2021: My Heart & Kidney Transplants

Posted on Wednesday 14 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Last November I wrote a longish post here about the heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery I had in late October, 2020. Here’s a similar (but shorter!) post about my heart and kidney transplants in May, 2021.

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Ls&Cs: Changing Minds; Religions and Cults; Abortion; Wishful Thinking

Posted on Wednesday 14 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Catching up on some links from a few weeks ago.

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Ls&Cs: Other Ways of Knowing…What?

Posted on Monday 12 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

There have been debates for decades among scientists on the one hand and those with no interest in, or who are even hostile to, science, on the other. The latter insist that “other ways of knowing” are as valid as the conclusions formed by science, and of course cite intuition and artistic expression and of course religious revelations and insights as these other ways.
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L&C: The New Yorker on Cults and Narratives

Posted on Saturday 10 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

As if I had cued it with yesterday’s post about Why People Believe, particularly the final item by David Brooks, as well as the last of my four new provisional conclusions, the new issue of The New Yorker has a long review of a book by Sarah Berman called Don’t Call It a Cult. Continue reading →

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Blue Marvel Relaxation

Posted on Saturday 10 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The hospital rooms where I stayed for several weeks in May and June, had TVs, of course, mounted on the walls with remotes operated from the beds. Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Why People Believe

Posted on Friday 9 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Links from recent weeks, on political themes. The point, as always, isn’t to rag on Republicans or conservatives, it’s to collect case studies on epistemology: how and why people believe what they do. More and more, Republicans and conservatives have jumped the shark, and it’s obvious to everyone but themselves (see Thomas Clay Jr. post next).

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L&C: Bamboozled, hoodwinked, led astray

Posted on Friday 9 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

From a long Facebook post by one Thomas Clay Jr. (a journalist and author of at least one book): here.

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Four More Provisional Conclusions

Posted on Friday 9 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a first draft of four more provisional conclusions I’ve drawn in recent years; they summarize themes I’ve invoked many times in these posts. I’ll revisit this post and refine, before I add them to a standing page on this site for PCs.

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Ls&Cs: Paul Krugman on Ignorance and Conservative Values

Posted on Friday 2 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two op-ed pieces this past week by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
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Lewis Thomas’ THE YOUNGEST SCIENCE

Posted on Thursday 1 July 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Notes of a Medicine-Watcher,” this is a 1983 collection of essays in an autobiographical structure by the author of three acclaimed books of essays, beginning with THE LIVES OF A CELL. (I reviewed the third one here).

The startling take-away from this book is how little actual medicine there was a century or so ago. Continue reading →

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