Views from Crestmont Drive

Reading: Ezra Klein and Pippa Norris

Posted on Sunday 6 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The Ezra Klein Show is a free, semiweekly podcast by Ezra Klein, co-founder of Vox, and author of Why We’re Polarized (my review here), now podcaster and editorial writer for The New York Times, and an all-around very sharp guy. (And he lives in Oakland.)

From a week ago, here’s an item called A Powerful Theory of Why the Far Right Is Thriving Across the Globe, subtitled “The political scientist Pippa Norris explains how a ‘silent revolution in values’ is fueling the global rise of the right.” Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Psychology | Comments Off

Ari Wallach, LONGPATH: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs

Posted on Saturday 5 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a modest little book with great ambitions to change the way people think. And more power to it if it does. But for anyone who reads science fiction, for example, or is familiar with big issues and long-term thinking in the way writers like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson are, there isn’t much new here.

At the same time, this book does capture a central aspect of what science fiction, and its worldview, is all about. For people who think science fiction is about gimmicks and space battles, this book would be a corrective. No — it’s about this. Seeing the big picture. Taking the long-term view.

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Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Evolution, science fiction | Comments Off

Significance, and Links

Posted on Friday 4 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

More on yesterday’s post about intuitive morality; the idea of “significance”, and Alastair Reynolds’ new novel; and links and comments.

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Posted in Links & Comments, Mathematics, Politics | Comments Off

Intuitive Justice

Posted on Thursday 3 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Reading:

Salon, Daniel Sznycer (and Carlton Patrick), 2 Nov 2022: Intuitions about justice are a consistent part of human nature across cultures and millennia

Subtitled: “Two professors explain that a moral compass — which appraises right and wrong — is intrinsic to being human”

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution | Comments Off

G.H. Hardy, A MATHEMATICIAN’S APOLOGY (1940)

Posted on Wednesday 2 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

In perusing some of the earliest popular books I read about mathematics, including the ones I’ve blogged about here by George Gamow and Krasner & Newman, and then searching around for any other popular mathematical texts from the early 20th century that I had missed, I saw references to this item by one G.H. Hardy, a professor at Cambridge University. It struck me as curious for its title: what is there about mathematics that needs apologizing for?

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Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics | Comments Off

That Berkeley Bridge

Posted on Tuesday 1 November 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

OK, so maybe I’ll keep posting something every day, just cut back on all the politically oriented links. Maybe just a photo. Maybe a quotation, a passage like the one from Bertrand Russell the other day. And nice photos. More photos.

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Posted in Bay Area, Personal history | Comments Off

One More Round of Links, with no Comments

Posted on Monday 31 October 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Let’s just compile them with minimal comment. Some are worth returning to. Here’s everything I haven’t already posted since the 1st of October.

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Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Politics, Science, science fiction | Comments Off

Easing Away from Daily Posts

Posted on Sunday 30 October 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve managed to post something on this blog almost every day (I think I missed two, perhaps three days) since September 14, 2021, so for about thirteen and a half months. I think for reasons I’ll step back from that and post here less frequently, but more substantially.

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Posted in Personal history, Website Issues | Comments Off

Dialogues: Democracy’s Enemies; Yuval Noah Harari

Posted on Saturday 29 October 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today are responses to earlier articles or reviews, about the enemies of democracy, and about Yuval Noah Harari. And then my responses to them.