Recurring Themes

Posted on Thursday 5 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Not enough time to write a review this afternoon, so I’ll just post a few links about current events.

NY Times, Charles M. Blow, 4 Jan 2023: The Burn-It-All-Down Republican Caucus
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Inmates Running Half the Asylum

Posted on Wednesday 4 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The news today is full of the chaos in the House of Representatives where the party in control, the Republicans, cannot elect a Speaker of the House (a position that is third in line for the presidency, after the Vice President). Long story short seems to be that a cadre of some 20 extremist MAGA Republicans will not approve the presumptive favorite for the job, Kevin McCarthy, without grave concessions. They’re rather like a third party candidate ruining the chances for the mainstream party to win an election, throwing it instead to the minority party. (This has happened.) Except I’m not sure how this will play out in a chamber that cannot function without a Speaker. We shall see.

For now I will note some related topics. Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins, FLIGHTS OF FANCY: Defying Gravity by Design & Evolution

Posted on Wednesday 4 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

This book was released in the UK in November 2021 — here’s its Amazon UK page — and was announced for US release in May 2022. I ordered the latter when it came out; here is its Amazon.com page. Turns out they are not separate editions, but the same identical edition, from the Apollo imprint of Head of Zeus, with a single ISBN, and only the UK price in pounds on the back. Why the delay in US availability? Don’t know.

The books is pleasant but unusual in Dawkins’ oeuvre. Continue reading →

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Good News of 2022; What Success at College Means

Posted on Tuesday 3 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

NY Times, Nicholas Kristof, 31 Dec 2022: Cheer Up! The World Is Better Off Than You Think. Continue reading →

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Books Read in 2022

Posted on Tuesday 3 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Some of my Facebook friends are doing it, so I’ll do it too, though here, not there. Well OK, maybe there too.

The list is below. The photo shows all of them in order of finish, except that the 2022 SF novels, along with the last four nonfiction books, are stacked flat at the far end. The shelf was full. Continue reading →

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The Weekend, and Heather Cox Richardson on 2022

Posted on Monday 2 January 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve missed posting the past two days for various reasons. Continue reading →

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More Year-End Summaries

Posted on Friday 30 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Three about science and tech, three about politics. Continue reading →

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Another Science in 2022 list; A Reading about the Medea Hypothesis

Posted on Thursday 29 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Smithsonian Magazine, Carlyn Kranking and Joe Spring, 28 Dec 2022: The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2022, subtitled “From Omicron’s spread to a revelation made using ancient DNA, these were the biggest moments of the past year”

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Science, Anti-Science, and Fantasy

Posted on Wednesday 28 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

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Self-Replacement?

Posted on Tuesday 27 December 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today looking at an article about how conservatives worry about the “great replacement” (of US Christian whites by non-white, non-Christian immigrants) and how, ironically, conservative policies invite their being replaced, through simple natural selection. With comments at the end about the big picture: about natural selection, climate change, and immigration.

Salon, Mike Lofgren, 24 Dec 2022: There really is a “great replacement” — but it’s not what Tucker Carlson says it is, subtitled “Is voting for Republicans literally killing white people in rural America? Because the correlation is striking” Continue reading →

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