Shankar Vedantam: USEFUL DELUSIONS (2021)

Posted on Thursday 23 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book I read recently, just a week or so after returning from the hospital in late June, and which I’ve skimmed again in the past week to take notes and write up this summary. It’s one of two I read around that time by authors who are also media personalities. Shankar Vedantam runs a podcast called The Hidden Brain, and for a while (though I haven’t heard him there recently) was a special correspondent on NPR, IIRC in the mornings on All Things Considered. (The other book, which I’ll cover shortly, is by Fareed Zakaria, host of a CNN show and a guest columnist for the Washington Post.)

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Psychology | Comments Off on Shankar Vedantam: USEFUL DELUSIONS (2021)

Ls&Cs: Stupidity, Laws, Freedom vs. Death

Posted on Wednesday 22 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I had a couple interesting links to post today, but Facebook and the site The Verge, are not cooperating, so I’ll post the link there later.

So a few links from earlier this month, about stupidity vs. enmity, laws that won’t make things go away, and the priority of freedom over death.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Stupidity, Laws, Freedom vs. Death

Lc&Cs: 21Sep21

Posted on Tuesday 21 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m busy working some substantial books notes, as well as — much more importantly! — working the third phase of the SFADB ranked lists (for novellas). For today though, intending to maintain once a day posts on this blog, here are these.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off on Lc&Cs: 21Sep21

Ls&Cs: Letters to the NYT

Posted on Monday 20 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two letters in NYT’s SundayReview section yesterday capture two obvious objections to religion claims that have been around for eons but which the religious have never satisfactorily answered.

Continue reading →

Posted in Links, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Letters to the NYT

Facebook Memes 19Sep21

Posted on Sunday 19 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

From this past week, about philosophy, billionaires and Fox News, the flawed Ten Commandments, what expertise is about, fear the Covid plan will work, conspiracy theories defined, and a protestor’s spelling.

Continue reading →

Posted in Links, Philosophy, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Facebook Memes 19Sep21

Ls&Cs: More About Thinking, or Not

Posted on Saturday 18 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Once again, the general theme is how some people think things through, and how others prefer “stories” or being told what to think. Heroes and villains; conservative media vs. coastal elites; when an enemy is not a speaker of a foreign language; why vaccine mandates, why American life-spans have fallen behind Europe’s, how the big lies started after 9/11.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Thinking | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: More About Thinking, or Not

Personal History: My Lost Week

Posted on Friday 17 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve written twice here about my most recent hospital stay, beginning in late April and moving through heart and kidney transplants in May and returning home in mid-June. First was this fairly lengthy one, 2021: My Heart & Kidney Transplants, and later this one, ICU Delusions, about the many weird dreams I had while under the influence of sedation and the other various drugs they gave me.

My partner Y has now written his account of the first week of this period, the one I don’t remember well.

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Personal History: My Lost Week

Ls&Cs: Training, Education, Belief

Posted on Friday 17 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today. The first is a post by Jerry Coyne about an article from Inside Higher Ed about the difference between training and education. Here’s his post: Training versus education.

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Ls&Cs: Training, Education, Belief

Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science

Posted on Thursday 16 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Following up from yesterday, some more thoughts and links about the notion of thinking, and how that’s what science is all about, while so many people seem to have no understanding of what thinking, let alone science, actually is.

Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science

Thoughts for the Day: About Thinking and Evidence

Posted on Wednesday 15 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I am still formulating a thesis (or, provisional conclusion) that many, perhaps most, people don’t “think” in the way rationalists and scientists think that everyone does. Some people have never encountered the idea that the evidence of the real world means something, that conclusions can be drawn from that evidence, that such conclusions are repeatable. In contrast, many people live in a world where whatever they prefer to be real, is real. “Pretty to think so.” Or whatever those around them think is real, is accepted to be real and true, without further consideration.

Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science | Comments Off on Thoughts for the Day: About Thinking and Evidence