natural theology > notes > 15 august 2004

Related sites

Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.

Camus, Albert, and Justin O'Brien (translator, James Wood (Introduction), The Myth of Sisyphus, Penguin Classics 2000 Amazon Product Description 'In this profound and moving philosophical statement, Camus poses the fundamental question: is life worth living? If human existence holds no significance, what can keep us from suicide? As Camus argues, if there is no God to give meaning to our lives, humans must take on that purpose themselves. This is our absurd task, like Sisyphus forever rolling his rock up a hill, as the inevitability of death constantly overshadows us. Written during the bleakest days of the Second World War, "The Myth of Sisyphus" argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty. This volume contains several other essays, including lyrical evocations of the sunlit cities of Algiers and Oran, and the settings of his great novels "The Outsider" and "The Plague". About the Author Albert Camus is the author of a number of best-selling and highly influential works, all of which are published by Penguin. They include THE FALL, THE OUTSIDER and THE FIRST MAN. He is remembered as one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, but beyond that, his fame has been international. Translated by Justin O'Brien With an Introduction by James Wood.'
Amazon back

Coleridge, Nicholas, Paper Tigers: Latest greatest Newspaper Tycoons and How They Won the World, Mandarin (May 31, 1994) ISBN-10: 0749307277 ISBN-13: 978-0749307271 1994 Amazon Product Description 'Nicholas Coleridge interviewed more than 800 people to research this investigation into the power of newspaper proprietors. He reveals the complex web of rivalries, jealousies, alliances and obsessions of the press tycoons as they feud for territory and prestige around the world. He shows how, as they become fewer in number, the influence of the world's top 25 owners is dramatically increasing. From Rupert Murdoch to Conrad Black and Lord Rothermere, from the great American owners such as the Grahams of Washington and the Sulzbergers of New York, to the vast family fiefdoms emerging across Asia and the Far East, and the break-up of the global newspaper empires of Robert Maxwell and of the Fairfaxes in Australia, Coleridge discloses their foibles, their political manoeuvring and their eccentricities.'
Amazon back

Davis, Martin, Computability and Unsolvability, Dover 1982 Preface: 'This book is an introduction to the theory of computability and non-computability ususally referred to as the theory of recursive functions. The subject is concerned with the existence of purely mechanical procedures for solving problems. . . . The existence of absolutely unsolvable problems and the Gödel incompleteness theorem are among the results in the theory of computability that have philosophical significance.'
Amazon back

Melville, Herman, Pierre or the Ambiguities, Kessinger Publishing, LLC (May 23, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1161448411 ISBN-13: 978-1161448412 2010 Amazon customer review: Bad, Bizarre and Brilliant, This review is from: Pierre, or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition (Melville) (Paperback) 'Pierre is perhaps the strangest novel of all time: bizarre, to say the least, but brilliant in its extravagence. At a minimum, it is one of Melville's central novels that deconstructs the entire myth of pre-war American society in its explorations of incest, patricide and psychosis. It is almost inconceivable that Melivlle really believed that it would be popular (which he did), for it shows the impossibility of writing as an American author, the impossibility of originality, and the impossibility of self-reliance. Beware: it is not for the faint of heart. It is demanding, relentlessly challenging, and very rewarding. February 17, 2000 By A Customer
Amazon back

Tymoczko, Thomas, and (Editor), New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics: An Anthology, Princeton University Press 1998 Jacket: 'The traditional debate among philosophers of mathematics is whether there is an external mathematical reality, something out there to be discovered, or whether mathematics is the product of the human mind. ... By bringing together essays of leading philosophers, mathematicians, logicians and computer scientists, TT reveals an evolving effort to account for the nature of mathematics in relation to other hman activities.'
Amazon back

Veltman, Martinus, Diagrammatica: The Path to the Feynman Rules, Cambridge University Press 1994 Jacket: 'This book provides an easily accessible introduction to quantum field theory via Feynman rules and calculations in particle physics. The aim is to make clear what the physical foundations of present-day field theory are, to clarify the physical content of Feynman rules, and to outline their domain of applicability. ... The book includes valuable appendices that review some essential mathematics, including complex spaces, matrices, the CBH equation, traces and dimensional regularization. ...'
Amazon back

Links

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet - Wikipedia A rose by any other name would smell as sweet - Wikipedia, the free encyhclopedia '"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a quote by William Shakespeare from his play Romeo and Juliet meant to say that the names of things do not matter, only what things are.' back

Bella Counihan The Atheism Factor 'The Atheism factor Bella Counihan August 17, 2010 "We don't want a godless Prime Minister!" called the pastor on a rumbling truck atop of Canberra's Mount Ainslie to his congregation. There they were, Catch the Fire ministry, massed on a cold Saturday morning to engage in "spiritual warfare" to see "ungodly forces" removed from parliament. But as Goanna stood there observing the scene of Nalliah devotees (who are also naturally voters in this election), the question did arise, Julia's atheism is going to be a divisive issue for some, but in 2010, is it really going to affect the way people vote?' back

Compromise of 1850 - Wikipedia Compromise of 1850 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'The Compromise of 1850 was an intricate package of five bills, passed in September 1850, defusing a four year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North that arose from expectation of territorial expansion of the United States with the Texas Annexation (December 29, 1845) and the following Mexican-American War (1846–1848). It avoided secession or civil war at the time and quieted sectional conflict for four years until the divisive Kansas–Nebraska Act.' back

Harriet Beecher Stowe Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin Homepage 'The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin; Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded, Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Work. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1854.'

Stowe wrote this book to defend her novel against one of the most wide-spread complaints that pro-slavery critics lodged against it -- that as an account of slavery Uncle Tom's Cabin was wholly false, or at least wildly exaggerated. Thus The Key is organized around that defensive project, taking up her major characters one at a time, for example, to cite real life equivalents to them. At the same time, defending her novel led her to mount a more aggressive attack on slavery in the South than the novel itself had. In the novel she works hard to be sympathetic to white southerners as well as black slaves; here, her prose seems much angrier, both morally and rhetorically more contemptuous. One explanation for this sharper tone could be the novel's reception in the South, where no one seems to have appreciated her attempt to be fair. Stowe was probably unprepared for the South's shrill rejection of the book.

The Key is prickly, dense book, with none of the readability of Uncle Tom's Cabin. When it first came out, it was also a best seller, though it's likely many bought it without understanding its nature. It's also a kind of fiction. Although it claims to be about the sources Stowe consulted while writing the novel, for example, she read many of the works cited here only after the novel was published. back

Operation Menu - Wikipedia Operation Menu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Operation Menu was the codename of a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the Vietnam War leading to the destruction of over 1,000 towns and villages, the displacement of 2,000,000, and the deaths of over 700,000 to 1,000,000[2] Cambodians. The supposed targets of these attacks were sanctuaries and Base Areas of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and forces of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF or derogatively, Viet Cong), which utilized them for resupply, training, and resting between campaigns across the border in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).' back

Pentagon Papers - Wikipedia Pentagon Papers - Wikipedia, the free encyhclopedia 'The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States–Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, was a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The papers were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of the New York Times in 1971.[1] A 1996 article in the New York Times said that the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance"' back

Pindar - Wikipedia Pindar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'Pindar (Greek: Πίνδαρος, Pindaros; Latin: Pindarus) (ca. 522–443 BC), was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved.' back

Stagnation point - Wikipedia Stagnation point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 'In fluid dynamics, a stagnation point is a point in a flow field where the local velocity of the fluid is zero.[1] Stagnation points exist at the surface of objects in the flow field, where the fluid is brought to rest by the object. The Bernoulli equation shows that the static pressure is highest when the velocity is zero and hence static pressure is at its maximum value at stagnation points. This static pressure is called the stagnation pressure. . . . On a streamlined body fully immersed in a potential flow, there are two stagnation points — one near the leading edge and one near the trailing edge. On a body with a sharp point such as the trailing edge of a wing, the Kutta condition specifies that a stagnation point is located at that point. The streamline at a stagnation point is perpendicular to the surface of the body.' back

Tony Abbott MHR Federal Member for Warringah - Tony Abbott MHR 'Tony Abbott was elected Member for Warringah at a by-election in March 1994. Prior to entering Parliament he was Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1993-94. From 1990-93 he was press secretary and political advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson. His previous career was in journalism, where he wrote as a feature writer for 'The Bulletin' and 'The Australian'.' back

Notes

Sunday 15 August 2004

Monday 16 August 2004

Tuesday 17 August 2004

Wednesday 18 August 2004

Thursday 19 August 2004

Friday 20 August 2004

Saturday 21 August 2004

Further reading

Books

Links