Canon Law Society of America, Holy See, Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition, Canon Law Society of America 1984 Pope John Paul XXXIII announced his decision to reform the existing corpus of canonical legislation on 25 January 1959. Pope John Paul II ordered the promulgation of the revised Code of Canon law on the same day in 1983. The latin text is definitive. This English translation has been approved by the Canonical Affairs Committee of the [US] National Conference of Catholic Bishops in October 1983. 
Amazon   back

Carlson (2006), James, and Arthur Jaffe & Andrew Wiles, The Millenium Prize Problems, Clay Mathematics Institute and American Mathematical Society 2006
1: The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture: Andrew Wiles
2: The Hodge Conjecture: Pierre Deligne
3: The Existence and Smoothness of the Navier-Stokes Equation: Charles L Fefferman
4: The Poincare Conjecture: John Milnor
5: The P versus NP Problem: Stephen Cook
6: The Riemann Hypothesis: Enrico Bombieri
7: Quantum Yang-Mills Theory: Arthur Jaffe and Edward Whitten 
Amazon   back

Einstein (1916, 2005), Albert, and Robert W Lawson (translator) Roger Penrose (Introduction), Robert Geroch (Commentary), David C Cassidy (Historical Essay), Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Pi Press 1916, 2005 Preface: 'The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. ... The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated.' page 3  
Amazon   back

Hopkins (2001), Keith, A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity, Penguin Random House 2001 ' In this provocative, irresistibly entertaining book, Keith Hopkins takes readers back in time to explore the roots of Christianity in ancient Rome. Combining exacting scholarship with dazzling invention, Hopkins challenges our perceptions about religion, the historical Jesus, and the way history is written. He puts us in touch with what he calls “empathetic wonder”—imagining what Romans, pagans, Jews, and Christians thought, felt, experienced, and believed-by employing a series of engaging literary devices. These include a TV drama about the Dead Sea Scrolls; the first-person testimony of a pair of time-travelers to Pompeii; a meditation on Jesus’ apocryphal twin brother; and an unusual letter on God, demons, and angels.' 
Amazon   back

Jeans (1942 - 2008), James, Physics and Philosophy, Cambridge UP 1942 - 2008) ' Originally published in 1942, this book discusses an emerging physical science that brought with it a new message as to the fundamental nature of the world, and of the possibilities of human free will in particular. The aim of the book is to explore that territory which forms a borderland between physics and philosophy. The author seeks to estimate the philosophical significance of physical developments, and the interest of his enquiry extends far beyond technical physics and philosophy. Some of the questions raised touch everyday human life closely: can we have knowledge of the world outside us other than that what we can gain by observation and experiment? Is the world spiritual and psychological or material in its ultimate essence; is it better likened to a thought or to a machine? Are we endowed with free will, or are we part of a vast machine which must follow its course until it finally runs down? 
Amazon   back

Kuhn (1962, 1996), Thomas S, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, U of Chicago Press 1962, 1970, 1996 Introduction: 'a new theory, however special its range of application, is seldom just an increment to what is already known. Its assimilation requires the reconstruction of prior theory and the re-evaluation of prior fact, an intrinsically revolutionary process that is seldom completed by a single man, and never overnight.' [p 7]  
Amazon   back

Miles (1996), Jack, God: A Biography, Vintage Books 1996 Jacket: 'Jack Miles's remarkable work examines the hero of the Old Testament . . . from his first appearance as Creator to his last as Ancient of Days. . . . We see God torn by conflicting urges. To his own sorrow, he is by turns destructive and creative, vain and modest, subtle and naive, ruthless and tender, lawful and lawless, powerful yet powerless, omniscient and blind.' 
Amazon   back

Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. . . . this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity. . . . ' 
Amazon   back

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. 
Amazon   back

von Neumann (2018), John, and Nicholas A. Wheeler (editor), Robert T Beyer (translator), The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 2018 ' Quantum mechanics was still in its infancy in 1932 when the young John von Neumann, who would go on to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, published Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics--a revolutionary book that for the first time provided a rigorous mathematical framework for the new science. Robert Beyer's 1955 English translation, which von Neumann reviewed and approved, is cited more frequently today than ever before. But its many treasures and insights were too often obscured by the limitations of the way the text and equations were set on the page. In this new edition of this classic work, mathematical physicist Nicholas Wheeler has completely reset the book in TeX, making the text and equations far easier to read. He has also corrected a handful of typographic errors, revised some sentences for clarity and readability, provided an index for the first time, and added prefatory remarks drawn from the writings of Léon Van Hove and Freeman Dyson. The result brings new life to an essential work in theoretical physics and mathematics.' 
Amazon   back

Adam Hochschild (2025_04_03), America was at its Trumpiest 100 years ago. Here’s how to prevent the worst., ' What was the Trumpiest period of American life before Donald Trump? And what might we learn from it? It is easy to imagine that constitutional rights are under greater threat today than ever in the past. But history suggests otherwise. Although much of what happened during and after World War I is now long forgotten, Americans in those years saw the federal government act in ways that — so far — Trump can only dream of. It shut down some 75 newspapers and magazines it found too critical and censored several hundred specific issues of others. It threw into prison roughly 1,000 Americans for a year or more — and a far larger number for shorter periods — solely for things they wrote or said. Advertisement And the Justice Department — now the center of so much perversion — chartered a nationwide vigilante group, the American Protective League. Its 250,000 members seized, roughed up and detained suspected draft evaders, violently broke up peace demonstrations, and joined government agents in raiding left-wing and labor organizations. [. . .] Woodrow Wilson was in his second term as president from 1917 to 1921. We think of him as a progressive idealist, and in his passionate belief in the League of Nations, he surely was. But after he persuaded Congress to declare war on Germany in April 1917, he was determined to silence the sizable minority of Americans who opposed the decision. He vigorously and successfully lobbied for the Espionage Act, a sweeping measure that had little to do with espionage and provided prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who “shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation of the military or naval forces of the United States.” [. . .] The law’s vagueness was a prosecutor’s dream. It was the tool that jailed thousands of war opponents, leftists and labor unionists. Big business had long been looking for excuses to imprison the unionists. The most famous political prisoner was Eugene V. Debs, a gentle, peaceful man and perennial Socialist candidate for president, who had won 6 percent of the popular vote in 1912. Six years later, for giving an anti-war speech from an Ohio park bandstand, he was sentenced to 10 years behind bars. [. . .] The crisis Americans are in today is at least as severe as the one back then, but in different ways. Although ominous conflicts exist abroad, the United States is not itself at war, and we are spared the hysteria that can come with that. And we do have a vocal, outspoken opposition, armed with means of instant communication unimaginable during World War I. But we also have a president who has let convicted vigilantes out of jail, who shutters agencies lawfully established by Congress, who defies judges’ rulings and who sounds fiercely determined to humiliate, jail or deport his enemies. What are the lessons for us today of that sorry time a hundred years ago?' back

Albert Einstein (1905), On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, An english translation of the paper that founded Special relativity. 'Examples of this sort, [in the contemporary application of Maxwell's electrodynamics to moving bodies] together with the unsuccessful attempts to discover any motion of the earth relatively to the ``light medium,'' suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics as well as of mechanics possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest. They suggest rather that, as has already been shown to the first order of small quantities, the same laws of electrodynamics and optics will be valid for all frames of reference for which the equations of mechanics hold good.' back

Andronicus of Rhodes - Wikipedia, Andronicus of Rhodes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Andronikos of Rhodes (Ancient Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος ὁ Ῥόδιος, fl. c. 60 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Rhodes who was also the scholarch (head) of the Peripatetic school. He is most famous for publishing a new edition of the works of Aristotle that forms the basis of the texts that survive today. [. . .] Life Andronicus is of special interest in the history of philosophy, from the statement of Plutarch that he published a new edition of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which formerly belonged to the library of Apellicon, and were brought to Rome by Sulla with the rest of Apellicon's library in 84. Tyrannion commenced this task, but apparently did not do much towards it. The arrangement which Andronicus made of Aristotle's writings seems to be the one which forms the basis of our present editions and we are probably indebted to him for the preservation of a large number of Aristotle's works.' 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, Time: Physics, IV, xi (219b2), 'Further, how can there be any 'before' and 'after' without the existence of time? Or how can there be any time without the existence of motion? If, then, time is the number of motion or itself a kind of motion, it follows that, if there is always time, motion must also be eternal.' back

Carl Yang (2025_04_10), US snubs key shipbuilding summit as global maritime rift deepens, ' American shipyards will again be absent from a key annual summit for the global shipbuilding industry, in the latest sign that the United States is charting a lonely course as it strives to revive its maritime sector. Washington has sent shock waves across the industry in recent months with its aggressive policies targeting China’s dominant shipyards, which include plans to charge steep fees every time a Chinese-linked ship enters an American port. The US claims the policy is necessary to counter China’s unfair trading practices and allow American shipbuilders to compete, but the move has sparked intense backlash and market discussions about joint countermeasures. Chinese shipbuilding industry representatives told a visiting Japanese delegation in Beijing last week that “globally concerning issues” should be discussed at the coming JECK Top Executive Meeting, a key annual industry summit. The JECK meeting – which brings together shipbuilding executives from Japan, Europe, China and South Korea – was previously known as the JECKU summit, as it was customary for the United States to also attend. But America has failed to send representatives to the gathering since 2023, and will also be absent from October’s summit in Japan. The reason behind the US withdrawal from the event has not been disclosed.' back

Carol Rosenberg (2025_04_11), Military Judge Throws Out Sept. 11 Case Confession as Obtained Through Torture, ' A military judge on Friday threw out the confession that a man accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks made to federal agents in 2007 at Guantánamo Bay, ruling the statements were the product of a campaign of torture and isolation carried out by the C.I.A. The ruling by Col. Matthew N. McCall was the latest setback to prosecutors in their long-running quest to bring the death-penalty case to trial, despite the years the five defendants had spent in secret C.I.A. prisons. Ammar al-Baluchi, 47, was so thoroughly psychologically conditioned through abuse and threats during his time at the agency’s overseas prisons, or black sites, from 2003 to 2006 that he involuntarily incriminated himself in 2007, the judge wrote in a 111-page decision. Mr. Baluchi, who is charged in the case by the name Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is accused of sending money and providing other support to some of the hijackers who carried out the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. [. . .] Testimony derived from C.I.A. documents showed that Mr. Baluchi was routinely kept naked and beaten during his first days of agency custody in a program of “enhanced interrogation,” which was designed by two psychologists on contract to the C.I.A. Student interrogators took turns slamming his head against a wall. He was deprived of sleep for 82 straight hours by shackling him at the ankles and wrists in a way that forced him to stand, naked, with a hood on his head. He was made to fear he would be drowned in a mock waterboarding technique in which he was laid out on a tarp as cold water was poured onto a towel covering his face. By the time he reached Guantánamo, he had undergone 1,100 rounds of interrogation in C.I.A. custody, some with agency debriefers asking questions provided by the F.BI. “Just as the C.I.A. psychologists had planned, Mr. Ali learned that he was helpless to resist the torture, and that cooperation meant a lessening of abuse and an increase in rewards,” Colonel McCall wrote.' back

Chen Zhao & Ben Galton-Fenzi (2025_04_07), Antarctica’s hidden threat: meltwater under the ice sheet amplifies sea-level rise, ' One of the biggest challenges in predicting Antarctica’s deeply uncertain future is understanding exactly what’s driving its ice loss. A vast network of lakes and streams lies beneath the thick ice sheet. This water can lubricate the ice, allowing it to slide more rapidly toward the ocean. Our new research shows “subglacial water” plays a far larger role in Antarctic ice loss than previously thought. If it’s not properly accounted for, future sea-level rise may be vastly underestimated. Including the effects of evolving subglacial water in ice sheet models can triple the amount of ice flowing to the ocean. This adds more than two metres to global sea levels by 2300, with potentially enormous consequences for coastal communities worldwide. [. . .] We used computer simulations to predict the influence of subglacial water on ice sheet behaviour. We used two computer models: an advanced ice sheet model that simulates how the ice sheet flows and responds to climate. a specialised hydrology model that predicts subglacial water production and flow. Then we explored how different assumptions about subglacial water pressure affect ice sheet dynamics. Specifically, we compared scenarios where water pressure was allowed to change over time against scenarios where it remained constant. When the effects of changing subglacial water pressure were included in the model, the amount of ice flowing into the ocean under future climate nearly tripled. These findings suggest many existing sea-level rise projections may be too low, because they do not fully account for the dynamic influence of subglacial water. ' back

Chow Chung-yan (2025_04_10), Opinion | Why China’s grip on American life will stay unshaken, Trump tariffs or not, ' When US President Donald Trump signed the historic tariff orders that launched the global tariff war on April 2, the pen he used could well have been made in China. Even if we leave aside that particular pen, the paperwork that follows will mainly be processed with tools sourced from Chinese factories, which now face an accumulated American tariff of around 125 per cent. The irony underscores a deeper truth about the US-China trade relationship: tariffs meant to punish Beijing often end up hitting American consumers hardest while failing to dislodge China’s dominance in everyday goods. The most affected American people are those who can least afford a more expensive alternative because many of these Chinese goods are small daily necessities. US trade data reveals a startling reality: about 85 per cent of the pens and pencils in the United States are made in China. In 2022 alone, Americans bought US$430 million worth of pens from Chinese suppliers. Even leading brands such as Bic and Paper Mate rely on Chinese components. The mountains of paperwork unleashed by the president’s wild economic gamble will become much more expensive after this week, and there is no real alternative in sight. China claims 80 per cent of the global market share of stationery. It is not just the writing instruments. When Trump’s deeply religious faithful go to church to pray for a trade war victory, the Bibles in their hands are most likely to have been printed… again in China! Amity Printing Company in Nanjing, China is the world’s largest Bible producer. Since 1987, it has printed over 200 million copies of “the good book”, all for export. About half of these are estimated to be sold to the American market. According to US International Trade Commission data, atheist China accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of America’s religious book imports. [. . . ] There’s poetic justice in the fact that the tools Trump used to wage his trade war – pens, podiums, and promotional materials – were probably made by the very economy he sought to undermine. It’s a reminder that in a globalised world, economic isolationism is easier said than done. Tariffs may sound tough on paper, but in practice, they often amount to a tax on ordinary Americans. Until the US can either rebuild its manufacturing base or convince consumers to pay premium prices for domestically made staples, China’s grip on everyday goods will remain unshaken, no matter how many tariffs are signed into law.' ]='''''' back

Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine's reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to. . . . Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380. He is revered as a saint and is apostolos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and various Eastern Catholic Churches for his example as a "Christian monarch”.' back

David Von Drehle (2025_04_12), The bond market plays its winning hand, ' Government bonds and notes are, in a sense, loans to public entities backed by a promise to repay by a certain date at a certain interest rate. The terms that buyers of bonds are willing to accept reflect their confidence — or lack thereof — in the issuing entity. A government that inspires great confidence can sell long-term bonds at low interest rates. An entity that stirs more doubts must pay higher interest on a shorter schedule to attract buyers. Declining confidence is measured almost instantaneously by rising yields offered for bonds. The message is clear: Buyers must be paid more to accept a greater perceived risk. What makes the bond market such a sharp-edged voting bloc is that all participants are aligned in their goals, regardless of spin doctors and hype merchants. They want to maximize profit while minimizing risk — two sliding scales that allow for plenty of economic competition. Everyone is asking, always: Is the borrowing entity getting stronger or weaker? Are its prospects waxing or waning over time? Am I more likely or less to be paid back in full? ' back

Dennis Altman (2025_04_08), The left-behind men who crave pride, battle shame – and voted for Trump, ' Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in their own Land, which explored the motivations and resentments of working-class conservatives in Louisiana, was named one of six books to help understand Donald Trump’s win by the New York Times when he was first elected president, in 2016. (Another was Hillbilly Elegy, by now vice president JD Vance, published just a few months earlier.) Since then, Californian progressive sociologist Hochschild has been struggling to understand the appeal of Donald Trump: particularly to white, working-class men, once a strong Democratic constituency. No writer has worked harder to grasp the gut-level appeal that saw Trump win two elections – and in the process, convert the Republican Party into his personal fiefdom. Review: Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame and the Rise of the Right – Arlie Russell Hochschild (The New Press) The puzzle is greatest when one contrasts the current billionaire cabinet with the fact much of Trump’s support comes from people who are objectively worse off under his policies – including tariffs. Last week, Oxfam America called them “an attack on the global working class” that will harm working-class families in the United States and “inflame inequality”. [. . .] Hochschild brilliantly captures the pain of men who feel left behind and conveys something of life in rural Kentucky that goes beyond easy stereotypes. I could feel empathy for many of the people she comes across. But I was unpersuaded there is much room for optimism that the appeal of Trump, and those who follow him, will easily be defeated.' back

Duhen-Quine thesis - Wikipedia, Duhen-Quine thesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In philosophy of science, the Duhem–Quine thesis, also called the Duhem–Quine problem, says that unambiguous falsifications of a scientific hypothesis are impossible, because an empirical test of the hypothesis requires one or more background assumptions. Rather than disproving the main hypothesis, the blame can be placed on one of the background beliefs or "auxiliary" hypotheses. It is named after French theoretical physicist Pierre Duhem and American logician Willard Van Orman Quine, who wrote about similar concepts. In recent decades, the set of associated assumptions supporting a thesis sometimes is called a bundle of hypotheses, i.e. a hypothesis and its background assumptions. Although a bundle of hypotheses as a whole can be tested against the empirical world and be falsified if it fails the test, the Duhem–Quine thesis says it is impossible to isolate a single hypothesis in the bundle, a viewpoint called confirmation holism.' back

Edward N. Zalta - Wikipedia, Edward N. Zalta - Wikipedia, the free enncyclopedia, ' Edward Nouri Zalta (born March 16, 1952) is an American philosopher who is a senior research scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He received his BA from Rice University in 1975 and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1981, both in philosophy. Zalta has taught courses at Stanford University, Rice University, the University of Salzburg, and the University of Auckland. Zalta is also the Principal Editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.' back

Emma Knowles (2025_04_08), What do medieval puzzles and the New York Times Connections have in common?, ' The New York Times Connections game asks players to categorise 16 words into four groups of four. For example, in one collection of 16, a category included “blow”, “cat”, “gold” and “sword”: these are all words that might come before “fish”. As described by puzzle editor Wyna Liu, completing the puzzle should feel “challenging and satisfying”. Players are encouraged to “think flexibly”. Liu says her job as puzzle designer is “to trick you”. Challenging word-based games are not a modern invention. In fact, in early medieval England, around the year 1000, there was also a strong appetite for word puzzles designed to entertain (and trick) avid players.' back

Epic of Gilgamesh - Wikipedia, Epic of Gilgamesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BCE). These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates back to the 18th century BCE and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings"). Only a few tablets of it have survived. The later Standard Babylonian version compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni dates to somewhere between the 13th to the 10th centuries BCE and bears the incipit Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Deep(s)", lit. '"He who Sees the Unknown"'). Approximately two-thirds of this longer, twelve-tablet version have been recovered. Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BCE Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. [. . .] The epic is regarded as a foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas, with Gilgamesh forming the prototype for later heroes like Heracles (Hercules) and the epic itself serving as an influence for Homeric epics It has been translated into many languages and is featured in several works of popular fiction. ' back

Erik Curiel (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Singularities and Black Holes, ' A spacetime singularity is a breakdown in spacetime, either in its geometry or in some other basic physical structure. It is a topic of ongoing physical and philosophical research to clarify both the nature and significance of such pathologies. When it is the fundamental geometry that breaks down, spacetime singularities are often viewed as an end, or “edge”, of spacetime itself. Numerous difficulties, however, arise when one tries to make this notion more precise. [. . .] Black holes are regions of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. A typical black hole is the result of the gravitational force becoming so strong that one would have to travel faster than light to escape its pull. Such black holes generically contain a spacetime singularity at their center; thus we cannot fully understand a black hole without also understanding the nature of singularities. Black holes, however, raise several additional conceptual problems and questions on their own. When quantum effects are taken into account, black holes, although they are nothing more than regions of spacetime, appear to become thermodynamical entities, with a temperature and an entropy. This seems to point to a deep and hitherto unsuspected connection among our three most fundamental theories, general relativity, quantum field theory and thermodynamics. [. . .] Finally, the evolution of black holes is apparently in conflict with standard quantum evolution, for such evolution rules out the sort of increase in entropy that seems to be required when black holes are present. Indeed, as purely gravitational entities with striking quantum properties, what we know about black holes lies at the heart of and guides many attempts to formulate a theory of quantum gravity. This has led to a debate over what seemingly fundamental physical principles are likely to be preserved in, or violated by, a full quantum theory of gravity. ' back

Etemenanki - Wikipedia, Etemenanki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Etemenanki (Sumerian: 𒂍𒋼𒀭𒆠, romanized: É.TEMEN.AN.KI, lit. 'Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth') was a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Marduk in the ancient city of Babylon. It now exists only in ruins, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of Baghdad, Iraq. Many scholars have identified Etemenanki as the ziggurat for the biblical account of the Tower of Babel. Construction It is unclear when Etemenanki was originally constructed. Andrew R. George says that it was constructed sometime between the 14th and the 9th century BCE. [. . .] Babylon was destroyed in 689 BCE by Sennacherib, who claims to have destroyed the Etemenanki. It took 88 years to restore the city; work was started by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, and continued under Nabopolassar followed by his son Nebuchadnezzar II who rebuilt the ziggurat. The city's central feature was the temple of Marduk (Esagila), with which the Etemenanki ziggurat was associated.' back

Experimentum crucis - Wikipedia, Experimentum crucis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In science, an experimentum crucis (English: crucial experiment or critical experiment) is an experiment capable of decisively determining whether or not a particular hypothesis or theory is superior to all other hypotheses or theories whose acceptance is currently widespread in the scientific community. In particular, such an experiment must typically be able to produce a result that rules out all other hypotheses or theories if true, thereby demonstrating that under the conditions of the experiment (i.e., under the same external circumstances and for the same "input variables" within the experiment), those hypotheses and theories are proven false but the experimenter's hypothesis is not ruled out. An opposite view, rejecting the decisive value of the experimentum crucis in choosing one hypothesis or theory over its rivals, is the Duhem–Quine thesis.' back

First Vatican Council, Session 3, Chaper 1, On God, the creator of all things, ' The holy, catholic, apostolic and Roman church believes and acknowledges that there is one true and living God, creator and lord of heaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible, infinite in will, understanding and every perfection. Since he is one, singular, completely simple and unchangeable spiritual substance, he must be declared to be in reality and in essence, distinct from the world, supremely happy in himself and from himself, and inexpressibly loftier than anything besides himself which either exists or can be imagined. This one true God, by his goodness and almighty power, not with the intention of increasing his happiness, nor indeed of obtaining happiness, but in order to manifest his perfection by the good things which he bestows on what he creates, by an absolutely free plan, together from the beginning of time brought into being from nothing the twofold created order, that is the spiritual and the bodily, the angelic and the earthly, and thereafter the human which is, in a way, common to both since it is composed of spirit and body. Everything that God has brought into being he protects and governs by his providence, which reaches from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well . All things are open and laid bare to his eyes, even those which will be brought about by the free activity of creatures.' back

Frontiers in physics - Wikipedia, Frontiers in physics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Frontiers in Physics is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering physics. It was established in 2013 and is published by Frontiers Media. The editor-in-chief is Alex Hansen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). The scope of the journal covers the entire field of physics, from experimental, to computational and theoretical physics. back

Galileo affair - Wikipedia, Galileo affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Galileo affair (Italian: il processo a Galileo Galilei) began around 1610 and culminated with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. Galileo was prosecuted for his support of heliocentrism, the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the Solar System. ' back

George Smith (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Isaac Newton, First published Wed Dec 19, 2007 'Isaac Newton (1642–1727) is best known for having invented the calculus in the mid to late 1660s (most of a decade before Leibniz did so independently, and ultimately more influentially) and for having formulated the theory of universal gravity — the latter in his Principia, the single most important work in the transformation of early modern natural philosophy into modern physical science. Yet he also made major discoveries in optics beginning in the mid-1660s and reaching across four decades; and during the course of his 60 years of intense intellectual activity he put no less effort into chemical and alchemical research and into theology and biblical studies than he put into mathematics and physics.' back

Gnosticism - Wikipedia, Gnosticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός gnōstikós, "having knowledge") is a collection of ancient religious ideas and systems which originated in the first century AD among early Christian and Jewish sects. These various groups emphasised personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over orthodox teachings, traditions, and ecclesiastical authority. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a blind, malevolent demiurge responsible for creating the material universe. Viewing this material existence as flawed or evil, Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.' back

Henricus Denzinger (1864 -1997), Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarartionum de rebus fidei et morum, ' With its unique wealth of official church documents and sources, it is an essential resource for theological work. Since its first edition in 1854, Denzinger has become a standard work and an indispensable tool for serious theological work. It faithfully reflects the history of the Church's faith and its development over the centuries. Indeed, its reference system has become an established part of citing important theological sources.' back

Initial singularity - Wikipedia, Initial singularity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The initial singularity is a singularity predicted by some models of the Big Bang theory to have existed before the Big Bang. The instant immediately following the initial singularity is part of the Planck epoch, the earliest period of time in the history of our universe. The use of only general relativity to predict what happened in the beginnings of the universe has been heavily criticized, as quantum mechanics becomes a significant factor in the high-energy environment of the earliest stage of the universe, and general relativity on its own fails to make accurate predictions. . .. Although there is no direct evidence for a singularity of infinite density, the cosmic microwave background is evidence that the universe expanded from a very hot, dense state. back

Isaac Newton - Wikipedia, Isaac Newton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Sir Isaac Newton PRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27 was an English physicist and mathematician (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for classical mechanics.' back

John J. Hopfield (2024_12_08), Nobel Lecture: Physics is a point of view, ' John J. Hopfield delivered his Nobel Prize lecture "Physics is a point of view" on 8 December 2024 at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was introduced by Professor Ellen Moons, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. … back

Kathleen Parker (2025_04_12), Trump’s campaign as pretender to the throne is a grim tale, ' One of the horrors of aging for the collagen-deprived is a thinning epidermis and the bruising consequences of casual contact with previously benign surfaces. Donald Trump’s skin is as thin as a rat’s ear. So thin-skinned is the U.S. president, he has resorted to investigating and punishing his critics, letting the word “treason” tumble from his pouting lips. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter What could explain such a fragile ego in the world’s most powerful man? His appetite for attention is never sated, and his intolerance for criticism makes him immune to humility. Trump may be physically large and perhaps enjoys towering over smaller mortals. But his recent acts of retribution toward those who have criticized or disagreed with him show that he’s like the bullied kid who takes a weapon to school. In a pair of signed memorandums Wednesday, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate two officials from his first administration and stripped them of any security clearances they might have. Their offense? Defiance. Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking official in the Department of Homeland Security, became an outspoken critic of Trump’s ineptitude and corruption during the president’s first term. In September 2018, Taylor wrote an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times elaborating on his observations. In 2023, he published a prophetic book, “Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy From Trump’s Revenge.” Beware authors, scribes and critics, all. [. . .] Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, dared question Trump’s claim that the 2020 election had been stolen. There was no evidence — ever — of a stolen election or voter fraud, except the actions of Donald Trump when he urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election results in his state. [. . . ] Granted, no other president could claim a military anniversary as an excuse to salute himself. But don’t think for one minute that this parade won’t be about Trump. Everything is about him.' back

Liaoyi Xu et al (2025_04_06), The genetic architecture of and evolutionary constraints on the human pelvic form, ' INTRODUCTION: Human pelvic shape has undergone significant evolutionary change since the divergence from the chimpanzee lineage. This transformation involved the reduction of pelvic canal dimensions to support bipedal locomotion. At the same time, human brain size also expanded significantly, which gave rise to the obstetrical dilemma, a hypothesis that highlights the mismatch between the large brain size of infants and the narrowed female birth canal. Initially proposed in the 1960s, empirical support for this classic hypothesis has been equivocal, largely owing to limitations in sample size and a lack of appropriate types of data.' back

Louise Pryke (2018_04_23), In ancient Mesopotamia, sex among the gods shook heaven and earth, 'Sexuality was central to life in ancient Mesopotamia, an area of the Ancient Near East often described as the cradle of western civilisation roughly corresponding to modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria, Iran and Turkey. It was not only so for everyday humans but for kings and even deities.' back

Nanna Bonde Thylstrup & Richard Ovenden (2025_04_11), Politicians Shouldn’t Get to Delete Inconvenient Facts, ' Researchers logging onto the website Data.gov in January discovered a digital void where roughly 2,000 data sets were once cataloged. No warning, no explanation — just the quiet deletion of knowledge. Not long after that, historical pages focused on Black soldiers vanished, as did a website about Jackie Robinson and, bizarrely, one about a plane with “gay” in its name. President Trump’s administration has targeted information curated by government agencies, erasing vast swaths of knowledge. While database updates and website changes are routine, this is probably the first time Americans are witnessing deletion weaponized on a large scale as a political tool. These deletions undermine basic good government — and the historical record. Democratic governments need far more robust legal frameworks and safeguards for data that is essential to citizens’ well-being. Scientific practices may change, policies may shift, and history may be debated, but the record of government should endure, regardless of who holds power. The administration is seemingly pursuing deletion as a means of control. “It’s kind of like leaving a weed,” Elon Musk said of destroying agencies — and their attendant records. “If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it is easy for the weed to grow back.” Mr. Trump has sacked the national archivist and put Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge. Without separation of powers, the archives are at risk. [. . .] We need a right to remember, and not simply to support researchers. Maintaining an informed citizenry in a democratic society calls for deliberation, transparency and accountability. Archives are essential to that function. Democracies cannot work without clear records of what governments have done and what they are doing. That means that while universities and individuals should study and collate data, they should not have the primary responsibility for preserving public knowledge. Our democratic infrastructure must ensure that public records remain truly public and that they are professionally maintained, under sound democratically approved principles enshrined in legislation and free from ideological interference. Achieving that goal is not simple. Current archival legislation — in the United States, this largely dates from the Watergate crisis or earlier — was written to govern mainly paper documents and is insufficient for preserving databases and interactive digital systems.' back

Neoplatonism and Christianity - Wikipedia, Neoplatonism and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Neoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the West due to St. Augustine of Hippo, who was influenced by the early Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry, and the works of the Christian writer Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, who was influenced by later Neoplatonists, such as Proclus and Damascius.' back

Proton - Wikipedia, Proton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the proton (Greek proton = first) is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of one positive fundamental unit . . . , a diameter of about 1.65 x 10^-15 m, and a mass of 938.27231(28) MeV/c2 (1.6726 X 10 ^{- 27} kg), 1.007 276 466 88(13) u or about 1836 times the mass of an electron. Protons are spin 1/2 fermions and are composed of three quarks, making them baryons. The two up quarks and one down quark of the proton are held together by the strong force, mediated by gluons' back

Redshift - Wikipedia, Redshift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and energy, is known as a blueshift, or negative redshift. The terms derive from the colours red and blue which form the extremes of the visible light spectrum. The main causes of electromagnetic redshift in astronomy and cosmology are the relative motions of radiation sources, which give rise to the relativistic Doppler effect, and gravitational potentials, which gravitationally redshift escaping radiation. All sufficiently distant light sources show cosmological redshift corresponding to recession speeds proportional to their distances from Earth, a fact known as Hubble's law that implies the universe is expanding.' back

Robert Pasnau (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Thomas Aquinas, ' Between antiquity and modernity stands Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225–1274). The greatest figure of thirteenth-century Europe in the two preeminent sciences of the era, philosophy and theology, he epitomizes the scholastic method of the newly founded universities. Like Dante or Michelangelo, Aquinas takes inspiration from antiquity, especially Aristotle, and builds something entirely new. Viewed through a theological lens, Aquinas has often been seen as the summit of the Christian tradition that runs back to Augustine and the early Church. Viewed as a philosopher, he is a foundational figure of modern thought. His efforts at a systematic reworking of Aristotelianism reshaped Western philosophy and provoked countless elaborations and disputations among later medieval and modern philosophers.' back

Robin McKie (2025_03_29), ‘The physics community has never split like this’: row erupts over plans for new Large Hadron Collider', ' Scientists are refining plans to build the world’s biggest machine at a site beneath the Swiss-French border. More than $30bn (£23bn) would be spent drilling a 91km circular tunnel in which subatomic particles would be accelerated to near light speeds and smashed into each other. From the resulting nuclear debris, scientists hope they will then find clues that would help them understand the detailed makeup of the universe. It is an extraordinarily ambitious project. However, it is also a controversial one – for many scientists fear the machine, the Future Circular Collider (FCC), could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades and leave promising new research avenues starved of resources. Others argue that the mega-­collider is being imposed on physicists by senior officials at Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, without properly consulting researchers. back

Saint John Paul II (1992_10_31), Saint John Paul II (1992_10_31): Address to the Plenary Session on ‘The Emergence of Complexity in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology’, ' However, the underlying problems of [the Galileo] case concern both the nature of science and the message of faith. It is therefore not to be excluded that one day we shall find ourselves in a similar situation, one which will require both sides to have an informed awareness of the field and of the limits of their own competencies. The approach provided by the theme of complexity could provide an illustration of this. 5. A twofold question is at the heart of the debate of which Galileo was the centre. The first is of the epistemological order and concerns biblical hermeneu­tics. In this regard, two points must again be raised. In the first place, like most of his adversaries, Galileo made no distinction between the scientific approach to natural phenomena and a reflection on nature, of the philosophical order, which that approach generally calls for. . . . Secondly, the geocentric representation of the world was commonly admit­ted in the culture of the time as fully agreeing with the teaching of the Bible, of which certain expressions, taken literally, seemed to affirm geocentrism. The problem posed by theologians of that age was, therefore, that of the compatibility between heliocentrism and Scripture. 6. From this we can now draw our first conclusion. The birth of a new way of approaching the study of natural phenomena demands a clarification on the part of all disciplines of knowledge. . . . 9. . . . The majority of theologians did not recognise the formal distinction between Sacred Scripture and its interpretation, and this led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation. . . . 12. . . .There exist two realms of knowledge, one which has its source in Revelation and one which reason can discover by its own power. To the latter belong especially the experimental sciences and philosophy. The distinction between the two realms of knowledge ought not to be understood as opposition. The two realms are not altogether foreign to each other; they have points of contact. The methodologies proper to each make it possible to bring out different aspects of reality. . . 14.  Humanity has before it two modes of development. The first involves culture, scientific research and technology, that is to say whatever falls within the horizontal aspect of man and creation, which is growing at an impressive rate. In order that this progress should not remain completely external to man, it presupposes a simultaneous raising of conscience, as well as its actuation. The second mode of development involves what is deepest in the human being, when, transcending the world and transcending himself, man turns to the One who is the Creator of all. It is only this vertical direction which can give full meaning to man’s being and action, because it situates him in relation to his origin and his end. In this twofold direction, horizontal and vertical, man realises himself fully as a spiritual being and as homo sapiens. But we see that development is not uniform and linear, and that progress is not always well ordered. This reveals the disorder which affects the human condition. The scientist who is conscious of this twofold development and takes it into account contributes to the restoration of harmony. Those who engage in scientific and technological research admit, as the premise of its progress, that the world is not a chaos but a ‘cosmos’; that is to say, that there exist order and natural laws which can be grasped and examined, and which, for this reason, have a certain affinity with the spirit. Einstein used to say: ‘What is eternally incomprehensible in the world is that it is comprehensible’.9 This intelligibility, attested to by the marvellous discoveries of science and technology, leads us, in the last analysis, to that transcendent and primordial Thought imprinted on all things.' back

SBS On Demand, Mesopotamia, ' In the middle of the war, Jawad Bashara, an Iraqi writer exiled to France during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, decides to travel back to his country to rescue some of the treasures of Mesopotamia. back

Seong Hyeon Choi (2025_04_08), China’s rise ‘unstoppable’ as US grows tired of policing the world: Zhou Bo, ' Time is on Beijing’s side in the Taiwan Strait, according to a former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer who argues that, while President Donald Trump pressures Washington’s allies, mainland China is focused on building a hi-tech “global navy”. Retired PLA Senior Colonel Zhou Bo, who is now a senior fellow with Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said the Taiwan issue was a potential flashpoint for conflict, but added that “the geography will not change”. However, Taiwan is not the only issue driving Beijing’s military build-up – especially of its navy, according to Zhou, who also described mainland China’s rise and influence in the international order as “unstoppable”. “Yes, China is a country that is still divided, but the Taiwanese issue – one of China’s core issues – is not the whole issue,” Zhou told the Post ahead of the publication of Should the World Fear China? – a collection of his essays written between 2013 and 2024. “Because for major powers like China, there are actually two more missions for its military. One is to safeguard its overseas interests, another is to shoulder its international responsibilities,” he said. In the 102 essays and opinion pieces for numerous international media outlets featured in the book, Zhou examines the questions facing Beijing as its status rises on the world stage. He also addresses concerns about China’s rising international status and its influence in geopolitics and relations with other countries in the book, which will be published by C. Hurst & Co this month.' back

Special relativity - Wikipedia, Special relativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Special relativity . . . is the physical theory of measurement in an inertial frame of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein (after the considerable and independent contributions of Hendrik Lorentz, Henri Poincaré and others) in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". It generalizes Galileo's principle of relativity—that all uniform motion is relative, and that there is no absolute and well-defined state of rest (no privileged reference frames)—from mechanics to all the laws of physics, including both the laws of mechanics and of electrodynamics, whatever they may be. Special relativity incorporates the principle that the speed of light is the same for all inertial observers regardless of the state of motion of the source.' back

Stephen Cook (2006), The P Versus NP Problem, ' The P versus NP problem is to determine whether every language accepted by some nondeterministic algorithm in polynomial time is also accepted by some (deterministic) algorithm in polynomial time. To define the problem precisely it is necessary to give a formal model of a computer. The standard computer model in computability theory is the Turing machine, introduced by Alan Turing in 1936 . Although the model was introduced before physical computers were built, it nevertheless continues to be accepted as the proper computer model for the purpose of defining the notion of computable function. back

William Wood (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Philosophy and Christian Theology, ' Because its twin foci are so broad, an encyclopedia entry on “Philosophy and Christian Theology” could legitimately go in many different directions. This entry has two related aims. First, the entry discusses methodological questions about how philosophy and theology should be related. Accordingly, it surveys some of the most important ways they have been related in the history of the Christian tradition (Section 1), before turning to contemporary debates about the way Anglo-American analytic philosophy of religion interacts with theology (Section 3). Second, in between these two methodological sections, the entry also discusses recent work in analytic philosophical theology (Section 2). Note that the previous version of this entry (Murray and Rea 2008 [2021]) focused on topics in contemporary philosophical theology. That version is archived and available via the Other Internet Resources but see, also, the topic-focused entries linked in the Related Entries for additional coverage.' back