Dauben (1990), Joseph Warren, Georg Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite, Princeton University Press 1990 Jacket: 'One of the greatest revolutions in mathematics occurred when Georg Cantor (1843-1918) promulgated his theory of transfinite sets. . . . Set theory has been widely adopted in mathematics and philosophy, but the controversy surrounding it at the turn of the century remains of great interest. Cantor's own faith in his theory was partly theological. His religious beliefs led him to expect paradox in any concept of the infinite, and he always retained his belief in the utter veracity of transfinite set theory. Later in his life, he was troubled by attacks of severe depression. Dauben shows that these played an integral part in his understanding and defense of set theory.' 
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Einstein (1916, 2005), Albert, and Robert W Lawson (translator) Roger Penrose (Introduction), Robert Geroch (Commentary), David C Cassidy (Historical Essay), Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Pi Press 1916, 2005 Preface: 'The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. ... The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated.' page 3  
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Hopkins (2001), Keith, A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity, Penguin Random House 2001 ' In this provocative, irresistibly entertaining book, Keith Hopkins takes readers back in time to explore the roots of Christianity in ancient Rome. Combining exacting scholarship with dazzling invention, Hopkins challenges our perceptions about religion, the historical Jesus, and the way history is written. He puts us in touch with what he calls “empathetic wonder”—imagining what Romans, pagans, Jews, and Christians thought, felt, experienced, and believed-by employing a series of engaging literary devices. These include a TV drama about the Dead Sea Scrolls; the first-person testimony of a pair of time-travelers to Pompeii; a meditation on Jesus’ apocryphal twin brother; and an unusual letter on God, demons, and angels.' 
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Alex Lo (23_10_05), Modern physics and movie nudity, or how I passed my science week, ' Heisenberg then explained how the concepts of space, time and causality (cause and effect) in Euclid’s geometry, Newton’s physics and Kant’s philosophy – which pretty much underpinned the entire Western conception of reality, or rather the very possibility of considering something as “real” at all – has been questioned, if not undermined, by the [then-] new physics. . . .. It’s funny how like most people, I still feel, experience and make sense of the physical environment in three-dimensional Euclidean space and the one single absolute space and time of Newton, and through the simple or simplistic cause and effect of Kant. Consider this sentence: Putin started (cause) the war (effect) in Ukraine (space) more than a year ago (time). Whatever you think about the war and Putin, you just can’t get away with using these categories, which were once thought to be fundamental but are not, according to quantum theory. For sure, the technologies of which we are all consumers are post-Einsteinian and post-Heisenberg, from GPS to smartphones. But I just use them and have no idea how they actually work. Our cognition may be long past its use-by date. . . .. Besides thermonuclear weapons, we can thank Einstein, Heisenberg and a few of their fellow geniuses for all that – turning reality on its head.' back

Alexander A. Cox & C. Brenhin Keller, A Bayesian inversion for emissions and export productivity across the end-Cretaceous boundary, ' The end-Cretaceous mass extinction was marked by both the Chicxulub impact and the ongoing emplacement of the Deccan Traps flood basalt province. To understand the mechanism of extinction, we must disentangle the timing, duration, and intensity of volcanic and meteoritic environmental forcings. In this study, we used a parallel Markov chain Monte Carlo approach to invert for carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, export productivity, and remineralization from 67 to 65 million years ago using the LOSCAR (Long-term Ocean-atmosphere-Sediment CArbon cycle Reservoir) model. Our results closely match observed and proxy data and suggest decoupled CO2 and SO2 emissions, a two-step decline in export productivity with a protracted recovery, and no clear volatile impulse at the boundary. More broadly, our methods provide a potential path forward for efficient parallel inversion of complex Earth system models.' back

Alexander Howard, Jon Fosse wins the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature for giving ‘voice to the unsayable’, ' Jon Fosse has just been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. The worthy winner, aged 64, is a major figure in Norwegian literary and cultural circles and the fourth Norwegian to win the most prestigious award in world literature. He’s also the second Nobel Prize for Literature winner in a row to be published (in English translation) by Fitzcarraldo Editions, following French writer Annie Ernaux’s win last year. Fosse, who the translator Damion Searles calls one of the “elder statesmen of Norwegian letters”, works across multiple genres and mediums and writes using a language called “Nynorsk”, or New Norwegian. (It’s one of two current written forms of Norwegian – used by just 10% of the Norwegian population.) Some, though not the writer himself, have interpreted this as a quietly political gesture.' back

AlJazeera abd Agencies (23_10_06), Iran’s jailed rights advocate Narges Mohammadi wins 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, ' Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, has won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous struggle against the oppression of women in Iran and relentless fight for social reform. While behind bars, she was awarded the prestigious prize on Friday for her efforts “to promote human rights and freedom for all”, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. “Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in Oslo during the announcement. Mohammadi, 51, is one of Iran’s leading human rights activists who has campaigned for women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She is currently serving multiple sentences in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation, one of the many periods she has been detained behind bars. Charges include spreading propaganda against the state. Mohammadi is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, a non-governmental organisation led by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. . . .. Tehran accused the Nobel committee of meddling and politicising the issue of human rights. “The action of the Nobel Peace Committee is political move in line with the interventionist and anti-Iranian policies of some European governments,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said. “The Nobel Peace committee has awarded a prize to a person convicted of repeated law violations and criminal acts, and we condemn this as biased and politically motivated,” he added in a statement carried by state media.' back

Aquinas, Summa: I, 14, 1, Is there knowledge in God?, ' I answer that, In God there exists the most perfect knowledge. . . . it is clear that the immateriality of a thing is the reason why it is cognitive; and according to the mode of immateriality is the mode of knowledge. Hence it is said in De Anima ii that plants do not know, because they are wholly material. But sense is cognitive because it can receive images free from matter, and the intellect is still further cognitive, because it is more separated from matter and unmixed, as said in De Anima iii. Since therefore God is in the highest degree of immateriality as stated above (Question 7, Article 1), it follows that He occupies the highest place in knowledge.' back

Christopher Shields (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy b), The Active Mind of De Anima III 5 , ' After characterizingnous the mind (nous) and its activities in De Animaiii 4, Aristotle takes a surprising turn. In De Anima iii 5, he introduces an obscure and hotly disputed subject: the active mind or active intellect (nous poiêtikos). Controversy surrounds almost every aspect of De Anima iii 5, not least because in it Aristotle characterizes the active mind—a topic mentioned nowhere else in his entire corpus—as ‘separate and unaffected and unmixed, being in its essence actuality’ (chôristos kai apathês kai amigês, tê ousia energeia; DA iii 5, 430a17–18) and then also as ‘deathless and everlasting’ (athanaton kai aidion; DA iii 5, 430a23). This comes as no small surprise to readers of De Anima, because Aristotle had earlier in the same work treated the mind (nous) as but one faculty (dunamis) of the soul (psuchê), and he had contended that the soul as a whole is not separable from the body (DA ii 1, 413a3–5). back

David Geenberg, The War on Objectivity in American Journalism, ' As Thomas Nagel, perhaps our most influential contemporary defender of philosophical objectivity, elaborates in The View from Nowhere: “Objectivity is a method of understanding… To acquire a more objective understanding of some aspect of life or the world we step back from our initial view of it and form a new conception which has that view and its relation to the world as its object. In other words, we place ourselves in the world that is to be understood". . . .. Objectivity will always have its points of weakness. Every story will admit of different ways to be written and presented, and no one can ever correct for all of his or her biases. Sometimes journalists will veer into unwarranted opinion or attitudinizing. Other times they will slavishly hew to rigid formulae that make matters sound more uncertain than they really are. But just as Churchill described democracy as the worst form of government except for all the others, objectivity looks badly flawed only until you consider the alternatives. Objectivity will always be a stronger basis for finding the truth than subjectivity, because it rests on external evidence, on verifiable and falsifiable claims, on impartial methods. The alternative is nothing less than a wild dystopia of unchecked feelings and unchallenged falsehoods in which shared ground has given way to shared contempt. The abandonment of objectivity would be a catastrophe for democracy.' back

David Marr , The hatred and greed of the frontier wars still drive race politics today. How little things change, ' Review of Killing for Country, a Family Story by David Marr. . . .. For 20 years squatters campaigned for an armed force to go with them into the bush and clear the land of its Aboriginal owners. The big wool men cajoled and threatened three governors until they got their way. The Native Police began killing in the hinterland of the Darling Downs in 1848. My great-great-grandfather, Reg Uhr, and his brother, D’arcy , were officers in the force a few years later as it fought the bloodiest campaigns on the Queensland frontier. The records of the Native Police are missing, presumed destroyed, but modern scholars calculate that over the 60 years these Aboriginal troopers led by white officers slaughtered upwards of 40,000 people from the northern rivers of New South Wales all the way to Cape York. . . . .. Australians are beginning to face the question of what it does to the soul of a country that its foundations rest first in conquest and then in crime. I hear those crimes being defended in the referendum debate as the yes campaign is condemned as woke, ignorant and expensive – while the voice is attacked as a privilege Aboriginal Australians don’t deserve. Behind it all I hear old familiar voices growling that nothing is owed to the native peoples of Australia, nothing at all for the continent we took from them. Absolutely nothing.' back

Eugene Wigner (1960), The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, 'The first point is that the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it. Second, it is just this uncanny usefulness of mathematical concepts that raises the question of the uniqueness of our physical theories.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1992), An essay on the divinity of money , ' The rise of science questioned revelation and the churches as sources of truth, but they have remained in existence because science still lacks the power to ask or answer the fundamental questions of life and death that concern theology. Here I outline a new scientific theology whose model of god derives not from ancient text but from the mathematical theory of text and communication itself. I propose that this model describes the universe of our experience, which is therefore fittingly called god. I then interpret this model using elements of current physical theory. These ideas are then applied to money. The movement of money is an abstract representation of the the activity of society as a whole, just as the flow of momentum in space-time is an abstract representation of the physical universe. My hypothesis is that proper understanding and political control of public cashflows is necessary and sufficient to obtain peaceful civilisation.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1992a), An essay on value, ' 1 We must kill to live. The question before is is whether or not to kill some fraction of the old growth forest (OGF) in the Wingham management area (WMA) in order to keep the sawmilling operation at Mt George alive. Religion 2 Although the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as we have it, is a document based largely on resource, commercial and employment considerations, I believe the Commission is facing a religious issue, and will have no peace until it realizes that fact. 3 Matters of life and death are questions of religion. For those who have power over life and death, deciding what to kill is a question of value. The value system of any organism is determined by the history of its survival. 4 If the decision is good, the benefit from killing will exceed the value of what is destroyed, yielding a profit and enhanced probability of survival. A wrong judgment of value leads to the opposite result.' back

John von Neumann (2014), 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

Judith Brett, Too hard basket: why climate change is defeating our political system, ' Soon after it assumed office, the new Labor government ordered a climate and security risk analysis. This has now happened, undertaken by the Office of National Assessments (ONI) and delivered to the government in late 2022. But you wouldn’t know it. The analysis has not been released, and there is no indication it will be. Since then the government has barely said a word about the ONI findings or about climate security risks, although it has said plenty about the risk we face if, as seems likely, China supplants the United States as the dominant power in our region. Responding to this risk, our government is allocating hundreds of billions of dollars of defence spending to buy submarines. The Greens have called for the immediate release of ONI’s assessment, as has former Chief of Australia’s Defence Forces Admiral Chris Barrie. . . . .. The Labor government’s response to the greatest emergency we face seems set on slow, as if we have time for an incremental response with little disruption to daily life and it’s OK to keep subsidising fossil fuels and approving new gas and coal projects. So it’s not surprising it’s keeping the seriousness of the crisis under wraps. . . .. We have to convince reluctant governments to listen to the science, as they did with COVID, so people know the seriousness of the crisis we are facing.' back

Katalin Karikó, Suppression of RNA Recognition by Toll-like Receptors: The Impact of Nucleoside Modification and the Evolutionary Origin of RNA, ' DNA and RNA stimulate the mammalian innate immune system through activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs). DNA containing methylated CpG motifs, however, is not stimulatory. Selected nucleosides in naturally occurring RNA are also methylated or otherwise modified, but the immunomodulatory effects of these alterations remain untested. We show that RNA signals through human TLR3, TLR7, and TLR8, but incorporation of modified nucleosides m5C, m6A, m5U, s2U, or pseudouridine ablates activity. Dendritic cells (DCs) exposed to such modified RNA express significantly less cytokines and activation markers than those treated with unmodified RNA. DCs and TLR-expressing cells are potently activated by bacterial and mitochondrial RNA, but not by mammalian total RNA, which is abundant in modified nucleosides. We conclude that nucleoside modifications suppress the potential of RNA to activate DCs. The innate immune system may therefore detect RNA lacking nucleoside modification as a means of selectively responding to bacteria or necrotic tissue.' back

Katrina Miller, Why the ‘Mother of the Atomic Bomb’ Never Won a Nobel Prize, ' Meitner eventually made her way to Sweden, devastated at having had to leave behind her life’s work and concerned about the safety of her family. She continued collaborating with Hahn by mail. He ran experiments, and she interpreted findings he did not understand. One result stumped them both: When uranium atoms were bombarded with neutrons, the neutron should have been absorbed and an electron released, creating a heavier element. Instead, Hahn found barium, a much lighter element. They were baffled. The finding was outside of Hahn’s expertise as a chemist. “Perhaps you can come up with some sort of fantastic explanation,” he wrote in a letter to Meitner translated by Ruth Lewin Sime, a chemist at Sacramento City College who published a biography of Meitner in 1996. “If there is anything you could propose that you could publish, then it would still in a way be work by the three of us!” Hahn and his colleague Fritz Strassmann submitted the results for publication in December of 1938. Their tone was uncertain. “There could perhaps be a series of unusual coincidences which has given us false indications,” they wrote in German. Meitner was not included as an author, nor was there any mention of her contribution to the work.' back

Michelle Boorstein, Conservative U.S. Catholics watch with dread as pope opens major meeting, ' From the most radical traditionalist to the mainstream conservative, many U.S. Catholics are wary about the opening Wednesday of the synod, which has been planned for more than two years. . .. They see the free-flowing synod structure, which involves laypeople and women in equal roles to clergy, as un-Catholic, and they see as dangerous program documents such as those asking for “concrete steps” to better welcome LGBTQ Catholics and people in polygamous marriages. They feel that Jesus’ name was downplayed in synod documents. “The primary concern is that the pope will authorize things that are not contained in Catholic doctrine or that will contradict it such as women deacons, blessing gay unions” or weakening Catholic teachings against contraception and abortion by emphasizing individual conscience, said the Rev. Gerald Murray, a New York City priest who will be in Rome during the synod doing commentary for several conservative media outlets. “We’re not Protestants". . . .. Last week, a further-right critic, the Rev. James Altman of La Crosse, Wis., posted a video calling for Francis to be killed. Altman’s bishop barred him from saying Mass in 2021 after he criticized coronavirus vaccines and said that victims of lynchings were criminals and that Catholics cannot vote Democratic. Some conservatives took to social media in recent days to ostracize Altman, but others have cheered him on. Altman also drew attention in September with a video saying Francis is not a legitimate pope.' back

Nicole Precel, Schools urged to get ‘cliterate’ about sex education, ' Occupational therapist Anita Brown-Major said when her daughters received sex education at school, she was surprised how little it had evolved. “As a mum, from an education point of view, they’re not learning this in school. They’re still using the same 2D images that I learnt at school,” she said. Brown-Major created Cliterate – a demountable 3D model of the vulva that includes the full clitoris – alongside RMIT University industrial design senior lecturer Judith Glover. The pair have trialled the model in high schools, which induced awkward giggling, but students also liked the interactive nature of it. “It’s a bit of a puzzle – putting it together and then pulling it apart,” Brown-Major said.' back

Parnell Palme McGuinness, Albanese just spent $364 million to make Jacinta Price PM, ' The government budgeted $364.6 million over three years to deliver the referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in the Constitution through a Voice to parliament. As the referendum campaign draws into its final days, it is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that Anthony Albanese has run a $360 million campaign to elect our first female Indigenous prime minister. And she’s not from his side of politics.' back

Religious war - Wikipedia, Religious war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A religious war (Latin: bellum sacrum) is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to spread its faith by violence, or to suppress another group because of its religious beliefs or practices. The Muslim conquests, the Crusades, the Reconquista, and the French Wars of Religion are frequently cited historical examples.' back

Reuters (SCMP), WHO recommends malaria vaccine for children, to be rolled out next year, ' The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended on Monday the use of a second malaria vaccine to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes. “Almost exactly two years ago, WHO recommended the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine called ‘RTS, S,’” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing in Geneva. “Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that WHO is recommending a second vaccine called R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children at risk of the disease.” R21/Matrix-M, developed by Britain’s University of Oxford, will become available to countries by mid-2024, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between US$2 and US$4. . . . .. Tedros added the agency had also recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ vaccine against dengue called Qdenga for children aged six to 16 years living in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem. Dengue, common in tropical and subtropical climates, is a viral infection spread from mosquitoes to people. Takeda’s vaccine was shown in trials to be effective against all 4 serotypes of the virus in people who were previously infected by dengue, Hanna Nohynek, chair of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, told journalists.' back

Veronika Melkozerova , How I decolonized my Russian mind and retook Kyiv, ' If Putin’s objective was to reimpose the stamp of Russian culture, his invasion has only sped up the decolonization of Ukraine. The government has adopted laws aimed at removing all Russia and Soviet-linked toponyms and renamed hundreds of cities, towns, and streets. Monuments of Soviet soldiers, Russian partisans, generals, as well as poets glorifying Russian expansionist policies are being toppled in cities across the country. This summer, the Kyiv city council even banned any public display of Russian culture and music. The hammer and sickle on the Motherland’s shield has finally been replaced by the Ukrainian trident. Some, especially in Russia, have tried to paint these acts as ugly nationalism. I prefer to think of it as a matter of survival and as a chance to rebuild. Russia sought to erase Ukrainian identity, and it was nearly successful. When we were invaded, we found ourselves having to make the case for our sovereignty, as if we had not existed as an independent country for decades in modern history, and as a separate political entity since the founding of Kyiv in the 5th century.' Even now, Russia continues to kill Ukrainian artists. The children’s writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was tortured to death in the Kharkiv region. The poet Viktoria Amelina, who found his diary, was killed by a missile strike in a Kramatorsk café. Will we one day name streets after them? I’d like to think so. After years of being taught our country was fake, our culture inferior and our language nothing more than a devolved dialect, the decolonization of Kyiv has awakened me to a whole new side of my country. I have discovered a Ukraine full of international artists like Ekster, Lifar and Malevich. They have revealed to me how deeply integrated Kyiv was into European culture — and how much we have given the world. back