Ashby, W Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen 1956, 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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Augustine, Saint, and Edmond Hill (Introduction, translation and notes), and John E Rotelle (editor), The Trinity, New City Press 399-419, 1991 Written 399 - 419: De Trinitate is a radical restatement, defence and development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Augustine's book has served as a foundation for most subsequent work, particularly that of Thomas Aquinas.  
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Chaitin, Gregory J, Algorithmic Information Theory, Cambridge UP 1987 Foreword: 'The crucial fact here is that there exist symbolic objects (i.e., texts) which are "algorithmically inexplicable", i.e., cannot be specified by any text shorter than themselves. Since texts of this sort have the properties associated with random sequences of classical probability theory, the theory of describability developed . . . in the present work yields a very interesting new view of the notion of randomness.' J T Schwartz 
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Genesis, and Alexander Jones (editor), in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water.' (I, 1-2) 
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Jaynes, Julian, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Mariner Books 2000 Jacket: 'At the heart of this book is the revolutionary idea that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but is a learned process brought into being out of an earlier hallucinatory mentality by cataclysm and catastrophe only 3000 years ago and still developing.' 
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Lewis, Clive S , The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition, Oxford UP 1979 Jacket: ' The Romance of the Rose, its ancestors and its descendants are here studied not as an obstacle to be surmounted on our way to Chaucer, but as a true expression of the ages which produced them. The allegorical form is found to be at once an imaginative bridge from mythical to reflective consciousness and a principal origin of Romanticism; . . . ' 'Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind. Whatever we may have been, in some sort we still are. Neither the form nor the sentiment of this old poetry has passed away without leaving indelible traces on our minds.' 
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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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Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' 
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Neuenschwander, Dwight E, Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem, Johns Hopkins University Press 2011 Jacket: A beautiful piece of mathematics, Noether's therem touches on every aspect of physics. Emmy Noether proved her theorem in 1915 and published it in 1918. This profound concept demonstrates the connection between conservation laws and symmetries. For instance, the theorem shows that a system invariant under translations of time, space or rotation will obey the laws of conservation of energy, linear momentum or angular momentum respectively. This exciting result offers a rich unifying principle for all of physics.' 
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Peskin, Michael E, and Dan V Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, Westview Press 1995 Amazon Product Description 'This book is a clear and comprehensive introduction to quantum field theory, one that develops the subject systematically from its beginnings. The book builds on calculation techniques toward an explanation of the physics of renormalization.'  
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Ungerer, Tomi, Moon Man, Phaidon Press 1966, 2009 'TU's re-released Moon Man is a welcome reminder of this veteran writer and illustrator's distinctive brand of arch mischief, telling the story of the man in the moon hitching a ride on a comet to earth, with disappointing results. . . . With Ungerer's hilarious pageants of onlookers, firemen, ice-cream vendors, this is a wildly original and imaginative tale told with deep humour and not a word to spare. Introducing the phases of the moon in an abstract way will stretch children's conceptual abilities, while the story will both thoroughly entertain and raise questions about the fate of innocence in a world that is boldly marching upwards.' 
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Zurek, Wojciech Hubert, "Quantum origin of quantum jumps: Breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer in the transition from quantum to classical", Physical Review A, 76, 5, 16 November 2007, page . Abstract: '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 a framework for 'wave-packet 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 &mdash the fittest quantum states that not only survive decoherence, but subvert the environment into carrying information about them &mdash into becoming a witness.'. back

29 Scientists, Scientist's letter to Obama on iran Nuclear Deal, 'Dear Mr. President, As scientists and engineers with understanding of the physics and technology of nuclear power and of nuclear weapons, we congratulate you and your team on the successful completion of the negotiations in Vienna. We consider that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCP O A) the United States and its p artners negotiated with Iran will advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future non -­‐ proliferation agreement back

Adam Elshaug, Pandemic letter from America: how the US handling of COVID-19 provides the starkest warning for us all, ' There is a political rallying cry in the US that the country represents a shining light on the hill, a “beacon of hope” for the world. . . . The US, through COVID-19, offers the starkest of warnings. Underlying gross structural inequality, under-investment and unpreparedness in public health, and socio-political tensions have met in a dizzying, tragic outcome for the richest country in the world. All Americans have suffered but their most vulnerable have, and will continue to, suffer disproportionately. It is a shining light for what we must avoid, what we must stand up for and protect against.' back

Adele Marum, Playing and paying the whore in Little Birds, ' Nin maintained that she wrote these stories in the late 1930s and early 1940s to earn money to support her artistic endeavours. During this time, she says, her life became “something like the life of the prostitute”. The stories are tales of taboo and violence, involving brothel workers, domination, exhibitionism and voyeurism as well as incest and sexual assault.' back

Alan Turing, On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem, 'The "computable" numbers may be described briefly as the real numbers whose expressions as a decimal are calculable by some finite means. Although the subject of this paper is ostensibly the computable numbers, it is almost equally easy to define and investigate computable functions of an integral variable of a real or computable variable, computable predicates and so forth. . . . ' back

Algebra - Wikipedia, Algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Algebra (from Arabic: الجبر‎ al-jabr, meaning "reunion of broken parts" and "bonesetting") is one of the broad parts of mathematics, together with number theory, geometry and analysis. In its most general form, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. It includes everything from elementary equation solving to the study of abstractions such as groups, rings, and fields.' back

Archdiocese of Baltimore, Baltimore Catechism Part 1, ' A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore, or simply the Baltimore Catechism, is the official national catechism for children in the United States. It was the standard Catholic religion school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s.' back

Aristotle 1071b12, Metaphysics book XII, vi, 2, 'But even if we are to suppose that there is something which is kinetic and productive, although it does not actually move or produce, there will not necessarily be motion; for that which has potentiality may not actualise it. Thus it will not help matters if we posit eternal substances, as do the exponents of the Forms, unless there is in them some principle which can cause change. . . . therefore there must be a principle of this kind whose essence is actuality. back

Assumption of Mary - Wikipedia, Assumption of Mary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Assumption of Mary is the traditional belief held by Christians of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, some Protestant churches (including Lutherans and Anglo-Catholics), that the Virgin Mary at the end of her life was physically taken up into heaven.' back

Boolean algebra - Wikipedia, Boolean algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is the branch of algebra in which the values of the variables are the truth values true and false, usually denoted 1 and 0 respectively. Instead of elementary algebra where the values of the variables are numbers, and the main operations are addition and multiplication, the main operations of Boolean algebra are the conjunction and, denoted ∧, the disjunction or, denoted ∨, and the negation not, denoted ¬. It is thus a formalism for describing logical relations in the same way that ordinary algebra describes numeric relations.' back

Boson - Wikipedia, Boson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In particle physics, bosons are particles with an integer spin, as opposed to fermions which have half-integer spin. From a behaviour point of view, fermions are particles that obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics while bosons are particles that obey the Bose-Einstein statistics. They may be either elementary, like the photon, or composite, as mesons. All force carrier particles are bosons. They are named after Satyendra Nath Bose. In contrast to fermions, several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. Thus, bosons with the same energy can occupy the same place in space.' back

Burning (Film) - Wikipedia, Burning (Film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Burning . . is a 2018 South Korean psychological mystery drama film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Lee Chang-dong. Based on the short story "Barn Burning" from The Elephant Vanishes by author Haruki Murakami, it stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo. . . . It received almost universal critical acclaim, particularly for its sense of unease, ambiguous narrative, and performances. It was selected as the South Korean entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards; although it was not nominated, it became the first Korean film to make it to the final nine-film shortlist.' back

Carlotta Dotto et al, The energy to stay: Senegal's village of women, ' In northeast Senegal, the Sahara Desert is encroaching and the men are emigrating. But a group of women have pooled their resources and sought out new farming methods to save their villages.' back

Chen Zhao, Donald Trump's anti-China policy is doomed to fail, as his coronavirus strategy did, ' Yes, China is an authoritarian regime, but it is not interested in spreading Marxism around the world. Rather, China is far more interested in exporting capital, expanding its market share and securing resource supplies. The Communist Party of China ought to be renamed the Production Party of China. The party has reformed China’s Soviet-style economy by promoting free-market capitalism and private ownership, and has squarely focused on boosting economic growth since the late 1970s.' 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.' [C. E. Shannon , “Communication in the presence of noise,” Proc. IRE, vol. 37, pp. 10–21, Jan. 1949.] back

David Hall, The COVID-19 crisis test oppositions as well as governments. Ahead of New Zealand's election, Nationals risk failing that test, ' Constructive opposition is the point In this we see the distinction that political theorist Chantal Mouffe makes between “antagonistic” and “agonistic” politics. The institution of the loyal opposition facilitates a constructive agonism. . . . It meant the losers of the political competition would not be turfed into the wilderness, bitter and disenfranchised. Rather, they would remain in the fold, able to contribute to the political process through confrontation, critique and even collaboration. Consider, by contrast, the one-party state, where the losers in the political competition are shut out of public decision-making. In such circumstances, loyalty is pointless. The ruling party only wants to expel or silence detractors, to cancel their voice.' back

Diophantine equation - Wikipedia, Diophantine equation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is a polynomial equation, usually in two or more unknowns, such that only the integer solutions are sought or studied (an integer solution is a solution such that all the unknowns take integer values). A linear Diophantine equation is an equation between two sums of monomials of degree zero or one. An exponential Diophantine equation is one in which exponents on terms can be unknowns. Diophantine problems have fewer equations than unknown variables and involve finding integers that work correctly for all equations. In more technical language, they define an algebraic curve, algebraic surface, or more general object, and ask about the lattice points on it.' back

Elizabeth Dias, 'Christianity Will Have Power', 'There is a straight line from that day at Dordt four years ago to a recent scene at a chapel in Washington, where armed officers tear-gassed peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square and shot them with rubber pellets. They were clearing the way for Mr. Trump to march from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church and hold up a Bible, a declaration of Christian power. “We have the greatest country in the world,” he said. “We’re going to keep it nice and safe.” It was another instantly infamous moment, covered by cable news and decried by Democrats as an unseemly photo op. But in Sioux Center, many evangelicals once again received a different message, one that echoed the words uttered by a long-shot presidential candidate in a sanctuary on a cold winter morning. “To me it was like, that’s great. Trump is recognizing the Bible, we are one nation under God,” Mr. Schouten said. “He is willing to stand out there and take a picture of it for the country to see.” He added: “Trump was standing up for Christianity.” back

Eugene Scott, The media was far less likely to let birtherism attacks slide this time, ' When figures on the right perpetuated birtherism lies about then-Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election, many in the media were slow to call the false information what it was: a racist attack against someone challenging some people’s concept of what it means to be an American. But when President Trump — a leader in promoting the birtherism myth against Obama — appeared to fuel similar accusations against Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D.-Calif.) after she was named the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee, the media largely called the president’s words out for what they are.' back

Evangelism - Wikipedia, Evangelism - Wikipedia, 'Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity and Islam, since those two religions mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith.' back

Evolution - Wikipedia, Evolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, '. . . Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace were the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a process that is inferred from three facts about populations: 1) more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, 2) traits vary among individuals, leading to different rates of survival and reproduction, and 3) trait differences are heritable. . . . ' back

Fermion - Wikipedia, Fermion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In particle physics, fermions are particles with a half-integer spin, such as protons and electrons. They obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics and are named after Enrico Fermi. In the Standard Model there are two types of elementary fermions: quarks and leptons. . . . In contrast to bosons, only one fermion can occupy a quantum state at a given time (they obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle). Thus, if more than one fermion occupies the same place in space, the properties of each fermion (e.g. its spin) must be different from the rest. Therefore fermions are usually related with matter while bosons are related with radiation, though the separation between the two is not clear in quantum physics. back

Greg Steinmetz, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The life and Times of Jacob Fugger, 'Jacob Fugger, a Renaissance-era banker and industrialist from the German city of Augsburg, was “the most influential businessman of all time,” Steinmetz declares early in his new book, which does a decent job of backing the claim. Fugger (rhymes with “cougar”) parlayed his family’s textile business into an astonishing banking and mining fortune, which at the time of his death in 1525 equaled nearly 2 percent of Europe’s total economy.' back

Haaretz, 29 Leading U.S. Nuclear Scientists Praise 'unprecedented' Iran Deal, 'Twenty-nine top U.S. nuclear scientists - including five Nobel laureates - sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Saturday praising the nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran in July. According to the New York Times, the letter used the terms "innovative" and "stringent" more than half-a-dozen times, saying the deal can serve "as a guidepost for future nonproliferation agreements."' back

Hausdorff space - Wikipedia, Hausdorff space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space where for any two distinct points there exist neighbourhoods of each which are disjoint from each other. Of the many separation axioms that can be imposed on a topological space, the "Hausdorff condition" (T2) is the most frequently used and discussed. It implies the uniqueness of limits of sequences, nets, and filters. Hausdorff spaces are named after Felix Hausdorff, one of the founders of topology. Hausdorff's original definition of a topological space (in 1914) included the Hausdorff condition as an axiom. .' back

Immaculate Conception - Wikipedia, Immaculate Conception - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The defined dogma of the Immaculate Conception regards original sin only, saying that Mary was preserved from any stain (in Latin, macula or labes, the second of these two synonymous words being the one used in the formal definition). The proclaimed Roman Catholic dogma states "that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin."[Therefore, being always free from original sin, the doctrine teaches that from her conception Mary received the sanctifying grace that would normally come with baptism after birth.' back

Inception - Wikipedia, Inception - Wikipedia, he free encyclopedia, ' Inception is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with his wife, Emma Thomas. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious. The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. ' back

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio: On the relationship between faith and reason. , para 2: 'The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).' back

John Paul II , Fides et Ratio: On the relationship between faith and reason , para 2: 'The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).' back

John von Neumann, The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, ' Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics by John von Neumann translated from the German by Robert T. Beyer (New Edition) edited by Nicholas A. Wheeler
Princeton UP Princeton & Oxford Preface: ' This book is the realization of my long-held intention to someday use the resources of TEX to produce a more easily read version of Robert T. Beyer’s authorized English translation (Princeton University Press, 1955) of John von Neumann’s classic Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Springer, 1932). This content downloaded from 129.127.145.240 on Sat, 30 May 2020 22:38:31 UTC
back

Kate Miller-Heidke, Ride This Feeling, '
I woke up this morning, made a pot of coffee
Went out onto the stairs to sit in the sun
I haven't been myself, I know I haven't been much fun
But I woke up this morning and the air tastes different
The fire in the gut
Kills the worm that haunts us
I'm all shook up
And I'm gonna ride this feeling as far as it goes
I'm gonna ride this feeling
I don't know, I don't know
Whether I'm flying or falling
But I'm gonna ride this feeling
Then all of a sudden I knew I was dreaming
And for some reason I decided to take off my clothes
Then I jumped off a cliff, just spread my arms and flew
All the way across Canada to see you
The fire in the gut
Kills the worm that haunts us
I'm all shook up
And I'm gonna ride this feeling as far as it goes
I'm gonna ride this feeling
I don't know, I don't know
Whether I'm flying or falling
But I'm gonna ride this feeling
All the way down
The fire in the gut
Kills the worm that haunts us
I'm all shook up
It's alright, it's alright, just get out of the way, and ride
Ride this feeling

back

Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Lorentz transformation or Lorentz-Fitzgerald transformation describes how, according to the theory of special relativity, two observers' varying measurements of space and time can be converted into each other's frames of reference. It is named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz. It reflects the surprising fact that observers moving at different velocities may measure different distances, elapsed times, and even different orderings of events.' back

Marwan Bishara, The UAE makes peace with Israel's war on the Palestinians, ' Real peace will come only after Israel agrees to withdraw from all Arab lands, gives up its hegemonic ambitions and its nuclear weapons, and allows for full Palestinian freedom and self-determination in the Palestinian homeland, paving the way for normalisation of relations with much if not all of the Arab and Muslim world. back

Measurement in quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, Measurement in quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The framework of quantum mechanics requires a careful definition of measurement. The issue of measurement lies at the heart of the problem of the interpretation of quantum mechanics, for which there is currently no consensus.' back

Melissa Lozada-Oliva, A light-skinned Latina like me will never be able to live in the land of whiteness, 'I don’t have an answer for how I became a certain color or where I’m really from. Colonialism made sure that I would never understand my history. I’m this color because of a history that decided white was the most beautiful; because of destroyed indigenous temples I’ve never heard of; the rape and slaughter of my ancestors that was ripped out of history books; the brujas and the brown hands that loved too hard to die and survived the destruction. I am this color because of love and because of rage and the undefinable colors that exist between them.' back

Minkowski space - Wikipedia, Minkowski space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In mathematical physics, Minkowski space or Minkowski spacetime is a combination of Euclidean space and time into a four-dimensional manifold where the spacetime interval between any two events is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. Although initially developed by mathematician Hermann Minkowski for Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, the mathematical structure of Minkowski spacetime was shown to be an immediate consequence of the postulates of special relativity.' back

Monasticism - Wikipedia, Monasticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Monasticism (from Greek μοναχός, monachos, derived from μόνος, monos, "alone") or monkhood is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Similar forms of religious life also exist in other faiths, most notably in Buddhism, but also in Hinduism and Jainism, although the expressions differ considerably.[By contrast, in other religions monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in Judaism.' back

NASA, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, back

Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, Nicene Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Nicene Creed (Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Νίκαιας, Latin: Symbolum Nicaenum) is the profession of faith or creed that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It forms the mainstream definition of Christianity for most Christians. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea (present day Iznik in Turkey) by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325. The Nicene Creed has been normative for the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Anglican Communion, and the great majority of Protestant denominations.' back

Paul Krugman, From Trump on Down, the Republicans Can't be Serious, 'For while it’s true that Mr. Trump is, fundamentally, an absurd figure, so are his rivals. If you pay attention to what any one of them is actually saying, as opposed to how he says it, you discover incoherence and extremism every bit as bad as anything Mr. Trump has to offer. And that’s not an accident: Talking nonsense is what you have to do to get anywhere in today’s Republican Party.' back

Peter Moore, The Great Victorian Weather Wars, 'Tyndall had news. He revealed that for two years he had been studying the heat-absorbing properties of gases. He realized that for the earth’s atmosphere to maintain its steady temperature, certain gases must be capable of trapping radiant heat. This inquiry, he said, was “perfectly unbroken ground.” His experiments had shown that gases like oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen retained very little heat. But others, particularly carbon dioxide, absorbed surprising amounts of radiation — “nearly 100 times as much as oxygen,” he said.' back

Pope - Wikipedia, Pope - Wikipedia, 'The pope . . . is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church (that is, all Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic churches which are in full communion with the Roman Pontiff). . . . Gradually forced to give up secular power, popes have come to focus almost exclusively on spiritual matters. Over the centuries, popes' claims of spiritual authority have been ever more clearly expressed, culminating in the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra (literally "from the chair (of Peter)") to issue a solemn definition of faith or morals.[1] The last such occasion was in 1950, with the definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. back

Principle of least action - Wikipedia, Principle of least action - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, In physics, the principle of least action or more accurately principle of stationary action is a variational principle which, when applied to the action of a mechanical system, can be used to obtain the equations of motion for that system. The principle led to the development of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics.

The principle remains central in modern physics and mathematics, being applied in the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and a focus of modern mathematical investigation in Morse theory. This article deals primarily with the historical development of the idea; a treatment of the mathematical description and derivation can be found in the article on the action. The chief examples of the principle of stationary action are Maupertuis' principle and Hamilton's principle.' back

Quantum algorithm - Wikipedia, Quantum algorithm - Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia, ' In quantum computing, a quantum algorithm is an algorithm which runs on a realistic model of quantum computation, the most commonly used model being the quantum circuit model of computation.[1][2] A classical (or non-quantum) algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions, or a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem, where each step or instruction can be performed on a classical computer. Similarly, a quantum algorithm is a step-by-step procedure, where each of the steps can be performed on a quantum computer. Although all classical algorithms can also be performed on a quantum computer,[3]:126 the term quantum algorithm is usually used for those algorithms which seem inherently quantum, or use some essential feature of quantum computation such as quantum superposition or quantum entanglement. ' back

Quantum supremacy - Wikipedia, Quantum supremacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In quantum computing, quantum supremacy is the goal of demonstrating that a programmable quantum device can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in any feasible amount of time (irrespective of the usefulness of the problem). By comparison, the weaker quantum advantage is the demonstration that a quantum device can solve a problem merely faster than classical computers.' back

Rana Mitter, After World War II, China valued its people's personal freedoms. It should remember that, China started thinking about the new post-war world even before the fighting was over. In April 1945, with the war still raging in Asia, a delegation of Chinese politicians led by the Nationalist prime minister T.V. Soong arrived in San Francisco to take part in the foundation of the new United Nations . China’s leaders today take great pride in their country’s presence at that crucial meeting. This February, at the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared: “As the first founding member of the UN to sign its charter, China has stayed true to the UN’s founding aspirations and firmly defended the purposes of the charter and international law.” ' back

Rebecca Hiscock, Celebrity activists get it wrong on Amnest International's sex work policy, 'Research has consistently shown that the greatest harms experienced by sex workers occur through, and because of, criminalisation. Criminalising sex work makes sex workers more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. It also makes it difficult for them to leave the industry, if they so wish. Research also demonstrates that the criminalisation of any aspect of consensual sex work – including through the Nordic Model – increases sex work stigma. This contributes to a cycle of abuse and discrimination against sex workers.' back

Roman legion - Wikipedia, Roman legion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Roman legion (from Latin legio "military levy, conscription," from legere — "to choose") is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio ("conscription" or "army") to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly (and more commonly), to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In this latter meaning, it consisted of several cohorts of heavy infantry known as legionaries. It was almost always accompanied by one or more attached units of auxiliaries, who were not Roman citizens and provided cavalry, ranged troops and skirmishers to complement the legion's heavy infantry.' back

Rukmini Callimachi, ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape, 'The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution. Interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped the Islamic State, as well as an examination of the group’s official communications, illuminate how the practice has been enshrined in the group’s core tenets.' back

Rust Never Sleeps - Wikipedia, Rust Never Sleeps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Rust Never Sleeps is an album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse released in 1979. The bulk of the album was recorded live at San Francisco's Cow Palace, with overdubs added. Audience noise is removed as much as possible, although they are clearly audible at certain points, most noticeably on the opening and closing songs. The album is half acoustic and half electric, opening and closing with different versions of the same song.' back

Simon Chapman, Infrasound phobia spreads . . . to solar energy cells1 What next?, 'In Australia, we have just seen the publication of a Senate Committee report on wind turbines . . . The report is laughably inept, . . . It contains not a single mention of the largest and most important study of wind farms and annoyance and health, recently conducted by Health Canada. . . . the Committee has recommended that the National Health and Medical Research Council be bypassed in yet another review by an “independent” committee. This slur on our peak expert body in health and medicine has all the class of a perennially losing D-grade cricket team trying to oust the entire national system of umpire training and accreditation to get the results they just know they deserve.' back

Thomas L. Friedman, Beirut's Blast Is a Warning for America, ' The United States is becoming like Lebanon and other Middle East countries in two respects. First, our political differences are becoming so deep that our two parties now resemble religious sects in a zero-sum contest for power. They call theirs “Shiites and Sunnis and Maronites” or “Israelis and Palestinians.” We call ours “Democrats and Republicans,” but ours now behave just like rival tribes who believe they must rule or die. And second, as in the Middle East, so increasingly in America: Everything is now politics — even the climate, even energy, even face masks in a pandemic.' back

Topology - Wikipedia, Topology - Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia, 'In mathematics, topology (from the Greek τόπος, place, and λόγος, study) is concerned with the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, crumpling and bending, but not tearing or gluing. . . . The motivating insight behind topology is that some geometric problems depend not on the exact shape of the objects involved, but rather on the way they are put together. For example, the square and the circle have many properties in common: they are both one dimensional objects (from a topological point of view) and both separate the plane into two parts, the part inside and the part outside.' back

Trimurti - Wikipedia, Trimurti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Trimurti (English: ‘three forms’; Sanskrit: त्रिमूर्ति trimūrti) is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer," These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", often addressed as "Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara."' back

Trinity - Wikipedia, Trinity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (from Latin trinitas "triad", from trinus "threefold") defines God as three consubstantial persons, expressions, or hypostases: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit; "one God in three persons". The three persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or nature" homoousios). In this context, a "nature" is what one is, while a "person" is who one is.' back

Turing machine - Wikipedia, Turing machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer. The "machine" was invented in 1936 by Alan Turingwho called it an "a-machine" (automatic machine). The Turing machine is not intended as practical computing technology, but rather as a hypothetical device representing a computing machine. Turing machines help computer scientists understand the limits of mechanical computation.' back

William J Broad, 29 U.S. Scientists Praise Iran Nuclear Deal, 'The two-page letter may give the White House arguments a boost after the blow Mr. Obama suffered on Thursday when Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, a Democrat and among the most influential Jewish voices in Congress, announced he would oppose the deal, which calls for Iran to curb its nuclear program and allow inspections in return for an end to international oil and financial sanctions. The first signature on the letter is from Richard L. Garwin, a physicist who helped design the world’s first hydrogen bomb and has long advised Washington on nuclear weapons and arms control. He is among the last living physicists who helped usher in the nuclear age.' back