Natural Theology

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Notes DB 91: Divine_Gravitation_2024

Sunday 6 October 2024 - Saturday 12 October 2024

[page 165]

Sunday 6 October 2024

Where are we going with lust for life? Lust for entropy drives the Universe - the second law and Georg Cantor. War is in the mind and the elimination of war requires the unification of minds by analogy to the creation of multicellular bodies by the unity of their genotype. God and politics. Second law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia

Lust for life is a sequel to A Theory of Peace (1987) after 13+24 = 37 years of further development [Culminating in a book: Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics: - In publication]. Jeffrey Nicholls (1987): A theory of Peace, Jeffrey Nicholls (2025): Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics

A Memoire?

Monday 7 October 2024

A good characterization of my book — a personal memoir, the story of my search for understanding and a fight for scientific fact against synthetic bullshit. So we are making gravitation the divine hero, naked lust for life guided only by consistency, the root of science and the foundation of evolution.

Religions create walled gardens like google, apple, facebook, etc then fleece all their captives to make a profit. Maria Ressa (2021_12_10): Lecture: Nobel Peace Prize, 2021, Maria Ressa (2022): How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future

The Catholic Church is the Mother of All Liars, and they know it.

[page 166]

Let us assume that theology and physics have been reconciled in cognitive cosmogenesis and both discredited, and now we begin the story of the new god, naked gravitation, the creation of the new divine world; created by lust for life, eternal and omnipotent - a new mythology to found a new world, a new round of socially pragmatic mythopoiesis. Mythopoeia - Wikipedia

Tuesday 8 October 2024

1. In the beginning, naked gravitation, fiat lux Aristotle-Aquinas pure action, the quantum of action, the fundamental lagrangian boson [at the root of time and energy, ie symmetrical with respect to energy].

2. The trinity, fermions, the [Augustine -] Einstein-Minkowski-Hilbert action.

Lust for life will attribute even more prescience to Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, the last pure thinkers before Galileo finally turned to the world rather than his mind for inspiration, and now we have come to the closure of the circle and see the Universe as a mind.

Antiparticles ≡ time going "backwards". Only possible before Minkowski space [polar complex number rotating counterclockwise?].

Wednesday 9 October 2024

[page 167]

Cognitive cosmogenesis has been a long struggle but it has arrived. Now it is time for the avalanche of feeling lust for life, the tale of the omnipotent creator breaking loose in kinematic variety picking up the energy of gravitation to create the supernovas of life.

Thursday 10 October 2024

Lust for life is to be an ode for joy, based on the close relationship between naked gravitation and naked blind love, with the proviso that while both are universally attractive they can, if overdone, lead to catastrophe, supernovas, black holes, domestic violence, wars and extinctions.

The Catholic God and all its analogues is just a mystical dream. The real god is the reality of the universe and we are rapidly destroying our local patch (Ripple, 2024). If we want to survive we must honour this divinity by looking after it as our lives depend on it. William J Ripple (2024_10_08): The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth

Friday 11 October 2024
Saturday 12 October 2024

What am I offering? The harmony of a body politic based on

[page 168]

a common theory of everything, ie a common theology based on the reality of the world.

In the intensity of writing the websites cognitive cosmology, cognitive cosmogenesis and the book cognitive cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics I did not notice how small my room was until now I am leavin for a larger one it becomes obvious.

Our deepest realties are emotional and the rational scientific overlay is very recent and not very deeply rooted, despite its immense powwer to explain our nature which is the foundation of the emotional structure which has brought us from the Archaea to the present. The patterns of behaviour which have been effective in our surivival from that initial state to the present have contributed to our survival and the survival of other creatures that came into existence by conforming to the nature of the world.

Roman Holiday Roman Holiday - Wikipedia

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Further reading

Books

Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of theology and physics, Austin Macauley 2025 ' The core idea of the top down theology devised by the Christian bishops for the Emperor Constantine is that the omnipotent and omniscient creator totally controls every moment of every event in the world. The imperial picture. Here we work from the bottom up. A key to the connection of physics and theology is symmetry with respect to complexity.
Although the difference in scale between fundamental particles and the people of an ideal democratic polity is immense, they are formally quite similar. Both democratic politics and quantum electrodynamics work in Hilbert space. Voting is linear, a form of superposition distributed by parties. Individuals and political parties are characterized by their directions in political space which may be modelled by vectors in a Hilbert space.
We may imagine a space with a basis vector for every person. Their sums in various combinations present us with a comprehensive picture of the political directions in an electorate. Such ideal democratic political systems have natural quantum mechanical support which gives us insight into the nature of the world.' 
Amazon
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Ressa (2022), Maria, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, Harper 2022 ' Introduction by Amal Clooney From the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, an impassioned and inspiring memoir of a career spent holding power to account. Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rapplercrowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections. But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country's most powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the state and its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines. There is another adversary Ressa is battling. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is also the story of how the creep towards authoritarianism, in the Philippines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies. Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. She maps a network of disinformation--a heinous web of cause and effect--that has netted the globe: from Duterte's drug wars to America's Capitol Hill; Britain's Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes. Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous story, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth? '  
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Links

Aaron J Snoswell (2024_10_08), Physics Nobel awarded to neural network pioneers who laid foundations for AI, ' The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”. Inspired by ideas from physics and biology, Hopfield and Hinton developed computer systems that can memorise and learn from patterns in data. Despite never directly collaborating, they built on each other’s work to develop the foundations of the current boom in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial neural networks are behind much of the AI technology we use today. In the same way your brain has neuronal cells linked by synapses, artificial neural networks have digital neurons connected in various configurations. Each individual neuron doesn’t do much. Instead, the magic lies in the pattern and strength of the connections between them.' back

Alex Marchall & Alexandra Alter (2024_10_10), Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, ' Han Kang, the South Korean author best known for her surreal, subversive novel, “The Vegetarian,” was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday — the first writer from her country to receive the award. Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which organizes the prize, said at a news conference in Stockholm that Han was receiving the honor for “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” “The Vegetarian,” published in Korea in 2007, won the 2016 International Booker Prize after it was translated into English. It centers on a depressed housewife who shocks her family when she stops eating meat; later, she stops eating altogether and yearns to turn into a tree that can live off sunlight alone. . . . When Han was 9, her family moved to Seoul just months before the Gwangju uprising, when government troops fired on crowds of pro-democracy protesters, killing hundreds. The event shaped her views on humanity’s capacity for violence, Han said in the 2016 interview, and its specter has haunted her writing. In her 2014 novel “Human Acts,” a writer observes a police raid on a group of activists. She also recalled seeing images of people who lined up to donate their blood to those who were injured in the uprising. “It was like two unsolvable riddles imprinted on my mind: How can humans be so violent, and how can humans be so sublime?” she said. “When I write novels, I find myself always returning to the theme of what it means to be human".' back

Amoré Elsje Nel (2024_10_08) , A geomagnetic storm has hit Earth – a space scientist explains what causes them, ' A geomagnetic storm is a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity. There’s a reaction called nuclear fusion that occurs continuously deep within the Sun’s core. This generates massive amounts of energy. Some of the energy is released as light (sunlight), some as radiation (solar flares), and some as charged particles. The Sun also continuously emits a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind. Occasionally, the Sun releases larger bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections. It sends clouds of these charged particles, or plasma, hurtling through space. . . . The solar flare from 3842 emitted both X-flares (radiation) and a coronal mass ejection. X-flares are radiation; they travel at almost the speed of light and reach Earth within minutes. That’s what caused the brief communications disruption Sansa mentioned on 3 October. But the coronal mass ejection takes much longer to reach us. We’d predicted it would do so over the past weekend but in fact it only reached us on the morning of 8 October. . . . Geomagnetic storms are not typically harmful to humans directly, but they can pose risks to modern technology and infrastructure. One of the most notable dangers is to power grids. Powerful storms can induce electric currents in power lines, potentially overloading transformers and causing blackouts, as happened in Quebec, Canada, in 1989.' back

Amos Harel (2024_10_07), Analysis | A Year on in Its War With Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel Is Stuck, With No End in Sight, ' This was a terrible year that began with a horrendous failure, the worst in the country's history. Yet toward the end, the trend appeared to be starting to reverse, at least in the north. A series of dizzying successes by the IDF and the intelligence community tipped the scales in Lebanon, dealt Hezbollah a severe blow and improved Israel's strategic position against Iran and its proxies. But the story is far from over. The war will continue long into its second year, and the stormy new regional situation will affect the entire Middle East for years to come. It's not just that Israel hasn't yet solved the problems created by Hamas' attack – first and foremost, the 101 hostages still in Gaza. Additional problems and risks are now developing.' back

Anthony Petro (2024_09_04), How HIV/AIDS got its name − the words Americans used for the crisis were steeped in science, stigma and religious language, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first used the term “AIDS” on Sept. 24, 1982, more than a year after the first cases appeared in medical records. Those early years of the crisis were marked by a great deal of confusion over what caused the disease, who it affected and how it spread. But the naming itself – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which we now know is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV – was a milestone. How people talked about and named the AIDS crisis shaped how it was viewed and either fostered or countered a culture of stigma. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, conservative Christian leaders such as Rev. Jerry Falwell described AIDS as “God’s punishment” for sexual immorality. Many AIDS activists, on the other hand, also took up the importance of naming. Instead of being called “AIDS victims,” they preferred phrases like “people with AIDS” and “people living with HIV” to affirm their status as people rather than merely patients or victims. As a historian of religion, sexuality and public health, I became interested in how moral and religious rhetoric shaped this global pandemic from the start. In my book “After the Wrath of God,” I trace how the AIDS crisis could not be separated from the broader cultural contexts in which it emerged, including the histories of LGBTQ+ people and the Christian right. In other words, from the start, this medical epidemic was also a moral epidemic.' back

Arie Perliger (2024_09_18), How the Israeli settlers movement shaped modern Israel, The increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past year has been unprecedented. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the start of the war, there have been more than 1,000 attacks, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group. The spike, which has raised international alarm, is often blamed on the permissive policies of Israel’s right-wing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a U.N. investigation, nearly half of all settler attacks documented in October 2023 were conducted in collaboration with, or in the presence of, Israeli military forces. I have studied Jewish violent extremism for more than 20 years. I would argue these developments result from long processes tied to the erosion of Israel’s democratic foundations – that the seeds were planted long before Netanyahu came to power. . . . Israel took over the West Bank, then ruled by Jordan, during the 1967 Six-Day War against its Arab-majority neighboring countries. Eventually, after the right-wing Likud party came to power in 1977, the settlements gained legal status and their number expanded rapidly. Most countries, however, consider them a violation of international law. The first groups of settlers, and still the majority of them, are part of the larger religious Zionist movement, which aspires to combine dedication to a Jewish nation-state with religious orthodoxy. These Israelis consider the emergence of the Zionist movement, the establishment of the state of Israel and its subsequent military victories as phases in a holy redemption, which will end with the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of a Jewish kingdom. Many believe this process can be expedited by restoring a Jewish presence in the West Bank, which is part of the biblical kingdoms of Judea and Israel.' back

Cattiva coscienza - Wikipdia, Cattiva coscienza - Wikipdia, the free encyclopedia, back

Civilek.info | February 2024 15. , Pope Francis: There are still many martyrs in the world today, many are persecuted for their faith, ' Ernest Simoni was born in the village of Troshani in northern Albania in 1928. He began his priestly studies in the Franciscan order at the age of ten. In 1948, the Franciscan monastery where he stayed was looted by agents of the communist regime, the monks were shot, and the novices were expelled. Nevertheless, Simoni continued his theological studies in secret and was secretly ordained a priest in 1956. In 1963, after presenting the Christmas Mass, Simoni was arrested and imprisoned. . . . He then introduced Cardinal Simoni, noting that he had "lived 28 years in prison" as a result of the persecution of the Church in Albania, which he said was "perhaps the most cruel" of its kind. Cardinal Simoni "continues to bear witness", the Pope emphasized, adding that the cardinal is now 95 years old and continues to work tirelessly for the benefit of the Church.' back

David Brooks (2024_10_06), How Harris Can Finish Strong, ' The crucial question for the rest of the campaign is: Can Harris regain momentum and construct effective second and third acts? ' I thought it would be interesting to see what the experts say — to see how screenwriters, dramatists and novelists build momentum so that audiences are gripped by their work all the way through. Maybe these writers have some wisdom on how Harris can finish strong. The playwright David Mamet once wrote a memo to a group of fellow writers in which he reminded them that audiences “will not tune in to watch information.” They will “only tune in and stay tuned to watch drama.” What is drama? Mamet says it “is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him from achieving a specific, acute goal.” The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin builds on that definition. He says that strong drama is built around intention and obstacle. The hero has to be seized by a strong, specific desire, and she needs to face a really big obstacle. That suggests that Harris needs to show the American people her strongest, most acute and controlling desire, the ruling passion of her soul. I know what Trump wants. He wants to dismantle the elites who he thinks have betrayed regular Americans. It’s unclear what Harris wants most deeply, other than the vague chance to do good and to be president. You don’t communicate your deepest desire when your campaign is run by a committee.' back

Fadhlil Rizki Muhammad et al (2024_10_10), Huge waves in the atmosphere dump extreme rain on northern Australia, ' In 2023, almost a year’s worth of rain fell over ten days in parts of northwestern Australia, leading to catastrophic flooding in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds. The rainfall was linked to a tropical cyclone, but there were also lesser-known forces at work: huge, planet-scale oscillations called atmospheric waves which bring heavy rain to northern Australia. While climate drivers such as El Niño and La Niña are becoming more familiar to many Australians, fewer understand the significant role played by atmospheric waves, which are like vast musical notes resonating around the globe. These waves can greatly influence rainfall and extreme weather events in Australia – and we don’t know yet whether they could grow more intense as the world warms. In our latest research, we discovered how these waves affect Australia’s rainfall, and how they can help us make better weather forecasts. The research is published in the Journal of Climate.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jordan Weissmann (2024_10_11), A tour of the very weird places where the global elite hide wealth, Review of The Hidden Globe: Atossa Araxia Abrahamian 'The map we all learn in school, full of carefully drawn borders and self-contained countries, is vitally incomplete, Abrahamian argues. It leaves out the many “extraterritorial” exceptions where governments have set aside their sovereignty in cordoned-off zones or found ways to project their own business-friendly laws across the globe, such as by turning themselves into tax havens. “These places are not exactly secrets, but they are far-flung and disparate enough to seem at first glance like discrete oddities, rather than a network or a system,” she writes. “That is one of the reasons they remain so hidden in plain sight". For Abrahamian, the project is partly a personal journey to better understand her hometown, Geneva, a lakeside city known mostly as one of the primary headquarters of the United Nations. Beneath the staid, bureaucratic facade, it leads a second “spectral” life as “capital of the hidden globe,” she argues, where strict national bank secrecy laws historically allowed financial institutions to operate “like black holes, taking money from nearly anyone, anywhere, and making it disappear.” back

Last universal common ancestor - Wikipedia, Last universal common ancestor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. . . . .. While no specific fossil evidence of the LUCA exists, the detailed biochemical similarity of all current life makes it plausible. Its characteristics can be inferred from shared features of modern genomes. These genes describe a complex life form with many co-adapted features, including transcription and translation mechanisms to convert information from DNA to mRNA to proteins. The LUCA probably lived in the high-temperature water of deep sea vents near ocean-floor magma flows around 4 billion years ago.' back

Maria Ressa (2021_12_10), Lecture: Nobel Peace Prize, 2021, ' Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests I stand before you, a representative of every journalist around the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our values and mission: to bring you the truth and hold power to account. I remember the brutal dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Luz Mely Reyes in Venezuela, Roman Protasevich in Belarus (whose plane was literally hijacked so he could be arrested), Jimmy Lai languishing in a Hong Kong prison, Sonny Swe, who after getting out of more than 7 years in jail started another news group … now forced to flee Myanmar. And in my own country, 23 year old Frenchie Mae Cumpio, still in prison after nearly 2 years, and just 36 hours ago the news that my former colleague, Jess Malabanan, was shot dead. back

Michael Westaway, Bruce Pascoe & Louise Zarmati (2024_10_04) , NSW will remove 65,000 years of Aboriginal history from its syllabus. It’s a step backwards for education , ' The NSW Education Standards Authority will be removing the teaching of the Aboriginal past prior to European arrival from the Year 7–10 syllabus as of 2027. Since 2012, the topic “Ancient Australia” has been taught nationally in Year 7 as part of the Australian Curriculum. In 2022, a new topic called the “deep time history of Australia” was introduced to provide a more detailed study of 65,000 years of First Nations’ occupation of the continent. However, New South Wales has surprisingly dropped this topic from its new syllabus, which will be rolled out in 2027. Instead, students will only learn First Nations’ history following European colonisation in 1788. This directly undermines the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration of 2020. This is a national agreement, signed by education ministers from all jurisdictions, which states: We recognise the more than 60,000 years [sic] of continual connection by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a key part of the nation’s history, present and future. If the planned change to the syllabus goes through, the only Aboriginal history taught to NSW students would be that which reflects the destruction of traditional Aboriginal society. It also means Aboriginal students in NSW will be denied a chance to learn about their deep ancestral past.. . . The Ngambaa people and archaeologists from the University of Queensland are currently investigating one of the largest midden complexes in Australia. This complex, located at Clybucca and Stuart’s Point on the north coast, spans some 14 kilometres and dates back to around 9,000 years ago.p time history is removed from the NSW syllabus. Middens, or “living sites”, are accumulations of shell that were built over time through thousands of discarded seafood meals. Since the shells help reduce the acidic chemistry of the soil, animal bones and plant remains are more likely to be preserved in middens. For instance, the Clybucca-Stuarts Point midden complex contains remains from seals and dugongs. Both of these animals were once part of the local ecosystem, but no longer are. The middens also extend back to before the arrival of dingoes, so studying them could help us understand how biodiversity changed once dingoes replaced thylacines and Tasmanian devils on the mainland. UQ zooarchaeologist Tiina Manne and Ngamba Tradional Custodian Hannah Smith inspect animal ribs eroded out of one section of Clybucca-Stuarts Point midden complex. Michael Westaway Local school students, especially Aboriginal students, will be actively participating in this cutting-edge research alongside the Ngambaa people, archaeologists and teachers. Among other things, the students will learn how the Ngambaa people sustainably managed land and sea Country over thousand of years during periods of dramatic environmental change. But innovative programs like this will no longer be as relevant if Australia’s deep time history is removed from the NSW syllabus.' back

Mythopoeia - Wikipedia, Mythopoeia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Mythopoeia (Ancient Greek: μυθοποιία, romanized: muthopoiía, lit. 'myth-making'), or mythopoesis, is a subgenre of speculative fiction, and a theme in modern literature and film, where an artificial or fictionalized mythology is created by the writer of prose, poetry, or other literary forms. The concept, which long preexisted him, was widely popularised by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of creating a mythology.' back

Paul Griffin (2024_10_08), One of science’s greatest achievements: how the rapid development of COVID vaccines prepares us for future pandemics, ' Since COVID was first reported in December 2019, there have been more than 775 million recorded infections and more than 7 million deaths from the disease. This makes COVID the seventh-deadliest pandemic in recorded history. . . . It’s impossible to predict exactly when the next pandemic will happen, or what it will be. But experts around the world are working to prepare for this inevitable “disease X”. One of the cornerstones of being prepared for the next pandemic is being in the best possible position to design and deploy a suitable vaccine. To this end, scientists and researchers can learn a lot from COVID vaccine development. After SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) was discovered, vaccine development moved very quickly. In February 2020 the first batch of vaccines was completed (from Moderna) and the first clinical trials began in March. An mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech was the first to be approved, on December 2 2020 in the United Kingdom. Approvals for this and other vaccines, including shots developed by Moderna (another mRNA vaccine) and Oxford/AstraZeneca (a viral vector vaccine), followed elsewhere soon afterwards.' back

Pilar Montero Vilar (2024_10_060, Destruction of Gaza heritage sites aims to erase – and replace – Palestine’s history, image: Anthedon, the archaeological site of an Ancient Greek port in Gaza, was destroyed by shelling in 2023. École Biblique, Mission Archéologique de Gaza/Forensic Architecture
' In 2016, British photographer James Morris published Time and Remains of Palestine. The images in this book bear witness to an absence of architectural monuments, and to the invisible moments of history buried in the rubble and wastelands of Palestine. . . . Situated at the crossroads between Asia and Africa, Palestine has always been an area of great strategic importance, and it has been populated by various civilisations throughout history. Its emptiness can therefore only be explained by a false history, one that stems directly from the Israeli settler movement, which seeks to destroy the material traces of other cultures that point to a much more complex past than they would like to admit. This complexity has been painstakingly proven in a Forensic Architecture report on an archaeological site known as Anthedon Harbour, Gaza’s old maritime port, which was first inhabited somewhere between 1100BC and 800BC. . . . The scale of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe has meant that the extensive destruction of significant elements of Palestinian history and identity could easily be overlooked. However, in April 2024, the United Nations Mine Action Service estimated that “every square metre in Gaza impacted by the conflict contains some 200 kilogrammes of rubble.” Cultural property has been a target of the Israeli offensive since the beginning of the conflict and, as early as November, the devastation of the cities of northern Gaza far exceeded that caused in the infamous bombing of Dresden in 1945. . . . Research over the last century has counted at least 130 sites in Gaza that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to protect under international law along with the rest of the area’s cultural and natural heritage. . . The scale of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe has meant that the extensive destruction of significant elements of Palestinian history and identity could easily be overlooked. However, in April 2024, the United Nations Mine Action Service estimated that “every square metre in Gaza impacted by the conflict contains some 200 kilogrammes of rubble.” Cultural property has been a target of the Israeli offensive since the beginning of the conflict and, as early as November, the devastation of the cities of northern Gaza far exceeded that caused in the infamous bombing of Dresden in 1945. We cannot forget that the Gaza Strip is just a narrow area of coastal land measuring some 365 km², rich in archaeological and historical sites, that the international community has recognised as occupied territory since 1967. Research over the last century has counted at least 130 sites in Gaza that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to protect under international law along with the rest of the area’s cultural and natural heritage. . . . As of 17 September 2024, UNESCO has verified damage to 69 sites: 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and artistic interest, two repositories of movable cultural property, six monuments, one museum and seven archaeological sites. Other reports give a much higher number of affected sites. These assessments are made in very difficult situations, in the midst of constant bombardment, thanks to testimonies and studies on the ground and supported by satellite images. In her report, published on 1 July 2024, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, highlights how Israel has turned Gaza in its entirety into a “military target”. The Israeli military arbitrarily links mosques, schools, UN facilities, universities and hospitals to Hamas, thus justifying their indiscriminate destruction. By declaring these buildings legitimate targets, it does away with any distinction between civilian and military targets. . . . Although Israel’s attacks against the cultural heritage of Palestine are not a new phenomenon, the current destruction in Gaza’s city centres is unprecedented. As far as Albanese is concerned, Israel is trying to mask its intentions by using the terminology of international humanitarian law. In doing so, it justifies the systematic use of lethal violence against any and all Palestinian civilians, while simultaneously pursuing policies aimed at the widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage and identity. Her report unequivocally concludes that the Israeli regime’s actions are driven by a genocidal logic, a logic that forms an intrinsic part of its colonisation project. Its ultimate aim is to expel the Palestinian people from their land, and to wipe away any trace of their culture and history.' back

Roman Holiday - Wikipedia, Roman Holiday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the film also won the Academy Award for Best Story and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The script was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit, and Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo's name was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003, and on December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored. Blacklisted director Bernard Vorhaus worked on the film as an assistant director under a pseudonym. The film was shot at the Cinecittà studios and on location around Rome during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era. The film opened the 14th Venice International Film Festival within the official program. In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film has been considered one of the most romantic films in cinema history.' back

Screen Australia & SBS, Four Years Later, Set across the two vastly different worlds of India and Australia, this intimate series delves into the complex ways love can change over time and distance.' back

Second law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia, Second law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia, 'The second law of thermodynamics states that in a natural thermodynamic process, there is an increase in the sum of the entropies of the participating systems. The second law is an empirical finding that has been accepted as an axiom of thermodynamic theory. back

Sukhmani Khorana (2024_10_07), SBS’s Four Years Later is an immigrant love story that pushes the boundaries of onscreen representation, ' SBS’s new romantic drama Four Years Later comes in the middle of an eventful week for cultural diversity in the Australian media. On one hand, there was a scathing review that revealed systemic racism across the ABC. On the other, there was the release of Media Diversity Australia’s Race Reporting Toolkit, intended to give journalists tools to report without resorting to racial stereotyping. Four Years Later, an eight-part series commissioned by Screen Australia and SBS, epitomises the tension of making and watching racialised media in the current climate. The series follows an Indian couple, Sri (Shahana Goswami) and Yash (Akshay Ajit Singh), as they reunite in Australia after being forced to spend four years apart so Yash can complete his medical traineeship. The series comes 14 years after writer and producer Mithila Gupta first introduced an Indian family to the long-running soap Neighbours. But is an Australian audience ready for content that doesn’t translate the non-white parts for a white audience? ' back

The Happy Prince (2018 film) - Wikipedia, The Happy Prince (2018 film) - Wikipedia, ' The Happy Prince is a 2018 biographical drama film about Oscar Wilde, written and directed by Rupert Everett in his directorial debut. The film stars Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Edwin Thomas and Tom Wilkinson. It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was shown at the 2018 BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. At the 9th Magritte Awards, it received a nomination in the category of Best Foreign Film.' back

Valentine Cosetti (2024_10_11), ‘My novels explore human suffering’: Nobel Prize winner Han Kang writes with empathy for vulnerable lives, ' South Korean writer Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. The 53-year-old is the first South Korean writer to win the prize, and only the 18th woman (of 121 winners to date). She is also a musician, and interested in visual art. Her best known novel, The Vegetarian (published in Korea in 2007), was her first to be translated into English, in 2015. It won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, with the prize split between Han Kang and her translator, Deborah Smith. At the time, Smith’s translation sparked fervid debates about its accuracy. But this is the beauty of literary translation as an act of creation: it’s an imaginative exercise, not a literal one, and Han Kang has stood by her translator. . . . Human Acts narrates the massacre in Gwangju, Kang’s birthplace of May 1980, when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of citizens and university students, protesting against the authoritarian regime of South Korea’s “most vilified” military dictator, Chun Doo-Hwan, were murdered by the army. Paradoxically, precisely in the midst of these brutal acts what is most valuable emerges: solidarity, dignity, the strength to continue – and above all, the great responsibility of surviving and remembering. “My novels explore human suffering,” Han Kang once said. When she wrote about the Gwangju massacre, she was “aware that readers should, in turn, be prepared […] to experience such suffering firsthand themselves”.' back

William J Ripple (2024_10_08), The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth, ' We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis. For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change (Ripple et al. 2020). For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies (Supran et al. 2023). Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024 (Guterres 2024), and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100 (UNEP 2023). Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering. We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence. We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo (supplemental figure S1; CenCO2PIP Consortium et al. 2023). back

Yoana Gonen (2024_10_02), Opinion | Jordan's Foreign Minister Told Israelis an Inconvenient Truth, ' "The Israeli prime minister came here today and said that Israel is surrounded by those who want to destroy it, an enemy," Safadi said at a press conference shortly after Netanyahu finished his speech at the UN General Assembly. "We're here – members of a Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries – and I can tell you here, very unequivocally, all of us are willing to, right now, guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state." Safadi wanted to remind people that Netanyahu and his government are the ones who are refusing to offer any diplomatic solution. He said that Netanyahu "is creating that danger because he simply does not want the two-state solution. And if he does not want the two-state solution, can you ask the Israeli officials: What is their endgame other than just wars and wars and wars?" ' back

Further reading

Books

Ressa (2022), Maria, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, Harper 2022 ' Introduction by Amal Clooney From the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, an impassioned and inspiring memoir of a career spent holding power to account. Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rapplercrowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections. But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country's most powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the state and its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines. There is another adversary Ressa is battling. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is also the story of how the creep towards authoritarianism, in the Philippines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies. Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. She maps a network of disinformation--a heinous web of cause and effect--that has netted the globe: from Duterte's drug wars to America's Capitol Hill; Britain's Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes. Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous story, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth? '  
Amazon
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Links

Aaron J Snoswell (2024_10_08), Physics Nobel awarded to neural network pioneers who laid foundations for AI, ' The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”. Inspired by ideas from physics and biology, Hopfield and Hinton developed computer systems that can memorise and learn from patterns in data. Despite never directly collaborating, they built on each other’s work to develop the foundations of the current boom in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial neural networks are behind much of the AI technology we use today. In the same way your brain has neuronal cells linked by synapses, artificial neural networks have digital neurons connected in various configurations. Each individual neuron doesn’t do much. Instead, the magic lies in the pattern and strength of the connections between them.' back

Alex Marchall & Alexandra Alter (2024_10_10), Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, ' Han Kang, the South Korean author best known for her surreal, subversive novel, “The Vegetarian,” was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday — the first writer from her country to receive the award. Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which organizes the prize, said at a news conference in Stockholm that Han was receiving the honor for “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” “The Vegetarian,” published in Korea in 2007, won the 2016 International Booker Prize after it was translated into English. It centers on a depressed housewife who shocks her family when she stops eating meat; later, she stops eating altogether and yearns to turn into a tree that can live off sunlight alone. . . . When Han was 9, her family moved to Seoul just months before the Gwangju uprising, when government troops fired on crowds of pro-democracy protesters, killing hundreds. The event shaped her views on humanity’s capacity for violence, Han said in the 2016 interview, and its specter has haunted her writing. In her 2014 novel “Human Acts,” a writer observes a police raid on a group of activists. She also recalled seeing images of people who lined up to donate their blood to those who were injured in the uprising. “It was like two unsolvable riddles imprinted on my mind: How can humans be so violent, and how can humans be so sublime?” she said. “When I write novels, I find myself always returning to the theme of what it means to be human".' back

Amoré Elsje Nel (2024_10_08) , A geomagnetic storm has hit Earth – a space scientist explains what causes them, ' A geomagnetic storm is a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity. There’s a reaction called nuclear fusion that occurs continuously deep within the Sun’s core. This generates massive amounts of energy. Some of the energy is released as light (sunlight), some as radiation (solar flares), and some as charged particles. The Sun also continuously emits a stream of charged particles known as the solar wind. Occasionally, the Sun releases larger bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections. It sends clouds of these charged particles, or plasma, hurtling through space. . . . The solar flare from 3842 emitted both X-flares (radiation) and a coronal mass ejection. X-flares are radiation; they travel at almost the speed of light and reach Earth within minutes. That’s what caused the brief communications disruption Sansa mentioned on 3 October. But the coronal mass ejection takes much longer to reach us. We’d predicted it would do so over the past weekend but in fact it only reached us on the morning of 8 October. . . . Geomagnetic storms are not typically harmful to humans directly, but they can pose risks to modern technology and infrastructure. One of the most notable dangers is to power grids. Powerful storms can induce electric currents in power lines, potentially overloading transformers and causing blackouts, as happened in Quebec, Canada, in 1989.' back

Amos Harel (2024_10_07), Analysis | A Year on in Its War With Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel Is Stuck, With No End in Sight, ' This was a terrible year that began with a horrendous failure, the worst in the country's history. Yet toward the end, the trend appeared to be starting to reverse, at least in the north. A series of dizzying successes by the IDF and the intelligence community tipped the scales in Lebanon, dealt Hezbollah a severe blow and improved Israel's strategic position against Iran and its proxies. But the story is far from over. The war will continue long into its second year, and the stormy new regional situation will affect the entire Middle East for years to come. It's not just that Israel hasn't yet solved the problems created by Hamas' attack – first and foremost, the 101 hostages still in Gaza. Additional problems and risks are now developing.' back

Anthony Petro (2024_09_04), How HIV/AIDS got its name − the words Americans used for the crisis were steeped in science, stigma and religious language, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first used the term “AIDS” on Sept. 24, 1982, more than a year after the first cases appeared in medical records. Those early years of the crisis were marked by a great deal of confusion over what caused the disease, who it affected and how it spread. But the naming itself – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which we now know is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV – was a milestone. How people talked about and named the AIDS crisis shaped how it was viewed and either fostered or countered a culture of stigma. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, conservative Christian leaders such as Rev. Jerry Falwell described AIDS as “God’s punishment” for sexual immorality. Many AIDS activists, on the other hand, also took up the importance of naming. Instead of being called “AIDS victims,” they preferred phrases like “people with AIDS” and “people living with HIV” to affirm their status as people rather than merely patients or victims. As a historian of religion, sexuality and public health, I became interested in how moral and religious rhetoric shaped this global pandemic from the start. In my book “After the Wrath of God,” I trace how the AIDS crisis could not be separated from the broader cultural contexts in which it emerged, including the histories of LGBTQ+ people and the Christian right. In other words, from the start, this medical epidemic was also a moral epidemic.' back

Arie Perliger (2024_09_18), How the Israeli settlers movement shaped modern Israel, The increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past year has been unprecedented. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the start of the war, there have been more than 1,000 attacks, according to a new report from the International Crisis Group. The spike, which has raised international alarm, is often blamed on the permissive policies of Israel’s right-wing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a U.N. investigation, nearly half of all settler attacks documented in October 2023 were conducted in collaboration with, or in the presence of, Israeli military forces. I have studied Jewish violent extremism for more than 20 years. I would argue these developments result from long processes tied to the erosion of Israel’s democratic foundations – that the seeds were planted long before Netanyahu came to power. . . . Israel took over the West Bank, then ruled by Jordan, during the 1967 Six-Day War against its Arab-majority neighboring countries. Eventually, after the right-wing Likud party came to power in 1977, the settlements gained legal status and their number expanded rapidly. Most countries, however, consider them a violation of international law. The first groups of settlers, and still the majority of them, are part of the larger religious Zionist movement, which aspires to combine dedication to a Jewish nation-state with religious orthodoxy. These Israelis consider the emergence of the Zionist movement, the establishment of the state of Israel and its subsequent military victories as phases in a holy redemption, which will end with the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of a Jewish kingdom. Many believe this process can be expedited by restoring a Jewish presence in the West Bank, which is part of the biblical kingdoms of Judea and Israel.' back

Cattiva coscienza - Wikipdia, Cattiva coscienza - Wikipdia, the free encyclopedia, back

Civilek.info | February 2024 15. , Pope Francis: There are still many martyrs in the world today, many are persecuted for their faith, ' Ernest Simoni was born in the village of Troshani in northern Albania in 1928. He began his priestly studies in the Franciscan order at the age of ten. In 1948, the Franciscan monastery where he stayed was looted by agents of the communist regime, the monks were shot, and the novices were expelled. Nevertheless, Simoni continued his theological studies in secret and was secretly ordained a priest in 1956. In 1963, after presenting the Christmas Mass, Simoni was arrested and imprisoned. . . . He then introduced Cardinal Simoni, noting that he had "lived 28 years in prison" as a result of the persecution of the Church in Albania, which he said was "perhaps the most cruel" of its kind. Cardinal Simoni "continues to bear witness", the Pope emphasized, adding that the cardinal is now 95 years old and continues to work tirelessly for the benefit of the Church.' back

David Brooks (2024_10_06), How Harris Can Finish Strong, ' The crucial question for the rest of the campaign is: Can Harris regain momentum and construct effective second and third acts? ' I thought it would be interesting to see what the experts say — to see how screenwriters, dramatists and novelists build momentum so that audiences are gripped by their work all the way through. Maybe these writers have some wisdom on how Harris can finish strong. The playwright David Mamet once wrote a memo to a group of fellow writers in which he reminded them that audiences “will not tune in to watch information.” They will “only tune in and stay tuned to watch drama.” What is drama? Mamet says it “is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him from achieving a specific, acute goal.” The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin builds on that definition. He says that strong drama is built around intention and obstacle. The hero has to be seized by a strong, specific desire, and she needs to face a really big obstacle. That suggests that Harris needs to show the American people her strongest, most acute and controlling desire, the ruling passion of her soul. I know what Trump wants. He wants to dismantle the elites who he thinks have betrayed regular Americans. It’s unclear what Harris wants most deeply, other than the vague chance to do good and to be president. You don’t communicate your deepest desire when your campaign is run by a committee.' back

Fadhlil Rizki Muhammad et al (2024_10_10), Huge waves in the atmosphere dump extreme rain on northern Australia, ' In 2023, almost a year’s worth of rain fell over ten days in parts of northwestern Australia, leading to catastrophic flooding in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds. The rainfall was linked to a tropical cyclone, but there were also lesser-known forces at work: huge, planet-scale oscillations called atmospheric waves which bring heavy rain to northern Australia. While climate drivers such as El Niño and La Niña are becoming more familiar to many Australians, fewer understand the significant role played by atmospheric waves, which are like vast musical notes resonating around the globe. These waves can greatly influence rainfall and extreme weather events in Australia – and we don’t know yet whether they could grow more intense as the world warms. In our latest research, we discovered how these waves affect Australia’s rainfall, and how they can help us make better weather forecasts. The research is published in the Journal of Climate.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jordan Weissmann (2024_10_11), A tour of the very weird places where the global elite hide wealth, Review of The Hidden Globe: Atossa Araxia Abrahamian 'The map we all learn in school, full of carefully drawn borders and self-contained countries, is vitally incomplete, Abrahamian argues. It leaves out the many “extraterritorial” exceptions where governments have set aside their sovereignty in cordoned-off zones or found ways to project their own business-friendly laws across the globe, such as by turning themselves into tax havens. “These places are not exactly secrets, but they are far-flung and disparate enough to seem at first glance like discrete oddities, rather than a network or a system,” she writes. “That is one of the reasons they remain so hidden in plain sight". For Abrahamian, the project is partly a personal journey to better understand her hometown, Geneva, a lakeside city known mostly as one of the primary headquarters of the United Nations. Beneath the staid, bureaucratic facade, it leads a second “spectral” life as “capital of the hidden globe,” she argues, where strict national bank secrecy laws historically allowed financial institutions to operate “like black holes, taking money from nearly anyone, anywhere, and making it disappear.” back

Last universal common ancestor - Wikipedia, Last universal common ancestor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the most recent population from which all organisms now living on Earth share common descent—the most recent common ancestor of all current life on Earth. . . . .. While no specific fossil evidence of the LUCA exists, the detailed biochemical similarity of all current life makes it plausible. Its characteristics can be inferred from shared features of modern genomes. These genes describe a complex life form with many co-adapted features, including transcription and translation mechanisms to convert information from DNA to mRNA to proteins. The LUCA probably lived in the high-temperature water of deep sea vents near ocean-floor magma flows around 4 billion years ago.' back

Maria Ressa (2021_12_10), Lecture: Nobel Peace Prize, 2021, ' Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests I stand before you, a representative of every journalist around the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our values and mission: to bring you the truth and hold power to account. I remember the brutal dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Luz Mely Reyes in Venezuela, Roman Protasevich in Belarus (whose plane was literally hijacked so he could be arrested), Jimmy Lai languishing in a Hong Kong prison, Sonny Swe, who after getting out of more than 7 years in jail started another news group … now forced to flee Myanmar. And in my own country, 23 year old Frenchie Mae Cumpio, still in prison after nearly 2 years, and just 36 hours ago the news that my former colleague, Jess Malabanan, was shot dead. back

Michael Westaway, Bruce Pascoe & Louise Zarmati (2024_10_04) , NSW will remove 65,000 years of Aboriginal history from its syllabus. It’s a step backwards for education , ' The NSW Education Standards Authority will be removing the teaching of the Aboriginal past prior to European arrival from the Year 7–10 syllabus as of 2027. Since 2012, the topic “Ancient Australia” has been taught nationally in Year 7 as part of the Australian Curriculum. In 2022, a new topic called the “deep time history of Australia” was introduced to provide a more detailed study of 65,000 years of First Nations’ occupation of the continent. However, New South Wales has surprisingly dropped this topic from its new syllabus, which will be rolled out in 2027. Instead, students will only learn First Nations’ history following European colonisation in 1788. This directly undermines the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration of 2020. This is a national agreement, signed by education ministers from all jurisdictions, which states: We recognise the more than 60,000 years [sic] of continual connection by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as a key part of the nation’s history, present and future. If the planned change to the syllabus goes through, the only Aboriginal history taught to NSW students would be that which reflects the destruction of traditional Aboriginal society. It also means Aboriginal students in NSW will be denied a chance to learn about their deep ancestral past.. . . The Ngambaa people and archaeologists from the University of Queensland are currently investigating one of the largest midden complexes in Australia. This complex, located at Clybucca and Stuart’s Point on the north coast, spans some 14 kilometres and dates back to around 9,000 years ago.p time history is removed from the NSW syllabus. Middens, or “living sites”, are accumulations of shell that were built over time through thousands of discarded seafood meals. Since the shells help reduce the acidic chemistry of the soil, animal bones and plant remains are more likely to be preserved in middens. For instance, the Clybucca-Stuarts Point midden complex contains remains from seals and dugongs. Both of these animals were once part of the local ecosystem, but no longer are. The middens also extend back to before the arrival of dingoes, so studying them could help us understand how biodiversity changed once dingoes replaced thylacines and Tasmanian devils on the mainland. UQ zooarchaeologist Tiina Manne and Ngamba Tradional Custodian Hannah Smith inspect animal ribs eroded out of one section of Clybucca-Stuarts Point midden complex. Michael Westaway Local school students, especially Aboriginal students, will be actively participating in this cutting-edge research alongside the Ngambaa people, archaeologists and teachers. Among other things, the students will learn how the Ngambaa people sustainably managed land and sea Country over thousand of years during periods of dramatic environmental change. But innovative programs like this will no longer be as relevant if Australia’s deep time history is removed from the NSW syllabus.' back

Mythopoeia - Wikipedia, Mythopoeia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Mythopoeia (Ancient Greek: μυθοποιία, romanized: muthopoiía, lit. 'myth-making'), or mythopoesis, is a subgenre of speculative fiction, and a theme in modern literature and film, where an artificial or fictionalized mythology is created by the writer of prose, poetry, or other literary forms. The concept, which long preexisted him, was widely popularised by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of creating a mythology.' back

Paul Griffin (2024_10_08), One of science’s greatest achievements: how the rapid development of COVID vaccines prepares us for future pandemics, ' Since COVID was first reported in December 2019, there have been more than 775 million recorded infections and more than 7 million deaths from the disease. This makes COVID the seventh-deadliest pandemic in recorded history. . . . It’s impossible to predict exactly when the next pandemic will happen, or what it will be. But experts around the world are working to prepare for this inevitable “disease X”. One of the cornerstones of being prepared for the next pandemic is being in the best possible position to design and deploy a suitable vaccine. To this end, scientists and researchers can learn a lot from COVID vaccine development. After SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) was discovered, vaccine development moved very quickly. In February 2020 the first batch of vaccines was completed (from Moderna) and the first clinical trials began in March. An mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech was the first to be approved, on December 2 2020 in the United Kingdom. Approvals for this and other vaccines, including shots developed by Moderna (another mRNA vaccine) and Oxford/AstraZeneca (a viral vector vaccine), followed elsewhere soon afterwards.' back

Pilar Montero Vilar (2024_10_060, Destruction of Gaza heritage sites aims to erase – and replace – Palestine’s history, image: Anthedon, the archaeological site of an Ancient Greek port in Gaza, was destroyed by shelling in 2023. École Biblique, Mission Archéologique de Gaza/Forensic Architecture
' In 2016, British photographer James Morris published Time and Remains of Palestine. The images in this book bear witness to an absence of architectural monuments, and to the invisible moments of history buried in the rubble and wastelands of Palestine. . . . Situated at the crossroads between Asia and Africa, Palestine has always been an area of great strategic importance, and it has been populated by various civilisations throughout history. Its emptiness can therefore only be explained by a false history, one that stems directly from the Israeli settler movement, which seeks to destroy the material traces of other cultures that point to a much more complex past than they would like to admit. This complexity has been painstakingly proven in a Forensic Architecture report on an archaeological site known as Anthedon Harbour, Gaza’s old maritime port, which was first inhabited somewhere between 1100BC and 800BC. . . . The scale of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe has meant that the extensive destruction of significant elements of Palestinian history and identity could easily be overlooked. However, in April 2024, the United Nations Mine Action Service estimated that “every square metre in Gaza impacted by the conflict contains some 200 kilogrammes of rubble.” Cultural property has been a target of the Israeli offensive since the beginning of the conflict and, as early as November, the devastation of the cities of northern Gaza far exceeded that caused in the infamous bombing of Dresden in 1945. . . . Research over the last century has counted at least 130 sites in Gaza that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to protect under international law along with the rest of the area’s cultural and natural heritage. . . The scale of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe has meant that the extensive destruction of significant elements of Palestinian history and identity could easily be overlooked. However, in April 2024, the United Nations Mine Action Service estimated that “every square metre in Gaza impacted by the conflict contains some 200 kilogrammes of rubble.” Cultural property has been a target of the Israeli offensive since the beginning of the conflict and, as early as November, the devastation of the cities of northern Gaza far exceeded that caused in the infamous bombing of Dresden in 1945. We cannot forget that the Gaza Strip is just a narrow area of coastal land measuring some 365 km², rich in archaeological and historical sites, that the international community has recognised as occupied territory since 1967. Research over the last century has counted at least 130 sites in Gaza that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to protect under international law along with the rest of the area’s cultural and natural heritage. . . . As of 17 September 2024, UNESCO has verified damage to 69 sites: 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and artistic interest, two repositories of movable cultural property, six monuments, one museum and seven archaeological sites. Other reports give a much higher number of affected sites. These assessments are made in very difficult situations, in the midst of constant bombardment, thanks to testimonies and studies on the ground and supported by satellite images. In her report, published on 1 July 2024, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, highlights how Israel has turned Gaza in its entirety into a “military target”. The Israeli military arbitrarily links mosques, schools, UN facilities, universities and hospitals to Hamas, thus justifying their indiscriminate destruction. By declaring these buildings legitimate targets, it does away with any distinction between civilian and military targets. . . . Although Israel’s attacks against the cultural heritage of Palestine are not a new phenomenon, the current destruction in Gaza’s city centres is unprecedented. As far as Albanese is concerned, Israel is trying to mask its intentions by using the terminology of international humanitarian law. In doing so, it justifies the systematic use of lethal violence against any and all Palestinian civilians, while simultaneously pursuing policies aimed at the widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage and identity. Her report unequivocally concludes that the Israeli regime’s actions are driven by a genocidal logic, a logic that forms an intrinsic part of its colonisation project. Its ultimate aim is to expel the Palestinian people from their land, and to wipe away any trace of their culture and history.' back

Roman Holiday - Wikipedia, Roman Holiday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the film also won the Academy Award for Best Story and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The script was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit, and Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo's name was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003, and on December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored. Blacklisted director Bernard Vorhaus worked on the film as an assistant director under a pseudonym. The film was shot at the Cinecittà studios and on location around Rome during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era. The film opened the 14th Venice International Film Festival within the official program. In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film has been considered one of the most romantic films in cinema history.' back

Screen Australia & SBS, Four Years Later, Set across the two vastly different worlds of India and Australia, this intimate series delves into the complex ways love can change over time and distance.' back

Second law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia, Second law of thermodynamics - Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia, 'The second law of thermodynamics states that in a natural thermodynamic process, there is an increase in the sum of the entropies of the participating systems. The second law is an empirical finding that has been accepted as an axiom of thermodynamic theory. back

Sukhmani Khorana (2024_10_07), SBS’s Four Years Later is an immigrant love story that pushes the boundaries of onscreen representation, ' SBS’s new romantic drama Four Years Later comes in the middle of an eventful week for cultural diversity in the Australian media. On one hand, there was a scathing review that revealed systemic racism across the ABC. On the other, there was the release of Media Diversity Australia’s Race Reporting Toolkit, intended to give journalists tools to report without resorting to racial stereotyping. Four Years Later, an eight-part series commissioned by Screen Australia and SBS, epitomises the tension of making and watching racialised media in the current climate. The series follows an Indian couple, Sri (Shahana Goswami) and Yash (Akshay Ajit Singh), as they reunite in Australia after being forced to spend four years apart so Yash can complete his medical traineeship. The series comes 14 years after writer and producer Mithila Gupta first introduced an Indian family to the long-running soap Neighbours. But is an Australian audience ready for content that doesn’t translate the non-white parts for a white audience? ' back

The Happy Prince (2018 film) - Wikipedia, The Happy Prince (2018 film) - Wikipedia, ' The Happy Prince is a 2018 biographical drama film about Oscar Wilde, written and directed by Rupert Everett in his directorial debut. The film stars Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Edwin Thomas and Tom Wilkinson. It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was shown at the 2018 BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. At the 9th Magritte Awards, it received a nomination in the category of Best Foreign Film.' back

Valentine Cosetti (2024_10_11), ‘My novels explore human suffering’: Nobel Prize winner Han Kang writes with empathy for vulnerable lives, ' South Korean writer Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. The 53-year-old is the first South Korean writer to win the prize, and only the 18th woman (of 121 winners to date). She is also a musician, and interested in visual art. Her best known novel, The Vegetarian (published in Korea in 2007), was her first to be translated into English, in 2015. It won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, with the prize split between Han Kang and her translator, Deborah Smith. At the time, Smith’s translation sparked fervid debates about its accuracy. But this is the beauty of literary translation as an act of creation: it’s an imaginative exercise, not a literal one, and Han Kang has stood by her translator. . . . Human Acts narrates the massacre in Gwangju, Kang’s birthplace of May 1980, when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of citizens and university students, protesting against the authoritarian regime of South Korea’s “most vilified” military dictator, Chun Doo-Hwan, were murdered by the army. Paradoxically, precisely in the midst of these brutal acts what is most valuable emerges: solidarity, dignity, the strength to continue – and above all, the great responsibility of surviving and remembering. “My novels explore human suffering,” Han Kang once said. When she wrote about the Gwangju massacre, she was “aware that readers should, in turn, be prepared […] to experience such suffering firsthand themselves”.' back

William J Ripple (2024_10_08), The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth, ' We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis. For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change (Ripple et al. 2020). For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies (Supran et al. 2023). Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024 (Guterres 2024), and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100 (UNEP 2023). Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering. We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence. We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo (supplemental figure S1; CenCO2PIP Consortium et al. 2023). back

Yoana Gonen (2024_10_02), Opinion | Jordan's Foreign Minister Told Israelis an Inconvenient Truth, ' "The Israeli prime minister came here today and said that Israel is surrounded by those who want to destroy it, an enemy," Safadi said at a press conference shortly after Netanyahu finished his speech at the UN General Assembly. "We're here – members of a Muslim-Arab committee, mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries – and I can tell you here, very unequivocally, all of us are willing to, right now, guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state." Safadi wanted to remind people that Netanyahu and his government are the ones who are refusing to offer any diplomatic solution. He said that Netanyahu "is creating that danger because he simply does not want the two-state solution. And if he does not want the two-state solution, can you ask the Israeli officials: What is their endgame other than just wars and wars and wars?" ' back

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