"natural theology > notes > 2017

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Andrew, Christopher , and Oleg Gordievsky, KGB: The Inside Story of its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev, Hodder & Stoughton 1990 Amazon book description: 'This history of the world's largest and most powerful intelligence service, the KGB, from its origin after the Russian revolution to the present day, analyzes its operations against subjects as diverse as the EEC, Margaret Thatcher, Solidarity and Libya. This study also provides an insight into Gorbachev's relations with the KGB and examines the disintegration of the Soviet bloc. Christopher Andrew has also written "Secret Service". Gordievsky was a KGB colonel who worked for British intelligence as a penetration agent in the KGB from 1974. He escaped to the West in 1985.'
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Joseph, George Gheverghese, The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics, Princeton University Press 2010 'From the Ishango Bone of central Africa and the Inca quipu of South America to the dawn of modern mathematics, The Crest of the Peacock makes it clear that human beings everywhere have been capable of advanced and innovative mathematical thinking. George Gheverghese Joseph takes us on a breathtaking multicultural tour of the roots and shoots of non-European mathematics. He shows us the deep influence that the Egyptians and Babylonians had on the Greeks, the Arabs' major creative contributions, and the astounding range of successes of the great civilizations of India and China.'
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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. . . . '
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Alan Rushbridger, Snowden Does Not Deserve the Threat He Faces, 'I have since met Mr. Snowden on three occasions and have found him to be thoughtful, consistent, levelheaded and public-spirited. He regards the American Constitution with extreme reverence. He has accepted his exile as the price of what he, and others, see as principled action. His technical knowledge afforded him insights into how the power between the state and the citizen was being transformed, perhaps irrevocably.' back

Avi Shlaim, Believe it or not, Barack Obama had Israel's best interests at heart, 'The Obama administration allowed the resolution to be adopted because by their lights it was not anti-Israeli but, on the contrary, essential for preserving Israel as a Jewish and democratic country. For them this was a last-ditch attempt to arrest Israel’s slide towards apartheid and to preserve the possibility of a peaceful solution. In this respect the resolution was entirely consistent with US policy since 1967 in viewing Israeli settlements on occupied land as illegal and as an obstacle to peace.' back

Bartleby.com, 2019. Lewis Carroll (1832 - 98), 'AUTHOR: Lewis Carroll (1832–98) QUOTATION: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” ATTRIBUTION: LEWIS CARROLL (Charles L. Dodgson), Through the Looking-Glass, chapter 6, p. 205 (1934). First published in 1872. back

Ben Chu, Donald Trump's first gift to the world will be another financial crisis, 'Back in 2010 Andy Haldane, now the Bank of England’s chief economist, took a “foregone” global GDP approach. He analysed the output we might have enjoyed if the western world’s financial system had not locked up and the world had carried on growing at its previous rate. Haldane came up with the mind-bending figure of between $60 and $200 trillion: between one and five times the entire planet’s GDP.' back

Benjamin Haas, On Nato, Domasl Trump needs a hostory lesson , 'In case Trump needs a history lesson, the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949, including article five, provides that Nato countries will collectively defend each other in the event of armed attack on any member. Through the Cold War, Article 5 never had to be invoked, which is a testament to the organization’s deterrent effect on adversaries. But following the 9/11 attacks on the United States conducted by al-Qaida – who had been harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan – Nato invoked Article 5 for the first time ever, specifically to deal with terrorism.' back

Blair Palese, Neither Trump nor Turnbull can turn back the tide of renewables, 'The truth is that try as they might, neither Trump nor the Australian government can turn the tide on renewable energy, nor resuscitate an ailing coal industry with a clear expiration date. This is not a moral or political case, but a purely economical one.' back

Catherine Shoad, Saudi Arabia to continue ban on 'immoral, atheistic' cinema, 'Proposals to reopen cinemas in Saudi Arabia have been strongly dismissed by the current head of the country’s religious authority. “Motion pictures may broadcast shameless, immoral, atheistic or rotten films,” said the grand mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, on his weekly television programme. “There is nothing good in song parties, for entertainment day and night, and opening of movie houses at all times is an invitation to mixing of sexes.” ' back

Checksum - Wikipedia, Checksum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A checksum is a small-sized datum from a block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors which may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. It is usually applied to an installation file after it is received from the download server. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify data integrity but are not relied upon to verify data authenticity.' back

CSIRO:Entymology, Isoptera: Termites, back

E. J. Dionne Jr, This is the most ominous Inauguration Day in modern history, 'Why is this inauguration different from any other? Let’s start with the fact that most Americans are not happy that Donald Trump is about to become president. The Post/ABC News poll this week found that Trump enters the Oval Office with the lowest favorable ratings since the question has been asked. Only 40 percent view Trump favorably. That compares with 62 percent for George W. Bush as he entered office in 2001 and 79 percent for Barack Obama in 2009.' back

Ebony Bennett, Turnbull government has a silver foot in its mouth, 'The travel rorts scandals make the Turnbull government look like it's out of touch, but its plans to give $50 billion in company tax cuts over the next 10 years are about to prove it beyond doubt. This time last year Prime Minister Turnbull was fumbling the national tax reform debate. Now he's going to have the unenviable task of selling the public on company tax cuts straight after an entitlements scandal.' back

Ejdionne Jr., Joy-Ann Reid, Obama, the orator, 'Like his theological hero, Reinhold Niebuhr, Obama understood human frailty — “original sin” in Niebuhr’s terms — and also the human capacity for transcendence. Obama calculated the frailty into all of his endeavors, political and rhetorical. He was, like Niebuhr, resolutely a realist. Yet he kept placing those bets on hope. “Yes we can” was a clever political slogan, but it went to the heart of the case he would make again and again, right down to the final lines of his farewell address last week. ' back

Geodesic - Wikipedia, Geodesic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, particularly differential geometry, a geodesic . . . is a generalization of the notion of a "straight line" to "curved spaces". In the presence of a Riemannian metric, geodesics are defined to be (locally) the shortest path between points in the space. In the presence of an affine connection, geodesics are defined to be curves whose tangent vectors remain parallel if they are transported along it. The term "geodesic" comes from geodesy, the science of measuring the size and shape of Earth; in the original sense, a geodesic was the shortest route between two points on the Earth's surface, namely, a segment of a great circle. . . . Geodesics are of particular importance in general relativity, as they describe the motion of inertial test particles.' back

Giles Fraser, For Donald Trump, faith has become the perfectalibi for greed, 'For his inauguration, Trump has chosen two proponents of what is called the prosperity gospel to say the prayers. . . . Detroit bishop Wayne T Jackson, who holds that “Donald Trump is an example of someone who has been blessed by God. Look at his homes, businesses, his wife and his jet. You don’t get those things unless you have the favour of God.” Being “blessed” has become a moral alibi for America’s greed. It is a nauseating smile of faux-gratitude that says: God gave this to me so it’s not about me having too much.' back

John Harwood, Why Trumpism May Not Endure, 'America’s partisan struggle pits historically resonant philosophical traditions against each other. Democrats most vigorously champion social and economic equality, Republicans individual liberty and economic freedom. Presidents who alter the competitive balance modernize their parties for changing demographic, economic and cultural circumstances.' back

John Kerry, What We Got Right, 'As the departing secretary of state, I cannot claim objectivity. But I will leave office convinced that most global trends remain in our favor and that America’s leadership and engagement are as essential and effective today as ever. A major reason is that President Obama has restored assertive diplomacy as our foreign policy tool of first resort and deployed it time and again to advance our security and prosperity.' back

Jose Crlos Yee Quintero, Dear Donald Trum: A letter from Mexico, 'The US has deported more than two million immigrants between 2010 and 2015. This represents more than twice the population of San Francisco. But, we also need to understand that we are talking about actual people and lives.' back

Kevin Baker, Donald Trump's Friendless America, 'Donald J. Trump began his first day as president listening to a favorite Baptist preacher, Robert Jeffress, who has suggested that the Catholic Church was led astray by Satan, that Mormonism and Islam both “came from the pit of hell,” that gay people lead a “miserable” and “filthy” lifestyle, that Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, was “paving the way” for the Antichrist — and that God Himself made Mr. Trump president.' back

Kim Sengupta, Head of MI6 used infomration from Trump dossier in first public speech, 'In his December speech, at MI6’s headquarters in London, Sir Alex scathingly criticised what he termed the brutality of the military offensive then being undertaken by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies in Aleppo. . . . “Our job is to give the Government the information advantage: to shine a light on those activities and help our country and our allies. The risks are profound and represent a fundamental threat to sovereignty: they should be a concern to all those who share democratic values”.' back

Lenore Taylor, Crying 'fake news' is handy for politicians but toxic for democracy, 'But fake news is not any opinion with which a politician or publication disagrees, or any article that presents information they don’t like or that emphasises one part of a report when a minister would prefer to concentrate on another. It does not even refer to articles where a journalist may have made an error. It is a term for fiction deliberately dressed up as fact. It’s stories manufactured for profit in Macedonia. It’s the manufactured child abuse allegations in the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy.' back

Michael D.Shear and Peter Baker, Obama Vows to Speak Out on 'Core Values' After Office, '“There’s a difference between that normal functioning of politics and certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake,” he said. “I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise. I put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids and send them somewhere else, when they love this country.” ' back

Michael Forsythe, China Cancels 103 Coal Plants, Mindful of Smog and Wasted Capacity , 'China is canceling plans to build more than 100 coal-fired power plants, seeking to rein in runaway, wasteful investment in the sector while moving the country away from one of the dirtiest forms of electricity generation, the government announced in a directive made public this week. The announcement, made by China’s National Energy Administration, cancels 103 projects that were planned or under construction, eliminating 120 gigawatts of future coal-fired capacity.' back

Momentum - Wikipedia, Momentum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In classical mechanics, momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg·m/s, or, equivalently, N·s) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object (p=mv). For more accurate measures of momentum, see the section "modern definitions of momentum" on this page.' back

Paul the Apostle - Wikipedia, Paul the Apostle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Paul the Apostle (c. 5 – c. 67), originally known as Saul of Tarsus was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.' back

Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia, Reinhold Niebuhr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.' back

Roger Cohen, Theresa May's 'Global Britain' Is Baloney, 'The vote for Brexit was in fact the moment Britain turned its back on the world, succumbing to pettiness, anti-immigrant bigotry, lying politicians, self-delusion and vapid promises of restored glory. “Global Britain” is a specious branding effort designed to mask an expensive mistake, opposed by 48 percent of voters.' back

Sadiq Bhanbhro, Indonesia's Minangkabau culture prometes empowered Muslim women, 'There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, half of them women. While many would think of oppressive regimes of Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia when thinking about Muslim communities, the majority of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific. And here there are places where Muslim women exercise much power, if not more than men.' back

SCOAP3, Sponsoring Constortium for Open Access Publishing in Paticle Physics, 'SCOAP3 is a one-of-its-kind partnership of over three thousand libraries, key funding agencies and research centers in 44 countries and 3 intergovernmental organisations. Working with leading publishers, SCOAP3 has converted key journals in the field of High-Energy Physics to Open Access at no cost for authors. SCOAP3 centrally pays publishers for costs involved in providing Open Access, publishers in turn reduce subscription fees to all their customers, who can re-direct these funds to contribute to SCOAP3. Each country contributes in a way commensurate to its scientific output in the field. In addition, existing Open Access journals are also centrally supported, removing any existing financial barrier for authors.' back

Termite - Wikipedia, Termite - Wikipedia, the free ecyclopedia, 'Termites are eusocial insects that are classified at the taxonomic rank of infraorder Isoptera, or as epifamily Termitoidae within the cockroach order Blattodea. Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from close ancestors of cockroaches during the Jurassic or Triassic. However, the first termites possibly emerged during the Permian or even the Carboniferous. About 3,106 species are currently described, with a few hundred more left to be described. Although these insects are often called white ants, they are not ants.' back

vol VII: Notes

2017

Notes

Sunday 15 January 2017

Monday 16 January 2017

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Thursday 19 January

Friday 20 January 2017

Saturday 21 January 2017

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