Dirac (1983), P A M, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (4th ed), Oxford UP/Clarendon 1983 Jacket: '[this] is the standard work in the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, indispensible both to the advanced student and the mature research worker, who will always find it a fresh source of knowledge and stimulation.' (Nature)  
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Lonergan (1992), 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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Aquinas, De Veritate q.3, a2, c, Question 3, a 2, c: Secundo quaeritur utrum sit ponere plures ideas, ' Because the principal intention of this sacred doctrine is to impart knowledge of God, not only as they are in themself, but also as they are the source and goal of everything, particularly of rational creatures, as will become clear in what follows. Proceeding to explain this doctrine, we will deal first with God. The treatment of God has three parts. First we will consider those things that apply to the divine essence; second those things which apply to the distinction of Persons; and third those things which deal with the procession of creatures from God. Dealing with the divine essence, we must first ask whether God exists; second, how they exist, or more precisely how they do not exist; and third we deal with the operations of God, in particular God's knowledge, and will and power. The first point raises three questions: is the existence of God immediately obvious? Can it be demonstrated? Does God exist.' back

Ariel Kaminer, ‘Oppenheimer,’ My Uncle and the Secrets America Still Doesn’t Like to Tell, ' “Oppenheimer” is a movie about a singular genius, an extraordinary collaboration and a turning point in history. But it’s also a lesson in applied physics: the way a lone catalyst may trigger a chain reaction whose impact cannot be predicted or controlled. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s greatest triumph set into motion forces that brought about his downfall. An innovation designed to make the world safer in the long term made it manifestly more dangerous. And in subsequent atomic tests through the postwar years, many Americans were deliberately exposed to radiation, to see what the blast and its aftermath would do to them. Soldiers were marched through detonation sites when the sand cooled down enough to walk on; pilots were sent through the still-billowing clouds; sailors were lined up on nearby boats. At the Yucca Flat testing grounds in Nevada, an Army band was even summoned to play. I know that last part because my uncle Richard Gigger was the band’s leader. . .. For Richard it started with a pituitary tumor. Surgeons removed it, but the result, a few years later, was a cranial bleed and brain damage that worsened over time. . . .. For five decades, atomic veterans were forbidden to tell anyone about their experience, not even a spouse or doctor. That has made it hard to get a reliable accounting of their numbers, or of the medical consequences they suffered, which include leukemia, thyroid cancer, esophagus cancer and multiple myeloma. It has also made it hard for them or their family members to get needed support. To prove her case to the Department of Veterans Affairs, my aunt spent long hours in the library reading scientific articles about atmospheric ionizing radiation (many of which she first had to get translated from Japanese), went digging through the archives of old Nevada newspapers, consulted doctors. She was rebuffed many times but finally, after seven years, the V.A. relented. It confirmed that Richard’s condition was most likely caused by his exposure. That qualified her to receive modest compensation.' back

Duncan Isison, Who is Jürgen Habermas? And why is he such a major public intellectual?, ' On 13 November 2023, following the terrible attack by Hamas on Israel, Jürgen Habermas and three other prominent German academics released a statement condemning the rise of antisemitism in Germany. They also criticised the use of the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s response. Israel’s military retaliation was “justified in principle”, they argued, and despite all the concern for the fate of the Palestinian population […], the standards of judgement slip completely when genocidal intentions are attributed to Israel’s actions. The statement generated a fierce response, with an open letter signed by numerous senior academics, many of whom had either worked with or been influenced by Habermas. They argued the statement’s “concern for human dignity is not adequately extended to Palestinian civilians in Gaza who are facing death and destruction”. Instead, they continued, solidarity means that the principle of human dignity must apply to all people. This requires us to recognise and address the suffering of all those affected by an armed conflict. At the age of 94, Habermas had yet again inserted himself into one of the major issues of the day. The dispute over Israel’s right to defend itself, and Palestine’s right to a homeland, exemplifies some of the tensions at the heart of his astonishing philosophical journey. back

Edwina Preston (2024), Why is the male body the scientific default when the female body drives the reproductive success of our species? , ' Crash-test dummies, heart-attack symptoms, anti-depressant dosages, air-conditioning systems in large office buildings: we are all pretty aware by now that these are “calibrated for male bodies only”. Alien Prometheus is set in 2093; one can only hope the scientific technology of the late 21st-century turns out to have, at least, a “female-registering” option. . . .. . . . Bohannon reminds us that an understanding of the female body cannot be retrofitted to an understanding of the male body. Women are not just men with extra fleshy bits and confounding hormones. Bohannon also reminds us those “fleshy bits” have a function beyond providing a curvaceous silhouette. Female adipose tissue, 600 million years old, stored around our butts and thighs, is necessary to the development of babies’ brains. It is so necessary that girls begin storing it in childhood and when women liposuction it out of their lower bodies it returns in unexpected places: the armpits, for example. Bohannon points out that the possible repercussions of liposuction on the brain health of future offspring has not yet been studied.' back

Ellen Barry (2024), One Twin Was Hurt, the Other Was Not. Their Adult Mental Health Diverged., ' Twins are a bonanza for research psychologists. In a field perpetually seeking to tease out the effects of genetics, environment and life experience, they provide a natural controlled experiment as their paths diverge, subtly or dramatically, through adulthood. Take Dennis and Douglas. In high school, they were so alike that friends told them apart by the cars they drove, they told researchers in a study of twins in Virginia. Most of their childhood experiences were shared — except that Dennis endured an attempted molestation when he was 13. At 18, Douglas married his high school girlfriend. He raised three children and became deeply religious. Dennis cycled through short-term relationships and was twice divorced, plunging into bouts of despair after each split. By their 50s, Dennis had a history of major depression, and his brother did not. Why do twins, who share so many genetic and environmental inputs, diverge as adults in their experience of mental illness? On Wednesday, a team of researchers from the University of Iceland and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reported new findings on the role played by childhood trauma. back

Empiricism - Wikipedia, Empiricism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiricism emphasizes the central role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions.Empiricists may argue that traditions (or customs) arise due to relations of previous sensory experiences.' back

Florence Martin, Four Daughters is a Tunisian masterpiece – what makes the film groundbreaking, ' Why is there excitement about Four Daughters? Four Daughters is exciting in so many ways that I cannot do it justice in the space of this interview. Ben Hania has devised a cinematic apparatus that transcends the usual borders of a documentary. She invites Tunisian stars to help the characters reveal their “inner truth” by acting out the events that led Rahma and Ghofrane to leave. An actress plays Olfa when things get too hard for her to experience a second time. An actor plays all the men in the film. Two other actresses play the disappeared sisters. However, the director focuses on exchanges between the actors and the characters as they are telling their story. We are no longer dealing with a traditional documentary, but with cinema as Ben Hania understands it: documentaries or fiction films can lie, but they must always unearth a profound truth in the process. While actors break the fourth wall (talking directly to other characters or to the audience), what the viewer receives is authentic emotions. Ben Hania enrols everyone on the set to exhume narratives and emotions and perform them in the present. The effect is stunning and the intimate narrative gripping. How does this reflect women’s documentaries in the region? Ben Hania joins a cadre of north African women documentary makers who all share the authorship of their documentaries with the subjects of the films. I am thinking of Moroccan film-makers Dalila Ennadre, Leila Kilani or Tala Hadid, who allow their subjects to occupy the entire screen and soundtrack – no voice over from a godlike (male) director. Ben Hania builds an empathetic link between characters, actors, director and viewer and creates a new documentary genre here that surpasses what directors from the region have done before. She paves the way for even more creativity in the African continent.' back

Grover's algorithm - Wikipedia, Grover's algorithm - Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia, ' In quantum computing, Grover's algorithm, also known as the quantum search algorithm, is a quantum algorithm for unstructured search that finds with high probability the unique input to a black box function that produces a particular output value, using just O(&sqrt;N) evaluations of the function, where N is the size of the function's domain. It was devised by Lov Grover in 1996.' back

Holy Name Parish, The History of our Parish, 'Our Parish Began in 1948 under the Care of the Dominican Fathers The Dominican Fathers, a Roman Catholic Religious Order of priests, founded in the 13th century, purchased “Greenmeadows” in Billyard Ave, then owned by Mr. and Mrs. Noel Hunt. On 16 March 1948 they established a house of formation for Dominican students preparing for Ordination, celebrating the first Mass on 17 March, St. Patrick’s Day. The founding Priors were Fr. Mannes Cussen (Dominican Provincial) and Fr. Bernard Curran. The first group of Dominican professors and students arrived on 29 March 1948. The Parish of Holy Name was established on 18th March 1948, by decree of Cardinal Norman Gilroy, Archbishop of Sydney, as a parish of the Archdiocese of Sydney , and was immediately placed under the pastoral care of the Dominican Fathers. The first parish priest was Fr. Columba Jennings. The parish had just 40 families at that time. The current parish “sunroom” (the original home’s drawing room) was used as the first parish church. The construction of the large church began in October 1951 and was designed by Mrs. Nancy Davey. It was opened on 21 March 1954 and was consecrated by Bishop Muldoon, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, on 25 April 1982. On 7 May1950 the Dominican Sisters opened Prouille School in Water Street, and then later transferred St. Lucy’s School from Homebush to Wahroonga in 1960. New buildings at St Lucy’s were blessed by Pope Paul VI in 1970. Prouille School was transferred to the care of the parish in 1965 and then to the administration of the Catholic Schools Office of the Diocese of Broken Bay in the late 1990s. Over the first fifty years of our history, many different Religious Orders were also a part of the community at Wahroonga: the Dominican Sisters (who had their Novitiate at “Berith Park” until 1979, and at “St. Catherine’s” on Chilton Parade, the Sisters of Charity, the Franciscan Fathers (at Mt. Alverna on Burns Rd), the Patrician Brothers, the Christian Brothers of Ireland, the Marist Brothers, the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, the Carmelite Fathers, the Bathurst Sisters of Mercy, and the Columban Fathers. Under the Care of the Diocese of Broken Bay In 1986 the Diocese of Broken Bay was formed from the Archdiocese of Sydney, and thus the parish became part of the new diocese. The Dominican Fathers held the care of the parish until 1997, when the parish was placed more directly under the care of the Diocese of Broken Bay.' back

HuggingFace, Hugging Face, ' We are on a mission to democratize good machine learning, one commit at a time. If that sounds like something you should be doing, why don't you join us! back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1967), How universal is the universe?, ' 61 The future is beyond our comprehension, but we can get an idea of it and speed its coming by studying what we already have. Contemplating the size and wonder of the universe as it stands in the light of its openness to the future must surely be a powerful incentive to men to love God. We have come a long way since the little world of St Thomas. Ours is open to all things, even participating in god. This is what I mean by universal. ' back

Katie Pavid (2018), Dragonfly wings could inspire new aeroplane flight control, ' Scientists are studying the way dragonflies fly in the hope of making small planes more stable and robust. Dragonflies are some of the most mobile insects on the planet. They can control the angle and speed of each of their four wings independently to fly in any direction, hover and perform acrobatic manoeuvres. Unlike most other flying insects, dragonflies beat their wings up and down instead of the more usual back-and-forth motion. Crucially, they can change the movement and rotation of each wing to vary the aerodynamic forces acting on it. Dragonflies control their flight with precision, even in windy and unpredictable conditions, because their wings are living structures containing hundreds of sensory neurons. These neurons provide constant sensory feedback to the brain, allowing the insects to move through turbulence without a hitch.' back

Keith Brown (2024), In Kyrgyzstan, creeping authoritarianism rubs up against proud tradition of people power, ' The people of Kyrgyzstan have a well-earned reputation for “street democracy.” Since emerging from the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, citizens in the Central Asian republic have taken it upon themselves to oust presidents who attempt to overstay their welcome or engage in corruption. Indeed, between 2005 and 2020, the country experienced five presidential transitions – three as a result of popular protests and two through the peaceful democratic transfer of power. But a new trend appears to be in the air of Bishkek, the country’s capital. In contrast to how he is viewed in some other former Soviet states, Russian President Vladimir Putin is popular among Kyrgyz, and his strongman style appears to be influencing the country’s rulers. In recent weeks, legislation has been advanced to extend their authority and crack down on dissent. . . .. After participating in an armed attempt to storm Parliament, Japarov fled the country. Upon his return to Kyrgyzstan in 2017 he was jailed, but he established a new political party from prison. In January 2021, Japarov won the presidential election with almost 80% of the vote, having run on a populist platform that included pledges to crack down on corrupt elites and foreign corporations.. . .. During my October visit, other signs were apparent of Japarov’s determination to reshape Kyrgyz politics. On Oct. 4, 2023, security forces shot and killed leading crime boss Kolya Kolbaev in a Bishkek pub he owned. State media represented this as a crackdown on organized crime, consistent with Japarov’s election promises. But to many Bishkek citizens, it was less of a crackdown and more a takeover of Kolbaev’s lucrative criminal operations by the Kyrgyz state. back

Manley, D. B., & Taylor, C. S. (1996), Descartes Meditations - Trilingual Edition, ' The publication of this English-Latin-French edition of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy is quite simply an experiment in electronic scholarship. We decided to make this edition available and to encourage its free distribution for scholarly purposes. The idea behind the experiment is to see how others involved in electronic scholarship might put these texts to use. We have no predetermined ideas of what such use may be when transformed from this origin. The texts have no hypertext annotations except for those used for navigation. We invite others to download this edition and to create their own hypertext annotated editions and then to publish those additions on their own Web servers for everyone to use.' back

One-electron universe - Wikipedia, One-electron universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity moving backwards and forwards in time. According to Feynman: I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said, "Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same charge and the same mass" "Why?" "Because, they are all the same electron!" ' back

Pragya Agarwal, Medieval women used informal social networks to share health problems and medical advice – just as we do today, ' In the medieval period, medical science was still dominated by the ancient writings of Hippocrates from the fifth century and Galen of Pergamon from the second century. Research has shown that women were increasingly being taken seriously as healers and as bearers of wisdom about women’s bodies and health. But despite this, men were preferred while women faced restrictions. Informal networks developed in response, as a way for women to practise medicine in secret – and pass on their medical wisdom outside the male bastions. The Distaff Gospels, first published in France around 1480, is a collection of “gospels” around pregnancy, childbirth and health. It was created during secretive meetings of French women who had gathered with their drop spindles and distaffs to spin flax. . . .. The Wellcome Apocalypse manuscript, written in Germany around 1420, includes an image of two women sharing gynaecological problems. One woman is seated and naked, while the other (who seems much older) is dressed in rich clothes. The seated woman has a sign on her stomach that represents her vulva. The image is an example of two women discussing intimate worries regarding sexual intercourse, miscarriages, and problems in conceiving. One says: “My husband’s male member, when banging against the smallness and narrowness of my vulva, the cervix, tired out, forced the foetus to slip out before time.” The other responds: “I too have often been distressed because I am unable to carry a conceived child". ' back

Ryder et al. (2023), A luminous fast radio burst that probes the Universe at redshift 1, Abstract: Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration pulses of radio emission originating from extragalactic distances. Radio dispersion is imparted on each burst by intervening plasma, mostly located in the intergalactic medium. In this work, we observe the burst FRB 20220610A and localize it to a morphologically complex host galaxy system at redshift 1.016 ± 0.002. The burst redshift and dispersion measure are consistent with passage through a substantial column of plasma in the intergalactic medium and extend the relationship between those quantities measured at lower redshift. The burst shows evidence for passage through additional turbulent magnetized plasma, potentially associated with the host galaxy. We use the burst energy of 2 × 1042 erg to revise the empirical maximum energy of an FRB back

Shor's algorithm - Wikipedia, Shor's algorithm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Shor's algorithm is a polynomial-time quantum computer algorithm for integer factorization. Informally, it solves the following problem: Given an integer N, find its prime factors. It was invented in 1994 by the American mathematician Peter Shor. . . . If a quantum computer with a sufficient number of qubits could operate without succumbing to quantum noise and other quantum-decoherence phenomena, then Shor's algorithm could be used to break public-key cryptography schemes, such as the widely used RSA scheme. RSA is based on the assumption that factoring large integers is computationally intractable.' back

The Mouse That Roared (film) - Wikipedia, The Mouse That Roared (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Mouse That Roared is a 1959 British satirical comedy film on a Ban The Bomb theme, based on Leonard Wibberley's novel The Mouse That Roared (1955). It stars Peter Sellers in three roles: Duchess Gloriana XII; Count Rupert Mountjoy, the Prime Minister; and Tully Bascomb, the military leader; and co-stars Jean Seberg. The film was directed by Jack Arnold, and the screenplay was written by Roger MacDougall and Stanley Mann. ' back