Ashby, W Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, Methuen 1964 'This book is intended to provide [an introduction to cybernetics]. It starts from common-place and well understood concepts, and proceeds step by step to show how these concepts can be made exact, and how they can be developed until they lead into such subjects as feedback, stability, regulation, ultrastability, information, coding, noise and other cybernetic topics' 
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Brandt, Siegmund, and Hans Dieter Dahmen, The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics, Springer-Verlag 1995 Jacket: 'This book is an introduction to the basic concepts and phenomena of quantum mechanics. Computer-generated illustrations are used extensively throughout the text, helping to establish the relation between quantum mechanics on one side and classical physics . . . on the other side. Even more by studying the pictures in parallel with the text, readers develop an intuition for notoriously abstract quantum phenomena . . .' 
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Chaitin, Gregory J, Information, Randomness & Incompleteness: Papers on Algorithmic Information Theory, World Scientific 1987 Jacket: 'Algorithmic information theory is a branch of computational complexity theory concerned with the size of computer programs rather than with their running time. ... The theory combines features of probability theory, information theory, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, and recursive function or computability theory. ... [A] major application of algorithmic information theory has been the dramatic new light it throws on Goedel's famous incompleteness theorem and on the limitations of the axiomatic method. ...' 
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Keynes, John Maynard, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Macmillan 1936-1964 The classic twentieth century economics text that revealed that there are more ways to get an economy to grow than simply balancing the books.back

Quiggin, John, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us, Princeton University Press 2010 Amazon Product Description 'In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many--members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us--and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. Zombie Economics takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs--that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off--brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough--either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises.' 
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Wigner, Eugene, Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays , MIT Press 1970 Jacket: 'This volume contains some of Professor Wigner's more popular papers which, in their diversity of subject and clarity of style, reflect the author's deep analytical powers and the remarkable scope of his interests. Included are articles on the nature of physical symmetry, invariance and conservation principles, the structure of solid bodies and of the compound nucleus, the theory of nuclear fission, the effects of radiation on solids, and the epistemological problems of quantum mechanics. Other articles deal with the story of the first man-made nuclear chain reaction, the long term prospects of nuclear energy, the problems of Big Science, and the role of mathematics in the natural sciences. In addition, the book contains statements of Wigner's convictions and beliefs as well as memoirs of his friends Enrico Fermi and John von Neumann. Eugene P. Wigner is one of the architects of the atomic age. He worked with Enrco Fermi at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago at the beginning of the Manhattan Project, and he has gone on to receive the highest honours that science and his country can bestow, including the Nobel Prize for physics, the Max Planck Medal, the Enrico Fermi Award and the Atoms for Peace Award. '. 
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Bargmann, Cornelia, "Comparative chemosensation from receptors to ecology", Nature, 444, 7117, 16 November 2006, page 295-301. 'Odour perception is initiated by specific interactions between odorants and a large repertoire of receptors in olfactory neurons. During the past few years, considerable progress has been made in tracing olfactory perception from the odorant receptor protein to the activity of olfactory neurons to higher processing centres and, ultimately, to behaviour. The most complete picture is emerging for the simplest olfactory system studied — that of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Comparison of rodent, insect and nematode olfaction reveals surprising differences and unexpected similarities among chemosensory systems.'. back

Wigner, Eugene P, "The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences", Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13, 1, February 1960, page 1-14. 'The first point is that the enormous usefulness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious and that there is no rational explanation for it. Second, it is just this uncanny usefulness of mathematical concepts that raises the question of the uniqueness ofour physical theories.'. back

Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa, Evangelical fundamentalism and Catholic integralism: a surprising ecumenism, 'Pastor Rousas John Rushdoony (1916-2001) is the father of so-called “Christian reconstructionism” (or “dominionist theology”) that had a great influence on the theopolitical vision of Christian fundamentalism. . . . Rushdoony’s doctrine maintains a theocratic necessity: submit the state to the Bible with a logic that is no different from the one that inspires Islamic fundamentalism. At heart, the narrative of terror shapes the world-views of jihadists and the new crusaders and is imbibed from wells that are not too far apart. We must not forget that the theopolitics spread by Isis is based on the same cult of an apocalypse that needs to be brought about as soon as possible. So, it is not just accidental that George W. Bush was seen as a “great crusader” by Osama bin Laden.' back

AP and Independent, Pakistani family murder newlyweds over free-will mariage, 'Pakistani police say they have arrested ten people for killing a newly-wed couple who entered into a free-will marriage in the southern port city of Karachi. Officer Qasim Hameed said on Monday that Abdul Hadi, 24, and Hasina Bibi, 19, were killed by relatives last week for marrying without permission from their elders earlier this month. . . . Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women are killed by close relatives each year in so-called honour killings.' back

Circle group - Wikipedia, Circle group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In mathematics, the circle group, denoted by T, is the multiplicative group of all complex numbers with absolute value 1, i.e., the unit circle in the complex plane or simply the unit complex numbers.' back

Euromaidan - Wikipedia, Euromaidan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Euromaidan . . . was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on the night of 21 November 2013 with public protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti ("Independence Square") in Kiev. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's decision to suspended the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.' back

Euromaidan Press, Seven reasons the conflict in Ukraine is actually a Russian invasion, 'Despite everything detailed above it may still be argued that Russia merely aids and influences what is essentially a local rebellion. However, closer examination of the “Novorossiya armed forces” clearly demonstates that large parts of these forces are Russian nationals, more often than not recruited and trained in Russia. Prisoner interrogations and voluntary accounts of these “rebels” reveal that Russia is essentially creating new army units; training, arming, and sometimes even commanding them. There have also been numerous claims that the number of local volunteers is alarmingly low, although it is impossible to find out exactly how many of the local rebels are Ukrainian citizens.' back

George Nicholas, Victoria's Secret does it again: Cultural appropriation, 'What constitutes “heritage?” In Western society, heritage is very much about things and places of historical value. But a broader definition adds to this. Heritage is the knowledge, customs, practices, stories, songs and designs, passed between generations, that define or contribute to a person’s or group’s identity, history, world view and well-being. Heritage is thus complex, culturally variable and highly nuanced.' back

Massimo Faggiloi, Out of Balance, 'Roman Catholicism still has a vision of the world that can be articulated at the institutional and international levels through the large network of Catholic international organizations as well as the diplomatic service. But Trumpism seems to understand the world through parochially American categories and patterns. It’s hard to know now just how these shifts might impact or guide American Catholicism over the longer term. back

Michael Gerson, Trump wants to gut America's progress against AIDS, 'The results? According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 800,000 fewer people (compared with the current trajectory) would be placed on treatment in the first year of the new strategy, and 2.7 million fewer by 2020. One recent study estimates 26 million additional AIDS infections and 4 million more preventable deaths over the next 15 years. When you are not moving forward against an epidemic, you end up moving backward, and rapidly.' back

Paul Krugman, Voodoo Too: The GOP Addiction to Financial Regulation, 'Why has financial deregulation been, literally, such a bust? There are multiple, interacting reasons, all of which are well studied at this point. Banking is inherently vulnerable to self-fulfilling panic; if you guard against panic with explicit or implicit guarantees, you create moral hazard which must be contained via regulation. Beyond that, finance is an area where the risks of fraud, of scammers exploiting the limits of consumer understanding and rationality, are especially high. Very few people are in a position to assess the fine print of financial contracts, and the most deceptive, risky deals are sold to those least able to make that assessment.' back

Roger Cohen, The treacherous Burmese Road from Mandalay, 'And what of Aung San Suu Kyi? Thein Than Oo smiled. “She is honest, decent and she believes in a federal democratic state. But as a politician, she is a middle-school student. Between the Tiger and the Lady, whom do you choose? There is no choice. She is our final hope. She is our lighthouse.” I asked if he really believed that. “Not heartily, but I do. I half-believe it! We have no alternative.” ' back

Ross Gittins, We might have just seen the end of the age of bizonomics, 'But the way the government has been forced by public opinion to abandon its attempt to protect the banks is a sign of much deeper public disaffection with the long-dominant "neoliberal" doctrine – formerly accepted by both sides of politics – that governments should do as little as possible to prevent businesses doing just as they see fit.' back

Sam Levin and Lois Beckett, US gun violence spawns new epidemic: conspiracu theorists harassing victims, 'Mike Cronk was sitting half-naked on a street corner, hands covered in blood, when the TV news reporter approached. The 48-year-old, who had used his shirt to try to plug a bullet wound in his friend’s chest, recounted in a live interview how a young man he did not know had just died in his arms. Cronk’s story of surviving the worst mass shooting in modern US history went viral, but many people online weren’t calling him a hero. On YouTube, dozens of videos, viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, claimed Cronk was an actor hired to play the part of a victim in the Las Vegas mass shooting on 1 October.' back

Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas, Boss Grab Your Breasts? That's Not (Legally) Harassment, 'In the 1986 case Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits harassment in the workplace based on sex, race, color, religion or national origin. . . . But in issuing its judgment, the Supreme Court used the words “severe or pervasive” to describe the level of seriousness that conduct must reach before meeting the legal definition of harassment. Those words are not found in Title VII. Instead they are a judicial interpretation of the statute — and have had lasting consequences.' back

Sarah Leah Whitson, When Elites Get a Taste of Their Own Medicine, 'Saudi Arabia lacks a written penal code. So a judge can convict a person of a host of non-crimes like “witchcraft” or “sorcery,” or lash a blogger and imprison him for 10 years for “insulting Islam.” . . . Saudi elites had long been immune to the worst failures of this brutal system. Their wealth and freedom to travel — sometimes by virtue of a handy second passport from a Western country — allowed them to flee the social, political and religious confines of their Riyadh homes. Now they know that no one is really safe when there are no laws or institutions to protect you. back

Stephen Marche, The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido, 'The crisis we are approaching is fundamental: How can healthy sexuality ever occur in conditions in which men and women are not equal? How are we supposed to create an equal world when male mechanisms of desire are inherently brutal? We cannot answer these questions unless we face them.' back

Zena Tahlan, Israel's settlements: 50 years of land theft explained, 'Settlements have become the hallmark of the Israeli colonial project in Palestine. In the last 50 years, the Israeli government has transferred between 600,000 and 750,000 Jewish Israelis to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They live in at least 160 settlements and outposts. This means that roughly 11 percent of Israel's 6.6 million Jewish population now lives on occupied land, outside the internationally recognised borders of Israel.' back