Armstrong, David, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Cambridge University Press 1989 Amazon product description: 'David Armstrong's book is a contribution to the philosophical discussion about possible worlds. Taking Wittgenstein's Tractatus as his point of departure, Professor Armstrong argues that nonactual possibilities and possible worlds are recombinations of actually existing elements, and as such are useful fictions. There is an extended criticism of the alternative-possible-worlds approach championed by the American philosopher David Lewis. This major work will be read with interest by a wide range of philosophers.' 
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Armstrong, David, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Cambridge University Press 1989 'David Armstrong's book is a contribution to the philosophical discussion about possible worlds. Taking Wittgenstein's Tractatus as his point of departure, Professor Armstrong argues that nonactual possibilities and possible worlds are recombinations of actually existing elements, and as such are useful fictions. There is an extended criticism of the alternative-possible-worlds approach championed by the American philosopher David Lewis. This major work will be read with interest by a wide range of philosophers.' 
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Newton, Isaac, and Julia Budenz, I. Bernard Cohen, Anne Whitman (Translators), The Principia Mathematica: I Principles of Natural Philosophy, University of California Press 1999 This completely new translation, the first in 270 years, is based on the third (1726) edition, the final revised version approved by Newton; it includes extracts from the earlier editions, corrects errors found in earlier versions, and replaces archaic English with contemporary prose and up-to-date mathematical forms. . . . The illuminating Guide to the Principia by I. Bernard Cohen, along with his and Anne Whitman's translation, will make this preeminent work truly accessible for today's scientists, scholars, and students. 
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Streater (2000), Raymond F, and Arthur S Wightman, PCT, Spin, Statistics and All That, Princeton University Press 2000 Amazon product description: 'PCT, Spin and Statistics, and All That is the classic summary of and introduction to the achievements of Axiomatic Quantum Field Theory. This theory gives precise mathematical responses to questions like: What is a quantized field? What are the physically indispensable attributes of a quantized field? Furthermore, Axiomatic Field Theory shows that a number of physically important predictions of quantum field theory are mathematical consequences of the axioms. Here Raymond Streater and Arthur Wightman treat only results that can be rigorously proved, and these are presented in an elegant style that makes them available to a broad range of physics and theoretical mathematics.' 
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van Inwagen, Peter, and Dean W Zimmerman, Metaphysics: The Big Questions (Philosophy: The Big Questions, Wiley-Blackwell 2008 Amazon Product Description 'This extensively revised and expanded edition of van Inwagen and Zimmerman’s popular collection of readings in metaphysics now features twenty-two additional selections, new sections on existence and reality, and an updated editorial commentary. Collects classic and contemporary readings in metaphysics Answers some of the most puzzling questions about our world and our place in it Covers an unparalleled range of topics Now includes a new section on existence and reality, expanded discussions on many classic issues, and an updated editorial commentary.' 
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van Inwagen, Peter, E J Lowe, "Why Is there anything at all?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 70, , 1996, page 111-120. 'The question that is my title is supposed to be the most profound and difficult of all questions. Some, indeed have said that it is a dangerous question, a question that can tear the mind asunder. But I think we can make some progress if we do not panic.

Let us begin by asking what would count as an answer to it. One sort of answer, the best if we can get it, would consist in a demonstration that it was impossible for there to be nothing. Or so I would suppose: if showing that it is impossible for a certain state of affairs to obtain doesn't count as answering the question why that state of affairs does not obtain, I don't know what would count.'. back

Andrei Sakharov - Wikipedia, Andrei Sakharov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов, IPA: [ɐnˈdrʲej dmʲiˈtrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf]; 21 May 1921 – 14 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights.[1] He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which he faced state persecution; these efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor. back

Aquinas 261, Whether an angel is altogether incorporeal, 'I answer that, There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself. And the perfect assimilation of an effect to a cause is accomplished when the effect imitates the cause according to that whereby the cause produces the effect; as heat makes heat. Now, God produces the creature by His intellect and will (14, 8; 19, 4 ). Hence the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal faculty; for every body is limited to "here" and "now." Hence the perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature.' back

Baryogenesis - Wikipedia, Baryogenesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In physical cosmology, baryogenesis is the physical process that is hypothesized to have taken place during the early universe to produce baryonic asymmetry, i.e. the imbalance of matter (baryons) and antimatter (antibaryons) in the observed universe.[1] One of the outstanding problems in modern physics is the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. The universe, as a whole, seems to have a nonzero positive baryon number density. Since it is assumed in cosmology that the particles we see were created using the same physics we measure today, it would normally be expected that the overall baryon number should be zero, as matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts.' back

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 769, The Church - perfected in glory, '769 "The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." ' back

Catholic Catechism p1, s2, c3, a9, p1, II. The Church's origin, foundation and mission, '769 "The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." ' back

Cecelia Tomori, Scientists: don’t feed the doubt machine, ' The field of agnotology (the study of deliberate spreading of confusion) shows how ignorance and doubt can be purposefully manufactured. Famous scholars include David Michaels, Marion Nestle and Naomi Oreskes. In September, Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, a non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia, quoted environmentalist Bill McKibben on Twitter in regard to climate change: “We spent a long time thinking we were engaged in an argument about data and reason …. But now we realize it’s a fight over money and power.” ' back

Chris Buckley, To Steer China’s Future, Xi Is Rewriting Its Past, ' The glowing image of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, greets visitors to museum exhibitions celebrating the country’s decades of growth. Communist Party biographers have worshipfully chronicled his rise, though he has given no hint of retiring. The party’s newest official history devotes over a quarter of its 531 pages to his nine years in power.' back

Christi van der Westhuizen, FW de Klerk: the last apartheid president was driven by pragmatism, not idealism , ' As a National Party loyalist De Klerk continued on Botha’s path of apartheid reformism, including through talks. But, unlike the strongman Botha, he was no securocrat. He came to believe that power sharing could not ultimately be imposed through state violence. Where Botha had faltered, De Klerk was able to take alternative steps. As a conservative National Party leader, he could bring most of the party and its constituency with him. It was not a change of heart that drove De Klerk. He had entered into a perfect postcolonial storm, from where there was no return.' back

Code of Canon Law 333, The Roman Pontiff, ' Can. 333 §1. By virtue of his office, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power over the universal Church but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them. Moreover, this primacy strengthens and protects the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which bishops possess in the particular churches entrusted to their care. §2. In fulfilling the office of supreme pastor of the Church, the Roman Pontiff is always joined in communion with the other bishops and with the universal Church. He nevertheless has the right, according to the needs of the Church, to determine the manner, whether personal or collegial, of exercising this office. §3. No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.' back

Ed Yong, The Enormous Hole That Whaling Left Behind, ' In the 20th century, the largest animals that have ever existed almost stopped existing. Baleen whales—the group that includes blue, fin, and humpback whales—had long been hunted, but as whaling went industrial, hunts became massacres. With explosive-tipped harpoons that were fired from cannons and factory ships that could process carcasses at sea, whalers slaughtered the giants for their oil, which was used to light lamps, lubricate cars, and make margarine. In just six decades, roughly the life span of a blue whale, humans took the blue-whale population down from 360,000 to just 1,000. In one century, whalers killed at least 2 million baleen whales, which together weighed twice as much as all the wild mammals on Earth today. ' back

HeLa - Wikipedia, HeLa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' HeLa is an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line. The line is named after and derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951, from Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American mother of five, who died of cancer on October 4, 1951. The cell line was found to be remarkably durable and prolific, which allows it to be used extensively in scientific study. . . . Lacks's case influenced the establishment of the Common Rule in 1981. The Common Rule enforces informed consent by ensuring that doctors inform patients if they plan to use any details of the patient's case in research and give them the choice of disclosing the details or not.' back

Henry Myer & Ilya Arkhipov, Putin Masses Troops to Tell NATO to Stay Out of Ukraine, ' Vladimir Putin has a message for the U.S. and its allies: Moscow won’t tolerate creeping expansion by their armed forces into Ukraine. That’s what he’s told German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other western officials who’ve called in recent days to warn him about what they say is a new accumulation of tanks and troops near the border with his neighbor that has Washington and some other capitals worried that the Russian president could be planning a repeat of the 2014 invasion.' back

Ian Ramsay Centre for Science and Religion, The Evolution of Morality and the Morality of Evolution, 'In 1876, the great utilitarian philosopher Henry Sigwick announced that the theory of evolution ‘has little bearing on ethics’. This opinion held sway among philosophers and biologists for almost 100 years, bolstered by the belief that the naturalistic fallacy had foreclosed on this question. From the 1970s, however, new work on kin selection, altruism, and co-operation reopened the debate. The same period witnessed growing interest from elements of the philosophical community interested in exploring questions raised for moral philosophy by evolutionary psychology and ethology. Theologians, too, have been concerned to assess whether this burgeoning field has implications for traditional theological doctrines. As a consequence of these developments evolutionary ethics is now a lively interdisciplinary field that seeks to address both the explanation of moral behaviours and their justification. This conference seeks to explore these new developments concerning the evolution of morality and their broader ramifications.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (July 2019), Entropy and metaethics, ' I propose an answer [to the problematic search for modern ethics] in terms of what Einstein considered to be the most fundamental and irrefutable law of nature, the second law of thermodynamics, which expresses the fact that entropy almost never decreases. In a more morally relevant frame, this law expresses the fact that the universe is inherently creative. Human spirituality, whatever it may be, has emerged from the natural world. back

John Gehrig, The Church Must Be Political, ' JG: You were one of only a few bishops who specifically challenged Donald Trump during the election, even saying that “for this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance.” Why did you speak out? . . . Because of that distaste for partisanship, it was very hard to speak out clearly about the former President of the United States. Yet to speak only in generalities would have been a failure to communicate at a critical time. When as a candidate or in office he was brashly demonstrating his disregard for the truth; spoke of immigrants in dehumanizing language; treated women as objects for sexual pleasure and disregarded their equal dignity; suggested that white supremacists marching in hate included very good people; had no difficulty bragging about never needing forgiveness; expanded the use of capital punishment; undid decades of progress for care of the environment; dismissed the concerns of labor and behaved in so many ways that are antithetical to what the Church teaches about the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life, I felt compelled to point out that these words and actions were completely opposed to being “pro-life” as the Church understands it.' back

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio: On the relationship between faith and reason. , para 2: 'The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).' back

Paideia - Wikipedia, Paideia - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 'In the culture of ancient Greece, the term paideia (/ Greek: παιδεία) referred to the rearing and education of the ideal member of the polis. It incorporated both practical, subject-based schooling and a focus upon the socialization of individuals within the aristocratic order of the polis.' back

R Abbott et al, GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the Second Part of the Third Observing Run, ' The third Gravitational-wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) describes signals detected with Ad- vanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo up to the end of their third observing run. Updating the previous 11 GWTC-2.1, we present candidate gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences during the second half of the third observing run (O3b) between 1 November 2019, 15:00 UTC and 27 March 2020, 17:00 UTC. There are 35 compact binary coalescence candidates identified by at least one of our search algorithms with a probability of astrophysical origin pastro > 0.5. Of these, 18 were previously reported as low-latency public alerts, and 17 are reported here for the first time. Based upon estimates for the component masses, our O3b candidates with pastro > 0.5 are consistent with gravitational-wave signals from binary black holes or neutron star–black hole binaries, and we identify none from binary neutron stars. However, from the gravitational-wave data alone, we are not able to measure matter effects that distinguish whether the binary components are neutron stars or black holes. The range of inferred component masses is similar to that found with previous catalogs, but the O3b candidates include the first confident observations of neutron star–black hole binaries. Including the 35 candidates from O3b in addition to those from GWTC-2.1, GWTC-3 contains 90 candidates found by our analysis with pastro > 0.5 across the first three observing runs. These observations of compact binary coalescences present an unprecedented view of the properties of black holes and neutron stars. PACS numbers: 04.80.Nn, 04.25.dg, 95.85.Sz, 97.80.-d, 04.30.Db, 04.30.Tv I. INTRODUCTION The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory (LIGO) [1] and Advanced Virgo [2] detectors have revealed the Universe’s abundance of gravitational wave (GW) sources. Here, we present the third LIGO Scientific, Virgo and KAGRA (LVK) Collab- oration Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC- 3), which records transient GW signals discovered up to the end of LIGO–Virgo’s third observing run (O3). This updates the previous GWTC-2 [3] and GWTC- 2.1 [4] by including signals found in the second part of O3 (O3b): this period comprises data taken between 1 November 2019, 15:00 UTC and 27 March 2020, 17:00 UTC. GWTC-3 adds 35 GW candidates from O3b that have an inferred probability of astrophysical compact binary coalescence (CBC) origin of pastro > 0.5 based upon the results of our search algorithms; additionally, there are 1048 subthreshold O3b candidates that do not meet the CBC pastro threshold but have a false alarm rate (FAR) < 2.0 day−1. With the inclusion of O3b candidates, GWTC-3 is the most comprehensive set of GW observations presented to date, and will further ad- vance our understanding of astrophysics [5], fundamental physics [6] and cosmology [7]. GWTC-3 contains candidate GWs from CBCs: merg- ing binaries consisting of black holes (BHs) and neutron stars (NSs). We analyze in detail the properties of can- didates with pastro > 0.5. Previously reported from O3b are the GW candidates GW200115 042309 and GW200105 162426, which are consistent with originat- ing from neutron star–black hole binaries (NSBHs) [8]. The naming of these GW candidates follows the for- mat GWYYMMDD hhmmss, encoding the date and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of the signal. In the GWTC-3 analysis, GW200105 162426 is found to have pastro < 0.5; however, it remains a candidate of interest, a Deceased, August 2020. and is discussed in detail in later sections. In addition to GW200115 042309 and GW200105 162426, the O3b candidates include GW191219 163120 that is consistent with originating from a NSBH, and GW200210 092254 that could either be from a NSBH or a binary black hole (BBH) as its less massive component has a mass (m2 = 2.83+0.47−0.42M , quoting the median and symmetric 90% credible interval) that spans the range for possible NSs and BHs. All the other candidates are consistent with being GW signals from BBHs, as their inferred com- ponent masses are above the theoretical upper limit of the NS maximum mass [9, 10]. Among the O3b candidates with pastro > 0.5, we expect ∼ 10–15% of candidates to be false alarms caused by instrumental noise fluctua- tions; a smaller, higher purity sample of candidates could be obtained by adopting a stricter threshold. During O3, low-latency public alerts were issued through Gamma-ray Coordinate Network (GCN) Notices and Circulars for GW candidates found by initial searches of the data [3, 11]. These public alerts enable the as- tronomy community to search for multimessenger coun- terparts to potential GW signals. There were 39 low- latency candidates reported during O3b. Of these, 18 (excluding GW200105 162426) survive our detailed anal- yses to be included as potential CBC signals in GWTC- 3. Additionally, GWTC-3 includes 17 candidates with pastro > 0.5 that have not been previously presented. No confident multimessenger counterparts have currently been reported from the O3b candidates (as reviewed in Appendix A). The total number of GW candidates with pastro > 0.5 in GWTC-3 is 90, compared with 3 candidates found by LVK analyses after the end of the first observing run (O1) [12, 13], 11 in GWTC-1 after the end of the second observing run (O2) [14], and 55 in GWTC-2.1 after the end of the first part of O3 (O3a) [4]. Additional candi- dates have also been reported by other searches of public data [15–19]. The dramatic increase in the number of GW candidates during O3 was enabled by the improved sensitivity of the detector network. A conventional mea- sure of sensitivity is the binary neutron star (BNS) inspi- back

Richard P. Feynman (1965), Nobel Lecture: The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics, Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1965: I did gather from my readings, however, that two things were the source of the difficulties with the quantum electrodynamical theories. The first was an infinite energy of interaction of the electron with itself. And this difficulty existed even in the classical theory. The other difficulty came from some infinites which had to do with the infinite numbers of degrees of freedom in the field. As I understood it at the time (as nearly as I can remember) this was simply the difficulty that if you quantized the harmonic oscillators of the field (say in a box) each oscillator has a ground state energy of (½hω and there is an infinite number of modes in a box of every increasing frequency &omeaga;, and therefore there is an infinite energy in the box. I now realize that that wasn’t a completely correct statement of the central problem; it can be removed simply by changing the zero from which energy is measured. At any rate, I believed that the difficulty arose somehow from a combination of the electron acting on itself and the infinite number of degrees of freedom of the field.' back

Rolf Landauer , Information is a Physical Entity, 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back

Ross Gittins, Labor's bluff called on bank competition, 'There are no good guys in the fuss over "unofficial" rises in mortgage interest rates. Each of the players is on the make: the greedy banks, the self-pitying punters, the commercially driven media and the insincere pollies.' back

Shery Gay Stolberg & Rebecca Robbins, Moderna and U.S. at Odds Over Vaccine Patent Rights, ' WASHINGTON — Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are in a bitter dispute over who deserves credit for inventing the central component of the company’s powerful coronavirus vaccine, a conflict that has broad implications for the vaccine’s long-term distribution and billions of dollars in future profits. The vaccine grew out of a four-year collaboration between Moderna and the N.I.H., the government’s biomedical research agency — a partnership that was widely hailed when the shot was found to be highly effective. A year ago this month, the government called it the “N.I.H.-Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.” The agency says three scientists at its Vaccine Research Center — Dr. John R. Mascola, the center’s director; Dr. Barney S. Graham, who recently retired; and Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett, who is now at Harvard — worked with Moderna scientists to design the genetic sequence that prompts the vaccine to produce an immune response, and should be named on the “principal patent application.” Moderna disagrees. In a July filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the company said it had “reached the good-faith determination that these individuals did not co-invent” the component in question. Its application for the patent, which has not yet been issued, names several of its own employees as the sole inventors. back

Steven Lee Myers, China’s Communist Elite Meet as Xi Jinping Tightens His Grip, ' China’s Communist Party is poised to deliver Xi Jinping a momentous breakthrough this week that will help secure his political future — by rewriting history. Senior party officials have gathered at a closed-door meeting in Beijing to cement Mr. Xi’s dominance as he moves to claim a likely third term next year as China’s leader. The meeting, known as the plenum, is expected to approve a decision on Thursday that will reassess the party’s 100-year history and enshrine Mr. Xi in the party’s official firmament of era-defining leaders. The move would elevate Mr. Xi to a stature alongside Mao Zedong, the founder of the country’s Communist rule, and Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of its economic takeoff. back