Recalling American Life Before Vaccines, Including My Own

Posted on Monday 11 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • A remembrance of America before vaccines;
  • How the DOGE-ing of the Humanities is being reversed, fortunately;
  • Briefly noted: Trump’s intuitive thinking is wrong about vaccines and autism; a Republican who thinks racial discrimination is a thing of the past, as Tennessee redistricts on racial grounds; how Trump demands loyalty above all; and Rebecca Solnit on what it takes to be California’s governor.
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People think the past was better than the present because they remember only the good parts. A recurring theme. Here’s an essay about the bad parts.

The Atlantic, Fran Moreland Johns, today: I Remember America Before the Measles Vaccine, subtitled “And I wish Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did too.”

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Cooperation Is the Key to Human Advancement

Posted on Sunday 10 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • A counterpoint to zero-sum thinking from Japan, and cooperation;
  • Tennessee shows how to rig an election;
  • Short items on Trump, the Pope, and the Bible; now RFK Jr. is worried about jello; how a Christian conspiracy theorist now admits to lying; how a Texas legislator thinks his job is to do what (he thinks) God wants; Trump fans’ golden calf; and a social media meme about “when it finally happens.”
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Cooperation, not competition, is the key to the advancement of the human race. Competition is the law of the jungle.

Big Think, Eric Markowitz, 7 May 2026: How helping your rivals makes you harder to beat, subtitled “A counterpoint to zero-sum thinking from Japan.”

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UFOs, Consciousness, Being Savvy

Posted on Saturday 9 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Adam Frank on the new UFO data;
  • Thoughts about being savvy, and reality-literacy, and the lack of evidence for both UFOs and God;
  • Carlo Rovelli denies there is a “hard problem” of consciousness.
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One more about the new UFO data, since it’s by Adam Frank.

The Atlantic, Adam Frank, today: Just Show Us the Spaceships Already, subtitled “Until the U.S. government has data or samples of alien material that can be shared, the story of extraterrestrial visitors is just a story.”

Spaceships. That’s all I’m asking for. Just one actual stinking spaceship. I’d also take an actual alien body—I’ve been told that the government has some of them as well. Instead, the first “alien files,” released yesterday, appear to be the same old, same old: stories, but no hard evidence—certainly not of the kind I’d want to see as a scientist, or that could truly advance the debate about UFOs and their alien connection.

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AI, UFOs, Tradwives

Posted on Friday 8 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Two pieces on Richard Dawkins, AI, and Clarke’s first law;
  • Items on the new UFO files being released by the government;
  • Two items about tradwives;
  • Items debunking the so-called religious revival, Trump claiming hantavirus is “very much under control,” and mind control.
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There’s been some kerfuffle in recent days about the reaction of the famous scientist and writer Richard Dawkins to his interaction with the AI bot Claude, or Claudia. For example:

The Guardian, Robert Booth, Tue 5 May 2026: Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it, subtitled “Chats with AI bots have convinced evolutionary biologist but most experts say he is being misled by mimicry”

I see this as an example of Arthur C. Clarke’s first law. As at Wikipedia, Clarke’s three laws.
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Sean Carroll on Science and Religion, and Templeton

Posted on Thursday 7 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Sean Carroll on science and religion, and why he doesn’t take money from the Templeton Foundation;
  • Short items on how the Trump administration cutting funding to study the hantavirus, the one now loose on that cruise ship; more blaming Satan and demons; explaining the missing scientists case, how rights come from the government not God, and how Tennessee erased the state’s only Democrat-held seat;
  • Ennio Morricone’s State of Grace.
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Here’s an old piece from 2013, that was linked to a recent piece that I saw yesterday, by Sean Carroll, author of one of my favorite books, THE BIG PICTURE, which I wrote up here almost 10 years ago.

It’s been noted that, especially in the past 50 years, religion has tried to borrow the imprimatur of science. Religion generally ignores or defies the conclusions of science, yet culture has changed sufficiently enough that religious ideas gain more traction if they’re dressed up in pseudo-scientific terms. Thus Creationism became Intelligent Design.

The Templeton Foundation is a religious organization that seeks the endorsements, mostly implicit, of scientists around the world by awarding them big cash prizes for suitable books or articles they can claim are sympathetic to religion. If you squint hard enough. Some scientists and other writers are happy to take their money, perhaps with a wink. Some aren’t.

Slate, Sean Carroll, 9 May 2013: Science and Religion Can’t Be Reconciled, subtitled “Why I won’t take money from the Templeton Foundation.” Continue reading →

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Rutger Bregman: MORAL AMBITION

Posted on Thursday 7 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference
(2024 in Dutch; Little, Brown, 2025, 285pp, including 53pp of Thanks, Notes, and Index)

Here’s the third book by Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and thinker. First was UTOPIA FOR REALISTS (2017 in English, review here), which promoted the idea of a universal income, explained why the GDP is outdated, why we need to get over the dogma that you have to work for a living, and the benefits of open borders, and remembering that the Overton Window can shift – ideas that would horrify most conservatives of course, but which Bregman backed up with evidence and examples, echoing Harari and Rosling and others. Second was HUMANKIND (2020 in English, review here), whose thesis was that most people are pretty decent (despite what many conservatives are taught), coming down on the opposite side of the Hobbes/Rousseau as many other thinkers, as he reviewed incidents from history and even the novel LORD OF THE FLIES and concluded that most people have been peaceful, while famous incidents of savagery are rare or have been exaggerated.

The latest book is a call for ambition, for building a better world, and aligns roughly with ideas of some of the effective altruism (EA) crowd: think long-term, do good, don’t cruise through life. Continue reading →

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, Paul Krugman, Jesse Bering

Posted on Wednesday 6 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson on aliens, and his new book;
  • Paul Krugman explains how MAGA will kill many Americans;
  • Jesse Bering on karma;
  • And short items about Trump’s health, aliens, the ballroom, the upcoming cage match, and “low T”.
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Heralding a new book by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

NY Times, Neil deGrasse Tyson, today: Neil deGrasse Tyson: Give Us the Aliens [gift link]

Ever since childhood I’ve wanted to be abducted by aliens. Now, as a professional astrophysicist armed with the knowledge of the size, age and composition of the cosmos, I know that nothing prevents any of us from imagining a universe teeming with life.

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Dealing with Inevitable Change

Posted on Tuesday 5 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How to deal with long-term population decline;
  • Astrology, sigh;
  • A Christian phone network to block reality;
  • Long essay about how Paul, not Jesus, founded Christianity, as many of us already understand;
  • Short items about Republican censorship, lies, the tests for dementia, religious freedom, Trump’s ambitions, and suppressing data.
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Get a grip. Things aren’t about to turn around any time soon.

Vox, Elliot Haspel, today: Falling birth rates don’t have to be a crisis, subtitled “Here’s how America can age gracefully.”

Let’s face it: Another baby boom isn’t coming anytime soon.

The latest round of US birth data, released earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show the general fertility rate has dropped to a new record low of 53.1 per 1,000 females between 15 and 44 — a 23 percent decrease since the most recent peak in 2007.

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Humanity and Heartbreak?

Posted on Monday 4 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • A new version of Lord of the Flies, which I think I might watch;
  • The idea of peer review, and my professional background;
  • Cory on Rebecca;
  • What religious tribalists mean by “going against the grain”.
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I’ve read the book, more than once (see my 2017 review), but have never seen any movie version. But I think I’ll watch this.

Slate, Rebecca Onion, today: The First TV Adaptation of Lord of the Flies Is Here. It’s Gripping—and Heartbreaking., subtitled “The co-creator of Adolescence does something unexpected with one of literature’s darkest novels.”

Especially because the writer here has heard of Rutger Bregman and the real-life counterpart to Golding’s story. And because the filmmakers apparently also understand some of that. (And because of the Adolescence tie.)
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What Education Is For; the End of Rational Discourse

Posted on Sunday 3 May 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The obvious reason conservatives are under-represented in universities;
  • Adam Kirsch on Jürgen Habermas and the weightlessness of online existence;
  • Conservatives’ double standard on speech about Trump and speech about everyone else;
  • Short items on the popularity of “true-crime,” how Trump’s arch is another item on the tyrant’s checklist, how American is an empire in decline, someone in the administration who thinks you need to show ID at restaurants, and how the administration’s solution to problems is to fire people.
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We keep hearing complaints from conservatives about how they are under-represented in universities. The reason why is obvious.

NYT, Letters, 2 May 2026: What Is Higher Education For?, subtitled “Readers respond to Bret Stephens’s column about the recent Yale report on reforming academia.”

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