Aristotle, and (translated by H Tredennick and G Cyril Armstrong), Metaphysics X-XIV, Oeconomica and Magna Moralia, Harvard University Press, ; William Heinemann Ltd. 1977 Introduction III Aristotle's Metaphysical Theory: 'The theory of universal science, as sketched by Plato in The Republic, was unsatisfactory to Aristotle's analytical mind. He felt that there must be a regular system of sciences, each concerned with a different aspect of reality. At the same time it was only reasonable to suppose that there is a supreme science, which is more ultimate, more exact, more truly Wisdom than any of the others. The discussion of this science, Wisdom, Primary Philosophy or Theology, as it is variously called, and of its scope, forms the subject of the Metaphysics. page xxv 
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Mukherjee, Siddhartha, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Scribner 2010 '"In 2010, about six hundred thousand Americans, and more than 7 million humans around the world, will die of cancer." With this sobering statistic, physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee begins his comprehensive and eloquent "biography" of one of the most virulent diseases of our time. An exhaustive account of cancer's origins, The Emperor of All Maladies illustrates how modern treatments--multi-pronged chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, as well as preventative care--came into existence thanks to a century's worth of research, trials, and small, essential breakthroughs around the globe. While The Emperor of All Maladies is rich with the science and history behind the fight against cancer, it is also a meditation on illness, medical ethics, and the complex, intertwining lives of doctors and patients. Mukherjee's profound compassion--for cancer patients, their families, as well as the oncologists who, all too often, can offer little hope--makes this book a very human history of an elusive and complicated disease.' --Lynette Mong 
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AA Gill (journalisted), Articles by AA Gill, back

Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendences in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders, '. . . this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture". ' back

Gordon Hookey, Terrorism and Terraism, '1. English is my second language, I don't know my first; because colonialism stole it from me. With horrific brutality and atrocious violence, the english took my culture and replaced it with theirs, without my consent or choice. Therefore, I have an open license to utilise their imposed language and culture any way I want, with unrestrained imagination and absolute freedom within my art practice. My creativity is visual poetry. I try to observe the world objectively and honestly by paraphrasing and analogising in making pictorial metaphors to what I see. I like to think I have a strong sense of what is right and wrong in the pursuit of truth and clarity for expressions of humanity.' back

Hilltop Hoods, Chase That Feeling, back

Johannes Roßnagel, A single-atom heat engine, 'Heat engines convert thermal energy into mechanical work and generally involve a large number of particles. We report the experimental realization of a single-atom heat engine. An ion is confined in a linear Paul trap with tapered geometry and driven thermally by coupling it alternately to hot and cold reservoirs. The output power of the engine is used to drive a harmonic oscillation. From direct measurements of the ion dynamics, we were able to determine the thermodynamic cycles for various temperature differences of the reservoirs. We then used these cycles to evaluate the power P and efficiency η of the engine, obtaining values up to P = 3.4 × 10–22 joules per second and η = 0.28%, consistent with analytical estimations. Our results demonstrate that thermal machines can be reduced to the limit of single atoms.' back

John Keane, War and Democracy in the Age of Trump , 'The ethic of democracy instead demands entry into the citadels of military power. It does so because it knows of the follies and idiocies of those who arrogantly plan and prosecute war. It therefore calls for slow thinking, for public openness and for the restraint of arbitrary power, especially when it is backed by weapons that kill, maim and destroy humans and the biomes in which they dwell./ back

Jonathan Friedland, Son't call it post-truth. There's a simpler worl: lies, 'What’s so odd about this is that we are happy to accept that there are facts, and judges of fact, in every other aspect of our lives. Philosopher Quassim Cassam notes if a car mechanic says your brakes have broken, you don’t denounce him as biased and drive on: you listen. If a doctor says you have a tumour, you don’t mock him as a member of the medical elite. We even accept expert judgment on reality TV: no one minds Mary Berry deciding who should win Bake Off. Only in the political realm have we somehow drifted into a world in which no one can be trusted, not on questions of judgment, nor even on questions of fact. But we cannot live in such a world. Evidence, facts and reason are the building blocks of civilisation. Without them we plunge into darkness.' back

Julian Borger, Rex Tillerson: an appintment that would confirm Putin's US election win, 'In a very real sense, Tillerson has been a head of a state within a state. Exxon Mobil is bigger economically than many countries. It has its own foreign policy and its own contracted security forces. . . . “Reporting on Exxon was not only harder than reporting on the Bin Ladens, it was harder than reporting on the CIA by an order of magnitude,” said Steve Coll, who wrote about the company in a book, Private Empire. “They have a culture of intimidation that they bring to bear in their external relations, and it is plenty understood inside the corporation too. They make people nervous, they make people afraid,” Coll, now a journalism professor at Columbia University, told Texas Monthly.' back

Katherine Stewart, Betsy DeVos and God's Plan for Schools, 'BOSTON — At the rightmost edge of the Christian conservative movement, there are those who dream of turning the United States into a Christian republic subject to “biblical laws.” In the unlikely figure of Donald J. Trump, they hope to have found their greatest champion yet. He wasn’t “our preferred candidate,” the Christian nationalist David Barton said in June, but he could be “God’s candidate.”' back

Michael J. L Brown, Trump has embraced pseudoscience and its deceptive tactics in a post-truth world, 'As a scientist, I expect the Trump presidency to have a curious familiarity. Why? Because the relentless stream of falsehoods and character attacks of Trump’s campaign mainstreamed disinformation tactics that biologists, immunologists and climate scientists have come to know and despise. . . . It’s critical that the broader community learns from the grim experience of scientists when dealing with these attacks. Often scientists failed to appreciate that many public arguments about science are actually political battles, rather than evidence-based discussions. Raw political battle isn’t about seeking truth and reasoned argument. It’s about winning news cycles and elections.' back

Nassim Khadem, Bermuda tops list of world's top taxhavens according to Oxfam, 'More than $4 billion in Australian tax is being shifted by Australian-based multinationals into the world's 15 worst corporate "tax havens" each year, Oxfam says. Its report, Tax Battles: the dangerous race to the bottom on corporate tax, to to be released on Monday, defines a "tax haven" as a low-tax or no-tax nation with generous tax incentives.' Oxfam's ranking of the top 15 corporate tax havens: 1 Bermuda 2 Cayman Islands 3 Netherlands 4 Switzerland 5 Singapore 6 Ireland 7 Luxembourg 8 Curaçao 9 Hong Kong 10 Cyprus 11 Bahamas 12 Jersey 13 Barbados 14 Mauritius 15 British Virgin Islands back

Paul Krugman, Useful Idiots Galore, 'It has long been obvious — except, apparently, to the news media — that the modern G.O.P. is a radical institution that is ready to violate democratic norms in the pursuit of power. Why should the norm of not accepting foreign assistance be any different? . . . Now what? If we’re going to have any hope of redemption, people will have to stop letting themselves be used the way they were in 2016. And the first step is to admit the awful reality of what just happened.' back

Ross Gitting, Politicised Treasury bites own tail, covers for Turnbull, 'Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen is right: One of the Abbott-Turnbull government's various acts of economic vandalism is its politicisation of the once-proud federal Treasury.' back

Samuel Gibbs, Mobile phones hacked: can the NSA and the GCHQ listen to all our hone calls? , 'The latest revelations from the NSA files have shown that US and UK surveillance agencies could have the ability to listen in on billions of mobile phone calls from around the world. But how can they do that, and what does it mean for the general public? And should you be worried? What’s happened? The biggest manufacturer of Sim cards in the world has reportedly been hacked into by the US NSA and UK GCHQ. The security agencies stole the encryption keys that are built into every one of the Sim cards made by the Dutch firm Gemalto.' back

The Editors, Commonweal, Team Trump: A Cabinet of Deplorables, 'If it’s fair to judge people by the company they keep, then it’s fair to judge a president by his cabinet. The one Donald Trump has been assembling since the election does not inspire much confidence. During the campaign, whenever Trump’s critics expressed alarm at his lack of experience or ignorance of public policy, his supporters assured us that, once elected, he would surround himself with competent people and not just the diehard loyalists and bomb-throwers who staffed his campaign team. For the most part, this is not what has happened. The loyalists and bomb-throwers remain.' back