Babur (2020), Zahiru'd-din Mohammad, and Annette Susannah Beveridge (Translator) and William Dalrymple (Introduction), The Babur Nama, Knopf / Penguin Random House 2020 Jacket: 'Zahiru'd-din Mohammad Babu (1485-1530) a poet-prince from central Asia, was the first Mughal emperor and author of one of the most remarkable autobiographies in world Literature. The Babur Nama reveals its author as not only a military genius but also a ruler unusually magnanimous for his time, cultured, witty and possessing a talent for poetry, an adventurous spirit and an acute eye for natural beauty.' 
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Burleigh (2005), Michael, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War, HarperCollins 2005 ' In this masterful, stylish and authoritative book Michael Burleigh gives us an epic history of the battles over religion in modern Europe. Examining the ways in which politics and religion have influenced each other over the last two hundred years, he reveals that throughout history the two realms have interacted in complex and sometimes lethal ways—just as they still do today. The overall effect was a widespread increase in secularism and a demystification of the power of politcs.  
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Al Jazeera, Five key takeaways from Biden’s National Security Strategy, The NSS labelled China as the “most consequential geopolitical challenge" . . . . The NSS accuses Russia of posing an “immediate and persistent threat to international peace and stability” . . . the NSS said “smaller autocratic powers” are acting aggressively in ways that compromise global stability. “Most notably, Iran interferes in the internal affairs of neighbors . . . “We will seek to extend and deepen Israel’s growing ties to its neighbors and other Arab states, including through the Abraham Accords, while maintaining our ironclad commitment to its security,”. . . The report said despite growing competition between countries, the US “must maintain and increase international cooperation on shared challenges”.' back

Alexander Temerko, Putin has crossed the Rubicon, ' The world does not recognize a Russian Federation that includes the annexed territories, from Luhansk to Kherson, and it doesn’t recognize such a leader either. What Putin has done, by “incorporating” this territory is to deprive himself of the remnants of legitimacy. . . . Yet, the crimes Putin has committed have made him not only illegitimate but also an international criminal — and communication with an international criminal is possible only via an international court. . . . Putin’s referendums are so divorced from reality, and set such a destructive legal precedent, that the only option for the international community is to now remove Russia’s seat at the U.N. Security Council. Russia’s war is no longer a local war; it’s no longer just about Ukraine, or even Europe. It’s now a war aimed at upending an international world order that’s been built since the defeat of the previous aggressive, fascist regime in Europe 75 years ago.' back

Aquinas, Summa II, II, 162, 7, Is pride the first sin of all?, 'I answer that, The first thing in every genus is that which is essential. Now . . . aversion from God, which is the formal complement of sin, belongs to pride essentially, and to other sins, consequently. Hence it is that pride fulfils the conditions of a first thing, and is "the beginning of all sins," . . . ' back

Armageddon - Wikipedia, Armageddon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Armageddon is the site of an epic battle associated with the end time prophecies of the Abrahamic religions. . . . Most traditions interpret this Bible prophecy to be symbolic of the progression of the world toward the "great day of God, the Almighty" in which God pours out his just and holy wrath against unrepentant sinners, led by Satan, in a literal end-of-the-world final confrontation.[14] 'Armageddon' is the symbolic name given to this event based on scripture references regarding divine obliteration of God's enemies. The hermeneutical method supports this position by referencing Judges 4 and 5 where God miraculously destroys the enemy of their elect, Israel, at Megiddo.' back

Buddhism - Wikipedia, Buddhism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia.' back

CIA World Factbook, Iran, ' Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and Shah Mohammad Reza PAHLAVI was forced into exile. Conservative clerical forces led by Ayatollah Ruhollah KHOMEINI established a theocratic system of government with ultimate political authority vested in a learned religious scholar referred to commonly as the Supreme Leader who, according to the constitution, is accountable only to the Assembly of Experts - a popularly elected 88-member body of clerics.' back

Cooperation - Wikipedia, Cooperation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal and plant species cooperate both with other members of their own species and with members of other species (symbiosis or mutualism).' back

Deina Abdelkader, Hijab rules have nothing to do with Islamic tenets and everything to do with repressing women , ' Islam’s basic tenets are that humans share a direct relationship with God without the interference of individuals or any organizations. The Quran does not stipulate that women shouldn’t drive, as in Saudi Arabia, or that women should be forced to wear conservative dress. While the Quran asks both men and women to dress modestly, it does not discriminate.' back

Dyani Lewis, Climate justice: UN rules Australia violated islander rights, ' What did the UN committee decide? The committee ruled that the Australian government did violate islanders’ rights in failing to implement adaptation measures to protect their homes, private lives and families — as well as their ability to maintain their traditional way of life, and to pass on their culture and traditions to future generations. It also decided that the Torres Strait Islanders were entitled to compensation for the harm that they have suffered. The decision focused on adaptation, and basically ignored mitigation. Adaptation failures are much easier to prove, because there is no need to grapple with the question of who has caused the harms. It was enough to point out, for example, that the Australian government had failed to build the seawalls requested, which would have helped the communities to adapt to climate change.' back

Elle Hardy, Hillsong is facing catastrophe but the Houstons will be loath to give up control, ' Then there’s the damage to the wider brand. Hillsong’s finances are fairly opaque, but we know from other similar churches that the vast majority of their income – upwards of 80% – come from music and merchandise sales. Some 50 million people sing Hillsong songs each week in churches around the world, and its channels have had more than a billion views on YouTube. If they begin tuning out – or tuning into Hillsong’s many imitators – the entire brand could be in real trouble. For context, Hillsong church has 1.8 million Facebook followers. Its two musical arms, Hillsong United and Hillsong Worship, have a combined 12.8 million. Hillsong’s branding and financial muscle is entirely wedded to its musical empire, without which it wouldn’t have been able to spread aggressively and successfully across 30 countries on six continents.' back

Forrest Gump - Wikipedia, Forrest Gump - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field. The film follows several decades in the life of a slow-witted and kindhearted Alabama man named Forrest Gump (Hanks) and his experiences in the 20th-century United States. The film differs substantially from the novel.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1992a), An essay on value, ' 1 We must kill to live. The question before is is whether or not to kill some fraction of the old growth forest (OGF) in the Wingham management area (WMA) in order to keep the sawmilling operation at Mt George alive. Religion 2 Although the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as we have it, is a document based largely on resource, commercial and employment considerations, I believe the Commission is facing a religious issue, and will have no peace until it realizes that fact. 3 Matters of life and death are questions of religion. For those who have power over life and death, deciding what to kill is a question of value. The value system of any organism is determined by the history of its survival. 4 If the decision is good, the benefit from killing will exceed the value of what is destroyed, yielding a profit and enhanced probability of survival. A wrong judgment of value leads to the opposite result.' back

John Milton (1674), Paradise Lost (The John Milton Reading Room)), ' BOOK 1 THE ARGUMENT This first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was plac't: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who revolting from God, and drawing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep.' back

Jules Sergei Fedlunin, Has Vladimir Putin been outflanked by the Russian far right? , ' Will the Kremlin be able to channel the growing warmongering zeal? In view of the intensity of the rhetoric of the various wings of the Russian far right, backed recently by several Putin allies including the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, it is doubtful: whatever the outcome of the war in Ukraine, nationalist pressure is likely to become a serious and lasting threat to Russia’s internal stability. back

Land and Environment Court of NSW, Biodiversity cases, 'Nicholls v Director General of National Parks and Wildlife [1994] NSWLEC 155 - external site launch; (1994) 84 LGERA 397 (whether fauna impact statement is adequate under former s 92D of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974) back

Lust - Wikipedia, Lust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Lust is a psychological force producing intense desire for something, or circumstance while already having a significant amount of the desired object. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food (see gluttony) as distinct from the need for food or lust for redolence, when one is lusting for a particular smell that brings back memories. It is similar to but distinguished from passion, in that passion propels individuals to achieve benevolent goals whilst lust does not.' back

Manon Bischoff, Can God Be Proved Mathematically?, Manon Bischoff is an editor at Spektrum der Wissenschaft. She primarily covers mathematics and computer science and writes the column the Fabulous World of Mathematics. Bischoff studied physics at Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany and then worked as a research assistant at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. back

NSWLEC 155 (29 September 1994), Jeffrey Nicholls v Director General National Patks and Wildlife Service NSWLEC 155 , ' Applying the statement of the precautionary principle, the applicant says the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to minimise impact. . . . In Leatch at 281 - 283, Stein J discussed the precautionary principle noting that, while there is no express provision requiring consideration of it, the adoption of a cautious approach in protection of endangered fauna is clearly consistent with the subject matter, scope and purpose of the NPW Act. . . . As Stein J noted, the 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement provides, at 3.5.1, in the application of the precautionary principle, public and private decisions should be guided by: "(i) careful evaluation to avoid, wherever practicable, serious or irreversible damage to the environment; and (ii) as assessment of the risk-weighted consequences of various options".' That is a practical approach which this Court finds axiomatic, in dealing with environmental assessment.' back

Precautionary principle - Wikipedia, Precautionary principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The precautionary principle (or precautionary approach) is a broad epistemological, philosophical and legal approach to innovations with potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. It emphasizes caution, pausing and review before leaping into new innovations that may prove disastrous. . . . In some legal systems, as in law of the European Union, the application of the precautionary principle has been made a statutory requirement in some areas of law. Regarding international conduct, the first endorsement of the principle was in 1982 when the World Charter for Nature was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, while its first international implementation was in 1987 through the Montreal Protocol. Soon after, the principle integrated with many other international treaties and guidelines such as the Rio Declaration and Kyoto Protocol.' back

Prudence - Wikipedia, Prudence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Prudence (Latin: prudentia, contracted from providentia meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtues (which are, with the three theological virtues, part of the seven virtues). Prudentia is an allegorical female personification of the virtue, whose attributes are a mirror and snake, who is frequently depicted as a pair with Justitia, the Roman goddess of Justice. ' back

Reign of Terror - Wikipedia, Reign of Terror - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Reign of Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. There is disagreement among historians over when exactly "the Terror" began. Some consider it to have begun only in 1793, giving the date as either 5 September,[1] June[2] or March, when the Revolutionary Tribunal came into existence. Others, however, cite the earlier time of the September Massacres in 1792, or even July 1789, when the first killing of the revolution occurred.' back

Robert Frost (1929), Drama, ' Everything written is as good as it is dramatic. It need not declare itself in form, but it is drama or nothing. A least lyric alone may have a hard time, but it can make a beginning, and lyric will be piled on lyric till all are easily heard as sung or spoken by a person in a scene — in character, in a setting. By whom, where and when is the question.' Preface to A Way Out : A One-act Play (1929) back

Robin McKie, Gene-edited sheep offer hope for treatment of lethal childhood disease , ' A flock of gene-edited sheep has been used by scientists to pinpoint a promising treatment for a lethal inherited brain disease that afflicts young children. The researchers, based in the UK and US, say their work could lead to the development of drugs to alleviate infantile Batten disease. In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults and is inherited from two symptomless parents who each carry a rare recessive gene mutation. Children who carry two copies of this faulty gene begin to suffer loss of vision, impaired cognition and mobility problems. Seizures and early death follow. “The effect on families is devastating,” said Professor Jonathan Cooper of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, one of the project’s leaders.' back

Roman Economy - Wikipedia, Roman Economy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The study of the Roman economy, which is, the economies of the ancient city-state of Rome and its empire during the Republican and Imperial periods remains highly speculative. There are no surviving records of business and government accounts, such as detailed reports of tax revenues, and few literary sources regarding economic activity. Instead, the study of this ancient economy is today mainly based on the surviving archeological and literary evidence that allow researchers to form conjectures based on comparisons with other more recent pre-industrial economies.' back

Ross Douthat, How Catholics Became Prisoners of Vatican II, ' The Second Vatican Council, the great revolution in the life of the modern Catholic Church, opened 60 years ago this week in Rome. So much of that 1960s-era world has passed away, but the council is still with us; indeed for a divided church its still-unfolding consequences cannot be escaped. For a long time this would have been a liberal claim. In the wars within Catholicism that followed the council, the conservatives interpreted Vatican II as a discrete and limited event — a particular set of documents that contained various shifts and evolutions (on religious liberty and Catholic-Jewish relations especially) and opened the door to a revised, vernacular version of the Mass. For the liberals, though, these specifics were just the starting place: There was also a “spirit” of the council, similar to the Holy Spirit in its operation, that was supposed to guide the church into further transformations, perpetual reform.' back

Ryan M. Lau et al, Nested dust shells around the Wolf–Rayet binary WR 140 observed with JWST, ' Abstract Massive colliding-wind binaries that host a Wolf–Rayet (WR) star present a potentially important source of dust and chemical enrichment in the interstellar medium. However, the chemical composition and survival of dust formed from such systems is not well understood. The carbon-rich Wolf–Rayet binary WR 140 presents an ideal astrophysical laboratory for investigating these questions, given its well-defined orbital period and predictable dust-formation episodes every 7.93 years around periastron passage. We present observations from our Early Release Science programme (ERS 1349) with the James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium-Resolution Spectrometer and Imager that reveal the spectral and spatial signatures of nested circumstellar dust shells around WR 140. MIRI medium-resolution spectroscopy of the second dust shell and Imager detections of over 17 shells formed throughout approximately the past 130 years confirm the survival of carbonaceous dust grains from WR 140 that are probably carriers of ‘unidentified infrared’-band features at 6.4 and 7.7 μm. The observations indicate that dust-forming carbon-rich Wolf–Rayet binaries can enrich the interstellar medium with organic compounds and carbonaceous dust.' back

Scientism - Wikipedia, Scientism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Scientism is the opinion that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. . . . More generally, scientism is often interpreted as science applied "in excess". This use of the term scientism has two senses: 1. The improper use of science or scientific claims This usage applies equally in contexts where science might not apply, such as when the topic is perceived as beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. . . . 2. "The belief that the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other inquiry", or that "science, and only science, describes the world as it is in itself, independent of perspective" with a concomitant "elimination of the psychological [and spiritual] dimensions of experience".' back

Tom Birkett, Far-right extremists keep co-opting Norse symbolism – here’s why , ' Norse symbolism has long appealed to the far right. The architects of Nazism in the 1930s erroneously viewed Norse mythology preserved in Iceland as a repository of “Germanic” culture and values that had been forcibly erased elsewhere, including by the influence of Christianity. They found support for their aggression in stories about a necessary war and plundered pre-Christian imagery for the iconography of the Third Reich.' back

War in the Vendée - Wikipedia, War in the Vendée - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The War in the Vendée (French: Guerre de Vendée) was a counter-revolution from 1793 to 1796 in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. . . . During the autumn, the arrival of the Army of Mainz as reinforcements restored the advantage to the Republican camp, which in October seized Cholet, the most important city controlled by the Vendeans. . . . The Vendée still experienced last and brief uprisings with a third war in 1799, a fourth in 1815 and a fifth in 1832 but they are on a much smaller scale. The number of victims is revealed at approximately 200,000 dead, including approximately 170,000 for the inhabitants of the military Vendée, i.e. between 20 and 25% of the population of the insurgent territory.' back

Washington Post: Editorial Board, Opinion: After war, after Putin, what’s next for Russia?, back