Category Archives: Science

Ls&Cs: Visiting Flooded Cities Simply Explained

Posted on 19 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Water through the body; human inability to account for long-term threats; how sometimes the answers to conspiracy theories are simple.

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Ls&Cs: Two from Free Inquiry

Posted on 18 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

From the October/November 2021 issue, articles about Christian Morality and about how understanding COVID does not depend on a Kuhnian paradigm shift.

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Ls&Cs: Look at the (Economics) Evidence

Posted on 13 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

More evidence that economics (and psychology) are becoming sciences, not just ideologies. This year’s Nobel Prizes in economics are interesting, Paul Krugman explains, because their recipients applied real-world evidence which turn out to undermine ideological economic theories that that have … Continue reading →

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Science Ls&Cs: Time for Critical Blue Ozone Fitness

Posted on 3 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

The unfittedness of the universe for life; languages that do or don’t have a word for the color blue; telescopes as time machines; how scientists solved the ozone layer; critical thinking.

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Ls&Qs: Rationality and Fear

Posted on 26 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two long quotes today, from opposite ends of the spectrum from rationality to fear.

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Ls&Cs: Training, Education, Belief

Posted on 17 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items today. The first is a post by Jerry Coyne about an article from Inside Higher Ed about the difference between training and education. Here’s his post: Training versus education.

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Ls&Cs and Thoughts: Thinking and Science

Posted on 16 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Following up from yesterday, some more thoughts and links about the notion of thinking, and how that’s what science is all about, while so many people seem to have no understanding of what thinking, let alone science, actually is.

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Thoughts for the Day: About Thinking and Evidence

Posted on 15 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I am still formulating a thesis (or, provisional conclusion) that many, perhaps most, people don’t “think” in the way rationalists and scientists think that everyone does. Some people have never encountered the idea that the evidence of the real world … Continue reading →

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Michael Strevens: THE KNOWLEDGE MACHINE (2020)

Posted on 11 August 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a book I read a few weeks ago while in the hospital (so my notes on it are sketchier than usual). It was published last October, though I didn’t buy it until February. When I picked it up to … Continue reading →

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Ls&Cs: Tribal Loyalties and Conservative Irrationality

Posted on 10 August 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Several striking items recently that dovetail nicely, about covid and climate change denial.

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