Acemoglu (2023), Daron, and Simon Johnson, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, Public Affairs 2023 ' "A book you must read: compelling, beautifully written, and tightly argued, it addresses a crucially important problem with powerful solutions. Drawing on both historical examples and a deep dive into the ways in which artificial intelligence and social media depress wages and undermine democracy, Acemoglu and Johnson argue for a revolution in the way we manage and control technology. Throughout history, it has only been when elites have been forced to share power that technology has served the common good. Acemoglu and Johnson show us what this would look like today." --Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard University, and author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire  
Amazon   back

Casti (1996), John L, Five Golden Rules: Great Theories of 20th-Century Mathematics - and Why They Matter, John Wiley and Sons 1996 Preface: '[this book] is intended to tell the general reader about mathematics by showcasing five of the finest achievements of the mathematician's art in this [20th] century.' p ix. Treats the Minimax theorem (game theory), the Brouwer Fixed-Point theorem (topology), Morse's theorem (singularity theory), the Halting theorem (theory of computation) and the Simplex method (optimisation theory). 
Amazon   back

McGregor (2010), Richard, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, Harper 2010 Amazon editorial review: From Publishers Weekly 'McGregor, a journalist at the Financial Times, begins his revelatory and scrupulously reported book with a provocative comparison between China's Communist Party and the Vatican for their shared cultures of secrecy, pervasive influence, and impenetrability. The author pulls back the curtain on the Party to consider its influence over the industrial economy, military, and local governments. McGregor describes a system operating on a Leninist blueprint and deeply at odds with Western standards of management and transparency. Corruption and the tension between decentralization and national control are recurring themes--and are highlighted in the Party™s handling of the disturbing Sanlu case, in which thousands of babies were poisoned by contaminated milk powder. McGregor makes a clear and convincing case that the 1989 backlash against the Party, inexorable globalization, and technological innovations in communication have made it incumbent on the Party to evolve, and this smart, authoritative book provides valuable insight into how it has--and has not--met the challenge. ' Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 
Amazon   back

Al Jazeera and news agencies (2024_10_23), Gustavo Gutierrez, champion of Christian liberation theology, dies, ' Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, regarded as the father of Latin American liberation theology, has died aged 96. He passed away on Tuesday night in Lima, said the Dominican Order of Peru, without giving a cause. Gutierrez was an eminent Catholic theologian and philosopher, whose 1971 book – titled A Theology of Liberation – deeply influenced church doctrine and practice in Latin America. It holds that Christian salvation goes beyond spiritual matters, also demanding that people be freed from material or political oppression. He famously wrote: “The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited”. . . .. Initially, the Vatican harshly denounced liberation theology, claiming it held Marxist undercurrents, and spent decades disciplining some of its advocates. Gutierrez, who himself was never disciplined, told reporters in 2015 that liberation theology as a whole was never condemned, but he acknowledged that the Holy See had engaged in “very critical dialogue” with its proponents and that there were “difficult moments”. The arrival of the first Latin American pope, Pope Francis, focused the Vatican’s attention on social justice and the poor and led to something of a rehabilitation of liberation theology.' back

Alex Lo (2024_10_21), My Take: Some who study too much history end up repeating it, Reading various accounts of Yahya Sinwar’s political thinking, it’s extraordinary how much the slain Hamas leader thought like Osama bin Laden. Likewise, there are the terrifying parallels between the response of the Israeli state and that of the United States after 9/11. The tit-for-tat – you kill one of mine, I kill 10 of yours – has rearranged political orders, globally in the US case, regionally in Israel’s. It has also resulted in the global discrediting of the moral standing of both countries outside the West. . . . In the following, I borrow quite a bit from Steven Simon, a former official in both the Clinton and Obama White Houses and the author of a new book, Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East. back

All Quiet on the Western Front - Wikipedia, All Quiet on the Western Front - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit. 'In the West, nothing new') is a semi-autobiographical novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma during the war as well as the detachment from civilian life felt by many upon returning home from the war. It is billed by some as "the greatest war novel of all time".' back

Australian Society of Authors, Australian Society of Authors - About us, ' While Australia’s storytelling heritage spans many millennia, our publishing industry is young – and shaped by colonialism. ' By the early 1960s, it became clear that Australian authors and illustrators needed their own professional body to advocate for their rights. At the time, those who published books with British publishers received a reduced royalty on Australian sales, which were considered ‘export’ sales. What’s more, no recompense was provided for books held and loaned by libraries, or work copied and distributed in other formats. So in 1963, a small band of passionate authors​​ ​came together to form the ASA, with around 300 initial members, and a mandate to advocate for fair remuneration.' back

Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), ALCS - What we do, ' We make sure you receive the money you’re entitled to as a writer when someone copies or uses your work. We collect money from all over the world, then pay it to our members. So far we’ve paid a total of £700 million. We’re a not-for-profit organisation, with over 120,000 members. We’re open to all types of writer, and owned by our members. The money we collect is for ‘secondary uses’ of their work – such as photocopies, cable retransmission, digital reproduction and educational recording. These sorts of rights typically bring in small amounts of money that are difficult for writers to monitor individually, so the most effective way to gather them is collectively. It takes tireless investigation, as well as experience and expertise. But nowadays, with the help of our bespoke IT systems, we can collect money from all over the world through agreements with over 55 different societies in more than 40 countries.' back

Bill Hayes (2024_10_19), ' The Oliver Sacks I Knew and Loved Once Saw Himself as a Failure, ' The Oliver Sacks that most of the world knew — the one I fell in love with after we met in 2008, when he was 75 — was the beloved neurologist and the author of many best-selling books, admired worldwide. A forthcoming volume of Oliver’s letters, nearly 350 of them, spanning 55 years, from age 27 to 82, provides a more complicated picture of the man often referred to in his later years as “the poet laureate of medicine.” Even I, his partner for the last six years of his life, was surprised by what I read in many of these letters, which will be published next month for the first time. (A selection of excerpts from the letters will appear below this essay.) . . . That one’s humanity is embedded in one’s genetic uniqueness is beautifully articulated in a 2006 reply to a young woman with bipolar disorder, who had asked him, “Am I just a mistake that somehow survived evolution’s ax?” Though she was a stranger to him — one of his thousands of correspondents — Oliver replied by letter immediately: “What seems to me less stressed, and most in need of stressing,” he wrote to her, “is that you are an individual — unique — with gifts and genes which no one else in the world exactly duplicates — and that means you have a true place and role in evolution — and in the present. That you have bipolar disorder … does not begin to encompass the whole of you — it is a what, while you are a you. You have to hold to this sense of personhood … which is deeper than any ‘condition’ you have".' back

Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Among hundreds of fixed-point theorems] Brouwer's is particularly well known, due in part to its use across numerous fields of mathematics. In its original field, this result is one of the key theorems characterizing the topology of Euclidean spaces, along with the Jordan curve theorem, the hairy ball theorem, the invariance of dimension and the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. This gives it a place among the fundamental theorems of topology.' back

Canva, What will you design today?, ' Launched in 2013, Canva is an online design and visual communication platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.' back

Carl Strathearn & Dimitra Gkatzia (2024_2018), Robot developers keep making it seem like housebots are imminent when they’re decades away , ' The walking, talking, dancing Optimus robots at the recent Tesla demonstration generated huge excitement. But this turned to disappointment as it became apparent that much of what was happening was actually being controlled remotely by humans. . . . Building robots able to interact and carry out complex tasks in our homes and streets is still a huge challenge. Designing them even to do one specific task well, such as opening a door, is phenomenally difficult. There are so many door handles with different shapes, weights and materials, not to mention the complexity of dealing with unforeseen circumstances such as a locked door or objects blocking the way. Developers have actually now created a door-opening robot, but robots that can deal with hundreds of everyday tasks are still some way off. . . . In the meantime, it’s also more important that we focus our efforts on creating robots for roles that can support people who urgently need help now. Examples would include healthcare, where there are long waiting lists and understaffed hospitals; and education, to offer a way for overanxious or severely ill children to participate in classrooms remotely. We also need better transparency, legislation and publicly available testing, so that everyone can tell fact from fiction and help build public trust for when the robots eventually do arrive.' back

Chavi Eve Karkowsky (2024_10_24), Abortion Pills Are Safe. Post-Roe America Isn’t., ' Many state anti-abortion laws are vague, with severe but unclear punishments for anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, including the doctor who cares for her. Because hospitals and doctors may be reluctant to touch these patients, care will be delayed or patients will no longer trust that they can safely access that care. Women who need help are increasingly on their own. . . . Given this new landscape, some people have questioned whether medication abortions really are safe. Perhaps, they say, abortion rights organizations should rethink the aid they are giving. That is the wrong solution to this problem. Yes, medication abortion is less safe when no follow-up care is available, as is pregnancy, and taking an over-the-counter painkiller, and scraping your knee, all of which have rare but real risks. No treatment is completely safe when given without support or access to emergency services. What’s killing women isn’t the increasing use of medication abortion; it’s the laws and leaders who have created a situation in which those patients are denied basic care. What’s killing these women is not abortion; it’s the isolation, the absence of care, the ejection of reproductive health care from the systems that should provide it.' back

David Brooks (24_10_18), Why Isn’t Harris Running Away With This?, 'Two big things baffle me about this election. The first is: Why are the polls so immobile? In mid-June the race between President Biden and Donald Trump was neck and neck. Since then, we’ve had a blizzard of big events, and still the race is basically where it was in June. It started out tied and has only gotten closer. . . . The second thing that baffles me is: Why has politics been 50-50 for over a decade? We’ve had big shifts in the electorate, college-educated voters going left and non-college-educated voters going right. But still, the two parties are almost exactly evenly matched. . . . As the American Enterprise Institute scholars Ruy Teixeira and Yuval Levin note in a new study, “Politics Without Winners,” we have two parties playing the role of minority party: “Each party runs campaigns focused almost entirely on the faults of the other, with no serious strategy for significantly broadening its electoral reach.” . . . On these, as on so many other issues, the position that is held by a vast majority of Americans is unsayable in highly educated progressive circles. The priesthood has established official doctrine, and woe to anyone who contradicts it. The Republicans have exactly the same dynamic, except their priesthood is dominated by shock jocks, tech bros and Christian nationalists, some of whom are literally members of the priesthood. . . . The result is that each party has its own metaphysics. Each party is no longer just a political organism; it is a political-cultural-religious-class entity that organizes the social, moral and psychological lives of its believers.' back

Dreamtime - Wikipedia, Dreamtime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of Everywhen during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions or with supernatural abilities. These figures were often distinct from gods as they did not control the material world and were not worshipped, but only revered. . . . By the 1990s, Dreaming had acquired its own currency in popular culture, based on idealised or fictionalised conceptions of Australian mythology. Since the 1970s, Dreaming has also returned from academic usage via popular culture and tourism and is now ubiquitous in the English vocabulary of Aboriginal Australians in a kind of "self-fulfilling academic prophecy".' back

Francis Encyclical (2024_10_24), Dilexit Nos, ' 1. “HE LOVED US”, Saint Paul says of Christ (cf. Rom 8:37), in order to make us realize that nothing can ever “separate us” from that love (Rom 8:39). Paul could say this with certainty because Jesus himself had told his disciples, “I have loved you” (Jn 15:9, 12). Even now, the Lord says to us, “I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). His open heart has gone before us and waits for us, unconditionally, asking only to offer us his love and friendship. For “he loved us first” (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). Because of Jesus, “we have come to know and believe in the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16). CHAPTER ONE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART 2. The symbol of the heart has often been used to express the love of Jesus Christ. Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today. Yet living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.' back

Geoff Thompson (2024_10_18) , “Spirituality is too opaque”: How Nick Cave and Stan Grant point us back to Christianity’s strangeness, ' Anecdotally, pastors, priests and chaplains report on how this “spiritual but not religious” trope is invoked by those who wish to engage such matters as God and mystery, but who insist on keeping their distance from any official or institutional manifestation of religion. Such an understanding also tends to assume that spirituality is really what religions are about, if only organised religions didn’t obscure and complicate it. Thus spirituality, it seems, has migrated from the churches to wider and more accessible expanses. But is it really that straightforward?' back

Jane Cai (2024_10_24), Does a talent crisis threaten China’s quantum ambitions? One Chinese expert thinks so, ' China urgently needs to develop elite talent in the field of quantum computing, according to a leading academic, who has warned that the hi-tech sector must avoid internal trends that strangle innovation. Yu Dapeng, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said a lack of ingenuity was hindering China’s quantum computing development, despite the significant public funding poured into the strategically important sector. The lack of innovation had two main causes: not enough emphasis on developing talent; and sporadic frenzies in research fields leading to nei juan, or involution. . . . Domestic disarray has stalled Chinese research before. In 1964, China issued a stamp to mark the contributions of Chinese scientists to the birth of advanced transmission electron microscopy (TME) earlier that year. But the research was disrupted by the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, which halted any further progress for many years, as researchers were purged or transferred to other industries during the havoc, or left the country.' 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

Ketrin Jochecová and Veronika Melkozerova (2024_10_25), Zelenskyy rejects UN chief’s visit over meeting with Putin, ' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to host United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kyiv following his visit to Russia, where he was pictured shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an official close to Zelenskyy said. “He shook hands with him [Putin]. He smiled. He was asked to come to promote the BRICS summit even more. He was used by them, and he seemed happy to be used,” the official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the sensitive matter. Guterres went to the city of Kazan, Russia, to attend the BRICS summit, where on the sidelines he met Putin — who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. In remarks at the summit, Guterres called for a “just peace.” After his visit to Russia, Guterres planned to travel to Kyiv. Zelenskyy criticized Guterres in an evening speech on Thursday that marked United Nations Day, in which he said it is “crucial” the world remembers the goals and principles of the U.N. Charter. “Even if some officials prefer the allure of Kazan over the substance of the U.N. Charter, our world is structured so that the rights of nations and international legal norms matter, and will continue to matter,” said Zelenskyy in his address. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry earlier also slammed the U.N. chief for his attendance decisions. “The UN Secretary General declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first global peace summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry posted on X on Monday. “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation,” the post continued.' back

Milad Haghani (2024_10_26), Chaotic scenes at Travis Scott’s Melbourne concert: what is the role of artists in crowd behaviour?, ' Travis Scott’s Melbourne concert on October 22 lived up to his reputation for chaotic performances. Fans, eager for a high-energy show, were met with unruly scenes both inside and outside the venue. Reports described concertgoers clashing, throwing plastic bottles and dismantling barricades. As some fans attempted to breach security barriers to enter the mosh pit, physical altercations with security guards erupted. One fan reportedly suffered a seizure after trying to bypass barricades. These occurrences, at times, were reminiscent of the dangerous atmosphere at Scott’s past concerts, including the fatal 2021 crowd crush at Astroworld Festival in Houston. Modern crowd psychology shows us collective behaviour is shaped by perceived group norms, and these norms can either foster safety or encourage chaos. This performance – contrasted with other recent big concerts in Australia – highlights the urgent need to rethink the roles of performers in crowd management.' back

Mojo (African-American culture) - Wikipedia, Mojo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, A mojo in the African-American spiritual practice called Hoodoo, is an amulet consisting of a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. It is a "prayer in a bag", or a spell that can be carried with or on the host's body. Alternative American names for the mojo bag include gris-gris bag, hand, mojo hand, toby, nation sack, conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, juju bag, trick bag, tricken bag, root bag, and jomo. The word mojo also refers to magic and charms. Mojo containers are bags, gourds, bottles, shells, and other containers. The making of mojo bags in Hoodoo is a system of African-American occult magic. The creation of mojo bags is an esoteric system that involves sometimes housing spirits inside of bags for either protection, healing, or harm and to consult with spirits. Other times mojo bags are created to manifest results in a person's life such as good-luck, money or love.'
The word has also acquired a very wide range of meanings in film and television. games, literature, radio,music, art, corporations, recordings, sculpture, business, food, names, places, science and technology. back

P versus NP problem - Wikipedia, P versus NP problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in computer science. It asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified (technically, verified in polynomial time) can also be solved quickly (again, in polynomial time). The underlying issues were first discussed in the 1950s, in letters from John Forbes Nash Jr. to the National Security Agency, and from Kurt Gödel to John von Neumann. The precise statement of the P versus NP problem was introduced in 1971 by Stephen Cook in his seminal paper " The complexity of theorem proving procedures" and is considered by many to be the most important open problem in the field.' back

Pope Pius X, Lamentabili Sane: The Syllabus of Errors (Condemning the Errors of the Modernists) Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, July 3, 1907, 'WITH TRULY LAMENTABLE RESULTS, our age, casting aside all restraint in its search for the ultimate causes of things, frequently pursues novelties so ardently that it rejects the legacy of the human race. Thus it falls into very serious errors, which are even more serious when they concern sacred authority, the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and the principal mysteries of Faith. The fact that many Catholic writers also go beyond the limits determined by the Fathers and the Church herself is extremely regrettable. In the name of higher knowledge and historical research, (they say), they are looking for that progress of dogmas which is, in reality, nothing but the corruption of dogmas. ... ' back

Reuters (24_10_21), Pentagon chief visits Ukraine in show of support ahead of US election, 'nUS Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced US$400 million in new arms for Ukraine on Monday during a visit to Kyiv, in a show of solidarity just two weeks ahead of a US presidential election that is casting uncertainty over the future of Western support. Austin’s trip, his fourth and likely final visit as President Joe Biden’s Pentagon chief, focused on US efforts to help Kyiv shore up its defences as Russian forces slowly but steadily gain ground in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a statement on X, appeared to renew calls for Washington to ease restrictions on using US-supplied weapons to hit targets deep in Russian territory. As Biden’s administration winds down, Austin, however, signalled continuity in US support, and announced no changes to US policy. “The United States understands the stakes here, Mr President,” Austin told Zelensky during a meeting, as he announced additional munitions, armoured vehicles and anti-tank weapons for Ukraine.' back

Steven Simon (2024_10_17), The demise of Yahya Sinwar and his 'big project' , ' He timed his “big project,” as its planners called it, to exploit civil discord in Israel over Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to hamstring the country’s Supreme Court and subordinate it to the will of the right-wing legislature. . . . Sinwar interpreted this unrest as cracks in the foundation of the Israeli state. In the very long run he might well prove to have been right. But he was very wrong to think that these cracks could be widened by the big project. Indeed, Sinwar’s assault on Israel and the taking of hostages, was not the wedge he thought it would be, but rather the cement that instantaneously sealed the fault lines. . . . The result was an all-out war on Hamas. Traumatized Israelis, humiliated and scandalized by an historic intelligence failure, quickly coalesced in favor of a scorched-earth response and Netanyahu’s aim of total victory. And it was understood that as of October 7, Sinwar was dead, if unburied. Sinwar’s hubris triggered a massive assault that eviscerated Gaza’s civilian population and was — is — apparently replete with war crimes related to Israel’s failure to protect Gaza’s civilian population from attack, the targeting of humanitarian agencies, and the failure to ensure that Palestinian noncombatants had adequate access to food, water, and medical care.' back

Teddy Rosenbluth (24_10_17), These Tiny Worms Account for at Least 4 Nobel Prizes, ' When scientists win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, they typically thank family and colleagues, maybe their universities or whoever funded their research. This year, as the molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun accepted the most prestigious award of his career, he spent a few minutes lauding his experimental subject: a tiny worm named Caenorhabditis elegans, which he called “badass.” “No one ever thought to use that term for a worm,” he said during a news conference. “We are asserting ourselves now, and I was asserting this before the Nobel-stinking-Prize.” . . . The nematode was the first animal to have its genome entirely deciphered — in 1998, years before scientists were able to do the same for flies and mice. The worm is also inexpensive, easy to store and entirely self-sufficient when it comes to reproduction; female C. elegans have functional sperm that allow them to inseminate themselves. . . . Even though worms are leagues simpler than the human body, we have more in common than we might believe, said Robert Waterston, a geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “If we understand the worm, we understand life,” he said. ' back

The Society of Authors (SoA), About (SoA), ' The SoA is the UK’s largest trade union for all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators, at all stages of their careers. We have been advising individuals and speaking out for the profession for more than a century. Members receive unlimited free advice on all aspects of the profession, including confidential clause-by-clause contract vetting, and a wide range of exclusive offers. We campaign and lobby on the issues that affect authors and hold a hundreds of events annually across the UK and online. Find out more about membership. The SoA also administers grants and prizes to support and celebrate authors at all stages of their careers. We administer many literary estates, the income from which helps fund our work.' back

Tray McEwan (2024_10_24), Stalking rates in Australia are still shockingly high – one simple strategy might help, ' New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals one in seven adult Australians have been stalked in their lifetime: one in five women and one in 15 men. . . . The ABS has conducted similar surveys roughly every five years since 2005, which reveal basically the same results each time. About 3-4% of women and 1-2% of men are victims of stalking every year. These rates are consistent with those reported in research from the United Kingdom and United States, with small variations depending on definition. Stalking rates have remained stubbornly consistent despite the same ABS survey showing reductions in the rates of intimate partner violence and general violence over the past decade. The reasons for this are unclear, though there are obvious differences in the level of government and community investment in countering intimate partner violence versus awareness of and attention to stalking. Stalking is a pattern of repeated and unwanted behaviour in which one person pushes their way into the life of another where they have no legitimate right to be, causing the target distress and fear. . . .. An Australian national stalking helpline would be a practical, relatively inexpensive and immediately helpful strategy that governments could implement to support the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are stalked every year.' back

Vanessa H. Larson (2024_10_23), A gorgeous manuscript shows the brilliance of medieval Persia, ' Art, a recording of a woman’s voice reciting the Shahnama sets the stage for the exhibition. Even if you don’t understand the Persian language of the Iranian national epic, the singsong rhythm of the verses and the drama of the narration come through clearly. The Shahnama was completed in 1010 by the poet Firdawsi — sometimes transliterated as Ferdowsi — and tells the pre-Islamic history of the Persians, both mythological and real, from the creation of the world through the eve of the Arab invasion in the 7th century; the text remains hugely important to Iranians today. Detail of “Folio From a Shahnama (Book of Kings) by Firdawsi; Ardashir Captures Ardavan.” Detached manuscript folio, Ilkhanid dynasty, circa 1330-1340, Tabriz, Iran. Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper. (National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution) “An Epic of Kings” centers on an elaborate illustrated version of the Shahnama produced in the city of Tabriz in about the 1330s, during the roughly century-long rule of the Ilkhanids — a dynastic branch of the Mongols established when Genghis Khan’s grandson Hulegu invaded Iran in 1256. The imperial manuscript, known as the “Great Mongol Shahnama,” is noteworthy for its monumental size and technically sophisticated paintings that incorporate expensive materials such as gold, silver and lapis lazuli.' back

William Zheng (2024_10_07), China throws the book: more corruption suspects hit with claims of illicit reading, ' Reading publications with “serious political problems” has become an increasingly common accusation levelled at disgraced officials by China’s anti-corruption agencies, who cite it as proof of disloyalty. Among them is Li Bin, a former vice-director of the municipal legislature of Mudanjiang in northeastern Heilongjiang province. He was expelled from the Communist Party on suspicions of corruption late last month. However, municipal corruption inspectors did not lead with claims of corrupt dealings. Instead, at the top of allegations made public was the accusation that he privately read an “illegal publication” with content that would “jeopardise the unity of the party”. It was in keeping with a norm in which political disloyalty is always the first charge listed. A few days earlier, Cheng Zhiyi, 61, former party secretary of Chongqing’s Jiangjin district, was also accused of possessing and reading forbidden books. The southwestern city’s corruption investigators issued an announcement on his wrongdoings, saying he was accused of “reading overseas books and periodicals with serious political problems” . Cheng and Li are among a growing group of disgraced Chinese officials who are being accused in public by corruption fighters at various levels of reading publications not endorsed by the authorities.' back

Wisetech Global, Who we are - about us, ' We bring meaningful, continual improvement to the world's supply chains. Replacing ageing, legacy, proprietary and domestic systems with efficient, highly automated and integrated global capabilities. Our breakthrough software solutions are renowned for their powerful productivity, extensive functionality, comprehensive integration, deep compliance capabilities and truly global reach. Our people and teams around the world are aligned in our strong vision to be the operating system for global logistics. We are evolving rapidly. Expanding into more products, deeper functionality, more geographies and adjacencies, driving our long-term growth and market position with each new innovation and acquisition.' back

Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), WGGB - About us, ' The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is a trade union representing professional writers in TV, film, theatre, radio, books, comedy, poetry, animation and videogames. Our members also include emerging and aspiring writers. ' We have been negotiating better pay and working conditions for writers since 1959. The national agreements we have in place cover key industry bodies, including the BBC, ITV, Pact; National Theatre, Royal Court and Royal Shakespeare Company (see some of our recent wins for writers). We lobby and campaign on behalf of writers, to ensure their voices are heard in a rapidly changing digital landscape. We offer a range of benefits to our members, including free training, contract vetting, a pension scheme, Welfare Fund, entry to our Find A Writer directory, a weekly ebulletin, plus member-only events and discounts (take a look at our handy member benefits chart).' back