LQCs: Happiest Nations; Social Constructs; Salesforce Park

Posted on Monday 21 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Yesterday we visited Salesforce Park, in the city.

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history, Religion | Comments Off on LQCs: Happiest Nations; Social Constructs; Salesforce Park

LQCs: Grievances, Envy, Government & Technology, Sleeping at Night

Posted on Sunday 20 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

What I discussed yesterday is in today’s NYT.

NYT, Charles Homans, 19 March 2022: Trucker Protest Moved by More Than Opposition to Covid Mandates, “The demonstrators camped outside Washington are rallying against Covid restrictions, but are fueled by a far broader set of right-wing grievances.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Links & Comments, Politics, Technology | Comments Off on LQCs: Grievances, Envy, Government & Technology, Sleeping at Night

LQCs: Contrarians, Conspiracy Theories, and Talking Points

Posted on Saturday 19 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The Atlantic, David French, 18 March 2022: What the Russia Invasion Teaches Us About the Right, subtitled, “Contrarians aren’t critical thinkers. They’re gullible reactionaries, vulnerable to conspiracy theories.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on LQCs: Contrarians, Conspiracy Theories, and Talking Points

LQCs: Ideology First, and Never Mind Facts

Posted on Friday 18 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Republicans pulled a fast one for DST. And according to them, everything wrong in the world is the Democrats’ or Biden’s fault.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on LQCs: Ideology First, and Never Mind Facts

LQCs: More about DST and the effects on US states

Posted on Thursday 17 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Maps of how DST would affect US states, and commentaries.

Continue reading →

Posted in Links & Comments, Science, Social Progress | Comments Off on LQCs: More about DST and the effects on US states

Musings

Posted on Wednesday 16 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I have several more links about the DST initiative, but for the moment…

I’ve created a page on this site called Musings, which is now up there on the top menu bar, where I’m compiling links and summaries to various essays on this site, from over the years, that are generally philosophical in nature, without being comments to links, as most of my posts here are.

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Musings

LQCs: Legislating Reality: Redefining “Noon”

Posted on Tuesday 15 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

A bill passed the Senate today to make Daylight Saving [not Savings] Time permanent. This, in effect, would redefine noon, in the US, to be the time of day indicated by 1pm on the clock.

This is, in effect, changing each state’s time zone to be the one next over to the east. So California will be in Mountain Time, Colorado will be in Central Time, Texas will be in the Eastern Time, and Georgia will be in Atlantic Time. (Some countries do this kind of thing.) Perhaps this is even more easily done than worrying about “daylight saving time.” Think how time zone maps of the world will look.

Continue reading →

Posted in Links & Comments, Science, Social Progress | Comments Off on LQCs: Legislating Reality: Redefining “Noon”

LQ&Cs: Russia, Putin, gas prices, the open society

Posted on Monday 14 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Russia and fake news, how current gas prices reflect actions untaken and short-term memories, Paul Krugman on Putin vs. the open society, and where Republicans might go with Ukraine conspiracy theories.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on LQ&Cs: Russia, Putin, gas prices, the open society

Arthur C. Clarke, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973)

Posted on Sunday 13 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This was Clarke’s first novel after “returning” to writing novels following the break of nearly a decade collaborating with Stanley Kubrick on the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey. (His previous major novel had been A Fall of Moondust in 1961.) In the fact success of 2001 facilitated a major 3-book deal for a record sum of money; Rama was the first, and was followed by Imperial Earth in 1975 and The Fountains of Paradise in 1979. And these three were his last substantial novels, followed only by 2001 sequels and three relatively short novels in the late ‘80s and early ’90.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, science fiction | Comments Off on Arthur C. Clarke, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973)

L&Cs: Yet Another All-Time Novel List

Posted on Saturday 12 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Just discovered, at 4:45pm, that I don’t have time for anything substantial this evening; we’re having guests within half an hour. (Was going to write up Clarke’s RAMA. Maybe tomorrow.) So here’s a kind of link and comment I don’t usually post here.

Esquire, Adam Morgan, 11 March 2022: The 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, subtitled, “Fantasy is the oldest genre of literature, but its best release ever landed just six years ago.”
Continue reading →

Posted in science fiction | Comments Off on L&Cs: Yet Another All-Time Novel List