Augustine of Hippo (2003), City of God, Penguin Classics 2003 ' St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, is one of the central figures in the history of Christianity, and City of God is one of his greatest theological works. Written as an eloquent defence of the faith at a time when the Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse, it examines the ancient pagan religions of Rome, the arguments of the Greek philosophers and the revelations of the Bible. Pointing the way forward to a citizenship that transcends worldly politics and will last for eternity, City of God represents a dramatic turning point in the unfolding of Christian doctrine.' 
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Jaeger (1997), Werner Wilhelm, Aristotle: Fundamentals of the history of his development, Oxford University Press 1997 Jacket: '"Aristotle was the first thinker to set up along with his philosophy a conception of his own position in history; he thereby created a new kind of philosophical consciousness, more responsible and inwardly complex. He was the inventor of the notion of intellectual development in time . . . ." In this classic study, Professor Jaeger profoundly altered the general view of Aristotle among philosophers and classical scholars. He showed that Aristotle was not uncompromisingly opposed to Plato, that he developed gradually, applying step by step his particular genius to the problems of his age.' 
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Lonergan (1997), Bernard J F, and Robert M. Doran, Frederick E. Crowe (eds), Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan volume 2), University of Toronto Press 1997 Jacket: 'Verbum is a product of Lonergan's eleven years of study of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The work is considered by many to be a breakthrough in the history of Lonergan's theology . . .. Here he interprets aspects in the writing of Aquinas relevant to trinitarian theory and, as in most of Lonergan's work, one of the principal aims is to assist the reader in the search to understand the workings of the human mind.' 
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Prabhupada (1983), A. C. Bhaktivedanta, Bhagavad Gita As It Is, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust 1972, 1983 'Setting the Scene. Although widely published and read by itself, Bhagavad-gita originally appears as an episode in the Mahabharata, the epic Sanscrit history of the ancient world. The Mahabharata tells of events leading up to the present age of Kali. It was at the beginning of this age, some fifty centuries ago, that Lord Krsna spoke Bhagavad-gita to His friend and devotee Arjuna. Their discourse—one of the greatest philosophical and religious dialogues known to man—took place before the onset of war, a great fratricidal conflict between the Hundred sons of Dhrtarastra and on the opposing side their cousins the Pandavas, or sons of Pandu.'  
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Amin Saikal (2024_11_21), In the Middle East, Trump can’t have his cake and eat it too, ' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hit the jackpot with the election of Donald Trump. He could not hope for a more ardent supporter than the US president-elect to energise him and the extremists within his coalition to pursue their Gaza and Lebanon campaigns, and as they seek to diminish Iran’s regional influence. But, given the complexity of the Middle East, Trump stabilising the region based on ensuring Israel’s regional paramountcy will not prove easy. . . . Trump’s “Israel first” Middle East policy can only help the Netanyahu leadership to become more assertive to achieve its goal of the “Greater Israel”, which is enshrined in the Likud Party’s platform and refers to all territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – and seek to constrain Iran’s regional capabilities. It is now set not only to clear the way, at least in northern Gaza, for Israeli settlements, tighten control over southern Lebanon, and goad Iran into a wider confrontation but also to declare annexation of the West Bank. As part of this, Smotrich has already ordered the relevant authorities to prepare for the extension of Israeli sovereignty over the illegal settlements there. . . . Yet, these objectives, plus the recent strengthening of rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose defence ministers met in Tehran earlier this month and whose navies have participated in a joint exercise, and Riyadh’s emphasis on a pathway to create an independent Palestinian state, do not augur well for Trump to be both a warrior for Israel and a transactional leader with the Arab states. He cannot have his cake and eat it too. He will need to find a balance between the two.' back

Augustine, Aurelius, The Trinity, Translated by Stephen McKenna in The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, vol. 45. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963., ' His Trinitarian Formulation Over against the Greek formulation from Nicea of one essence (ousia), three substances (hypostases), Augustine preferred the expression in Latin which was one essence (essentia), three persons (personae). Gk. hypostasis = Lat. substantia Augustine said substance cannot properly be predicated of God as if God were something in which accidental properties could subsist. From Ex. 3:14, “I AM what I AM,” God is more properly called essence than substance. N.B. Augustine’s respect for tradition meant that he did not deny the validity of the Nicene formulation, merely that the Latin was more precise. The distinction between persons according to scripture and tradition (the usual starting place for Augustine) lies in causation. The Father is the principle of the Godhead and alone is unoriginate. The Son is both begotten from eternity and sent into the world in time by the Father. The Spirit both proceeds eternally from God and is given temporally to the Church. back

Bernie Sandsers (2024_11_18), Opinion: Bernie Sanders: No more arms sales to Netanyahu, ' The United States government must stop blatantly violating the law with regard to arms sales to Israel. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act are very clear: The United States cannot provide weapons to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights. Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act is also explicit: No U.S. assistance may be provided to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.” According to the United Nations, much of the international community and every humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, Israel is clearly in violation of these laws. That is why I have introduced, with colleagues, several joint resolutions of disapproval that would block offensive arms sales to Israel. The votes will take place in the Senate on Wednesday. As I have said many times, Israel clearly had a right to respond to the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, including Americans. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has also waged all-out war against the Palestinian people. Within Gaza’s population of just 2.2 million, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 103,000 injured — probably 60 percent of whom are women, children or elderly people. A recent U.N. assessment of satellite imagery found that two-thirds of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. That includes 87 percent of housing, 84 percent of health facilities, and about 70 percent of water and sanitation plants. Every one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed, as have hundreds of schools.' 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

Catharine Geout (2024_11_22), ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes, ' The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif. The court claims both sides have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes from the day Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 onwards. Although a warrant was issued for Deif, Israel has said he was killed in an air strike in July. But Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this claim. If they were ever to be judged at the ICC, a conviction is conceivable. The charges of the court against Netanyahu are severe. The three-judge panel unanimously said that he and Gallant are “co-perpetrators for committing the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”. The judges also “found reasonable grounds to believe that they bear criminal responsibility” … “for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”. The charges are also backed by the work of the International Court of Justice, which has found that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts in Gaza that violate the Genocide Convention. If arrested, Netanyahu would go through a trial, and he could then be acquitted, or convicted. In the latter case, Netanyahu would join the ranks of leaders considered perpetrators of crimes against humanity, such as Charles Taylor of Liberia, Hissène Habré of Chad, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, Radovan Karadžić of Serbia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Pol Pot of Cambodia, Joseph Stalin of the former Soviet Union, Mao Zedong of China, and Adolf Hitler of Germany. . . . The political implications of this decision are not isolated to Netanyahu. Pro-Palestinian protest activity has taken place at over 500 US colleges since October 7. And the UK has now joined most EU states in supporting Netanyahu’s arrest. The US is now very much isolated among western countries in its lack of support for international law. The ICC, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly visible in its quest for international justice for victims.' back

Celeste Rodriguez Louro (2024_11_22), The unspoken rule of conversation that explains why AI chatbots feel so human, ' Conversational routines vary across cultures, and different expectations are in place. In Western cultures, at least, linguists often regard conversation as proceeding according to four principles or “maxims” set out in 1975 by British philosopher of language Paul Grice. The maxim of quality: be truthful; do not give information that is false or not supported by evidence. The maxim of quantity: be as informative as is required; don’t give too much or too little information. The maxim of relevance: only give information that is relevant to the topic under discussion. The maxim of manner: be clear, brief, and orderly; avoid obscurity and ambiguity. Finding relevance at all costs Generative AI chatbots usually do well in terms of quantity (sometimes erring on the side of giving too much information), and they tend to be relevant and clear (a reason people use them to improve their writing). However, they do often fail on the maxim of quality. They tend to hallucinate, giving answers which may appear authoritative but are in fact false. The crux of generative AI’s success, however, lies in Grice’s claim that anyone engaged in meaningful communication will abide by these maxims and will assume that others are also following them. back

Christian Tornau (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Augustine of Hippo, ' Augustine of Hippo was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence. He is a saint of the Catholic Church, and his authority in theological matters was universally accepted in the Latin Middle Ages and remained, in the Western Christian tradition, virtually uncontested till the nineteenth century. The impact of his views on sin, grace, freedom and sexuality on Western culture can hardly be overrated. These views, deeply at variance with the ancient philosophical and cultural tradition, provoked however fierce criticism in Augustine’s lifetime and have, again, been vigorously opposed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from various (e.g., humanist, liberal, feminist) standpoints. Philosophers keep however being fascinated by his often innovative ideas on language, on skepticism and knowledge, on will and the emotions, on freedom and determinism and on the structure of the human mind and, last but not least, by his way of doing philosophy, which is—though of course committed to the truth of biblical revelation—surprisingly undogmatic and marked by a spirit of relentless inquiry.' back

Hamilton's principle - Wikipedia, Hamilton's principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In physics, Hamilton's principle is William Rowan Hamilton's formulation of the principle of stationary action . . . It states that the dynamics of a physical system is determined by a variational problem for a functional based on a single function, the Lagrangian, which contains all physical information concerning the system and the forces acting on it. The variational problem is equivalent to and allows for the derivation of the differential equations of motion of the physical system. Although formulated originally for classical mechanics, Hamilton's principle also applies to classical fields such as the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and plays an important role in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and criticality theories.' back

Jinzhe Zhang et al (2024_11_13), Releasing a sugar brake generates sweeter tomato without yield penalty, ' In tomato, sugar content is highly correlated with consumer preferences, with most consumers preferring sweeter fruit1,2,3,4. However, the sugar content of commercial varieties is generally low, as it is inversely correlated with fruit size, and growers prioritize yield over flavour quality5,6,7. Here we identified two genes, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) calcium-dependent protein kinase 27 (SlCDPK27; also known as SlCPK27) and its paralogue SlCDPK26, that control fruit sugar content. They act as sugar brakes by phosphorylating a sucrose synthase, which promotes degradation of the sucrose synthase. Gene-edited SlCDPK27 and SlCDPK26 knockouts increased glucose and fructose contents by up to 30%, enhancing perceived sweetness without fruit weight or yield penalty. Although there are fewer, lighter seeds in the mutants, they exhibit normal germination. Together, these findings provide insight into the regulatory mechanisms controlling fruit sugar accumulation in tomato and offer opportunities to increase sugar content in large-fruited cultivars without sacrificing size and yield.' back

Keith Jarret (1975), The Köln Concert - Wikipedia, ' The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany on 24 January 1975 and released on ECM Records later that year. It is the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album. ' back

Keith Jarrett - Wikipedia, Keith Jarrett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a group leader and solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. . . . His album The Köln Concert, released in 1975, is the best-selling piano recording in history. In 2008, he was inducted into DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll. In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize and was the first recipient to be recognized with prizes for both contemporary and classical music. In 2004, he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. In February 2018, Jarrett suffered a stroke and has been unable to perform since. A second stroke in May 2018 left him partially paralyzed and unable to play with his left hand.' back

Keith Jarrett (1975), , ' The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany on 24 January 1975 and released on ECM Records later that year. It is the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album. [Wikipedia] back

Keith Jarrett (1975), Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert - Part II a (2/4) , The Köln Concert is a live solo double album by pianist Keith Jarrett recorded at the Opera House in Köln, West Germany on 24 January 1975 and released on ECM Records later that year.[1] It is the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album. [Wikipedia] 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

Mary Sirridge (1999), "Quam videndo intus dicimus": Seeing and Saying in De Trinitate XV, ' What is being asserted is that thought has the same form as seeing or speaking respectively, i.e., that it works essentially like seeing or speaking, that thought is a formal and functional isomorph of seeing or speaking.' back

Nachlass - Wikipedia, Nachlass - Wikipedia, the free wncyclopedia, ' Nachlass (German pronunciation: [ˈnaːxlas], older spelling Nachlaß) is a German word, used in academia to describe the collection of manuscripts, notes, correspondence, and so on left behind when a scholar dies. The word is a compound in German: nach means "after", and the verb lassen means "to leave". The plural can be either Nachlasse or (with Umlaut) Nachlässe.[1] The word is not commonly used in English; and when it is, it is often italicized or printed in capitalized form to indicate its foreign provenance.' back

Philip C. Almond (2024_11_22), Was Jesus Palestinian?, ' were Jesus and his parents Palestinian? Bethlehem is now a city located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the Palestinian Territories, about ten kilometres south of Jerusalem. So the short answer is: yes, Jesus was a Palestinian, according to modern geopolitics at least. But one could also argue that he was not, because, as a Jewish man, he was born at a time when Palestine did not exist as a political entity. Paula Fredriksen, a historian of ancient Christianity, made this point in March. In the Washington Post, she called claims Jesus was Palestinian “an act of cultural and political appropriation”. . . . According to the Old Testament, the 12 tribes of Israel conquered Canaan (later to become known as Palestine, then Judea, then Palestine, and then Israel) around 1200 BCE. The tribe of Judah settled in the region to the south of Jerusalem. This made Jesus a Judean (in Hebrew, a Yehudi), from which the English word “Jew” is derived. As a Judean, Jesus was part of the Jewish religious tradition, which was focused on the temple in Jerusalem, known as the second temple. . . . The key moment in the creation of Palestine was shortly after a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judea from 132-135 CE, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt. The Jews were killed, displaced or enslaved. They wouldn’t return to Palestine in numbers until after World War II, when the Jewish state of Israel was created. . . In May 1948, after an estimated 750,000 people who lived on 77.8% of the land in then-Palestine were displaced, the modern state of Israel was declared. . . . The new Jewish “Israelis” established themselves against the previous inhabitants, the “Palestinians”. They limited the Palestinians to a space in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, on what the Israelis still considered the Promised Land given to them by God, according to the Bible. For their part, the Arabs of Palestine began to use the term “Palestinian” to assert the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people and their right to an independent state. . . . That story leads us towards a recognition of common humanity – beyond the arbitrary and impermanent divisions of people and places thrown up by the changes and chances of history.' back

Wong, Lam, Ma, Heung & Chow (2024_11_19), Hong Kong 47: Benny Tai jailed for 10 years over mastermind role in ‘primary’ election, ' Former legal academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting has been jailed for 10 years for conspiring to subvert state power after he initiated an unofficial legislative “primary” election in the hope of bringing down the Hong Kong government four years ago. The 60-year-old former University of Hong Kong professor was among 45 opposition politicians and activists sentenced at West Kowloon Court on Tuesday out of a group of 47 prosecuted in a landmark national security case over the unofficial election in July 2020. The other 44 defendants, most of whom were primary election candidates, were jailed for between four years and two months and seven years and nine months. The case against two of the 47 was earlier dismissed. . . . Tai floated the idea of holding the primary at the height of the 2019 social unrest to boost the opposition camp’s prospects of winning a controlling majority in the Legislative Council at the next election, originally scheduled for September 2020. He had argued the aim of winning a majority was to turn the legislature into a “lethal constitutional weapon” that could compel authorities to accede to protesters’ demands. The three trial judges earlier found the unofficial poll to be part of a wider plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” the city government. They said the conspiracy, if successful, would have seriously interfered with, disrupted or undermined the government’s functioning due to the substantial harm to the “power and authority of the government and the chief executive”.' back

Zia Weise & Sara Schonhardt (2024_11_18) , Petro-patriarchy and the pope: Saudis, Vatican lead women’s rights backlash at COP29, ' BAKU, Azerbaijan — Women bear the brunt of climate change. A coalition of conservative autocracies wants to stop the world from discussing it. . . . Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and Russia are leading a backlash against women’s rights at COP29, said five negotiators, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door talks. Two of the negotiators said Egypt was also among the nations blocking an agreement. The European Union, which has championed gender equality at these talks, briefly walked out of talks in protest this past weekend, one negotiator said. The bloc also vented its frustration at Saturday evening’s public gathering of all COP29 countries. “Women and girls are already suffering the disproportionate impacts of climate change,” said Hungarian negotiator Veronika Bagi, who co-leads the EU’s delegation at COP29. “However, we are concerned about attempts to backslide from agreed language from 10 years ago.” Climate change worsens existing inequalities. The U.N. estimates that 80 percent of people global warming displaces are women and girls, and has warned that climate change exacerbates gender-based violence. One Western country negotiator said that while a wider group of countries disagrees with parts of the draft text, the four countries — Saudi Arabia, the Vatican, Egypt and Russia — are actively trying to prevent an agreement. “These [countries] are trying to backtrack on existing language,” the negotiator said. “They’re doing everything to derail the process.” The Vatican is blocking “to a lesser degree,” the negotiator added, “but they’re nevertheless taking the same position as Russia. Defending the traditional family and so on. … We see this as part of a global backlash against women’s rights".' back