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: March 2021
Links and Comments: About Gun Violence
I’m narrowing in on a Provisional Conclusion that most people live their daily lives without any perspective or context about what happens in the outer world. (And, for many issues, that’s just fine. But not for all issues.) Thus, Americans … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: Religious Matters, 27Mar21:
Jerry Coyne on David Brooks; Nicholas Kristof on progressive Christians; Evangelicals’ false doctrine.
Posted in Religion
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The Most Beautiful Music in the World: Mahler s5m2
It’s a passage of just over a minute, beginning at 17:50 of this Claudio Abbado performance of Mahler’s 5th symphony, and about four minutes into the second movement. It’s as if the world stops, ponders, and reflects. Then re-emerges, confidant. … Continue reading
Posted in Music
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Nonfiction Notes: Adam Grant’s THINK AGAIN
Adam Grant, THINK AGAIN: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know (2021) This is a recent book, still on the bestseller lists, by an author I had not previously encountered. He’s a professor and TED talker. The book seems … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Science
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Links and Comments: Confessed Liars, Their Targets, Right-Wing Political Spin
Confessed liars Sidney Powell (and Tucker Carlson); gullibility for conspiracy theories; Right-wing misinformation campaigns.
Posted in Politics, Psychology
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Links and Comments: APOD; Trusting Science; Trusting Experts
Another amazing photo from APOD– Which as in previous photos like this that I’ve posted, shows a huge swath of sky, as we would see it with all the stars we *can* see, along with all the nebulae that we … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Science
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Nonfiction Notes: Alan Lightman’s PROBABLE IMPOSSIBILITIES
Alan Lightman: PROBABLE IMPOSSIBILITIES (2021) This is a new book of essays by a professor at MIT, author of earlier books including the well-regarded novel Einstein’s Dreams (Wikipedia, way back in 1993) and most recently of essay collection Searching for … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Philosophy, Science
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Nonfiction Notes: Elizabeth Kolbert’s UNDER A WHITE SKY
This modestly-length book is a sequel of sorts to the author’s The Sixth Extinction (2014), which won a Pulitzer Prize and which I greatly admired. (My review here.) That book was about how the human impact on the planet, especially … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Science
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Links and Comments: Science Matters, 18 Mar 2021
Catching up on things that have caught me eye the past week or two. How humans have remade the Earth; about Daylight Saving Time; Dark Matter; How time might flow in two directions; the Nature of mathematics.
Posted in Mathematics, Philosophy
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Thinking On Blog: Wise Men
(This is a blog post version of the process of “thinking out loud.”) In a book I read recently – it was Michael Shermer’s first book, WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS, my comments posted here) — the author made the … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Religion
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