Notes
Sunday 22 November 2020 - Saturday 28 November 2020
[Notebook: DB 85 Science]
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Sunday 22 November 2020
Essay summarizing 2020 work on the theory of creation.
What we are looking for now is the creation of spacetime from
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Hilbert space.
Doing things for love is like geodesic motion, one changes course without feeling the force [ie love changes the shape of human potential space].
We like to think of gravitation as naked quantum mechanics [no particles, no interaction, no observation].
It may be we make the move from quantum mechanics in the 'closed' (curved) system modelled on general relativity seen as a version of Dirac's quantum mechanics of transformation which takes us from Hilbert space to Minkowski space all in one jump by a combination of general covariance, fixed point theory (due to continuity, closure (like a group) and convexity) and 3D space due to the requirement of no crossed wires communication and with the metric formed by the need to maintain action at a distance via null geodesics. Putting all this together gives us a system of logical confinement which leaves no other way for things to be.
The near reelection of Trump despite all his deficiencies gives us a clear vision of the blindness of partisanship and the roots of war in the beliefs of many that those they do not agree with should die. How do we combat this? Theoretically it must be by demonstrating numerically the enormous advantage of cooperation as demonstrated by the lives of the cells in our own bodies. Such cooperation, however, is only possible because all these cells share the same genotype so that they can communicate with one another and employ the same immune system to eliminate their enemies. When we come to human minds we need a similar community based on a similar indoctrination grounded in the reality of the world in
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which we find ourselves, ie the root of peace must be an evidence based appreciation of the world into which we must fit ourselves to achieve a heavenly existence by conforming to the nature and will of a divine universe. Hamid Dabashi: What to make of more than 70m Americans who voted for Trump?
Monday 23 November 2020
Feeling good today about the inversion of Minkowski and Hilbert space. Now have to work out how to make Minkowski space out of Hilbert space and how to make cosmic space out of Minkowski space following Einstein's search for generally covariant metric made possible by the connection cooefficients between Minkowski tangent spaces [of course the real answer is to do away with coordinates altogether, something that is possible with networks in which the address of a source is identical with its nature].
The theory of peace does not necessarily need this. What it does need is the formal expression of the roots of cooperation based, by analogy, on the genetic similarity of cells in a multicellular creature, establishing a common identity and a common set of communication codes and a common foundation for the exclusion of pathogens.
The transition from Hilbert to Minkowski space must be based on 'measurement' and interaction of particles by contact, either through direct contact or null geodesics. We create space-time out of nothing by the same means as we create energy out of nothing by dividing the nothing into two somethings [defined by their difference]. In this case the nothing is energy and the somethings are energy and momentum, ie time and space both pixellated by the quantum of action.
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From a philosophical point of view it seems almost dead certain that quantum mechanics is the source of Minkowski space and the metric thing [null geodesic] looks like a good argument, but how are we going to figure out the details?
A key idea for the establishment of peace is recognition of the life and death value of belief in combat situations where I have to be prepared to stake my life on those who are on my side and murder those on the other side. Here we see the advantage of a common belief system (and system of uniforms etc) which identifies us against them. Our immune systems can make clear demarcation between us and them based on clear molecular signalling whereas when we come to decide who are our friends and enemies we have to rely on what they say and how they act, both of which channels may be used to deceive. The only sure way to guarantee world peace isfor everyone to have a consistent mental structure embedded into them with the same surety and precision as the molecular signalling of cells with the same genome. We see this happening at the roots of physics where all physical particles interact on the basis of the same protocols, and there are no 'enemy' particles (although antiparticles may fall into this category and they have somehow been largely eliminated from the universe).
Gribbin page 26: Hui Shi atom ' the smallest possible entity that can exist in nature with nothing inside itself ' eg quantum of action. I am putting code into quanta of action to give them personalities and make them into discrete and distinct particles. John Gribbin; Q is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics
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Gribbin page 85: ' Since actual probabilities are calculated by taking the square of the probability wave function this means that all calculations of quantum probabilities automatically take account of waves that are travelling backward in time as well as travelling forward in time.' So |ψ|2 gives us a fixed point [invariant in time]. A handy Feynmanesque interpretation. So classical physics is the set of snapshots of quantum physics, like an Edison movie. Kinetoscope - Wikipedia
Fixed point theory is the answer. Spacetime is the set of fixed points of quantum dynamics generated by contact between systems moving backward and forward in time to give us snapshots fixed in time which nevertheless form a [logically] continuous digital picture that we can model by digital computation. The quantum of action is the fixed point of quantum dynamics that we model with complex numbers, the roots of unity in groups of 1, 2 and 3 dimensions, U(1), U(2), U(3). I hardly know what I am talking about but I will never understand physics until I can put it in my own language and the fundamental property of a particle, a photon, a neutron or a tree or me is that it is a fixed point in the universal dynamics with a lifetime that can be computed quantum mechanically. This does not embrace all of physics, but it is enough for the theory of peace.
Two insights out of Gribbin already, money well spent!
We solve the collapse problem by time division multiplexing [maybe in the two time directions, whatever that may mean].
Tuesday 24 November 2020
What does general relativity have to say about peace? The universe is a consistent whole whose whole structure can be represented by a simple equation which can be derived from a simple extremal principle. As usual I am trying to stretch my mind to see what is really going on in the classical theory of relativity and find a way, via Minkowski space, to couple it to quantum mechanics. As always, the task seems hopeless, as making sense of the Trinity did more than fifty years ago, but a bit of persistence may enable me to see into the crystal mystery. The foundation of the general theory is the search for a way to measure the space-time of the universe independently of the motion of the observer, an extension of the Lorentz transformation from inertial to accelerated motion. As usual my desire is to express relativity in cognitive terms, something to do with knowledge, insight and the trinity growing the universe from the initial singularity. So What? Wolfgang Pauli: Theory of Relativity, § 57 Derivation of the gravitational equations from a variational principle, Misner, Thorne & Wheeler: Gravitation, chapter 21
Gribbin 155: Gravitation is a conservative field, with potential and kinetic energy whose sum is constant (and probably zero). For gravitation and quantum theory potential and kinetic energy both connect to processing rate via the quantum of action. Pagels model of gauge field (Cosmic Code). Heinz Pagels: The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature
We may say that love makes the world go round relatively painlessly insofar as it curves human psychological space so that actors achieve beneficial action in inertial motion without having to try. In the absence of love similar achievements, like two
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people supporting one another through thick and thin for a lifetime may require strenuous effort, true grit and heroic virtue and all the other attributes of a society motivated by force rather than Newton's Galileo's first law. So the psychological model of god may be interrupted when things get in the way, like the fatal end of a pleasant free fall when the parachute fails to open or the thermonuclear support of a star fails and a supernova follows.
Wednesday 25 November 2020
Hawking and Ellis see the generation of a black hole as the consequence of a closed trapped surface. The inverse process, the generation of space-time is understood to be the inverse (time reversal) of this process. We are working here in the classical gravity of a differentiable manifold.
So let us do a bit of quantum statistical mechanics based on the notion that potential is a matter of numbers, ie entropy, and so we can see Cantor's theorem as an entropy and potential generator, that is a source of love which encouraged the universe to increase its entropy by creating space which enables the existence of many simultaneous states, and add to this fixed point theory via closure, logical continuity and convexity + the no-crossed-wires theorem to generate a digital expanding differentiable manifold in which we interpret the differentials as transformations wrought by Turing machines embedded in quanta of action. This is the general picture, details to be provided.
Thursday 26 November 2020
Pauli Relativity: page vi: 'I consider the theory of relativity to be an example showing how a fundamental scientific discovery sometimes, even against the resistance of its creator, gives birth to further fruitful developments, following their own autonomous course.'
Layers of symmetry:
1. Pure act [initial singularity]
2. Kinetic / potential ? Hilbert, quantum mechanics
3. Space-time (inertial) ? Minkowski (special relativity)
4. Space-time Einstein (general relativity
Hard to sort order out. To get real space we need real particles and we need the universe to begin observing itself to get |φ|2 and classical spacetime etc. Unless we see special and general relativity as 'naked quantum mechanics' and bring in particle after general relativity.
It seems that to get fixed point theorems going we need closed, convex continuous which means curved and general relativity and maybe 4D is necessary for closure.
Pauli page 4: ' Einstein has recently suggested an extension to the notion of an ether. It should no longer be regarded as a substance but simply as the totality of those physical qualities which are associated with matter free space. In this wider sense there does of course exist an ether, only one has to bear in mind that it does nit have any mechanical properties. In other words the physical qualities of matter free space have
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no space coordinates or velocities associated wth them.'
Pauli page 5: 'The velocity of light is independent of the motion of the light source.'
page 21: 'all physical laws should be invariant under the Lorentz transformation, ie the special theory of relativity is the theory of the invariants of the Lorentz group.'
page 22: 'two world points whose distance from one another is zero do not necessarily coincide.'
§8: More general transformation groups:
' In the general theory of relatiity it is no longer possible to define in the simple manner of x2 + y2 + z2 + u2 the interval between two world points which are a finite distance apart. But here too, the square of the distance ds between two infinitesimally near points can be written as a quadratic form of the coordinate differentials . . . ds2 = gikdxidxk . . . '
page 23: 'summary of transformation groups which are the most important for physics'
(D) 'The group of all point transformations to which the differential form ds2 = gikdxidxk is adjoint. Its invariant theory is the tensor calculus of the general theory of relativity.'
page 24: '(B) The affine group which contains all linear transformations.'
What is the group of computable transformations? [The group of lossless codecs? The group of unitary transformations>]
The basic principle of the peace effort is that we will do better by sharing and diplomacy than by rape, plunder and violence and that the world, lacking the attitudes ingrained by the zero sum aspects of evolution, does not have a natural preference for violence as the easy route to survival.
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Friday 27 November 2020
The problem we face with gravitation is that the Minkowski metric only exists in infinitesimally small regions in which gik = ηik and this approach is dictated by the structure of the differentiable manifold. On the other hand, given the finite quantum of action, infinitesimal tangent spaces are a fiction and in reality we have to think of the space-time manifold in terms of Minkowski spaces joined by connection coefficients which must be expressed in logically quantized functions which can be expressed by turing algorithms. So what does this mean for the general psychological lessons to be drawn from the general theory, particularly in the initial moments of the universe where the size of the quantum of action is significant?
On the physics of emotion, ie potential and movement in politics, love and war. On the passionate universe.
[An early move] Way back in 1975 when I first got Misner, Thorne and Wheeler was to dream up the 'generalized geodesic' which is the path of a human life through social space. Now I am stuck trying to get the general theory to take on
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the general theory of relativity theory of peace. Waiting for that elusive inspiration, the key to weightless passage through the space of life is the geodesic of love. A sexy idea, and probably within the representational power of the transfinite network, but it is hiding from me. Misner, Thorne and Wheeler (ref supra)
Saturday 28 November 2020
On applying general relativity to the theory of peace. It seems that it must be in some way relevant to the development of a peaceful universe, but how? The most obvious connection seems to be the induction of peace through the expansion of space, both in human communities by turning more of the Earth's resources toward human well being as mooted in the 1987 peace lecture and in the general expansion of the universe lowering its temperature and increasing its entropy which appears to be a consequence of [classical] general relativity [probably driven by quantum mechanics]. By lowering the temperature of space while explaining the formation of stars general relativity created the conditions for the sort of heat engine that makes Earth (and possibly other planets) the cradle of life. A theory of Peace
I am looking for more detail into this picture. I hav become quite attached to my network model of the universe as adumbrated in my thesis and would like to find a network version of the general theory that casts it as an instance of a developing and expanding mind creating itself (and therefore expanding) through time. In this view I wish to create a formal relationship between geodesics, love and peace. The idea here is to cast the flat tangent spaces as the local version of
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individual lovers (turing machines or people) communicating with one another by information carrying networks that are analogues of the connection coefficients in the differentiable manifold. We can model this in the same way as we did in the chapters on the mathematical community. Prolegomenon to Scientifc Theology, Scientific Theology: Chapter 6: Contructing the Divine World, part 3: The mathematical community
We can look upon the geodesic tangent space as in effect the communication channel of human insight into their subconscious minds expressed in speech and writing, in effect flattened versions of the passionate processes that occur within us to generate our overt thoughts and actions. We see this communication as analogous to quantum measurement which selects representations of particular quantum states out of the quasi-infinite set of states represented by the tensor products of the Hilbert spaces of interacting particles.
Why is general reativity and the world is describes so complicarted? We might consider it in parallel to the question why is the human subconscious mind so complicated, something that even individuals like myself cannot understand, which nevertheless is the source of the millions of words of discussion about the human condition recorded in these notebooks, which are in effect a sort of Cartesian tangent space of relatively clear and distinct ideas to the largely hidden differentiable manifold I call my subconscious mind which quietly determines everything I do and say in response to the situations in which I find myself. . . .
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In a world without particles, that is concentrations of energy like the Earth, all motion is free fall and this might be the initial state. We ask how particles are formed and answer that they are images of god. Images of the universe. They start with no structure but they become mirrors of the structure of their environment as it complexifies, as a species is a mirror of the ecosystem in which it evolved. To survive it must be able to deal with all the circumstances it encounters in its world and the same holds for a photon, an electron, neutron, star, galaxy etc.
This duality which makes real things is reflected in quantum measurement. I would not be real if my environment did not exist. Some may see the complexity of general relativity as being the space of Minkowski spaces reflecting in one another. Fixed point theory created fixed points by mapping the universe onto itself which is in effect what a mirror does. How does this work? I am a computable network reflected in my environment through the symmetry of quantum mechanics.
Love, as in the Trinity, is based on reflection and duality, the uniting of two compatible souls. God is love, love is duality, so duality is the source of reality, ie communication. Ie reference frames are parts of reality and it takes two to make a real thing, me and my environment which I love, formally if not emotionally.
One of Einstein's problems was finding a reference frame for the universe and he found the answer in gaussian coordinates which are a scheme for attaching numbers to points of space using only order without reference to any metric (as Descartes did). This left the question of metric open (symetrical) enabling
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him to devise a consistent metric which embraced the whole universe in a single group of transformations which he expressed in the language of his field theory built in the context of a Riemann's differentiable manifold. Here we want to use a larger group, the transfinite computable network to attach an address to every real point (source) in the universe and provide a group operation ([communication,] codec, unitary transformation) that connects all these points through their tangent spaces modelled as individual computers synchronised by a local personal clock, like me living in my own time as an element of this universe.
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Further readingBooks
Adams, Marilyn McCord, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God, Melbourne University Press 1999 Jacket: 'Thinkers in all societies have struggled to make sense of horrendous evil. This provocative book takes a religious perspective. It tackles a fundamental dilemma in Christian thought -- how to recocile faith in God with the evils that afflict human beings.
Distinguished Americal philosopher Marilyn McCord Adams argues that analytic philosophy of religion is too narrowly focussed. The ground rules for debate have allowed philosophers to avert their gaze from the very worst evils and from their impact on human lives.
She proposes a radical shift away from the preoccupation with morals and towards more fruitful evaluative categories such as purity, defilement, honour, shame and aesthetics. The innovative approach of Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God will challenge thinkers both religious and secular.'
Amazon
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Gribbin, John, Q is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics, Simon & Schuster 1998 Jacket: 'Here, in one volume, the award-winning science writer and physicist John Gribbin has provided everything you need to know about the quantum world—the place where most of the greatest scientific advances of the twentieth century have been made.'
Amazon
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Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding'
Amazon
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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. . . . '
Amazon
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Pagels, Heinz R, The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature, Michael Joseph 1983 Jacket: 'Pagels provides an overview of quantum physics and traces the historical development of the science, which began with the ancient Greek concepts of the "atom".'
Amazon
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Pauli, Wolfgang, Theory of Relativity, Dover Publications 1981 'Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) was one of the 20th-century's most influential physicists. He was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize for physics for the discovery of the exclusion principle (also called the Pauli principle). A brilliant theoretician, he was the first to posit the existence of the neutrino and one of the few early 20th-century physicists to fully understand the enormity of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Pauli's early writings, Theory of Relativity, published when the author was a young man of 21, was originally conceived as a complete review of the whole literature on relativity. Now, given the plethora of literature since that time and the growing complexity of physics and quantum mechanics, such a review is simply no longer possible.
In order to maintain a proper historical perspective of Professor Pauli's significant work, the original text is reprinted in full, in addition to the author's insightful retrospective update of the later developments connected with relativity theory and the controversial questions that it provokes.'
Amazon
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Thompson, Laura, Agatha Christie: An English Mystery, Headline Book Publishing 2009 Amazon Product Description
'A passionate and accomplished writer, Laura Thompson now turns her highly acclaimed biographical skills to Agatha Christie—arguably the greatest crime writer in the world. Thompson describes the Edwardian world in which Christie grew up; explores the relationships she had, including those with her two husbands and daughter; and investigates the mysteries still surrounding Christie's life—including her disappearance in 1926. For the first time, Christie’s six Mary Westmacott romance novels—written under a pseudonym and highly revelatory about her hidden inner life—are fully studied in a biography. Agatha Christie is a mystery and writing about her is a detection job in itself. But, with access to all of Christie's letters, papers, and writing notebooks, as well as interviews with her grandson, daughter, son-in-law, and their living relations, Thompson is able to unravel not only the detailed workings of Christies detective fiction, but the truth behind her private life as well.'
Amazon
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van Heijenoort, Jean, From Frege to Goedel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic 1879 - 1931. , iUniverse.com 1999 Amazon book description: 'Collected here in one volume are some thirty-six high quality translations into English of the most important foreign-language works in mathematical logic, as well as articles and letters by Whitehead, Russell, Norbert Weiner and Post…This book is, in effect, the record of an important chapter in the history of thought. No serious student of logic or foundations of mathematics will want to be without it.'
Amazon
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Papers
Pennisi, Elizabeth, "No Genome Left Behind", Science, 326, 5954, 6 November 2009, page 794-795. 'A project to sequence 10,000 vertebrates has just been launched, but sequencing technologies are not yet up to the task.'. back |
Links
Algebraic closure - Wikipedia, Algebraic closure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, I'n mathematics, particularly abstract algebra, an algebraic closure of a field K is an algebraic extension of K that is algebraically closed. It is one of many closures in mathematics.
Using Zorn's lemma, it can be shown that every field has an algebraic closure, and that the algebraic closure of a field K is unique up to an isomorphism that fixes every member of K. Because of this essential uniqueness, we often speak of the algebraic closure of K, rather than an algebraic closure of K. . . . The fundamental theorem of algebra states that the algebraic closure of the field of real numbers is the field of complex numbers.' back |
Andrew Jacobs, China Bars Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada (and Rights Advocate), 'TORONTO — Clasping hands with youngsters in red Communist Youth League scarves, contestants from more than 110 nations descended on the southern Chinese island of Hainan this week for the 65th annual Miss World contest.
But one contestant was absent from the opening ceremony: Miss Canada, otherwise known as Anastasia Lin, a 25-year-old actress and classically trained pianist who has been denied a Chinese visa to attend the monthlong pageant, apparently because of her outspoken advocacy for human rights and religious freedom in China' back |
Andrew Mitrovica, Australia gulty of state-sponsored terrorism, ' The evidence of Australia’s guilt is beyond dispute. It can be found in a just released report written by the military’s inspector general which took four years to produce and which details atrocities committed by scores of Australian terrorists dressed as soldiers who murdered scores of Afghans.
These home-grown terrorists in battle fatigues were recruited by Australia. They were trained by Australia. They were paid by Australia. They were sent to Afghanistan by Australia. They murdered civilians, including children, in Australia’s name.
The barbarity committed by Australia’s terrorists in battle fatigues – mostly, I suspect, white, Christian men – had one aim: to terrorise non-white, non-Christian Afghans.' back |
Anthony Burnham & Hugh O'Neill, Ancient Earth had a thick toxic atmosphere like Venus - until is cooled off and became liveable, back |
Aya Batrawy, In Saudi Arabia, artist Ashraf Fayadah sentenced to death for atheism, 'Dubai: When Palestinian artist Ashraf Fayadh was tried last year on blasphemy-related charges, the Saudi judges overseeing the case rejected the prosecution's request for a death sentence for apostasy. Instead, he was sentenced to 800 lashes and four years in prison over a book of poetry he wrote and for allegedly having illicit relations with women.
An appeal was filed and the case was sent back to the lower court, but this time around judges threw out defence witness testimony, refused to accept Mr Fayadh's repentance and on November 17 sentenced him to execution for apostasy.' back |
Carol Richards and Robyn Mayes, Link to mining sector are reventing Australian universities from divesting in fossil fuels, 'Strong links to the mining sector have put universities in a difficult position.
They are conflicted between climate concerns and the income they derive from vested interests with big mining companies.
While many Australian universities engage in the climate change debate, their commitment to divestment has, at best, been minimal.' back |
Closure (mathematics) - Wikipedia, Closure (mathematics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A set has closure under an operation if performance of that operation on members of the set always produces a member of the same set; in this case we also say that the set is closed under the operation. back |
Complex number - Wikipedia, Complex number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'IA complex number is a number that can be expressed in the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is the imaginary unit, which satisfies the equation i2 = −1. In this expression, a is the real part and b is the imaginary part of the complex number. Complex numbers extend the concept of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane (also called Argand plane) by using the horizontal axis for the real part and the vertical axis for the imaginary part.' back |
David Marr, The litany of child abuse by Catholic priests that no longer shocks the world. , 'Pell’s good work for the finances of the Melbourne archdiocese was documented dramatically by Furness in her opening address. Pell’s Melbourne Response paid victims so little. In Chicago each abuse claim has cost the church about US$1m. In Melbourne the tariff was $46,000.
It’s a little miracle. ' back |
Ella Archibald-Binge, Power generation: emerging Indigeous leaders on overcoming adversity and their next steps, ' Across Australia, more Indigenous people than ever are enrolling in university, finishing high school, starting businesses and carving out their own space in industries and institutions that historically excluded them. In the decade to 2018, year 12 attainment rates for Indigenous students jumped from 45 per cent to 66 per cent nationally, while the number of Indigenous people enrolling at university has more than doubled over the same period.
According to a 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the Indigenous population is under 30. The figures point to a new generation which is breaking barriers and changing what it means to be Indigenous.' back |
Feynman, Leighton & Sands, FLP III:1 Quantum behaviour, 'In this chapter we shall tackle immediately the basic element of the mysterious behaviour in its most strange form. We choose to examine a phenomenon which is impossible, absolutely impossible' to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. . . . ' back |
Feynman, Leighton &Sands, FLP III:5 Spin One, 'In this chapter we really begin the quantum mechanics proper—in the sense that we are going to describe a quantum mechanical phenomenon in a completely quantum mechanical way. We will make no apologies and no attempt to find connections to classical mechanics. We want to talk about something new in a new language. The particular situation which we are going to describe is the behavior of the so-called quantization of the angular momentum, for a particle of spin one.' back |
FM Broadcasting - Wikipedia, FM Broadcasting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia, 'FM broadcasting is a VHF broadcasting technology, pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong, which uses frequency modulation (FM) to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the frequency band in a given country which is dedicated to FM broadcasting. This term is slightly misleading, as it equates a modulation method with a range of frequencies.' back |
Frank Brennan, Cardinal Pell, his lawyers and the Royal Commission, 'For the sake of Pell's reputation, his lawyers will need to cross examine Green and Ridsdale testing their recollection and the consistency of their accounts, not about the sexual abuse they suffered, but about their recollections of any church cover-up.
The fact that these men were sexually abused as children is uncontested. The issue is whether their claims that Pell knew or tried to effect some form of cover-up are true and accurate recollections.
Given the high degree of scrutiny applied to Pell by the commission and the media, it's only fair that he have his lawyers cross examine these two victims who claim that he did not want to know that abuse occurred or even worse, that he tried to cover it up. And it is appropriate given that both Green and Ridsdale have indicated they have no objection being recalled to be so examined.' back |
Frequency modulation - Wikipedia, Frequency modulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation (FM) is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier wave varies, while the frequency remains constant.' back |
Hamid Dabashi, What to make of more than 70m Americans who voted for Trump?, ' On the morning of November 7, when Joe Biden was finally called as the winner of the election, there was a sigh of relief audible across America and the world. But the respite was brief. Now Americans and the rest of the world are wondering how some 70 million people could vote for Donald Trump, after his racist thuggery was on full display for so long.' back |
Hans de Vries, Physics Quest: The real symmetric representation of the Dirac equation, 'We describe how one can transform the standard representation of the Dirac equation into a new, spatially symmetric, real valued representation. It is shown that this new representation can be used as a direct replacement in QED and other standard model applications, it produces the same results and the notation is carefully chosen to be virtually identical to the standard notation.' back |
Hydrogen atom - Wikipedia, Hydrogen atom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. The electrically neutral atom contains a single positively charged proton and a single negatively charged electron bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force. Atomic hydrogen constitutes about 75% of the elemental (baryonic) mass of the universe.' back |
Interpretation of quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, Interpretation of quantum mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'An interpretation of quantum mechanics is a statement which attempts to explain how quantum mechanics informs our understanding of nature. Although quantum mechanics has received thorough experimental testing, many of these experiments are open to different interpretations. There exist a number of contending schools of thought, differing over whether quantum mechanics can be understood to be deterministic, which elements of quantum mechanics can be considered "real", and other matters.' back |
Jeff Sparrow, Conservatives' yearning for Islamis the love that dare not speak its name, 'This week, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph published a cover portraying the African-born Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammed as a monkey: a predictable manifestation of the Islamophobia unleashed since the atrocities in Paris.
But there’s a complementary phenomenon that’s less obvious – a wave of conservative Islamophilia. Yes, Islamophilia. back |
Jewel Topsfield, Mystery asylum seeker boat 'pushed back by Austrlian navy' found, back |
Joan Smith, Tributes to Diego Maradona show how easily violence against women is ignored, ' Judging by the outpouring of grief that followed his death, at the age of 60, it seems too big an ask to admit that our heroes, especially our sporting heroes, have been credibly accused of domestic violence. Maradona’s face just doesn’t fit in that unpleasant picture – unless you’ve seen the video.
First aired on an Argentine TV channel six years ago, it appears to show Maradona hitting his then girlfriend, a former professional football player called Rocio Oliva, who was three decades his junior. Unsteady on his feet, Maradona shouts at her and then appears to strike her twice. The slaps are clearly audible on the soundtrack, as is Oliva shouting at him in Spanish: “Stop, stop.” . back |
Karthik Ramanna, Ruling From the Shadows, '“The social responsibility of business,” Milton Friedman famously said in this newspaper 45 years ago, “is to increase its profits.” But he was careful to clarify that his dictum for business held true “so long as it stays within the rules of the game.” Our acute reliance on industry experts in thin political markets and the instances of their self-serving behavior together raise a curious challenge for capitalism. What is the social responsibility of business when it comes to setting the rules of the game? Can it ever be legitimate to manipulate the definition of profit in the spirit of increasing profits?' back |
Kinetoscope - Wikipedia, Kinetoscope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video, by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. ' back |
Kristin Huang, Negative views of China and Xi Jinping at record levels: international survey, ' Negative views about China have increased in recent years in many developed countries, most notably Australia
, according to a survey by the Pew Research Centre released on Tuesday.
The findings come at a time when China has adopted a more aggressive diplomatic approach towards the international community and is locked in disputes with other countries on multiple fronts ranging from trade to military.
Perceptions of China worsened the most in Australia, where 81 per cent of respondents said they saw it unfavourably
, up 24 percentage points from last year.' back |
Lisa Friedman, E.P.A.'s Final Deregulatory Rush Runs into Open Staff Resistance, ' With two months left of the Trump administration, career E.P.A. employees find themselves where they began, in a bureaucratic battle with the agency’s political leaders. But now, with the Biden administration on the horizon, they are emboldened to stymie Mr. Trump’s goals and to do so more openly.' back |
Liturgy of the Hours - Wikipedia, Liturgy of the Hours - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings. Together with the Mass, it constitutes the official public prayer life of the Church. Upon ordination to any of the Holy Orders, the daily recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours becomes a canonical obligation. The Liturgy of the Hours also forms the basis of prayer within Christian monasticism.' back |
Mass-energy equivalence - Wikipedia, Mass-energy equivalence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, In physics, mass–energy equivalence is the concept that any mass has an associated energy and vice versa. In special relativity this relationship is expressed using the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 where E is the energy of a physical system m is the mass of the system, and c = the speed of light in a vacuum . . . ' back |
Massimo Fagioli, A Reset With Rome, but Not at Home, ' It is disheartening but instructive to note the refusal of almost the entire U.S. episcopate to condemn Republican attacks on democracy, ranging from voter suppression to the undermining of the electoral process through baseless claims of fraud. Their lukewarm (at best) acknowledgement of Biden’s victory is disconcerting, as is their refusal, so far, to open a dialogue with the president-elect. Trump as of now still refuses to concede and persists with his efforts to overturn the results of an election he clearly lost—while the bishops say nothing. Their silence suggests not neutrality but partisanship, and only hastens the collapse of their credibility.' back |
Melissa Davey, 'No one listened" to hundreds of complaints about priest, says principal, 'Sleeman said when Dooley did not act on that or other complaints, he had written numerous letters to other senior figures within the archdiocese of Melbourne and the Catholic Education Office, asking for meetings and outlining his concerns.
The response had always been the same, Sleeman said – that there was not enough concrete evidence to investigate the complaints.
“The whole time these events went on, they did not ever give me any real support, assistance or care about how to handle this guy,” Sleeman said. “It was all done off my own back.
“I had to try and provide the best possible solutions to what I call the diabolical position I was in: how do I look after 400-and-something kids when we’ve got this raving lunatic loose?”' back |
Murong Xuecun, Beware of China's Safety Record, 'Mega-engineering projects are not immune from low building standards. From 2007 to 2012, 37 bridges reportedly collapsed, with a toll of 182 deaths.
These disasters are concealed by headlines touting China’s economic miracle. They are a result of the government’s love of mega-projects combined with rash planning, endemic corruption and careless construction, supervision and regulation.
As Chinese capital flows abroad, dangerous practices are at risk of being exported. China’s experience at home should serve as a warning to other governments and companies. Chinese firms may offer the lowest bid on an infrastructure project, but Chinese construction brings tremendous risks.' back |
Omer Benjakob, On Wikipedia, Israel Is Losing the Battle Against the Word 'Apartheid', ' The consensus that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank does not constitute a form of apartheid is shifting on Wikipedia. While the validity of drawing an analogy between Israel and the apartheid regime of South Africa has long been debated on Wikipedia, a new article titled “West Bank bantustans” shows cracks in the editorial agreements that have stood for almost a decade on the volunteer-edited online encylcopedia.' back |
Parmenides, Fragments 1-19, Burnet's English translation, '8 One path only is left for us to speak of, namely, that It is. In it are very many tokens that what is is uncreated and indestructible; for it is complete, immovable, and without end.' back |
Pat McConnell, 21st Century bank fraud demands a new generation of IT experts, 'It would seem that the world is vastly infested with dodgy code, a lot of it hiding behind the shield of ‘intellectual property’, ‘commercial in confidence’ etc etc. Code functions very like law, and despite the efforts of many dodgy lawmakers in Australia and elsewhere, it is a well established principle that the text of laws will be publicly available and that the High Court has the last say on what the words actually mean and whether the meaning is constitutionally acceptable. The law, in other words, is ‘open source’. Maybe it is time to implement this principle in all code which effects human health, safety and security, the stability of the financial system and in fact everything which impacts on the public welfare. If all this code was open source, millions of skilled eyes could go over it and alert the rest of it to deliberate or unintentional dodginess. It would seem, for instance, that there are forests of errors in the code employed by our governments in their efforts to get into the cybercentury while being too stingy to employ properly qualified software engineers to design and build their systems, eg http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/taxpayer-records-exposed-by-serious-ato-mygov-security-flaw-20151117-gl1kex' Jeffrey Nichols comment back |
Paul Krugman, In Praise of Janet Yellen the Economist, ' But the good news about Yellen goes beyond her ridiculously distinguished career in public service. Before she held office, she was a serious researcher. And she was, in particular, one of the leading figures in an intellectual movement that helped save macroeconomics as a useful discipline when that usefulness was under both external and internal assault. back |
Prime Infrastructure, Prime Infrastructure, 'Prime Infrastructure Group (ASX: BBI) (1) is a specialist infrastructure entity which provides investors access to a diversified portfolio of quality infrastructure assets. Prime Infrastructure's investment strategy focuses on owning, managing and operating quality infrastructure assets in Australia and internationally.
(1) ASX code expected to be changed around 7 December 2009. back |
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, 'The Commission was established on 23 May, 2000, pursuant to the “Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000” and given three primary functions:
to hear evidence of abuse from persons who allege they suffered abuse in childhood, in institutions, during the period from 1940 or earlier, to the present day;
to conduct an inquiry into abuse of children in institutions during that period and, where satisfied that abuse occurred, to determine the causes, nature, circumstances and extent of such abuse; and
to prepare and publish reports on the results of the inquiry and on its recommendations in relation to dealing with the effects of such abuse.' back |
United Nations, United Nations: Human Rights, 'Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.' back |
Venn diagram - Wikipedia, Venn diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A Venn diagram or set diagram is a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection of different sets. Venn diagrams were conceived around 1880 by John Venn. They are used to teach elementary set theory, as well as illustrate simple set relationships in probability, logic, statistics, linguistics and computer science.' back |
Waleeed Ali, Islamic Stte is a bit player in a much bigger fight, 'It takes a special kind of ideologically induced amnesia to ignore all this. It's an amnesia that takes centre stage in the American Republican party and the lunatic fringe of our own Coalition. But if Malcolm Turnbull is to be believed, this amnesia is not taking hold of Western leaders more generally. That's because they understand IS isn't a player. It's the Middle East's illegitimate child: a byproduct of the power vacuums of a broken region. It exists because it gets lost amid the much bigger fights going on around it – you know, between armies that actually have planes to shoot down. And you can do what you will to IS. Until those bigger fights are somehow resolved, there will always be a byproduct.' back |
Wang Xiangwei, China's extralegal detentions undermine Xi's rule of law ambitions, ' Over the past few days, state media played up Xi’s remarks that fairness and justice are the lifeline of the rule of law and that efforts should be made to enable people to see that justice is served in every judicial case.
“Just one wrongly adjudicated case can ruin the reputation accumulated through the fair trials of 99 cases,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.
But in reality, the authorities still resort to extralegal detentions and other coercive measures to deal with outspoken activists, lawyers, and academics. Such cases can sap the confidence of people, at both home and abroad, in Beijing’s promise to promote the rule of law.' back |
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