as politics per se, and it seems to relate (I haven’t read it yet) to an idea of the kind of ‘fandom’ that has always been part of the science fiction community. I’ll discuss that more depending on what this article says…

Vox, Aja Romano, 18 Jan 2024: If you want to understand modern politics, you have to understand modern fandom, subtitled “You don’t just vote for Trump. You stan him.”

Which causes me to immediately wonder: does this mean “modern fandom” is just another set of tribes? Communities connected via modern social media, rather than physical communities living in proximity to one another? Let’s start reading. It’s about six screens long.

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Einstein’s Rules; Arranging Books; Who Owns the Moon

Posted on 17 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Today let’s do three substantial topics, and push items about politics and religion to the end. To the fringe.

  • Einstein’s 7 rules for a better life;
  • A peculiar Guardian article about arranging “curated” books;
  • Adam Lee on religious taboos and who owns the Moon;
  • Fringe items about those who would revive the climate of driving those who get outed to commit suicide; how Republicans claim they’re not sexist but are disinclined to vote for women; how Trump is God’s will but Biden isn’t.

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Big Think, Ethan Siegel, 16 Jan 2024: Einstein’s 7 rules for a better life, subtitled “The most celebrated genius in human history didn’t just revolutionize physics, but taught many valuable lessons about living a better life.”

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Orion, and Tribal Politics

Posted on 16 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • What Orion would look like if we had better eyes;
  • The Iowa landslide for Trump reveals evangelicals for who they really are; The country needs a dictator; Sobbing woman begs Trump to save her;
  • Conspiracy-monger set the fires himself;
  • Nikki Haley denies that the US has ever been racist;
  • Liars and better liars.
  • And why humans don’t need to understand reality, or truth.

What Orion would look like if we had better eyes.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: The Orion You Can Almost See

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Posted in Astronomy, Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics | Leave a comment

After Science and Democracy, Perhaps the World is Regressing to a Mean

Posted on 15 January 2024 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Latest examples of Republican values: letting migrants in Texas drown; and how Trump wants his followers in Iowa to vote even if it costs them their lives;
  • How Trump voters prefer a strongman, never mind democracy and law and order; and how this may be a regression to the mean, in world history;
  • How Trump’s “lost cause” is a kind of gangster cult; and yet, despite the evidence of human psychology, writers keep dreaming of rationalist, democratic utopias.

Latest on Republican values.

Joe.My.God, 14 Jan 2024, from The Texas Tribune: Texas State Troopers “Physically Barred” Border Patrol Agents Trying To Rescue Drowning Migrant Children

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Yesterday Heather Cox Richardson expanded upon this: January 13, 2024

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