Haight (1999), Roger, Jesus Symbol of God, Orbis Books 1999 Jacket: 'This book is the flagship of the fleet of late twentieth century works that show American Catholic theology has indeed come of age. Deeply thoughtful in its exposition, lucid in its method, and by turns challenging and inspiring in its conclusions, this christology gives a new articulation of the saving "point" of it all. . . . Highly recommended for all who think about and study theology.' Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, Fordham University. 
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Hawking (1975), Steven W, and G F R Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Cambridge UP 1975 Preface: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity . . . leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing these two results.' 
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Nielsen (2016), Michael A., and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2016 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002. 
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Accademia dei Lincei - Wikipedia, Accademia dei Lincei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Accademia dei Lincei (Italian pronunciation: anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in the Papal States in 1603 by Federico Cesi, the academy was named after the lynx, an animal whose sharp vision symbolizes the observational prowess that science requires. Galileo Galilei was the intellectual centre of the academy and adopted "Galileo Galilei Linceo" as his signature. "The Lincei did not long survive the death in 1630 of Cesi, its founder and patron",and "disappeared in 1651." During the nineteenth century, it was revived, first in the Vatican and later in the nation of Italy. Thus the Pontifical Academy of Science, founded in 1847, claims this heritage as the Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), descending from the first two incarnations of the Academy. Similarly, a lynx-eyed academy of the 1870s became the national academy of Italy, encompassing both literature and science among its concerns. ' back

Albert Einstein (1933), On the Method of Theoretical Physics: Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933, ' It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. back

Alexandra Petri (2024_11_07), Oh, so we have to keep doing this forever, ' One must imagine Sisyphus exhausted. . . .
One must imagine Sisyphus bleary-eyed, half-awake, pouring Raisin Bran into a bowl, finding a pair of little shoes and getting them on small feet, despite everything.
Angry enough to chew glass, still making toast. Let’s hold hands on the way to school today. It’s a nice time of year. Let’s count the pumpkins! There are so many pumpkins left over from Halloween. Every year we put them up and take them down, and the point is that there is no point except to make things a little tiny bit better for the people who see them. So it’s not a waste, even though it feels like the same labor again and again — and for what? It’s worth it to make things better, even a little tiny bit, for a short time. You have to believe that.
Don’t ask me what year it is, because I am no longer certain. Triumph for the forces of Explain to Me Again That Your Lives Matter! Triumph for the forces of Rolling Their Eyes, Waiting for You to Stop Talking! Triumph for the forces of Don’t Believe What Any Woman Tells You; You Are Absolutely Entitled to One Woman Just for Existing! The forces of Can’t You Take a Joke? The forces of No, That’s Not Your Body; That Belongs to the State.. . .
One must imagine that Sisyphus thought that someday this would be over, that surely there would come a day when people would take a few things as assumed. Not that we would have to stop fighting battles, but that we would be able to win this one particular, godforsaken battle. . . .
I don’t know what kind of story this is, but I want the ending to be good. Years from now, when the hand in mine isn’t small, I want her to be able to read these words. Mama, I didn’t know you were so scared.
Oh, I was. And tired, did I mention tired?
I’m too tired to push today. But we push. Next year, we will put more pumpkins up. We have to keep trying to live in this world. One must imagine the alternative.'
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Alice Herman (2024_11_07), US Christian right celebrates after prophecy of Trump win comes to pass, ' Herman Martir, the director of the conservative Asian Action Network, who said on Wallnau’s show that he was affiliated with the Trump-aligned group America First Works, added that Trump’s victory did not just offer him a democratic mandate. “We have a new mandate,” said Martir, pausing for effect. “From God.” . . . Sean Feucht, a singer-songwriter and evangelical worship leader who rose to prominence in 2020 for his Covid quarantine-defying “Let Us Worship” concerts, posted a selfie on X on Wednesday morning. “We stood in that official campaign HQ representing the millions of prayer warriors and worshipers around the world who PRAYED this moment into reality!” he wrote. “HISTORY BELONGS TO THE INTERCESSORS!!!” . . . In 2016, when Trump was first nominated to lead the Republican party ticket, the support of evangelical voters was far from guaranteed. The philandering and crass reality television star had little obvious appeal to conservative Christians, but with the skillful public relations work of a few key leaders in the evangelical movement, Trump underwent a rebrand. Trump, the argument went, was, flawed yes, but nevertheless sent by God to do his work on Earth.' back

Allanah Hunt (2024_11_03), Vanessa was ‘kidnapped’ by the family policing system aged 10. Now, she’s fighting for other First Nations families, ' Email X (Twitter) Facebook42 LinkedIn Print “When you take a child, you are taking sovereignty, their role, their connection – you are taking whole communities that live inside that little being,” writes Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts. Her memoir, Long Yarn Short, imprinted on my mind and heart. In a warm, inviting voice, this proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman paints an unflinchingly honest picture of her life as a child stolen by the state, at just ten years old, in the mid-2000s. She describes being “tucked up in bed” by her dad and “about to close [her] eyes” when it happened. “I want you to imagine your dad going out onto the balcony, terrified,” she writes. “I want you to hear him yelling, ‘Bub … Big girl. I am so sorry, but they are coming to get you’.” Review: Long Yarn Short by Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts (UQP) Turnbull-Roberts spent eight years in various out-of-home care placements (foster care) in Sydney. Through this time, she fought to see her family whenever she could, but it was mostly on restricted monthly supervised visits. With great resilience, she refused to allow the state to steal her identity and connection. At 18, when she aged out of the care system, she returned to Bundjalung Country for the first time. On her return, she completed a law degree at University of New South Wales, with the help of a scholarship that allowed her to stay in student housing. Now, in her role as the Australian Capital Territory’s Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, the human rights lawyer and Fulbright scholar fights for other First Nations children to not face the same trauma she did. She wants to prevent them from being “crossover children”, going from the foster care system to juvenile detention.' back

Aquinas, Summa I, 25, 3, Is God omnipotent?, '. . . God is called omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible absolutely; which is the second way of saying a thing is possible. For a thing is said to be possible or impossible absolutely, according to the relation in which the very terms stand to one another, possible if the predicate is not incompatible with the subject, as that Socrates sits; and absolutely impossible when the predicate is altogether incompatible with the subject, as, for instance, that a man is a donkey.' back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 7, Is God altogether simple?, 'I answer that, The absolute simplicity of God may be shown in many ways. First, from the previous articles of this question. For there is neither composition of quantitative parts in God, since He is not a body; nor composition of matter and form; nor does His nature differ from His "suppositum"; nor His essence from His existence; neither is there in Him composition of genus and difference, nor of subject and accident. Therefore, it is clear that God is nowise composite, but is altogether simple. . . . ' back

Aristotle, Metaphysics XII: vii, The divine life of the prime mover, ' On such a principle, then, depend the heavens and the world of nature. And it is a life such as the best which we enjoy, and enjoy for but a short time (for it is ever in this state, which we cannot be), since its actuality is also pleasure. . . . Therefore the possession rather than the receptivity is the divine element which thought seems to contain, and the act of contemplation is what is most pleasant and best. If, then, God is always in that good state in which we sometimes are, this compels our wonder; and if in a better this compels it yet more. And God is in a better state. And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God.' 1072b14 sqq. back

Avery Slesin: IMDB - American Masters, The Algonquin Riybd Table: the Ten year Lunch, ' Surely one of the most profound and outrageous influences on the times following World War I, was the group of a dozen or so taste-makers who lunched together at New York City's Algonquin Hotel. back

BBC - Two, The Zelensky Story, ' With unique access to Volodymyr Zelensky and Olena Zelenska, this episode charts Zelensky’s extraordinary journey from aspiring comedian to president of his country. Opening with the collapse of the Soviet Union – an event which had a profound effect on Zelensky and Vladimir Putin in very different ways – to the Maidan Revolution sparking a political awakening in Zelensky, this episode explores his role as the Ukrainian president in the hit TV show Servant of the People and his decision to run for president in real life. back

Brandon R. Munn, et al (2024_10), Multiscale organization of neuronal activity unifies scale-dependent theories of brain function, ' Summary Brain recordings collected at different resolutions support distinct signatures of neural coding, leading to scale-dependent theories of brain function. Here, we show that these disparate signatures emerge from a heavy-tailed, multiscale functional organization of neuronal activity observed across calcium-imaging recordings collected from the whole brains of zebrafish and C. elegans as well as from sensory regions in Drosophila, mice, and macaques. Network simulations demonstrate that this conserved hierarchical structure enhances information processing. Finally, we find that this organization is maintained despite significant cross-scale reconfiguration of cellular coordination during behavior. Our findings suggest that this nonlinear organization of neuronal activity is a universal principle conserved for its ability to adaptively link behavior to neural dynamics across multiple spatiotemporal scales while balancing functional resiliency and information processing efficiency.' back

Brandon Robert Munn (2024_11_07), How do brains coordinate activity? From fruit flies to monkeys, we discovered this universal principle, ' The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained elusive. Our new research, published in the journal Cell, reveals how neurons – the cells responsible for your childhood memories, thoughts and emotions – coordinate their activity. It’s a bit like being a worker in a high-performing business. Balancing individual skills with teamwork is key to success, but how do you achieve the balance? As it turns out, the brain’s secret is surprisingly simple: devote no more than half (and no less than 40%) of each cell’s effort to individual tasks. Where does the rest of the effort go? Towards scalable teamwork. And here’s the kicker: we found the exact same organisational structure across the brains of five species – from fruit flies and nematodes to zebrafish, mice and monkeys. back

Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Among hundreds of fixed-point theorems] Brouwer's is particularly well known, due in part to its use across numerous fields of mathematics. In its original field, this result is one of the key theorems characterizing the topology of Euclidean spaces, along with the Jordan curve theorem, the hairy ball theorem, the invariance of dimension and the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. This gives it a place among the fundamental theorems of topology.' back

Density matrix - Wikipedia, Density matrix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In quantum mechanics, a density matrix (or density operator) is a matrix that describes an ensemble[1] of physical systems as quantum states (even if the ensemble contains only one system). It allows for the calculation of the probabilities of the outcomes of any measurements performed upon the systems of the ensemble using the Born rule. It is a generalization of the more usual state vectors or wavefunctions: while those can only represent pure states, density matrices can also represent mixed ensembles (sometimes ambiguously called mixed states).' back

Firebrand (2023 film) - Wikipedia, Firebrand (2023 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Firebrand is a 2023 British historical drama film directed by Karim Aïnouz and written by Henrietta Ashworth and Jessica Ashworth, based on the 2013 novel Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle. The film focuses on Katherine Parr, Queen of England the sixth wife of Henry VIII. It stars Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, and Eddie Marsan. The film marks Aïnouz's first directorial effort in the English language. Firebrand premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2023, where it was selected to compete for Palme d'Or. It was released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2024. back

First Vatican Council (18 July 1870), IV: Concerning the Infallible Teaching of the Roman Pontiff, ' . . . we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable.' back

Galileo Galilei (1633), Recantation of Galileo (June 22, 1633), ' Therefore, desiring to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of all faithful Christians, this vehement suspicion, justly conceived against me, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and generally every other error, heresy, and sect whatsoever contrary to the said Holy Church, and I swear that in the future I will never again say or assert, verbally or in writing, anything that might furnish occasion for a similar suspicion regarding me; ' back

Gideon Levy (2024_11_03), Opinion | Resistance Is a Just Struggle, ' The decades-long battle for Palestinian freedom is among the most just struggles in the world today. The means that some of them employ are among the most heinous. The means that Israel employs against them are equally and sometimes even more heinous, certainly in quantitative terms. The Palestinians use abhorrent terrorism as a means to a just end and, in the case of Hezbollah and Hamas, also towards ends that are manifestly unjust; those of religious fundamentalism. Terrorism is a weapon of the weak and desperate, which does not necessarily give it legitimacy. Israel uses its formidable military power to suppress their rights and their resistance. The fact that it does this by means of an army, not a terrorist organization, does not make its actions legitimate. Most of its actions in the past year were not legitimate. . . . If only the security forces would harass a little less often, everything would be fine. But there is no occupation without harassment. Harassment is the essence of the occupation. An occupation of this kind provokes resistance. There has never been an occupation that did not provoke resistance. This resistance is called a struggle for freedom, and no struggle could be more just. It has no other name.' back

Hilbert space - Wikipedia, Hilbert space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow the methods of linear algebra and calculus to be generalized from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise naturally and frequently in mathematics and physics, typically as function spaces. Formally, a Hilbert space is a vector space equipped with an inner product that induces a distance function for which the space is a complete metric space. A Hilbert space is a special case of a Banach space. ' back

John F. Kennedy (1963_11_22), Remarks Prepared for Delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas, TX, November 22, 1963 [Undelivered], ' This link between leadership and learning is not only essential at the community level. It is even more indispensable in world affairs. Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country's security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America's leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.' 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

Jonathan Freedland (2024_11_03), ‘There are images no leader ever wants to be seen’: 33 pivotal US presidential moments captured on camera, ' It’s all here: moments of hope – Barack Obama inspiring a young boy as America’s first Black president – and moments of despair – Lyndon Johnson taking the oath following JFK’s assassination while Jackie Kennedy, in blood-stained clothes, looks on. And yet, no matter how sweeping the range of these photographs, there is something missing from this selection. It would be lacking in any assembly of presidential pictures. Yes, there are Democratic presidents and Republican presidents. Yes, there are old presidents and young presidents. But there is no female president. We see Hillary Clinton, who got close. We see Shirley Chisholm, who was the first Black woman to try but never got near. Otherwise, there is an absence. On 5 November, Americans have a chance to fill that space – and to give the world a picture no one has ever seen before.' back

Justin Vogt (2024_11_07), Trump and the Future of American Power: A Conversation With Stephen Kotkin, ' When radio was introduced on a mass scale, many elites panicked: “This is the end of democracy, the end of civilization, what are we going to do? They can just broadcast anything and everything right into the living rooms of people, unfiltered, we cannot control what they say.” The establishment couldn’t censor it, and over the radio someone could just say anything and could just make stuff up. . . . And then we got the TV version of that story, which was even worse because it was images, not just audio. . . . And now we have social media . . . We always disagree on what the truth is. But now we have a problem with the truth regime. The truth regime is how we determine the truth: evidence, argument, proof. But that truth regime has been destabilized. . . .. Strong, successful countries have competent and compassionate leadership and social solidarity and trust. It’s been a long time since we had both competence and compassion at the top. And the loss of social solidarity and trust is debilitating for our institutions. We are an open society and must remain so. But how? .. . Trump’s reelection, even before his inauguration, has dealt a blow to American soft power. This is a critical component of our strength, our security, our prosperity. Trump might be unaware of this or indifferent to it. Part of the challenge is not his fault: sometimes foreigners, even our allies and partners, do not understand America as well as they think. What [the novelist] Philip Roth called the “indigenous American berserk”—which was always there but which social media has revealed and to an extent enhanced—frightens many of them.' back

Kubla Khan - Wikipedia, Kubla Khan - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 'Kubla Khan: or A Vision in a Dream is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. It is sometimes given the subtitles "A Vision in a Dream" and "A Fragment." According to Coleridge's preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium-influenced dream after reading a work describing Shangdu, the summer capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China founded by Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan). Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by "a person on business from Porlock". The poem could not be completed according to its original 200–300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He left it unpublished and kept it for private readings for his friends until 1816 when, at the prompting of Lord Byron, it was published.' back

L. E. J. Brouwer - Wikipedia, L. E. J. Brouwer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (February 27, 1881 – December 2, 1966), usually cited as L. E. J. Brouwer but known to his friends as Bertus, was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher, a graduate of the University of Amsterdam, who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and complex analysis. He was the founder of the mathematical philosophy of intuitionism.' back

Leigh Carriage (2024_11_05), ‘I can make a band play like a singer sings’: Quincy Jones shaped our listening for seven decades, ' The legendary composer, musical arranger and producer Quincy Jones has died at 91. Over his long career, Jones arranged and produced for a broad range of genres. His work blended the traditions of jazz, popular, world music and Western classical music. This was perhaps most present in his 1989 album Back on the Block. It features jazz improvisation, Zulu language, gospel and rapping. The album won seven Grammy Awards, including album of the year. But even more than his own albums, Jones will be familiar to listeners across decades of popular music, for his work as a producer and arranger with legendary artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Barry White, Chaka Khan, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. . . . In an interview with culture journalist David Marchese in 2018, Jones was asked what he was proudest of in his musical career. He told Marchese: That anything I can feel, I can notate musically. Not many people can do that. I can make a band play like a singer sings. That’s what arranging is, and it’s a great gift.' back

Leopold Kronecker - Wikipedia, Leopold Kronecker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Leopold Kronecker (December 7, 1823 – December 29, 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory and algebra. He criticized Cantor's work on set theory, and was quoted by Weber (1893) as having said, "God made natural numbers; all else is the work of man".' back

Luke Johnson (2024_11_08), ‘A final warning from God’: Lech Blaine’s memoir pits an average Australian family against an avenging archangel, ' They say everyone has a book inside them. Some people are unfortunate enough to have more than one. Review: Australian Gospel: A Family Saga – Lech Blaine (Black Inc.) ' Lech Blaine’s first memoir, the acclaimed Car Crash (2021), dealt with the fallout of a motor vehicle accident that killed three of his mates and traumatised everyone else involved – including Blaine, who’d been riding shotgun when his friend’s Ford Fairlane veered onto the wrong side of the New England Highway on a Saturday night in 2009. In his latest offering, the gloriously titled Australian Gospel, the car crash you can’t look away from comes in the form of Michael and Mary Shelley – the estranged, deranged parents of three of Blaine’s foster siblings. Review: Australian Gospel: A Family Saga – Lech Blaine (Black Inc.) Michael and Mary Shelley are a pair of nomadic Christian fanatics, who, under God’s good guidance, spend their time kidnapping children, stalking politicians, threatening pontiffs, harassing social workers and letter-bombing hardworking, good-natured people like Lech’s parents, Tom and Lenore Blaine: AS GOD’S CHOSEN PROPHETESS, I GIVE YOU A FINAL WARNING FROM GOD. I NEED MY DAUGHTER HANNAH RETURNED TO MICHAEL + I TODAY WITH APPROPRIATE COMPENSATION ($100,000 WOULD BE A NICE START) OR GOD WILL SEND HIS NEVERENDING WRATH UPON YOUR HEAD. back

Martin Pengelly (2024_11_08), ‘Straight-up BS’: Democratic chair attacks Bernie Sanders’ election critique, ' On Wednesday, as Harris delivered her concession speech in Washington, her party continued to digest defeat in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the “blue wall” Rust belt states that have now gone for Trump in both his presidential election victories, though Biden won them in 2020. At the same time, Sanders issued a lengthy statement. “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said. “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right. “Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago. “Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse. “Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee healthcare to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.” Sanders also decried US funding and support for Israel in its “all-out war against the Palestinian people”. back

Médecins Sans Frontières - Wikipedia, Médecins Sans Frontières - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; also known as Doctors Without Borders), is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. The organisation provides care for diabetes, drug-resistant infections, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, tropical and neglected diseases, tuberculosis, vaccines and COVID-19. In 2019, the charity was active in 70 countries with over 35,000 personnel; mostly local doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, logistical experts, water and sanitation engineers, and administrators. Private donors provide about 90% of the organisation's funding, while corporate donations provide the rest, giving MSF an annual budget of approximately US$1.63 billion.' back

Michael Bordt (2011), Why Aristotle's God is not the Unmoved Mover, ' The aim of this essay is to show that the view—popular among certain philosophers and theologians—that Aristotle’s God is the unmoved mover is incorrect, or at least leads to serious misunderstanding. In a nutshell: among other things, the project of the twelfth book of the Metaphysics is to determine what the first ousia is. This first ousia is not identified with God in so far as it is an unmoved mover, but in so far as it is the actual activity (energeia) of thinking. To put matters differently, the actual activity of the first ousia does not consist in moving anything. Its activity rather consists in the exercise of reason, in thinking. Since, however, thinking is without qualification the best activity, and since God is that being who just does engage in the best activity, the first ousia, in so far as it is the same as the activity of thinking, must be God. Thus we perhaps expect that, at the summit of ontology, God himself will be the object of this first philosophy. Metaphysics Λ meets such an expectation only in a very limited way. The limitation is the following: that which, so to speak, stands at the summit of metaphysics is not God, but the activity of reason. While this activity is identified with God, it is not so identified directly or immediately, but only as mediated by way of the conception of the best possible life. The twelfth book of the Metaphysics thus provides to an even lesser extent than is usually assumed the outlines of a theology. By way of recompense, however, Aristotle offers us a truly breathtaking metaphysics.' back

Michelson and Morley (1887), On the relative motion of the earth and the lumeniferous ether, The classic paper, 1887. They conclude that "It appears, from all that precedes, reasonably certain that if there be any relative motion between the earth and the luminiferous ether, it must be small; . . . " back

Mid North Coast Internet, Calypso, Early internet back

Nariani, Florin, Cadd, Adeleye & Connor (2024_11_01), Ancient mud reveals Australia’s burning history over the past 130,000 years – and shows a way through our fiery future, 'Increased land management by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia around 6,000 years ago cut forest shrub cover in half, according to our new study of fossil pollen trapped in ancient mud. Shrubs connect fires from ground cover to the forest canopy, allowing fires to spread and intensify quickly. The reduction in shrub cover, linked to evidence for increasing population size and more widespread landscape use by Aboriginal people, would have dramatically decreased the potential for high-intensity bushfires. We also found the shrub layer in modern forests is even greater than it was 130,000–115,000 years ago, when the climate was similar to today’s but there were no people around. Our deep-time research shows how important Indigenous cultural practices were for reducing dangerous high-intensity fires. It also suggests a way forward in Autralia’s current fire crisis, which climate change is making worse.' back

Noa Landau (2024_10_22), Opinion | Netanyahu Is Selling Gaza to Private Militias, ' Throughout all his years in office, Netanyahu has benefited from deliberate ambiguity, including contradictory messages in Hebrew and English. But reality doesn't lie. That is how, very slowly, large chunks of the West Bank have been annexed de facto, without grandiose legislation. And that's exactly what is happening now in the Gaza Strip. While Netanyahu's opponents are criticizing him for his lack of any organized plan for Gaza on the day after the war, in practice, such a plan is being advanced through deeds. First, this is being done by occupying large swaths of Gaza, expelling the residents, destroying their homes, paving new roads and building army outposts and other infrastructure for the long term. And right now, it is also being done by pushing a plan to transfer civilian control of Gaza to private companies, which will be paid for it. . . . The company that has recently been mentioned as a candidate, GDC, is a military contractor of the kind that flooded Iraq and Afghanistan during America's occupation of those countries. The masses of studies that have been done about this system over the years found that it carried enormous risks. These are mercenary corporations, and there are major questions about their compliance with international law and international standards. Essentially, this would privatize military rule over Gaza by handing it over to private companies with private financial interests and nothing beyond that. The goal is to transfer moral and legal responsibility from Israel to these armed militias. And indeed, in a very troubling interview in Tuesday's Yedioth Ahronoth, the company's founder and CEO, Moti Kahana, said that "if something happens, we'll send a message to Gaza's residents – you don't want to mess with us." That's a genuine mafia-style line.' back

Pete Patisson et al (2021_03_02), Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded, ' More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal. The findings, compiled from government sources, mean an average of 12 migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died each week since the night in December 2010 when the streets of Doha were filled with ecstatic crowds celebrating Qatar’s victory. Data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011–2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers, between 2010 and 2020. Mohammad Shahid Miah Mohammad Shahid Miah, 29, from Bangladesh, died when floodwater in his room came into contact with an exposed electric cable, electrocuting him. The total death toll is significantly higher, as these figures do not include deaths from a number of countries which send large numbers of workers to Qatar, including the Philippines and Kenya. Deaths that occurred in the final months of 2020 are also not included.' back

Richard P. Feynman (1985), Quantum mechanical computers, ' We are here considering ideal machines; the effects of imperfections will be considered later. This study is one of principle; our aim is to exhibit some Hamiltonian for a system which could serve as a computer. We are not concerned with whether we have the most efficient system, nor how we could best implement it.' back

Robert Horvath (2024_11_04), ‘Even the worst possible scenario is not actually all that bad.’ Alexei Navalny’s memoir is a testament to resisting authoritarianism, ' No one who watched Alexei Navalny’s meteoric trajectory, from civic activist to opposition leader to the world’s most famous political prisoner, could avoid the question: how will this extraordinary saga end? Was Navalny destined to become Russia’s Nelson Mandela, a redemptive leader who guided his people from oppression to the promised land of democracy? Or was he doomed to be silenced by the henchmen of the despot whose rule he had challenged? We now know the answer. Before his death in an Arctic prison in February, Navalny also pondered his uncertain future. In the epilogue of his autobiography, Patriot, he recalls a poignant conversation with his wife, Yulia, in which both come to terms with the likelihood he will die in captivity. Yet at the same time, he writes, “there is an inner voice that you can’t stifle: Come off it, the worst is never going to happen.” These two possible destinies have left their mark on Navalny’s book. The first part is a candid, often funny and self-deprecatory narrative of his life, his activism and the making of his political career. This section is framed by his shocking 2020 poisoning with the nerve agent novichok, his recuperation in Germany and his subsequent return to Russia. The second part is a prison diary, interspersed with public statements and his “final words” at trials. As he is shunted between ever more hellish outposts of Putin’s penitentiary system, the text becomes more fragmented. back

Sander van der Linden & David Grimes (2024_11_05), Misinformation really does spread like a virus, suggest mathematical models drawn from epidemiology, ' We’re increasingly aware of how misinformation can influence elections. About 73% of Americans report seeing misleading election news, and about half struggle to discern what is true or false. When it comes to misinformation, “going viral” appears to be more than a simple catchphrase. Scientists have found a close analogy between the spread of misinformation and the spread of viruses. In fact, how misinformation gets around can be effectively described using mathematical models designed to simulate the spread of pathogens. Concerns about misinformation are widely held, with a recent UN survey suggesting that 85% of people worldwide are worried about it. These concerns are well founded. Foreign disinformation has grown in sophistication and scope since the 2016 US election. The 2024 election cycle has seen dangerous conspiracy theories about “weather manipulation” undermining proper management of hurricanes, fake news about immigrants eating pets inciting violence against the Haitian community, and misleading election conspiracy theories amplified by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.' back

Scott McLean, Barry Drust & Paul Salmon, With its 10th coach in a decade, is Manchester United trapped in a ‘fixes that fail’ cycle?, ' The strategy of sacking a head coach following a period of poor performance is common in soccer. While it might offer short-term respite, and sometimes even recovery, it often fails to address deeper, systemic issues. These issues can relate to club culture, strategy, processes and decision making, or player quality, health, contentment and morale, to name only a few. Soccer is complex, hence poor team performance is influenced by numerous interacting factors beyond the head coach. Just as aircraft pilots, train drivers, ship captains, and surgeons should not be solely blamed when adverse events occur, soccer coaches should not be held solely responsible when their teams fail. Within the scientific discipline of systems thinking, there is a well-known systems archetype termed “fixes that fail”, whereby a quick but inappropriate fix is applied. At first, the problem is temporarily alleviated. But issues remain, unintended consequences emerge and the problem either returns or worsens. This may be the case at United, and in soccer and other sports more generally. back

Stephen Gardiner - Wikipedia, Stephen Gardiner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483[1] – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip. . . . In 1511 Gardiner, aged 28, met Erasmus in Paris. He had probably already begun his studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in the classics, especially in Greek. He then devoted himself to canon and civil law, in which subjects he attained so great a proficiency that no one could dispute his pre-eminence. He received the degree of doctor of civil law in 1520, and of canon law in the following year. . . . Gardiner was a conservative and an opponent of Anne Boleyn, Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell and of any innovation in the Church, although he acquiesced grudgingly in the steadily increasing influence of the Reformation on the royal counsels. A description of his character from George Cavendish declared him "a swarthy complexion, hooked nose, deep-set eyes, a permanent frown, huge hands and a vengeful wit. He was ambitious, sure of himself, irascible, astute, and worldly." . . . In 1535 he and other bishops were called upon to vindicate the king's new title of "Supreme Head of the Church of England." The result was his celebrated treatise De vera obedientia, the ablest of all the vindications of royal supremacy. "Princes ought to be obeyed", wrote Gardiner, "by the commandment of God; yea, and to be obeyed without question". He certainly believed in the semi-divinity of kings, and the divine majesty's right to rule as if the King's law was God's law. In the same year he had a dispute with Cranmer about the visitation of his diocese. He was also employed to answer the pope's brief threatening to deprive Henry of his kingdom. back

Stockholm syndrome - Wikipedia, Stockholm syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Stockholm syndrome is a proposed condition or theory that tries to explain why hostages sometimes develop a psychological bond with their captors. Stockholm syndrome is a "contested illness" due to doubts about the legitimacy of the condition. Emotional bonds can possibly form between captors and captives, during intimate time together, but these are considered irrational by some in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. Stockholm syndrome has never been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the standard tool for diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses and disorders in the United States, mainly due to the lack of a consistent body of academic research.' back

Superfluidity - Wikipedia, Superfluidity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two isotopes of helium (helium-3 and helium-4) when they are liquefied by cooling to cryogenic temperatures. It is also a property of various other exotic states of matter theorized to exist in astrophysics, high-energy physics, and theories of quantum gravity. The theory of superfluidity was developed by Soviet theoretical physicists Lev Landau and Isaak Khalatnikov. Superfluidity often co-occurs with Bose–Einstein condensation, but neither phenomenon is directly related to the other; not all Bose–Einstein condensates can be regarded as superfluids, and not all superfluids are Bose–Einstein condensates.[citation needed] Superfluids have some potential practical uses, such as dissolving substances in a quantum solvent.' back

Sylvia Englund Michel et al (2024_10_24), Rapid shift in methane carbon isotopes suggests microbial emissions drove record high atmospheric methane growth in 2020–2022, 'Abstract The growth rate of the atmospheric abundance of methane (CH4) reached a record high of 15.4 ppb yr−1 between 2020 and 2022, but the mechanisms driving the accelerated CH4 growth have so far been unclear. In this work, we use measurements of the 13C:12C ratio of CH4 (expressed as δ13CCH4) from NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network and a box model to investigate potential drivers for the rapid CH4 growth. These measurements show that the record-high CH4 growth in 2020–2022 was accompanied by a sharp decline in δ13CCH4, indicating that the increase in CH4 abundance was mainly driven by increased emissions from microbial sources such as wetlands, waste, and agriculture. We use our box model to reject increasing fossil fuel emissions or decreasing hydroxyl radical sink as the dominant driver for increasing global methane abundance.' back

Winchester Cathedral - Wikipedia, Winchester Cathedral - Wikipedia, the Free encyclopedia, ' Built between 1079 and 1532, Winchester Cathedral has had an unusual architectural history. The exterior, apart from the modified windows, gives the impression of a massive Norman building and indeed, when first completed, the Norman Cathedral was second only in size to Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. However, the west front is now Perpendicular, with its huge window filled with fragments of medieval glass. Sadly this glass window was destroyed by the Roundheads.They also messed up the bones of some of the most important rulers. Inside, only the crypt and the transepts have retained their Norman appearance. The spectacular Perpendicular nave with its tall arcade arches and strong vertical emphasis has been literally carved out of the original Norman interior. The Very Rev. Norman Sykes wrote of it “Well might the visitor who enters … by the west door gasp with amazement". Winchester is also famous for its carved wooden fittings of many different periods. back