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Vox, Oshan Jarow, 30 Jun 2023: Why scientists haven’t cracked consciousness, subtitled “The science of consciousness still has no theory.”
Today is the tenth anniversary of this blog.
It was originally called “Views from Medina Road,” from where we lived in Woodland Hills (a suburb of Los Angeles) at the time, with the view of the San Fernando Valley, and the snow-topped San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
Here’s the first post. All it said was “This is the initial post on my new blog, a sequel to the Locus Online editorial blog Views from Medina Road.”
Unfortunately that link, at locusmag.com, doesn’t work; but since then I moved that entire blog my own domain, markrkelly.com, here.
It’s odd that there was an almost four-month gap between the two. In July 2013 I had been laid off from my industry job of 30 years for about eight months, since November 2012, and then spent the early part of 2013 getting sfadb.com up and running smoothly.
Later, moving to Oakland in January 2015, it was easy enough to change the blog title, and header photo.
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For today, another run through of recent items in the news and commentariat. Continue reading
Richard Dawkins, too, has a blog on Substack, which has become a refuge for those writers unable to find a home on traditional sites, or perhaps because they can make direct money through Substack subscriptions. You don’t have to subscribe to see most of the posts, but apparently you get extra things if you subscribe. (I haven’t subscribed to any yet; I don’t mind doing so, but I suspect the costs would quickly add up.)
Currently I’m already following the religious skeptic Hemant Mehta (https://friendlyatheist.substack.com/), who went there after Patheos.com disbanded its “nonreligious” blogs (apparently because the religious were offended by their existence); the historian Heather Cox Richardson (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/), and the economist Robert Reich (https://robertreich.substack.com/) there, and perhaps others. I need to reorganize my bookmarks.
Dawkins’ Substack is called “The Poetry of Reality”.
Richard Dawkins, Substack, 30 Jun 2023: Two Ancestral Languages
Let’s catch up on links from the past couple weeks that I haven’t already used, beginning with some follow-ons to topics already covered.
CNN, 8 Jul 2023: Global heat in ‘uncharted territory’ as scientists warn 2023 could be the hottest year on record
Today I collected another batch of SF-related items to post on Locus Online:
Today’s theme, and topics:
Washington Post, Paul Waldman, 7 Jul 2023: Opinion | The bizarre contradiction in the GOP’s view of America
Continue reading
Items from July 3, July 4, and July 6:
Paul Krugman, NY Times, 3 Jul 2023: Can Biden Change the Economic Narrative?
As the scientists have been predicting for decades.
NY Times, 6 Jul 2023: Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast, subtitled “From north to south, temperatures are surging as greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and combine with effects from El Niño.”
Continue reading
It used to be a respectable party. But even some inside it are questioning its extremists.
Three groups of items today.
Slate, 5 Jul 2023: Inside the Weekend’s Gathering of America’s Most Unhinged Right-Wing Moms, subtitled “Trump got 19 standing O’s. DeSantis got three.”
The trend in declining allegiance to formal religion goes on, and has been completely predictable. Two examples today of the general trend, which has been under way for decades.
