Gleick, James, Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics, Abacus Nature: 'A moving, beautifully written, literate and perceptive account of Feynman's life, which Gleick sets sensitively in the context of the physics commnity, of the larger culture and of the times' 
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Kanigel, Robert, The Man Who Knew Infinity: A life of the genius Ramanujan, Washington Square Press 2016 'In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the preeminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realizing the letter was the work of a genius, Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England. Thus began one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled. With a passion for rich and evocative detail, Robert Kanigel takes us from the temples and slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University, where the devout Hindu Ramanujan, "the Prince of Intuition," tested his brilliant theories alongside the sophisticated and eccentric Hardy, "the Apostle of Proof." In time, Ramanujan's creative intensity took its toll: he died at the age of thirty-two and left behind a magical and inspired legacy that is still being plumbed for its secrets today. 
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Monk, Ray, Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, Vintage ex Jonathan Cape 1990 1990 Review: 'With a subject who demands passionate partisanship, whose words are so powerful but whose actions speak louder, it must have been hard to write this definitive, perceptive and lucid biography. Out goes Norman Malcolm's saintly Wittgenstein, Bartley's tortured, impossibly promiscuous Wittgenstein, and Brian McGuinness's bloodless, almost bodiless Wittgenstein. This Wittgenstein is the real human being: wholly balanced and happily eccentric . . . ' The Times 
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Weisberg, Robert W, Creativity: Genius and Other Myths, W H Freeman 1985 Jacket: .In Creativity: Genius and Other Myths, Robert Weisberg shows that much of what we believe about creativity is not true. Beginning with an example of a creative solution to a simple real-life problem, he analyzes the traditional literature, arguing that creative responses evolve through a straight forward series of concious steps. 
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Andrew Robinson, Did Einstein really say that?, 'Finally, there is Einstein’s ineffable wit. It is encapsulated by this aphorism, composed for a friend in 1930 (really: I’ve checked with the Einstein Archives in Jerusalem): “To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.” ' back

Aquinas 45, Whether this is a good definition of eternity, "The simultaneously-whole and perfect possession of interminable life"., I answer that, As we attain to the knowledge of simple things by way of compound things, so must we reach to the knowledge of eternity by means of time, which is nothing but the numbering of movement by "before" and "after". For since succession occurs in every movement, and one part comes after another, the fact that we reckon before and after in movement, makes us apprehend time, which is nothing else but the measure of before and after in movement. Now in a thing bereft of movement, which is always the same, there is no before or after. As therefore the idea of time consists in the numbering of before and after in movement; so likewise in the apprehension of the uniformity of what is outside of movement, consists the idea of eternity. Further, those things are said to be measured by time which have a beginning and an end in time, because in everything which is moved there is a beginning, and there is an end. But as whatever is wholly immutable can have no succession, so it has no beginning, and no end. Thus eternity is known from two sources: first, because what is eternal is interminable--that is, has no beginning nor end (that is, no term either way); secondly, because eternity has no succession, being simultaneously whole. back

Aquinas, Summa, I II, 3, 8, Does man's happiness consist in the vision of the divine essence?, 'I answer that, Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence. To make this clear, two points must be observed. First, that man is not perfectly happy, so long as something remains for him to desire and seek: . . . If therefore the human intellect, knowing the essence of some created effect, knows no more of God than "that He is"; the perfection of that intellect does not yet reach simply the First Cause, but there remains in it the natural desire to seek the cause. Wherefore it is not yet perfectly happy. Consequently, for perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God as with that object, in which alone man's happiness consists, as stated above (this question articles 1, 7; q 2, a 8). back

Aristotle - Physics, The Internet Classic Archive | Physics Aristotle, Written 350 B.C.E Translated by R. P. Hardie and R. K. Gaye back

Barack Obama, Speech at The 208 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, 'Madiba's light shone so brightly, even from that narrow Robben Island cell, that in the late '70s he could inspire a young college student on the other side of the world to reexamine his own priorities, could make me consider the small role I might play in bending the arc of the world towards justice. And when later, as a law student, I witnessed Madiba emerge from prison, just a few months, you'll recall, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I felt the same wave of hope that washed through hearts all around the world.' back

Cauchy-Riemann equations - Wikipedia, Cauchy-Riemann equations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, the Cauchy–Riemann differential equations in complex analysis, named after Augustin Cauchy and Bernhard Riemann, consist of a system of two partial differential equations that provides a necessary and sufficient condition for a differentiable function to be holomorphic in an open set. This system of equations first appeared in the work of Jean le Rond d'Alembert (d'Alembert 1752). Later, Leonhard Euler connected this system to the analytic functions (Euler 1777). Cauchy (1814) then used these equations to construct his theory of functions. Riemann's dissertation (Riemann 1851) on the theory of functions appeared in 1851.' back

Claire Belinski, Europe's Dependence on the U.S. Was All Part of the Plan, 'What Trump fails to understand is that the disparity in spending, with the U.S. paying more than its allies, is not a bug of the system. It is a feature. This is how the great postwar statesmen designed it, and this immensely foresighted strategy has ensured the absence of great power conflict—and nuclear war—for three-quarters of a century.' back

Claude Shannon, Communication in the Presence of Noise, 'A method is developed for representing any communication system geometrically. Messages and the corresponding signals are points in two “function spaces,” and the modulation process is a mapping of one space into the other. Using this representation, a number of results in communication theory are deduced concerning expansion and compression of bandwidth and the threshold effect. Formulas are found for the maximum rate of transmission of binary digits over a system when the signal is perturbed by various types of noise. Some of the properties of “ideal” systems which transmit at this maximum rate are discussed. The equivalent number of binary digits per second for certain information sources is calculated.' back

David Marr, From butlers and boozeups to a humiliating end -- the sad demise of Fairfax, 'Then came the internet. Fairfax responded badly. Businessmen on the board wouldn’t listen to those who could see catastrophe looming. What happened was not inevitable. The slow collapse of Fairfax began when it lost control of two of the three rivers of gold. Cars and jobs went to its competitors. Fairfax kept property.' back

Electric charge - Wikipedia, Electric charge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charges; positive and negative (commonly carried by protons and electrons respectively). Like charges repel and unlike attract.' back

Glossary of tensor theory - Wikipedia, Glossary of tensor theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'This is a glossary of tensor theory. For expositions of tensor theory from different points of view, see: Tensor Tensor (intrinsic definition) Application of tensor theory in engineering science' back

IBM, IBM.COM, Company Mission: 'At IBM, we strive to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions and services businesses worldwide.' back

John Eccles (neurophysiologist) - Wikipedia, John Eccles (neurophysiologist) - Wikipedia. the free encyclopedia, 'Sir John Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS (27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin. back

Jurgen Otto, Peacock Spider, ' In 2005 I stumbled across Maratus volans in Sydney and after learning that it was suspected to spread out a pair of colourful flaps I played around with it. At the time nobody had observed this behaviour, let alone photographed or filmed it, and the female was unknown to science. In 2008 I photographed its courtship display for the first time, and this sparked a passion that sustains me to this day, resulting in numerous photographs, film clips, newly discovered species and publications in which they were named.' back

Laplace's equation - Wikipedia, Laplace's equation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, Laplace's equation is a second-order partial differential equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace who first studied its properties. . . . The general theory of solutions to Laplace's equation is known as potential theory. The solutions of Laplace's equation are the harmonic functions, which are important in many fields of science, notably the fields of electromagnetism, astronomy, and fluid dynamics, because they can be used to accurately describe the behavior of electric, gravitational, and fluid potentials. In the study of heat conduction, the Laplace equation is the steady-state heat equation.' back

Letter frequencies - Wikipedia, Letter frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The frequency of letters in text has often been studied for use in cryptography, and frequency analysis in particular. An exact analysis of this is not possible, as each person writes slightly differently, and the amount of writing in a language is too vast to allow anything more than a statistical sample of a language to be analysed. . . . ' back

Martna Linnenluecke, AEMO's 'cohesive' energy plan falls short because it omits two key economic facts, 'In seeking to prolong coal-fired power for as long as feasible in the name of cheap energy, AEMO’s supposedly comprehensive plan overlooks two crucial facts: first, there is serious money to be made from clean energy; and second, coal is not as cheap as it sounds when we factor in the indirect social costs.' back

Mike Hannah, Mandela's art of 'understanding the enemy', 'As he shook the hands of the players, his name was shouted from one side of the stadium, and then it swelled in volume as all took it up in a powerful rhythmic beat: "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson, Nelson". At that moment, millions watched as a country divided for decades became one. South Africans in the stadium and beyond experienced for the first time a shared sense of national pride and joy. Just a year into democracy, it was the defining moment of the new South Africa.' back

Natan Sharansky, The Essay That Helped Bring Down the Soviet Union, 'Fifty years ago this Sunday, this paper [NYT] devoted three broadsheet pages to an essay that had been circulating secretly in the Soviet Union for weeks. The manifesto, written by Andrei Sakharov, championed an essential idea at grave risk today: that those of us lucky enough to live in open societies should fight for the freedom of those born into closed ones. This radical argument changed the course of history.' back

National Security Agency, Venona, back

Order of Preachers, Domnican Province of the Assumption - Home, 'Dominican friars are engaged in an incredible spiritual adventure: living from the passion for the salvation of souls which, eight centuries ago, set fire to the heart of St Dominic and to the hearts of his first companions. This haste to announce the Gospel in truth produces three characteristics in a Dominican friar.' back

Phenomenalism - Wikipedia, Phenomenalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Phenomenalism is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli (e.g. redness, hardness, softness, sweetness, etc.) situated in time and in space. In particular, some forms of phenomenalism reduce talk about physical objects in the external world to talk about bundles of sense-data.' back

Ping - Wikipedia, Ping - Wkipedia, the fre encyclopaedia, 'Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network. Ping works by sending ICMP "echo request”"packets ("Ping?") to the target host and listening for ICMP "echo response" replies (sometimes dubbed "Pong!" as a metaphor from the Ping Pong table tennis sport.) Using interval timing and response rate, ping estimates the round-trip time (generally in milliseconds although the unit is often omitted) and rate of packet loss between hosts (can differ). . . . ' back

Pius IX - Vatican I, First Vatican Council(1869-1870), 'Chapter 1 On the institution of the apostolic primacy in blessed Peter 1. We teach and declare that, according to the gospel evidence, a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole Church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter and conferred on him by Christ the lord.' back

Quantum field theory - Wikipedia, Quantum field theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is the theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of subatomic particles in particle physics and quasiparticles in condensed matter physics. It is a set of notions and mathematical tools that combines classical fields, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. . . . QFT treats particles as excited states of an underlying field, so these are called field quanta. In quantum field theory, quantum mechanical interactions among particles are described by interaction terms among the corresponding underlying quantum fields. These interactions are conveniently visualized by Feynman diagrams, which are a formal tool of relativistically covariant perturbation theory, serving to evaluate particle processes.' back

R P Feynman, Appendix F - Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle, 'PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER ACCIDENT (Source: The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Report, June 6, 1986) William P. Rogers, Chairman Former Secretary of State under President Nixon (1969-1973), and Attorney General under President Eisenhower (1957-1961), currently a practicing attorney and senior partner in the law firm of Rogers & Wells. Born in Norfolk, New York, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1973. He holds a J.D. from Cornell University (1937) and served as LCDR, U.S. Navy (1942-1946). Neil A. Armstrong, Vice Chairman Former astronaut, currently Chairman of the Board of Computing Technologies for Aviation, Inc. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Mr. Armstrong was spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969, the first manned lunar landing mission. He was Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1980 and was appointed to the National Commission on Space in 1985. David C. Acheson Former Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Communications Satellite Corporation (1967-1974), currently a partner in the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath. Born in Washington, DC, he previously served as an attorney with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1948-1950) and was U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (1961-1965). He holds an LL.B. from Harvard University (1948) and served as LT, U.S. Navy (1942-1946). Dr. Eugene E. Covert Educator and engineer. Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, he is currently Professor and Head, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Member of the National Academy of Engineering, he was a recipient of the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, USAF, in 1973 and the NASA Public Service Award in 1980. He holds a Doctorate in Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Richard P. Feynman Physicist. Born in New York City, he is Professor of Theoretical Physics at California Institute of Technology. Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 1965, he also received the Einstein Award in 1954, the Oersted Medal in 1972 and the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal in 1973. He holds a Doctorate in Physics from Princeton (1942). Robert B. Hotz Editor, publisher. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of Northwestern University. He was the editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine (1953-1980). He served in the Air Force in World War II and was awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Since 1982, he has been a member of the General Advisory Committee to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Major General Donald J. Kutyna, USAF Director of Space Systems and Command, Control, Communications. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he holds a Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965). A command pilot with over 4,000 flight hours, he is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit and nine air medals. Dr. Sally K. Ride Astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, California, she was a mission specialist on STS-7, launched on June 18, 1983, becoming the first American woman in space. She also flew on mission 41-G launched October 5, 1984. She holds a Doctorate in Physics from Stanford University (1978) and is still an active astronaut. Robert W. Rummel Space expert and aerospace engineer. Born in Dakota, Illinois, and former Vice President of Trans World Airlines, he is currently President of Robert W. Rummel Associates, Inc., of Mesa, Arizona. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is holder of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. Joseph F. Sutter Aeronautical engineer. Currently Executive Vice President of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company. Born in Seattle, he has been with Boeing since 1945 and was a principal figure in the development of three generations of jet aircraft. In 1984, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 1985, President Reagan conferred on him the U.S. National Medal of Technology. Dr. Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr. Astronomer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he is currently Professor of Applied Physics and was formerly Associate Dean of the Graduate Division at Stanford University. Consultant to Aerospace Corporation, Rand Corporation and the National Science Foundation, he is a member of the American Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, and the American Astronomy Society. He holds a Doctorate in Physics from the University of Illinois (1962). Dr. Albert D. Wheelon Physicist. Born in Moline, Illinois, he is currently Executive Vice President, Hughes Aircraft Company. Also a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, he served as a consultant to the President's Science Advisory Council from 1961 to 1974. He holds a Doctorate in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1952). Brigadier General Charles Yeager, USAF (Retired) Former experimental test pilot. Born in Myra, West Virginia, he was appointed in 1985 as a member of the National Commission on Space. He was the first person to penetrate the sound barrier and the first to fly at a speed of more than 1,600 miles an hour. Dr. Alton G. Keel, Jr., Executive Director Detailed to the Commission from his position in the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, as Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs; formerly Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development and Logistics; and Senate Staff. Born in Newport News, Virginia, he holds a Doctorate in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia (1970). back

Sarah Gleeson-White, William Faulkner diagnosed modern ills in As I Lay Dying, 'What is particularly breathtaking about Faulkner’s novel is the way it fuses – somehow – regional forms (such as the tall tale) and at times really quite startling techniques we might more readily associate with an experimental modernism. And it does so as it narrates the anguished emergence of a family of poor whites into a thoroughly modern nation, described most hauntingly through Darl’s fate: Our brother Darl in a cage in Jackson where, his grimed hands lying light in the quiet interstices, looking out he foams.' back

Stephen Bell, How rising inequality is stalling economies by crippling demand, 'Rising inequality is a concern across the developed economies, including Australia where top earners’ pay has soared to a 17-year high while ordinary workers’ wage growth has been the lowest on record. And that’s ultimately bad news for economic growth. This is longer than the usual Conversation article, so allow some time to read and enjoy. back

Tabula rasa - Wikipedia, Tabula rasa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Tabula rasa (Latin: blank slate) refers to the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. . . . In Western philosophy, traces of the idea that came to be called the tabula rasa appear as early as the writings of Aristotle. Aristotle writes of the unscribed tablet in what is probably the first textbook of psychology in the Western canon, his treatise . . . (De Anima or On the Soul ).' back

Tensor product - Wikipedia, Tensor product - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, the tensor product V ⊗ W of two vector spaces V and W (over the same field) is itself a vector space, together with an operation of bilinear composition, denoted by ⊗, from ordered pairs in the Cartesian product V × W into V ⊗ W, in a way that generalizes the outer product. The tensor product of V and W is the vector space generated by the symbols v ⊗ w, with v ∈ V and w ∈ W, in which the relations of bilinearity are imposed for the product operation ⊗, and no other relations are assumed to hold. The tensor product space is thus the "freest" (or most general) such vector space, in the sense of having the fewest constraints.' back

The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia, The Seventh Seal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Seventh Seal (Swedish: Det sjunde inseglet) is a 1957 Swedish epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Denmark during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death (Bengt Ekerot), who has come to take his life.. . . The Seventh Seal is considered a classic of world cinema, as well as one of the greatest movies of all time. It established Bergman as a world-renowned director, containing scenes which have become iconic through homages, critical analysis, and parodies.' back

United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, '. . . THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.' back

Volition (psychology) - Wikipedia, Volition (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of the primary human psychological functions (the others being affection [affect or feeling], motivation [goals and expectations] and cognition [thinking]). back

Wellcome Trust, The Wellcome Trust Website, 'The Wellcome Trust is an independent research-funding charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. It is funded from a private endowment, which is managed with long-term stability and growth in mind. Its mission is 'to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health'. To this end, it supports 'blue skies' research and applied clinical research. It also encourages the exploitation of research findings for medical benefit. back

Will (philosophy) - Wikipedia, Will (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Will, in Western philosophical discussions, consonant with a common English usage, refers to a property of the mind, and an attribute of acts intentionally performed. Actions made according to a person's will are called “willing” or “voluntary” and sometimes pejoratively “willful” or “at will”. In general, "Will" does not refer to one particular or most preferred desire but rather to the general capacity to have such desires and act decisively to achieve them, according to whatever criteria the willing agent applies.' back

Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Quantum origin of quantum jumps: breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical, 'Submitted on 17 Mar 2007 (v1), last revised 18 Mar 2008 (this version, v3)) "Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus, and then further on -- to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide framework for the ``wavepacket collapse'', designating terminal points of quantum jumps, and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates. In quantum Darwinism, they are the progenitors of multiple copies spread throughout the environment -- the fittest quantum states that not only survive decoherence, but subvert it into carrying information about them -- into becoming a witness.' back