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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Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin 2006 Amazon Editorial Review From Publishers Weekly 'The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish gene, anticipates this criticism. He says it's the scientist and humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions—fundamentalist Christianity and Islam come in for the most opprobrium—that close people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a scientific scaffolding for atheism, such as using evolution again to rebut the notion that without God there can be no morality. He insists that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful without it.' Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 
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Feynman, Richard P et al, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume 2) , Addison Wesley 1964  
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Kauffman, Stuart, At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Complexity, Oxford University Press 1995 Preface: 'As I will argue in this book, natural selection is important, but it has not laboured alone to craft the fine architectures of the biosphere . . . The order of the biological world, I have come to believe . . . arises naturally and spontaneously because of the principles of self organisation - laws of complexity that we are just beginning to uncover and understand.'  
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Lo, Hoi-Kwong, and Tim Spiller, Sandra Popescu, Introduction to Quantum Computation and Information, World Scientific 1998 Jacket: 'This book provides a pedagogical introduction to the subjects of quantum information and computation. Topics include non-locality of quantum mechanics, quantum computation, quantum cryptography, quantum error correction, fault tolerant quantum computation, as well as some experimental aspects of quantum computation and quantum cryptography. A knowledge of basic quantum mechanics is assumed.' 
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Peacock, John A, Cosmological Physics, Cambridge University Press 1999 Nature Book Review: 'The intermingling of observational detail and fundamental theory has made cosmology an exceptionally rich, exciting and controversial science. Students in the field — whether observers or particle theorists — are expected to be acquainted with matters ranging from the Supernova Ia distance scale, Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory, scale-free quantum fluctuations during inflation, the galaxy two-point correlation function, particle theory candidates for the dark matter, and the star formation history of the Universe. Several general science books, conference proceedings and specialized monographs have addressed these issues. Peacock's Cosmological Physics ambitiously fills the void for introducing students with a strong undergraduate background in physics to the entire world of current physical cosmology. The majestic sweep of his discussion of this vast terrain is awesome, and is bound to capture the imagination of most students.' Ray Carlberg, Nature 399:322 
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Alessandro Pauci, Ancient fossil fills a 75 million-year gap and rewrites lizard and snake history, 'Australia is famous for its many lizards and snakes, but where do they all come from? Published today in Nature, a new analysis of an ancient fossil found in the Italian Alps has helped us shed light on their origin. It turns out that Megachirella, an intriguing little fossil reptile about the size of a bluetongue skink, is the ideal intermediate between modern lizards and their closest relatives, a broad group of reptiles that includes today’s tuataras from New Zealand.' back

Alisa Sopova, How's Life in the War Zone? Not Great, 'Well, it’s still taking lives at an average of one to two people every day. However, it has become so static that it’s sort of weird. Two armies sit before each other, sometimes just 100 feet apart. Bound by the Minsk truce agreements of 2014 and 2015, they cannot really fight each other. But without a political solution, they cannot leave. Sometimes they exchange fire, mostly at night while international monitors sleep. Mostly it’s just to let off steam.' back

Aquinas 1, Summa Theologiae I, 1, 1: Whether, besides philosophy, any further doctrine is required, 'I answer that, It was necessary for man's salvation that there should be a knowledge revealed by God besides philosophical science built up by human reason. Firstly, indeed, because man is directed to God, as to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason: "The eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou hast prepared for them that wait for Thee" (Isaiah 64:4). But the end must first be known by men who are to direct their thoughts and actions to the end. Hence it was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation. . . . ' back

Archdiocese of Baltimore, Baltimore Catechism Part 1, 'Baltimore Catechism No. 1 LESSON FIRST: ON THE END OF MAN 1. Q. Who made the world? A. God made the world.' back

Elizabeth Farelly, Our role in the death of a river, 'But in a flash, on the bridge, I see the links. I applaud Kmart’s new venture into a kind of plainness approaching taste. It’s almost Quakerish, almost noble in its simplicity. Bonds is excelling itself in the design department and even Target makes a feature of “Pure Australian cotton”. That’s all great. But the cheapness is illusory. Because this right here is the cost. We’re buying this cotton with our river, our grandchildren’s future.' back

Gemmia Burden, The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum, 'Europeans collected a huge number of Aboriginal artefacts during the colonisation of Australia. These include weapons, bags, toys, clothing, canoes, tools, ceremonial items, and ancestral human remains. Many institutions that hold these items are repatriating them to Aboriginal people. While repatriation is important, what often goes unrecognised is the crucial part that collectors played in the violent dispossession of First Nations people.' back

Hannah Roberts, 'Heretic' in the Vatican, 'Celebrated by progressives around the world for his push to update and liberalize aspects of church doctrine, Francis is facing fierce blowback from traditionalists who take issue with his openness to Muslim migrants, his concern for the environment and his softer tone on divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality. Opposition has become so heated that some advisers are warning him to tread carefully to avoid a “schism” in the church.' back

Henry McDonald, Emma Graham-Harrison an Lisa O'Carroll, Ireland votes by landslide to legalise abortion, 'The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of abolishing a controversial constitutional amendment that gave equal legal status to the lives of a foetus and the woman carrying it. The result was a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no.' back

Jan Zielonka, End of the dream: how Europe lost its way between Rome and Kiev, 'European integration has been an enormous success since its inception in the Treaty of Rome in 1957. For the next five decades European Union (EU) member states enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity. But now this legacy is being questioned. The EU has fallen out of grace with the public. At the recent elections for the European parliament, parties determined to curb EU powers came clearly on top in several member states. What went wrong and why?' back

Jason C. Bivins, How Christian media is shaping American politics, 'For Americans growing up between the 1950s and the 1980s, religion was not a regular presence on television. Aside from Sunday morning shows or occasional commercials, religious programming . . . did not cover news. Today is different, however. Not only are there entire networks devoted to religious broadcasting, but also Christian television has moved directly into covering news and politics, reaching millions of Americans daily with a conservative perspective on current events.' back

Joshua Pease, The sin of silence, 'Across the United States, evangelical churches are failing to protect victims of sexual abuse among their members. As the #MeToo movement has swept into communities of faith, several high-profile leaders have fallen: Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was forced into early retirement this month after reports that he’d told a rape victim to forgive her assailant rather than call the police. Illinois megachurch pastor Bill Hybels similarly retired early after several women said he’d dispensed lewd comments, unwanted kisses and invitations to hotel rooms.' back

Kalpana Jain, How the religious right shaped American politics: 6 essential reads, 'I’ve been editing The Conversation’s ethics and religion desk since February 2017. As mainstream media outlets covered how Trump was embracing evangelical politics, at The Conversation we strived to provide historical context to these developments, as the following six articles exemplify.' back

Landauer, Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing Process, 'Abstract: 'It is argued that computing machines inevitably involve devices which perform logical functions that do not have a single-valued inverse. The logical irreversibility is associated with physical irreversibility, and requires a minimum heat generation, per machine cycle, typically of the order of kT for each irreversible function. The dissipation serves the purpose of standardizing signals and making them independent of their exact logical history. Two simple, but representative, models of bistable devices are subjected to a more detailed analysis of switching kinetics to yield the relationship between speed and energy dissipation, and to estimate the effects of errors induced by thermal fluctuations.' back

Louisa Lim, Rewriting history in the People's Republic of Amnesia and beyond, 'Chinese censorship has also made inroads into Western publishing houses. For instance, Springer Nature, which publishes Nature and Scientific American, deleted around 1,000 articles from its Chinese website, citing “local distribution laws”. In doing so, Western academic presses end up serving the CCP’s purpose by propagating only state-mandated “correct views of history” inside China, as if no alternatives exist.' back

Miranda Sawyer, Anthony Hopkins: 'Most of thisis nonsense, most of this is a lie', 'For anyone who looks toward their later years with trepidation, Sir Anthony Hopkins (“Tony, please”) is a proper tonic. He is 79, and happier than he has ever been. This is due to a mixture of things: his relationship with his wife of 15 years, Stella, who has encouraged him to keep fit, and to branch out into painting and classical composition; the calming of his inner fire, of which more later; and his work.' back

Noa Manheim, How Rapidly Changing Technology Threatens Future Scientific Discoveries, 'To my observation that the modern era throws up multiple challenges to these preservation enterprises, she replies, “We’re in an important archival moment now. Whenever there is a media revolution, there is a move to use the new medium – sometimes successfully and sometimes less so – to renew the archives... Microfiche was a great technology of the mid-20th century. Where is it now? I can open a book from the 16th century and read it without any extra technology, while the physical lifetime of the compact disc is 30 years.” ' back

Sarah Malik, Australia's New Rule for Asylum Seekers Makes Ramadan Even Harder, 'During the holy month, which began in Australia on May 17, Muslims abstain from food and drink during daylight hours. For years, members of the country’s Muslim community have prepared home-cooked meals to share with the detainees after sunset, but a recent change to federal rules has barred visitors from bringing unpackaged foods into the detention centers.' back

Schadenfreude - Wikipedia, Schadenfreude - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This word is taken from German and literally means 'Harm-Joy.' It is the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer misfortune. It is also borrowed by some other languages.' back

Thanu Padmanabhan, Thermodynamical Aspects of gravity: New Insights, '(Submitted on 26 Nov 2009 (v1), last revised 19 Jan 2010 (this version, v2)) The fact that one can associate thermodynamic properties with horizons brings together principles of quantum theory, gravitation and thermodynamics and possibly offers a window to the nature of quantum geometry. This review discusses certain aspects of this topic concentrating on new insights gained from some recent work. After a brief introduction of the overall perspective, Sections 2 and 3 provide the pedagogical background on the geometrical features of bifurcation horizons, path integral derivation of horizon temperature, black hole evaporation, structure of Lanczos-Lovelock models, the concept of Noether charge and its relation to horizon entropy. Section 4 discusses several conceptual issues introduced by the existence of temperature and entropy of the horizons. In Section 5 we take up the connection between horizon thermodynamics and gravitational dynamics and describe several peculiar features which have no simple interpretation in the conventional approach. The next two sections describe the recent progress achieved in an alternative perspective of gravity. In Section 6 we provide a thermodynamic interpretation of the field equations of gravity in any diffeomorphism invariant theory and in Section 7 we obtain the field equations of gravity from an entropy maximization principle. The last section provides a summary.' back