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
Category Archives: Psychology
Responsibility, Certainty, and Doubt
Defunding weather science and disaster response to save money is like cancelling all your insurance policies to manage your household budget; LAT: Robin Abcarian on the implausibilities of expecting Medicaid recipients to replace deported farmworkers; NYT: Peter Baker on how … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Psychology, Science
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Stories, Archetypes, Morality
Does anyone take Jung or Freud seriously any more? OnlySky’s Bruce Ledewitz on the contemporary idea of “evil”; Robert Reich on “the worst bill in history” and fact-checking claims about tax cuts; How local communities fight back against ICE; Republicans … Continue reading
Posted in Music, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology
Comments Off on Stories, Archetypes, Morality
Morality Is Relative; Reality Is Not
An undistorted map of the world; Jesse Being on “commonsense”; How morality is circumstantial, e.g. in Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which I just reread this week; Website matters involving drop-down menu bars, here and on sfadb.com; Short items about … Continue reading
Posted in Morality, Politics, Psychology, reality, Website Issues
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Progress, and the Forces Against It
We have been here before: comparing 1940 to 2025; Steven Novella assesses whether skepticism has made any progress in recent decades; The irony of MAGA being outraged by a Muslim candidate for New York City’s mayor; Conservative presumption and arrogance … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Politics, Psychology
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This Is What Will Be
How right-wing violence has become normalized; How perhaps “totalitarianism” is better than “authoritarianism” for what is going on; How Republicans trying to roll back same-sex marriage are fighting a losing battle, cf. that Stephen Prothero book; A psychiatrist explains how … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Music, Psychology, Science
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Paths Away From and To Reality
“Doing your own research” mostly leads to false conclusions, unless you’ve done your “homework” — i.e. have an education in the subject matter; Example of a claim about Sodom and Gomorrah and an asteroid or comet airburst; How simpletons think … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Social Progress
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Like Living in Someone Else’s Fantasy Novel
Heather Cox Richardson summarizes the past few days and puts events into context; (With asides about having read Fail-Safe and watched the movie, this past week; and a Facebook meme about Emperor Hirohito bombing Pearl Harbor and then expecting peace); … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Psychology, Religion
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No Shades of Gray
Trump wants national parks to reflect only patriotic history; Trump thinks if you’re not on his side then you “hate America”; Yet another example: Beware “common sense”; Short items: Atheists in prison; Trump officials reverse ICE guidelines, again and again; … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, History, Psychology
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Girls and Boys and Evolutionary Psychology
Apparently there’s a worldwide shift in preference for baby girls over baby boys, reversing an age-old bias; The article cited doesn’t explain the evolutionary rationales for these shifting preferences, but I will; And Sophie’s Choice; And it reveals reasons why … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Music, Psychology
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Police Uniforms and Masks; Humor vs. Anger
How fake police wear uniforms, and secret police (ICE) wears face masks; Robert Reich on the most regressive bill in history; The lack of conservative humor; Becoming aware of Rebecca Solnit; And short items about how Trump cut the suicide … Continue reading
Posted in conservatives, Politics, Psychology, Religion
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