Category Archives: Music

The Biggest Inflection Points

Posted on Tuesday 20 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Big picture: What we know about how life arose: a good summary by NYT’s science writers; Relatively trivial items: Vance lies about gas prices; men in groups; Edsall on Trump’s real agenda; Krugman on how Trump actually hates America and … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Evolution, Music, Politics | Leave a comment

All of this is coming your way

Posted on Wednesday 7 October 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Items about the decline of reading, declining violence, the Gulf of America, the GOP as the party of white people, Hegseth’s war on “weirdos,’ how to save money by not buying anything, and my favorite R.E.M. song. (Actually posted 19 … Continue reading →

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Attending the Ballet

Posted on Monday 28 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

No post yesterday; we were busy attending a concert, with dinner afterwards. Yesterday we attended Oscar, a ballet at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, staged by The Australian Ballet, on tour, with the local Berkeley Symphony playing the … Continue reading →

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Cognitive Abilities and Limitations

Posted on Tuesday 22 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How AI is being used to solve math problems that humans have been unable to; How anti-vaxxers are at core angry, fearful, and despairing; NYT’s Brett Stephens complains that none of the National Book Award finalists are by or about … Continue reading →

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Possibilities of Apocalypse

Posted on Friday 18 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

An essay about how the dangers of technology, like AI, have been avoided before (e.g. with nuclear technology), through various kinds of government regulations (not to mention international cooperation); And yet there are more incidents of bad AI behavior; Now … Continue reading →

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Which Core Education?

Posted on Thursday 17 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Conservatives want to install a particular kind of core education in universities; Now Trump threatens to tear down the Kennedy Center, if he can’t get his name on it; Brief items about praying for political success; Trump delusionally thinks the … Continue reading →

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All the Time in the World

Posted on Wednesday 16 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

What would you do if you had all the free time in the world? An OnlySky essay explores this question in the context of AI; How Harari anticipated this; My own answer to this question, since I’m retired and do … Continue reading →

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Hiking is a Modern Invention

Posted on Sunday 13 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

The idea of hiking was not a thing until relatively recently; How Trump is stifling free speech; Brief items about hurricanes and methane; Nice Bruckner 6 performance by Myung-Whun Chung. – – – First, a think piece. About how the … Continue reading →

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How the Terrorists Won, in a Sense

Posted on Saturday 12 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Passing through airport security is an example of how the terrorists won, and maybe what led to MAGA and Trump; Jonathan V. Last on how terrorism sometimes works; (And how terrorists are motivated by religion); The reflecting pool contractor admits … Continue reading →

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A Defense of Evangelicalism?

Posted on Sunday 6 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items about an evangelist defending her faith; Mahler’s 3rd. – – – Two pieces about an evangelist who is defending her ‘culture.’ Reading them now. What is she defending exactly? Anything about her actual religion? First, from the evangelist … Continue reading →

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