"natural theology > notes > 2016 > Sunday 25 September"

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Ahamed, Liaquat, Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, Penguin Books; 2009 'It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of that economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, their fallibility, and the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.'
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Ashby, W Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen 1964 'This book is intended to provide [an introduction to cybernetics]. It starts from common-place and well understood concepts, and proceeds step by step to show how these concepts can be made exact, and how they can be developed until they lead into such subjects as feedback, stability, regulation, ultrastability, information, coding, noise and other cybernetic topics'
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Carson, Rachael, Silent Spring, Mariner Books 2002 Amazon.com Editorial review: 'Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson's book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work.'
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Heinlein, Robert A, Stranger in a Strange Land, New English Library: Hodder and Stoughton 1985 'Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs. The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck'
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Houriet, Robert, Getting Back Together, Putnam Publishing Group 1971
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Papers

Chaitin, Gregory J, "Randomness and Mathematical Proof", Scientific American, 232, 5, May 1975, page 47-52. 'Although randomness can be precisely defined and can even be measured, a given number cannot be proved random. This enigma establishes a limit in what is possible in mathematics'. back

Links

David Lewis, Elder abuse inquiry: Man does in hospital after Gold Coast nursing home staff fail to properly treat wounds, 'An elderly man developed gangrene and later died in hospital after staff at a Gold Coast nursing home failed to properly monitor and treat pressure wounds on his buttocks and feet, according to the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner.' back

Genevieve Rayner, The emotion entre os the oldest part of the human brain: why is moodso important?, 'Being glum can be advantageous and has been shown to sharpen our eye for detail, for instance. But, overall, the brain seems geared towards maintaining a mildly positive frame of mind. Being in a good mood makes us more likely to seek new experiences, be creative, plan ahead, procreate and adapt to changing conditions. The limbic system is the major primordial brain network underpinning mood. It’s a network of regions that work together to process and make sense of the world.' back

Glenn Greenwand, Washington Post Makes History: First Paper to Call for Prosecution of Its Own Source (After Accepting Pulitzer), 'But not the Washington Post. In the face of a growing ACLU and Amnesty-led campaign to secure a pardon for Snowden, timed to this weekend’s release of the Oliver Stone biopic “Snowden,” the Post editorial page today not only argued in opposition to a pardon, but explicitly demanded that Snowden — the paper’s own source — stand trial on espionage charges or, as a “second-best solution,” accept “a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses and the U.S. government offers a measure of leniency.” ' back

In God We Trust - Wikipedia, In God We Trust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' "In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as an alternative or replacement to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782.' back

Jonathon Morgan, These charts show exactly how racist and radical the alt-right has gotten this year, 'But lurking behind the offensive tweets and racially charged campaign rhetoric, there’s a more subtle — and far more dangerous — potential threat posed by the alt-right. As my colleagues and I found during a large-scale analysis of alt-right Twitter activity over the past nine months, the movement is growing measurably more radical, and possibly more inclined to violence.' back

Katharine Murphy, Please, prime mnister, burst the bubble of self-serving rhetoric - for our sake, 'Once upon a time politics was about pitching to the sensible centre, not preaching to the converted. Increasingly, it isn’t. Increasingly, political conversation is conducted inside bubbles, and the bubbles don’t intersect. The bubbles – little self-contained universes where protagonists feel their own feelings and choose their own facts – float rancorously past one another, never the twain. back

Suzanne Goldenberg, Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions, '"There are thousands of oil, gas and coal producers in the world," climate researcher and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado said. "But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two." ' back

Thomas L Friedman, Peres: 93 Years Young, 'I have always had a soft spot for leaders who are able to change late in life. And Peres was one such person. The man who in earlier incarnations had been responsible for building so many of Israel’s walls came to believe that its true security could be achieved only by webs — it could come only if Israel could be woven into a web of relationships with the Palestinians and with its Arab neighbors.. back

Uncertainty principle - Wikipedia, Uncertainty principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle known as complementary variables, such as position x and momentum p, can be known simultaneously.' back

Washington Post Editorial Board, No Pardon for Edward Snowden, 'Whether Mr. Snowden deserves a presidential pardon, as human rights organizations are demanding in a new national campaign timed to coincide with the film, is a complicated question, however, to which President Obama’s answer should continue to be “no.” ' back

William D. Ruckelhaus and William K. Reilly, Why Obama Is Right On Clean Energy, '[The Clean Air Act], passed long before climate change had emerged as a looming catastrophe, may not be the ideal tool to address this daunting challenge. But Congress’s failure to take any meaningful action requires the E.P.A. to act with the only tool it has — the Clean Air Act. Once the agency determined that carbon dioxide posed a risk to public health, as it did in 2009, the agency was required to act to reduce that risk, under a 2007 Supreme Court ruling.' back

William J Perry, Why It's Safe to Scrap America's ICBM's, 'During the Cold War, the United States relied on ICBMs because they provided accuracy that was not then achievable by submarine-launched missiles or bombers. They also provided an insurance policy in case America’s nuclear submarine force was disabled. That’s not necessary anymore. Today, the United States’ submarine and bomber forces are highly accurate, and we have enough confidence in their security that we do not need an additional insurance policy — especially one that is so expensive and open to error.' back

vol VII: Notes

2016

Notes

Sunday 25 September 2016

Monday 26 September 2016

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Thursday 29 September

Friday 30 September 2016

Saturday 1 October 2016

Further reading

Books

Papers

Links