Feynman (2002), Richard, Feynman Lectures on Gravitation, Westview Press 2002 ' The Feynman Lectures on Gravitation are based on notes prepared during a course on gravitational physics that Richard Feynman taught at Caltech during the 1962-63 academic year. For several years prior to these lectures, Feynman thought long and hard about the fundamental problems in gravitational physics, yet he published very little. These lectures represent a useful record of his viewpoints and some of his insights into gravity and its application to cosmology, superstars, wormholes, and gravitational waves at that particular time. The lectures also contain a number of fascinating digressions and asides on the foundations of physics and other issues. ' 
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Lonergan (1992), 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' 
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Albert Einstein (1915), The Field Equations of Gravitation, ' In two recently published papers I have shown how to obtain field equations of gravitation that comply with the postulate of general relativity, i.e., which in their general formulation are covariant under arbitrary substitutions of space-time variables. . . . With this, we have finally completed the general theory of relativity as a logical structure. The postulate of relativity in its most general formulation (which makes space-time coordinates into physically meaningless parameters) leads with compelling necessity to a very specific theory of gravitation that also explains the movement of the perihelion of Mercury. However, the postulate of general relativity cannot reveal to us anything new and different about the essence of the various processes in nature than what the special theory of relativity taught us already.' back

Andreea Frost (2024_09_13), Cosmology is at a tipping point – we may be on the verge of discovering new physics, ' For the past few years, a series of controversies have rocked the well-established field of cosmology. In a nutshell, the predictions of the standard model of the universe appear to be at odds with some recent observations. There are heated debates about whether these observations are biased, or whether the cosmological model, which predicts the structure and evolution of the entire universe, may need a rethink. Some even claim that cosmology is in crisis. Right now, we do not know which side will win. But excitingly, we are on the brink of finding that out. To be fair, controversies are just the normal course of the scientific method. And over many years, the standard cosmological model has had its share of them. This model suggests the universe is made up of 68.3% “dark energy” (an unknown substance that causes the universe’s expansion to accelerate), 26.8% dark matter (an unknown form of matter) and 4.9% ordinary atoms, very precisely measured from the cosmic microwave background – the afterglow of radiation from the Big Bang.' back

AP & Jonathan Lis (2024-09-22), Israel Raids and Shuts Down Al Jazeera's Bureau in West Bank While Live on Air, ' Israeli soldiers raided the Ramallah office live on air, ordering it to close for the next 45 days. 'We will continue to fight the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters,' Israel's communications minister said. Israeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down, amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza . Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera's broadcast position in Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites.' back

Aquinas, Summa I, 50, 4, Is every angel a different species?, ' . . . such things as agree in species but differ in number, agree in form, but are distinguished materially. If, therefore, the angels be not composed of matter and form, as was said above (Article 2), it follows that it is impossible for two angels to be of one species; just as it would be impossible for there to be several whitenesses apart, or several humanities, since whitenesses are not several, except in so far as they are in several substances.' back

Boson - Wikipedia, Boson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In particle physics, bosons are particles with an integer spin, as opposed to fermions which have half-integer spin. From a behaviour point of view, fermions are particles that obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics while bosons are particles that obey the Bose-Einstein statistics. They may be either elementary, like the photon, or composite, as mesons. All force carrier particles are bosons. They are named after Satyendra Nath Bose. In contrast to fermions, several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. Thus, bosons with the same energy can occupy the same place in space.' back

Bruce Yabsley (24_09_19), Even the heaviest particles experience the usual quantum weirdness, new experiment shows, ' One of the most surprising predictions of physics is entanglement, a phenomenon where objects can be some distance apart but still linked together. The best-known examples of entanglement involve tiny chunks of light (photons), and low energies. At the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, the world’s largest particle accelerator, an experiment called ATLAS has just found entanglement in pairs of top quarks: the heaviest particles known to science. The results are described in a new paper from my colleagues and me in the ATLAS collaboration, published today in Nature. back

Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, Quantum computation, 'The Australian Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology is an international research effort to develop the science and technology of a global quantum computing information network, encompassing ultra-fast quantum computation, absolutely secure quantum communication and distributed quantum information processing.' back

Christopher Hitchens (2007_01_01), Why Women Aren't Funny, ' Be your gender what it may, you will certainly have heard the following from a female friend who is enumerating the charms of a new (male) squeeze: “He’s really quite cute, and he’s kind to my friends, and he knows all kinds of stuff, and he’s so funny . . . “ (If you yourself are a guy, and you know the man in question, you will often have said to yourself, “Funny? He wouldn’t know a joke if it came served on a bed of lettuce with sauce béarnaise.”) However, there is something that you absolutely never hear from a male friend who is hymning his latest (female) love interest: “She’s a real honey, has a life of her own . . . [interlude for attributes that are none of your business] . . . and, man, does she ever make ‘em laugh.” Now, why is this? Why is it the case?, I mean. Why are women, who have the whole male world at their mercy, not funny? Please do not pretend not to know what I am talking about.' back

Claude Shannon (1949), Communication in the Presence of Noise, 'A method is developed for representing any communication system geometrically. Messages and the corresponding signals are points in two “function spaces,” and the modulation process is a mapping of one space into the other. Using this representation, a number of results in communication theory are deduced concerning expansion and compression of bandwidth and the threshold effect. Formulas are found for the maximum rate of transmission of binary digits over a system when the signal is perturbed by various types of noise. Some of the properties of “ideal” systems which transmit at this maximum rate are discussed. The equivalent number of binary digits per second for certain information sources is calculated.' [C. E. Shannon , “Communication in the presence of noise,” Proc. IRE, vol. 37, pp. 10–21, Jan. 1949.] back

Dan Barry (2024_09_15) , An Irish Bishop Was Buried in a Cathedral Vault. His Secrets Were Not., ' Incense and awkwardness commingled. Bishop Casey, who was 89, had once been the charismatic and progressive leader of the Galway Diocese, in western Ireland. But the disclosure in 1992 that he had fathered a child with a distant American cousin, and then refused to have anything to do with the boy, had rocked the Catholic-dominant country and sent him into the wilderness. At the funeral, a fellow bishop referred to Bishop Casey’s “profoundly upsetting” actions. Then pallbearers carried his wooden coffin down to the cathedral’s crypt, the apparent end to the story of a charismatic but duplicitous cleric whose transgressions at least had been with a consenting adult. But the past is patient. In late July, seven years after Bishop Casey’s death, Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, aired a sobering television documentary asserting that an affair was the least of the man’s covered-up offenses. The disturbing allegations, including that he had begun sexually abusing a niece when she was 5, have now ignited demands that his remains be removed from the crypt — that he effectively be evicted from the sacred ground reserved for the former bishops of Galway.' back

Dark energy - Wikipedia, Dark energy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted hypothesis to explain the observations since the 1990s indicating that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.' back

Dark matter - Wikipedia, Dark matter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Dark matter is an unidentified type of matter comprising approximately 27% of the mass and energy in the observable universe that is not accounted for by dark energy, baryonic matter (ordinary matter), and neutrinos. The name refers to the fact that it does not emit or interact with electromagnetic radiation, such as light, and is thus invisible to the entire electromagnetic spectrum.' back

Dheeraj R Pasham (2022_11_30), The Birth of a Relativistic Jet Following the Disruption of a Star by a Cosmological Black Hole, ' A black hole can launch a powerful relativistic jet after it tidally disrupts a star. If this jet fortuitously aligns with our line of sight, the overall brightness is Doppler boosted by several orders of magnitude. Consequently, such on-axis relativistic tidal disruption events have the potential to unveil cosmological (redshift z > 1) quiescent black holes and are ideal test beds for understanding the radiative mechanisms operating in super-Eddington jets. Here we present multiwavelength (X-ray, UV, optical and radio) observations of the optically discovered transient AT 2022cmc at z = 1.193. Its unusual X-ray properties, including a peak observed luminosity of ≳1048 erg s−1, systematic variability on timescales as short as 1,000 s and overall duration lasting more than 30 days in the rest frame, are traits associated with relativistic tidal disruption events. The X-ray to radio spectral energy distributions spanning 5–50 days after discovery can be explained as synchrotron emission from a relativistic jet (radio), synchrotron self-Compton (X-rays) and thermal emission similar to that seen in low-redshift tidal disruption events (UV/optical). Our modelling implies a beamed, highly relativistic jet akin to blazars but requires extreme matter domination (that is, a high ratio of electron-to-magnetic-field energy densities in the jet) and challenges our theoretical understanding of jets.' back

Differential geometry - Wikipedia, Differential geometry - Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia, ' Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that uses the techniques of differential calculus and integral calculus, as well as linear algebra and multilinear algebra, to study problems in geometry. The theory of plane and space curves and of surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space formed the basis for development of differential geometry during the 18th century and the 19th century. Since the late 19th century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with the geometric structures on differentiable manifolds.' back

Ellie Smith & Melanie Klinker(2024_09_1), How the world’s first open-source digital map of mass graves could help bring justice to victims in Ukraine and other war zones, ' Mass graves were reported in Ukraine soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, and were promptly probed by investigators and forensic experts as likely crime scenes. Soon after the war began, we started to collate information on potential mass grave sites, hoping to get a better understanding of the practicalities of documenting the location of mass graves in real time using open-source information, and to stress test tools that we had developed to support mapping. It was exacting work: the internet was flooded with reports from many different sources, from potential victims and witnesses to journalists and analysts. The volume of material available to us was enormous, and within it, we needed to work out which reports were reliable, where there might be inaccuracies – innocent or deliberate – and how we should record the location of a verified mass grave.
But while the inaccessibility or unreliability of information about mass grave sites during an armed conflict presents challenges for us as researchers, it is a source of excruciating anguish for those looking for their loved ones. That is why we have made it our mission to produce the world’s first global open-source mass graves map.' back

Fahey, Ens, Rossetto, Costello & Cooke, Walking the trees: we traced how First Nations groups moved bunya pine and black bean trees, ' These stories raise interesting questions about why Indigenous groups carried and nurtured plants in some cases and not others. In the Wet Tropics, for instance, the lack of evidence for movement of black bean and bunya could be linked to different dietary preferences and alternative edible nuts. In northern NSW and southeast Queensland, bunya gatherings brought far-flung groups and kin together. We speculate these social and cultural reasons may have been seen as more important than simply increasing food production by planting the tree in new locations. But the deliberate movement of black bean along the Nguthungulli Songline shows some groups took the tree with them to ensure access to its nuts. For years, researchers thought domesticating a plant for human use was relatively straightforward. But newer research suggests it was a lengthier and more complex process than we thought. Unpicking the deeper past using First Nations lore and genetic analysis is a promising combination to shed light on domestication. We hope it will become more widely used. ' back

Fermion - Wikipedia, Fermion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In particle physics, fermions are particles with a half-integer spin, such as protons and electrons. They obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics and are named after Enrico Fermi. In the Standard Model there are two types of elementary fermions: quarks and leptons. . . . In contrast to bosons, only one fermion can occupy a quantum state at a given time (they obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle). Thus, if more than one fermion occupies the same place in space, the properties of each fermion (e.g. its spin) must be different from the rest. Therefore fermions are usually related with matter while bosons are related with radiation, though the separation between the two is not clear in quantum physics. back

Feynman diagram - Wikipedia, Feynman diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In theoretical physics, Feynman diagrams are pictorial representations of the mathematical expressions describing the behavior of subatomic particles. The scheme is named after its inventor, American physicist Richard Feynman, and was first introduced in 1948. The interaction of sub-atomic particles can be complex and difficult to understand intuitively. Feynman diagrams give a simple visualization of what would otherwise be an arcane and abstract formula. As David Kaiser writes, "since the middle of the 20th century, theoretical physicists have increasingly turned to this tool to help them undertake critical calculations", and so "Feynman diagrams have revolutionized nearly every aspect of theoretical physics".' back

Frank Collins (2024_09_20), Take It From a Scientist. Facts Matter, and They Don’t Care How You Feel., ' I am a physician and a scientist. Over 12 years, I had the privilege of serving Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden as the director of the National Institutes of Health. Before that, I led the U.S. component of the Human Genome Project. I am amazed by the medical progress that has been possible in the past few decades, both in alleviating suffering and saving lives. But I am also deeply troubled by the growing distrust of science in our society, just at the time when its insights are most needed. No recent experience highlights that disconnect more starkly than the last five years of the Covid pandemic. From my vantage point on the front lines of that battle against a dangerous virus, let me highlight both the triumphs and tragedies, and propose some actions that we can all take to re-anchor our troubled society to truth, science, faith and trust — and put us back on an individual and collective journey that might be called the road to wisdom.' back

Gideon Levi (2024_09_08), Opinion | Israeli Society Has Truly Fallen to Cruelty, Violence and Apathy. Just Look at Us, ' On Friday, 11 funerals were held in the Jenin refugee camp. Eight of the deceased were camp residents who were killed by the Israeli army; three died of natural causes. None of them could be buried during the 10 preceding days, on account of the brutal Israel Defense Forces operation in the camp. The bodies of another five people were seized by the army, for its purposes. On Friday morning the IDF left the camp, after completing the mission that was given the sadistic name Operation Summer Camp, and residents began returning to what was left of their homes after the army's camp. They were in shock. One man said Saturday that the sights were even worse than the scenes of destruction after 2002's Operation Defensive Shield and that the behavior of the soldiers during those 10 terrible days was more violent and vicious than ever before. The spirit of the war in Gaza has become the zeitgeist of the army.' back

John von Neumann (2014), Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, ' Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics by John von Neumann translated from the German by Robert T. Beyer (New Edition) edited by Nicholas A. Wheeler. Princeton UP Princeton & Oxford. Preface: ' This book is the realization of my long-held intention to someday use the resources of TEX to produce a more easily read version of Robert T. Beyer’s authorized English translation (Princeton University Press, 1955) of John von Neumann’s classic Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Springer, 1932).'This content downloaded from 129.127.145.240 on Sat, 30 May 2020 22:38:31 UTC back

Julian Schwinger (1965), Nobel Lecture: Relativistic Quantum Field Theory, ' Following the establishment of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, an initial relativistic theory was formulated for the interaction between charged particles and electromagnetic fields. However, partly because the electron’s magnetic moment proved to be somewhat larger than expected, the theory had to be reformulated. Julian Schwinger solved this problem in 1948 through “renormalization” and thereby contributed to a new quantum electrodynamics.' back

Kate Burridge & Catherine Barret (2024_09_20), From cauldrons to cardigans - the lurking prejudices behind the name ‘Granny’, ' From its debut in the early 1600s, “granny” has been more than an affectionate term for grandma — and a cursory glance at its history tells a depressingly familiar story. First, the instability and decline of words associated with women. “Granny” joins a long list of words, particularly for older women, that that have acquired negative meanings — spinsters were originally spinners; sluts were untidy people; slags and shrews were rogues; scolds were poets; bimbos were men, and so on. Many started life referring to men, but quickly narrowed to female application — and with this sexual specification came further decline. Right from the start, grannies were also people engaged in trivial (often self-serving) chatter; in other words, grannies were gossips, tell-tales and nosy parkers. In the 1700s, more negative meanings piled on — grannies became fussy, indecisive or unenterprising persons, and in many places stupid as well.' back

Luke Barnes (2024_09_19), Astronomers just detected the biggest black hole jets ever seen – and named them Porphyrion, back

Neil MacFarquhar & Milana Mazaeva (2024_09_18), He Had 5 Followers on YouTube. It Landed Him in Jail, Where He Died., ' As a teenager, Pavel Kushnir won a coveted spot in Russia’s most prestigious training program for pianists at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His classmates remember him as a shy, quirky introvert with fluency in not just classical music, but in film, literature and painting. He made a career playing for provincial orchestras, while on the side he wrote startling avant-garde novels, mostly unpublished. Long a critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, Mr. Kushnir took up political activism with added zeal after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. He spread leaflets damning the war while pushing himself to endure ever longer, harsher hunger strikes. Four blurry, muffled antiwar screeds that he posted on his YouTube channel, which had just five subscribers, landed him in a dark, crumbling jail on Karl Marx Street in Birobidzhan, the remote Siberian provincial capital where he lived. Now, at age 40, he is dead.' back

Nick Marsh & Riaz Sohail (2024_09_21), Pakistan police shoot dead blasphemy suspect, ' Dr Shahnawaz Kanbhar was killed "just by chance" in shootout with officers who did not know it was him, according to a local police chief in Sindh province Niaz Khoso Dr Kanbhar had gone into hiding on Tuesday after being accused of insulting Islam’s prophet Muhammad and sharing blasphemous content on social media. He is the second blasphemy suspect in Pakistan to be shot dead in the space of a week. . . .. The killing of Dr Kanbhar comes a week after an officer opened fire inside a police station in the south-western city of Quetta, fatally wounding another suspect who was being held on accusations of blasphemy.' back

Oleg Beyda (2024_09_18), Could the world’s autocrats successfully plot to defeat the West? , ' Three decades ago, many liberals proclaimed victory for democracy and a “rules-based international order”. But today the majority of the world’s population live in countries that are only partially free, or are under one form or another of autocratic rule. Why are autocracies on the rise? In her new book, Autocracy, Inc., Pulitzer prize winner Anne Applebaum provides an answer: there is a “network” among the world’s autocrats, who use the clandestine routes of our interconnected world to further their aims and undermine democracy. Autocracy Inc. is a club of dictators and their states, Applebaum writes. Like the concept of “autocracy” itself, this incorporation is loose and fluid. The club’s members are not bound by any ideological kinship or constitutional structure. Among them are hard dictatorships (like Belarus, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation), and hybrid illiberal democracies or softer autocracies (like Turkey, Singapore, India, the Philippines and Hungary). ' back

Pierre Bonnard - Wikipedia, Pierre Bonnard - Wikipedia,the free ncyclopedia, ' Pierre Bonnard (French:3 October 1867 – 23 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis,[2] his early work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, as well as the prints of Hokusai and other Japanese artists. Bonnard was a leading figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. He painted landscapes, urban scenes, portraits and intimate domestic scenes, where the backgrounds, colors and painting style usually took precedence over the subject.' back

Principle of individuation - Wikipedia, Principle of individuation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The principle of individuation is a criterion that individuates or numerically distinguishes the members of the kind for which it is given, that is by which we can supposedly determine, regarding any kind of thing, when we have more than one of them or not. It is also known as a 'criterion of identity' or 'indiscernibility principle'. The history of the consideration of such a principle begins with Aristotle. It was much discussed by the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308) with his "haecceity" and later, during Renaissance, by Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), Bonaventure Baron (1610–1696) and Leibniz (1646–1716). back

Rick Noack (2024_09_15), Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair, ' As the Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, Afghan women say that whatever hopes they once harbored for an easing of the severe restrictions on them have largely vanished. The new religious code issued late last month bans women from raising their voices, reciting the Quran in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. It requires women to cover the lower half of their faces in addition to donning a head covering they were already expected to wear, among other rules. Women’s lives were heavily regulated by the Taliban-run government before the latest rules were promulgated, and some of the new laws codify restrictions that were already imposed on women in practice. But Afghan women, speaking in phone interviews over the past week, pointed to mounting signs of a crackdown in urban areas, where rules had been less rigorously enforced. The Taliban’s morality police, which is an extension of the regime’s most conservative elements, appears to have been handed an unprecedented amount of power in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere, women said. While the morality police’s white robes were a rare sight in Kabul, they have become omnipresent since late August, several women said. back

Riemannian geometry - Wikipedia, Riemannian geometry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Riemannian geometry is the branch of differential geometry that studies Riemannian manifolds, smooth manifolds with a Riemannian metric, i.e. with an inner product on the tangent space at each point that varies smoothly from point to point. This gives, in particular, local notions of angle, length of curves, surface area, and volume. From those some other global quantities can be derived by integrating local contributions. . . . It enabled Einstein's general relativity theory, made profound impact on group theory and representation theory, as well as analysis, and spurred the development of algebraic and differential topology.' back

Rolf Landauer (1999), 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

Sarah Kaplan & Simon Ducroquet (2024_09_20), Scientists have captured Earth’s climate over the last 485 million years. Here’s the surprising place we stand now., ' An ambitious effort to understand the Earth’s climate over the past 485 million years has revealed a history of wild shifts and far hotter temperatures than scientists previously realized — offering a reminder of how much change the planet has already endured and a warning about the unprecedented rate of warming caused by humans. The timeline, published Thursday in the journal Science, is the most rigorous reconstruction of Earth’s past temperatures ever produced, the authors say. Created by combining more than 150,000 pieces of fossil evidence with state-of-the-art climate models, it shows the intimate link between carbon dioxide and global temperatures and reveals that the world was in a much warmer state for most of the history of complex animal life. At its hottest, the study suggests, the Earth’s average temperature reached 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) — far higher than the historic 58.96 F (14.98 C) the planet hit last year.' back