Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Monthly Archives: January 2014
Age of Ignorance
Via Paul Fidalgo’s blog at CFI, an essay by Charles Simic, in The New York Review of Books, from about two years ago. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/20/age-of-ignorance/ In the past, if someone knew nothing and talked nonsense, no one paid any attention to … Continue reading
Posted in Quote at Length, Religion
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Debate Consternation
There is some consternation in the science/atheist community that Bill Nye, the Science Guy, has agreed to debate Ken Ham, the Kentucky Creation Museum guy, about evolution vs. creationism. The attitude many others in the science community (names too numerous … Continue reading
Atheism as Luxury?
Connor Wood, at Science on Religion: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/scienceonreligion/2014/01/does-atheism-arise-from-wealth/#more-1015 Because ritual and conformance are easy. There’s good evidence that atheism and secularism are much more costly, in terms of sheer energy expenditure, than religious ways of organizing society. Conclusion: So is atheism … Continue reading
Why Religion Is Oppressive
http://www.alternet.org/why-so-much-religion-oppressive Subtitle: “The rules of the Abrahamic religions may have once helped societies survive and thrive. But in a modern context many are change-averse and oppressive.” Another example of how I feel the morals of religions are based in the … Continue reading
Why Drugs Are Expensive
A Scientific American blog, via Andrew Sullivan: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/01/08/not-because-we-are-evil-because-we-are-stupid/ Often you will hear people talking about why drugs are expensive: it’s the greedy pharmaceutical companies, the patent system, the government, capitalism itself. All these factors contribute to increasing the price of … Continue reading
Two posts about Christians and gays
Long answer to a situation about two gay brothers growing up in a conservative Christian ‘bubble’. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/01/08/sl-letter-of-the-day-bubble-boys Who wants to sit around being awkwardly civil with people who don’t accept you because they love their unseen god more than their … Continue reading
Her
I am of mixed minds about HER, the Spike Jones written and directed film, set in a near-future Los Angeles, about a dweeb (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with the new artificially intelligent operating system (installed on his home … Continue reading
Posted in Films, science fiction
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End of 2013 Links and Comments
It’s been busy over the holidays, with family events and whatnot, so here is a belated list of links and comments from the past couple weeks. Salon: 10 signs that religious fundamentalism is going down One could hope. Religious fundamentalism … Continue reading
Your Brain on Religion
Interesting article today on Salon, an excerpt from a book by D.F. Swaab, about to be published. This is your brain on religion: Uncovering the science of belief I especially agree with this, the first paragraph: As far as I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Religion
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