Natural Theology

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Sunday 18 October 2026 - Saturday 24 October 2026

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Sunday 18 October 2026

At this point in our history we have identified two ‘standard models’ of the universe we inhabit which

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we shall identify as the physical model and the theological model. The physical model is curated by a global community of physicists who are committed to taking the world as they find it by careful, often instrumental, observation, and seeking to discern, from observable evidence, how it works. The modern era of physics may be dated from the time of Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) who constructed telescopes and observed the phases of Venus to conclude that Venus orbits the Sun inside the orbit of the Earth, so ending the debate about whether the Sun orbits the Earth (as it appears to do) or vice versa. Phases of Venus, Wikipedia

Before and since Galileo’s time physics has been intimately involved in developing weapons of war and reached its peak role in global politics after the second world war with the development of thermonuclear explosives. This success greatly increased our investment in physics which has given us instrumentation, telescopes and microscopes of exquisite sensitivity. These have provided data for our standard model of the physical world which suggests an origin about 14 billion years go, with Sun and Earth appearing about 5 billion years ago and life on Earth about 4 billion years ago. Standard model - Wikipedia, SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

We can imagine the theological model began a few hundred thousand years ago when our species Homo sapiens appeared on Earth and people began consciously discussing themselves and their environment. We have artistic and archaeological evidence of these events dating from approximately 100 thousand years ago and written theological documents reflecting traditions some 5000 years old. Extant oral traditions relating to dated planetary events like sea levels and volcanoes take us deeper into the past. Hamacher, Lehman, Nunn & Taylor (2023_08_14): Rising seas and a great southern star: Aboriginal oral traditions stretch back more than 12,000 years

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As people migrated around the planet we differentiated into a large number of linguistic and cultural groups that often remained isolated until the beginning of imperialism and travel by sea so that a wide variety of [local] theological traditions have slowly coalesced into about five major traditions. [The evidential basis for these developments has been less involved in physical observation of the world and relies more on creative fictions concerning invisible features of reality that are less capable of observational validation.] I was born into what many know as the Judaeo-Christian tradition, which I know quite well than and whose primary literary source are the Five Books of Moses at the beginning of the Hebrew Bible which began to metamorphose into Christianity about 2000 years ago. Judeo-Christian - Wikipedia, Robert Alter (2004): The Five Books of Moses

The central figures in theological texts, as the name suggests, are gods. The principal feature of gods is that they are not observable although they may have human representatives [often called priests] and the story related in the Books of Moses suggest that Moses himself had a theological education in Pharaonic Egypt and carried the idea of a unitary divinity called Yahweh when he left Egypt with his people to establish a new home for then in the region which became the province of Judaea when the Roman Empire established hegemony around the Mediterranean a few centuries before the common era. Ravasini et al. (2026_07_26): A New Perspective on the Arrival of the Eastern Mediterranean Genetic Influx in Central Italy Before the Onset of the Roman Empire

Alex Lo (2026_10_16): US tech bros are coming for Asia and Latin America’s power grids

Moses’ god was a master of genocide, no doubt learnt in Egypt. Yahweh made a clear statement of his imperialism and over a few thousand years this idea has migrated to the Roman Catholic Popes who have declared themselves infallible. USCCB: Exodus: Chapter 20

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On the whole the traditional gods and their dual, Satan and their fallen angels [are not good for humanity]. Theologies confront the heart of darkness, the problem of evil. Was this a problem before the origin of imperialism? Wee Kek Koon (2026_09_26): When centuries of Chinese knowledge were destroyed by a warlord who burned the capital, Heart of Darkness - Wikipedia

Genocide appears to be a theological vice, the mass killing of indigenous people has been the key to imperialism.

The Judaeo-Christian divinity, like most divinities and emperors, tend toward genocide. This presumably takes the form of destruction of indigenous populations. A recent article estimates the Indigenous population of Australia to have been a little over 2 million. A few years after the invasion it was down to about 250 thousand and dropped to about 70 thousand in the 1930s. Bradshaw, Williams, Russell, Ulm & Ingrey: More than 2 million Indigenous people lived in Australia in 1788: new research

On the whole genocide is pretty much a standard practice for gods and theocratic imperialists.

The energy associated with a quantum of action is inversely proportional to time: E = mc2, = ML2T-2 = hT-1 ie h = ML2T-1.

The normalization of Hilbert vectors means that each one requires quantum of action to energize, i.e. an

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orbiting electron in an atom gains or loses one quantum of angular momentum when it absorbs or emits one photon. The energy involved is a function of the frequncy rather than the action of the photon.

From a human moral point of view the gods are not particularly inspiring, having very little regard for human life. Moses’ Yahweh is typical.

The question remains, how do we make a particle out of a field, ie a Hilbert space. Answer: energy, its that simple.

Monday 19 October 2026

Given the quantum of action (actus purus) as our fundamental divine fixed point, the energy scale cited in the designs of our colliders is in fact an inverse time so 1 TeV = 10-? seconds [1 TeV = 1.6 × 10-7 Joule, h = 6.6 × 10-34 Joule.sec, so 1 TEV = 1.6 × 10-7 / 6.6 10-34 = 0.24 × 10-27 second, about 2.4 × 1026 Hz].

My rediscovery of Blackfriars closes a circle in my life which began when I was 15 and moved to Adelaide, now 67 years ago, during which time I have become a professional heretic, written the book and now after a year of health care am ready to set out on my mission of making theology into a science with whatever intelligence is left to me, preaching the divine [opposition to] the theological imperialist genocide message inherited from Moses and carried through to Putin, Netanyahu and their ilk.

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The central thesis of scientific theology was identified by Jesus of Nazareth who spoke for all religions when he asserts the symmetry of god and humanity [love god, love your neighbour].

Definitely aiming an article at the Scientific American which fed my soul during my time in the Order. The technical side of it is already captured in Quantocracy: The universal quantum mechanical foundations of democracy and freedom and we put it in Pternip/Journalism/Scientific_American/Dawn_of_Scientific_Theology. The trick will be to frame it so the editors of SciAm will see it as a publishable contribution, so we have to calm down a bit on the imperialistic theocracy and phrase is all in the framework of the Judaeo-Christian theological hypothesis (see page 21 sqq and opening lines of this week “two standard models”)

We are seeking consistency and one route is to cast the evolution of the universe as an exercise in Natural Intelligence first laid down by Darwin, beginning with a story of creation, beginning with LaPlace’s demon. Judeo-Christianity began with the creation and we now begin with new creation, 14 steps from an eternal structureless singularity. Both standard models begin with the creation, the random source of entropy.

It would seem that we must break both the theological and the physical standard models to create a consistent account of creation. Our first problem is the position of the Roman Catholic Church which insists that Homo sapiens could not be a product of evolution but requires the creation of an eternal spiritual soul by the divine creator that stands at the foundation of the Catholic hypothesis. We might simply bypass this obection by claiming that there is no evidence

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for it, particularly since we seem to be able to model a good deal of human intellectual ability using quite simple computing machinery using binary logic processing small samples of human cultural output.

Laplace’s demon and evolution can both take us deeper than the infallible deterministic divinity upon which the Church relies for its certainty. The foundations of the argument were laid down by the Angelic Doctor Thomas Aquinas, drawing from ideas created by the Islamic theologians Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes). They laid the foundations of the idea that the divinity is the necessary being - a being whose essence is to exist, or as Aquinas ultimately phrased it, in divinity essence and existence are identical. Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 4: Are essence and existence the same in God?

The divinity ultimately has three primary properties. The first is eternity, which was well understood by ancient philosopher like Aristotle. Since nothing comes from nothing and there is obviously something, something must always have existed from the beginning of time. Aquinas, Summa, I, 10, 1: Is this a good definition of eternity. "The simultaneously-whole and perfect possession of interminable life"

The second is omnipotence, meaning that a divinity can do anything which is not intrinsically self contradictory. This definition of omnipotence became central in mathematics late in the nineteenth century and early in the twentieth century when mathematicians began to [notice contradictions like Russell’s paradox] in their work with Cantor’s set theory. [. . .] Some thought that the troubles may be rooted in there ambiguity of natural. language, leading Whitehead and Russell to

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write Principia Mathematica. Russell's paradox - Wikipedia, Whitehead & Russell (1910, 1962): Principia Mathematica

David Hilbert was confident that this [logical] technology would lead to the elimination of problems and proposed a formal axiomatic approach which he felt would lead to something akin to Aquinas’s definition of omnipotence [making mathematics capable of dealing with all symbolic systems that did not lead to contradiction]. Mathematics would be consistent, complete and computable. If this turned out to be true we could say that we had a formally omnipotent version of mathematics equivalent to a divinity.

Kurt Gödel Alan Turing showed, [using Whitehead and Russell’s formalism] that this could not be the case. Even an omnipotent system like a divinity could be uncertain and infallibility will not be a product of consistency, There will always be chance, there will always be creativity, there will always be lack of control. The universe and divinity are equivalent. Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, Turing machine - Wikipedia

Our next problem has a similar flavour. God, we say, is purely spiritual, completely free of matter, and yet physics as we know it occurs in Minkowski space, inside the mass shell. But this does not work for modern quantum field theory. We have to allow the system to go “off shell”, to be effectively immaterial, ie spiritual. Aquinas, Summa: I, 14, 1: Is there knowledge in God?, Aquinas, Summa: I, 7, 1: Is God infinite?

This leads to difficulties in quantum field theory which I have proposed to solve by suggesting that von Neumann’s linear algebra and Hilbert’s formalism can serve as the real foundation of a divine, eternal and omnipotent universe, capable of creating [its own mental structure like any living creature] and understanding anything possible, the attribute of omniscience. Tighten this up and maybe we have the Dawn of Scientific Theology. A project. John von Neumann (2018): Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Formalism (philosophy of mathematics) - Wikipedia

Tuesday 20 October 2026

We propose to solve this problem by beginning the construction of the universe beneath the mass shell by proposing and= initial symmetry based on the work of Aquinas and Einstein [and Aquinas–Einnsein symmetry] which we assume to have the property of the Islamic / Christian necessary

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being whose essence is to exist. We attribute eternity to this being and omnipotence as defined above. The first step in creation we take to be the creation of Hilbert space in this symmetry on the assumption that it is conscious and capable of mapping onto itself [in a manner analogous to Augustine of Hippo’s development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity embodied in the Nicene Creed (with the assistance of fixed point theory)]. On shell and off shell - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed-point theorem - Wikipedia

Once we have a Hilbert space, we instal quantum mechanics and find that it contains two statistical subspaces, as defined by Khinchin, which create two spaces of particles, fermions and bosons, whose [interactive] properties establish the metric of Minkowski space. Aleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin (1960, 1998), page 83

This space is no longer continuous, as mathematicians have assumed with the traditional spacetime, so we avoid the problems of infinity that standard quantum field theory finds it necessary to eliminate with renormalization. This approach also works around the cosmological constant problem, because pure quantum mechanics, prior to Minkowski space has the full entropy of Hilbert space at its command and energizes the forms of particles not by quantum fluctuation and zero point energy as standard field theory requires, but opens a path to variation and selection which appears to deliver the full spectrum of elementary particles associated with the strong, electroweak and electromagnetic fields or potentials. Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, Renormalization - Wikipedia

We imagine that fermions and bosons, as particles, are formed together by the bifurcation of [zero energy] gravitation into positive energy (fermions, spinors and space) and potential energy as bosons, coupled to time. The elaboration of this scenario is to be continued in the 14 steps, taking full advantage of the evolutionary potential of Hilbert space and selection [governed by energy, as we see in the operation of the lagrangian in the mass shell without dispersing the lagrangian density as applied in gauge (phase) theory].

This simple scenario embraces all the observed content of quantum field theory in a manner analogous to the embrace of all life by Darwinian evolution powered by low entropy potential from the Sun. This essay may be formulated as

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a Scholastic Thomistic question with objections and responses, plus a sed contra and a body, honouring he work of the Angelic Doctor who set out in the right direction [inspired by Islam) but who was compelled by the violent imperial orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church established under the Empire of Constantine. [This creed] has subsequently been defended by two millennia of military violence which continues to be fed by theological dissention to the present day. I would be so happy if I could get an essay like this published.

On concession the Order made to me was that I could receive a subscription to the Scientific American, and this could have been my downfall.

Wednesday 21 October 202

One advantage of scientific theology is that, like scientific healthcare, it removes the penalties on non-believers who face death and disability [in autocratic theocracies, for their perceived mental state].

Writing to SciAm:

1. Laplace demon cannot create, so Darwin
2. Darwin, variation
3. then the eternal beginnig: Aquinas–Einstein symetry and omnipotence
4. Einstein did not like chance but Planck converted him
5. General relativity and simplicity gives us Aquinas–Einstein symmetry [which is not yet 4D because fermions and bosons have yet to be created]
6. Augustine gives us conscious reflection, multiplicity and random Hilbert space
7. With this comes omnipotence [maybe as powerful as Hilbert’s formalism] 8. and permutations, fermios and bosons

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10. And Minkowski space, particulate and not continuous
11. Now we can let evolution loose to give us protons and a few other tweaks to give us a stable system.

Book not perfect and guided by heuristic of simplicity.

First the proper subject of theology is human consciousness built on the initial symmetry. Imagination is omniscient. We do not appreciate radical contradictions and fudges in our stories ie we like to come a full circle from circumstances to a satisfactory conclusion.

A symphony that explores a rich space of sound that comes to a satisfactory and perhaps surprising end.

The key to good writing, like all forms of building, is to make every sentence, every sequence of action, a certain step toward the final goal. I am trying to do this in my essay to the Scientific American.

Fermions material particles, bosons light particles

Thursday 22 October 2026

Abstract: A scientific theology requires that the divinity be observable. As with one another, we reach eachother’s state of mind by reading body language. If the universe is divine, the divinity’s body language is revealed in physics.

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So we assume that we learn the mind of god by systematically integrating physics and theology. We then face the old problem. The world is material but the divinity is spiritual. How can the two meet? The clue lies in the abstract immaterial Hilbert space in which von Neumann constructed quantum mechanics.

We begin with an analogy of the divinity modelled by Thomas Aquinas, eternal, omnipotent and absolutely structureless entity we call the Aquinas–Einstein symmetry which we assume to be a conscious “spirit”. Following Augustine’s construction of the Trinity we see this symmetry reflecting on itself to create a countably infinite set of orthogonal images of itself, a Hilbert space. Here we see two subspaces, solutions to the Schrödinger equation that represents symmetrical and anti-symmetrical statistics, bosons and fermions. These forms are responsible for bifurcating gravitation into positive and negtive energy to form real fermions and real bosons.

Following Aristotle, we see space as the set of places of real entities, these particles form a space with the Minkowski metric.

Now we can implement Darwinian evolution, Hilbert space providing variation and conservation of energy providing selection. This scenario is the subject of my book, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: a systematic integration of physics and theology. The following short essay expands this scenario to make it more comprehensible. Jeffrey Nicholls (2025): Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic unification of physics and theology

Essay Dawn of Scientific Theology posted to Sciam

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Friday 23 October 2026

This morning I wake up and want to change everything then think about it for a while and realize a stictly linear story is not possible and I will create the Uninverse in little self contained episodes, introducing episodes of the theological interpretation of physics. As usual I am standing on a ricketty scaffold, but will press on to complete the imaginary structure then work back through it to fix the weaknesses. So first target the full 14 steps , by whatever means.

The heart of cl4l06_particles is the differentiation in real observable spacetime of complete, symmetrical and anti-symmetrical degrees of freedom carried into Minkowski space from the wave functions in Hilbert space. This jutifies the slightly redundant sequence of cl4l04_entropy, cl4l05_energy, cl4l06_particles, cl4l07_minkowski and possibly cl4l08_relativity, before we depart into cl4l10_gauge (phase)_theory, 11_strong force, 12_electroweak, 13_electromagnetic [and 14 conclusion].

The extend of Minkowski space depends on the total number of fermions involved and the commnication between the fermions depends on the bosons.

The search is for a suitable precision weapons to reform the Catholic Church and reveal the damage it has done to the human world

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and my best course to achieving this is the damage it did to my younger self together with the insight my time in the Church gave me into how to correct the damage it has done to me. The basic idea is that we are indigenous, we live in the world that is the source of our soul. What I am seeking to do is to embody this in Lust for Life with the view to producing another book in a couple of years to benefit from my crucifixion by bcoming another “Jesus”.

The central doctrine is that Cn Hilbert space spans the full space of mathematical formalism. [. . .] Formalism (philosophy of mathematics) - Wikipedia [link above]

Holographic Information Jeremy Bernstein (2007_01_01)

S. N. Bose (1924): Planck’s Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis S. N. Bose (1924): Planck’s Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis.

I see myself as very pedestrian with dreams of high art in no way equal to the task that fate has given me, to construct and launch scientific theology, but I have little choice but to press on.

Evening walk and bright idea: a) One would like to have the gift of absolute certainty but that would be to sacrifice flexibility,

An idea: The initial symmetry does not have 4D until the first fermions and bosons appear (creating the first bit of Minkowski space) and these may not be separate particles in the first place: as we understand pendula and the equivalence principle, setting up a sort of implicit fermion (3D) boson (1D) situation, the Minkowski space spreads and remains closed and curved and symmetrical throughout, like Einstein’s gravitation. Precession of Mercury indicates curvature.

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Saturday 24 October 2026

Between Isabel Allende (Island Beneath the Sea) and A. Y Khinchin I am becoming happy with my work and feel that I could not have got to this point without the long and messy history of my life. L4L is coming along at cl4l06_particles, the Bohr atom, de Broglie’s wave idea, the Schrödinger equation and Khinchin statistics and the conservation of energy as a unitary integral (classical) comprising symmetric and antisymmetric statistics to make the Bohr atom and classical kinetic theory though conservation of energy/momentum via classical physics. This is the route from state vectors to the classical mass shell and physics in the observable world, god’s body, reflecting god’s mind in the tangled affairs of the violently twisted politics of imperialism driven by fictitious gods. L4L shows us how the universe really evolved, not by creation by an ignorant and stupid god [devised by writers] feeding off their violent imperialist masters. My take on history for the last 10K years, reaching its climax in Mutual Assured Destruction, the nuclear horror of my youth.

This new history is coalescing in my mind and reaches its apogee in the almighty, the thermonuclear weapon that can destroy us all as Yahweh and other imperial gods, represented among us by the pope, have done so often. So after essay for SciAm a new book for the Pope (or essay) which might turn out to be popular. 1. My view of history; 2. The precent situation; 3. What to do - real democracy, true communication, take the $$ out of lies.

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The RCC is by far the greatest propagator of falsehood on the planet; ‘A Theological view of History’ [the problem is people believe it and it is very well established and attractive, impregnable].

Something good: I seem to be getting my mind back after my tooth extraction anaesthetic. The source of peace and stability is entropy. The entropy of the Church, the PRC and the US is effectively zero [1 person].

Copyright:

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Further reading

Books

Alter (2004), Robert, The Five Books of Moses, W. W.Norton 2004 ' Through a distinguished career of critical scholarship and translation, Robert Alter has equipped ua to read thr Hebrew Bible as a powerful cohesive work of literature. In this landmark work, Alter's masterly translation and probing commentary combine to give contemporary readers the definitive edition of the Five Books of Moses. 
Amazon
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Khinchin (1960, 1998), Aleksandr Yakovlevich, The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Statistics, Dover 1998 'In the area of quantum statistics, I show that a rigorous mathematical basis of the computational formulas of statistical physics . . . may be obtained from an elementary application of the well-developed limit theorems of the theory of probability.' 
Amazon
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic unification of physics and theology, Austin Macauley Publishers 2025 ' This book is a personal narrative of those events and a defense of the belief that the universe itself is divine. The central argument is that by embracing this reality and abandoning notions of supernatural deities, humanity can resolve its problems. The universe, it is argued, is self-creating, and a proper understanding of physics leads to a plausible scientific theology. The natural intelligence inherent in the universe, from cellular organization to ecosystems, far surpasses any artificial intelligence. Comprehending this natural order, the author suggests, would make achieving world peace relatively straightforward. The book contends that modern theologians should recognize the physical world, rather than ancient texts, as the foundation for credible theology. It also addresses the historical entanglement of religion and politics, asserting that the model of creation presented herein fundamentally rejects the imperialistic ambitions that have fueled genocidal holy wars.'  
Amazon
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von Neumann (2018), John, and Nicholas A. Wheeler (editor), Robert T Beyer (translator), Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 2018 ' Quantum mechanics was still in its infancy in 1932 when the young John von Neumann, who would go on to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, published Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics--a revolutionary book that for the first time provided a rigorous mathematical framework for the new science. Robert Beyer's 1955 English translation, which von Neumann reviewed and approved, is cited more frequently today than ever before. But its many treasures and insights were too often obscured by the limitations of the way the text and equations were set on the page. In this new edition of this classic work, mathematical physicist Nicholas Wheeler has completely reset the book in TeX, making the text and equations far easier to read. He has also corrected a handful of typographic errors, revised some sentences for clarity and readability, provided an index for the first time, and added prefatory remarks drawn from the writings of Léon Van Hove and Freeman Dyson. The result brings new life to an essential work in theoretical physics and mathematics.' 
Amazon
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Whitehead (1910, 1962), Alfred North, and Bertrand Arthur Russell, <(Cambridge Mathematical Library), Cambridge University Press 1910, 1962 The great three-volume Principia Mathematica is deservedly the most famous work ever written on the foundations of mathematics. Its aim is to deduce all the fundamental propositions of logic and mathematics from a small number of logical premisses and primitive ideas, and so to prove that mathematics is a development of logic. Not long after it was published, Gödel showed that the project could not completely succeed, but that in any system, such as arithmetic, there were true propositions that could not be proved.  
Amazon
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Links

AIATSIS, About AIATSIS, ' The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an Indigenous-led, national institute that celebrates, educates and inspires people from all walks of life to connect with the knowledge, heritage and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples. Our vision is a world in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and cultures are recognised, respected, celebrated and valued.' back

Alex Lo (2026_10_16), US tech bros are coming for Asia and Latin America’s power grids, 'Americans are souring on artificial intelligence, so Washington is trying to convince them the old-fashioned way: by citing, ad nauseam, the China threat. US President Donald Trump, flanked by tech executives at the White House late last month, warned voters that if they rejected data centres, companies would “be forced to go overseas”. He added that “whoever wins superintelligence wins” and that “you’re probably not gonna have a second place”. The implication was that detractors would be handing China the AI race. He did not define winning, or say whether it would merely enrich the already very rich tech bros or also benefit ordinary Americans, many of whom fear losing their jobs to AI. More of them now reject the data centres of the so-called hyperscalers, which suck up electricity and water from their neighbourhoods while pushing up costs. So more such projects are leaving American soil, but the profits stay American. Shareholders hope to get the best of both worlds: no data-centre controversy, more profits. The machines stand on someone else’s land, guzzle someone else’s water and strain someone else’s grid. As a recent Financial Times commentary pointed out, income at home from land and energy exploitation abroad has an old name: imperialism. The political architecture is already going up. Pax Silica, the State Department’s AI supply-chain club, aims to lock members into America’s computing empire and out of China’s. The Pentagon’s new Economic Defence Unit has reportedly invoked the East India Company as its model. Pax Silica’s first outpost is a 4,000-acre (1619-hectare) “economic security zone” in the Philippines. back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 10, 1, Is this a good definition of eternity. "The simultaneously-whole and perfect possession of interminable life", 'Thus eternity is known from two sources: first, because what is eternal is interminable--that is, has no beginning nor end (that is, no term either way); secondly, because eternity has no succession, being simultaneously whole.' back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 4, Are essence and existence the same in God?, ' I answer that, God is not only His own essence, as shown in the preceding article, but also His own existence. This may be shown in several ways. First, whatever a thing has besides its essence must be caused either by the constituent principles of that essence (like a property that necessarily accompanies the species — as the faculty of laughing is proper to a man — and is caused by the constituent principles of the species), or by some exterior agent — as heat is caused in water by fire. Therefore, if the existence of a thing differs from its essence, this existence must be caused either by some exterior agent or by its essential principles. Now it is impossible for a thing's existence to be caused by its essential constituent principles, for nothing can be the sufficient cause of its own existence, if its existence is caused. Therefore that thing, whose existence differs from its essence, must have its existence caused by another. But this cannot be true of God; because we call God the first efficient cause. Therefore it is impossible that in God His existence should differ from His essence.' back

Aquinas, Summa: I, 14, 1, Is there knowledge in God?, ' I answer that, In God there exists the most perfect knowledge. . . . it is clear that the immateriality of a thing is the reason why it is cognitive; and according to the mode of immateriality is the mode of knowledge. Hence it is said in De Anima II that plants do not know, because they are wholly material. But sense is cognitive because it can receive images free from matter, and the intellect is still further cognitive, because it is more separated from matter and unmixed, as said in De Anima III. Since therefore God is in the highest degree of immateriality as stated above (Question 7, Article 1), it follows that He occupies the highest place in knowledge.' back

Aquinas, Summa: I, 7, 1, Is God infinite?, ' I answer that, All the ancientf philosophers attribute infinitude to the first principle, as is said (Phys. iii), and with reason; for they considered that things flow forth infinitely from the first principle. . . . .. Now being is the most formal of all things, as appears from what is shown above (I:4:1 Objection 3). Since therefore the divine being is not a being received in anything, but He is His own subsistent being as was shown above (I:3:4), it is clear that God Himself is infinite and perfect.' back

Bradshaw, Williams, Russell, Ulm & Ingrey, More than 2 million Indigenous people lived in Australia in 1788: new research, ' Content warning: This article discusses mass death, epidemics, frontier violence, and the structural violence experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
More than two million Indigenous people probably lived in Australia at the time of the British invasion in 1788, according to new research based on genetic, archaeological and environmental evidence.
This figure is much larger than the estimate of 300,000 which has shaped public understanding for the past century. The old estimate, published by anthropologist Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown in 1930, was based largely on observations made after disease, dispossession and violence had already devastated Indigenous communities.
Using three methods that do not depend on colonial-era headcounts, we calculated a median population of 2.22 million people in 1788, with a likely range roughly between 1 and 4 million. Our work is published in Nature Human Behaviour.
The new figure also implies that over 90% of the Indigenous population died in the 70 years after the invasion. It is not simply a revision to a historical statistic. It changes the scale at which Australians must understand terra nullius, and subsequent invasion, survival and recovery.' back

Brouwer fixed-point theorem - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Brouwer's fixed-point theorem is a fixed-point theorem in topology, named after L. E. J. (Bertus) Brouwer. It states that for any continuous function f mapping a nonempty compact convex set to itself, there is a point x0 such that f(x0) = x0. The simplest forms of Brouwer's theorem are for continuous functions from a closed interval I in the real numbers to itself or from a closed disk D to itself. A more general form than the latter is for continuous functions from a nonempty convex compact subset K of Euclidean space to itself.' back

Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In cosmology, the cosmological constant problem or vacuum catastrophe is the disagreement between the observed values of vacuum energy density (the small value of the cosmological constant) and theoretical large value of zero-point energy suggested by quantum field theory. Depending on the Planck energy cutoff and other factors, the discrepancy is as high as 120 orders of magnitude, a state of affairs described by physicists as "the largest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of science" and "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".' back

Formalism (philosophy of mathematics) - Wikipedia, Formalism (philosophy of mathematics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In the philosophy of mathematics, formalism is the view that holds that statements of mathematics and logic can be considered to be statements about the consequences of the manipulation of strings (alphanumeric sequences of symbols, usually as equations) using established manipulation rules. A central idea of formalism "is that mathematics is not a body of propositions representing an abstract sector of reality, but is much more akin to a game, bringing with it no more commitment to an ontology of objects or properties than ludo or chess."
A major figure of formalism was David Hilbert, whose program was intended to be a complete and consistent axiomatization of all of mathematics. Hilbert aimed to show the consistency of mathematical systems from the assumption that the "finitary arithmetic" (a subsystem of the usual arithmetic of the positive integers, chosen to be philosophically uncontroversial) was consistent (i.e. no contradictions can be derived from the system). back

Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, Gödel's incompleteness theorems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that establish inherent limitations of all but the most trivial axiomatic systems capable of doing arithmetic. The theorems, proven by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the philosophy of mathematics. The two results are widely, but not universally, interpreted as showing that Hilbert's program to find a complete and consistent set of axioms for all mathematics is impossible, giving a negative answer to Hilbert's second problem. The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an "effective procedure" (i.e., any sort of algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the relations of the natural numbers (arithmetic). For any such system, there will always be statements about the natural numbers that are true, but that are unprovable within the system. The second incompleteness theorem, an extension of the first, shows that such a system cannot demonstrate its own consistency.' back

Hamacher, Lehman, Nunn & Taylor (2023_08_14), Rising seas and a great southern star: Aboriginal oral traditions stretch back more than 12,000 years, ' How long do you think stories can be passed down, generation to generation?
Hundreds of years? Thousands?
Today, we publish new research in the Journal of Archaeological Science demonstrating that traditional stories from Tasmania have been passed down for more than 12,000 years. And we use multiple lines of evidence to show it.
Within months of establishing a colonial outpost on the island in 1803, British officials had committed several acts of genocide against Aboriginal Tasmanian (Palawa) people. By the mid-1820s, soldiers, convicts, and free settlers had taken up arms to fight what became known as the “Black War”, aimed at capturing or killing Palawa and dispossessing them of their Country.
Tasmania’s colonial government appointed George Augustus Robinson to “conciliate” with the Palawa. From 1829 to 1835, Robinson travelled with a small group of Palawa, including Trukanini and her husband, Wurati. By 1832, Robinson’s “friendly mission” had turned to forced removals.
Robinson kept a daily journal, which included records of Palawa languages and traditions. Over time, Palawa men and women slowly began to share some of their knowledge, explaining how their ancestors came to Tasmania (Lutruwita) by land from the far north, before the sea formed and turned their home into an island. They also spoke about the Sun-man, the Moon-woman, and a bright southern star. [. . .]
During the ice age, both Lutruwita and Papua New Guinea were connected to mainland Australia by dry land, forming a landmass called Sahul. As the seas rose, Tasmania’s connection gradually narrowed to form what geologists call the Bassian Land Bridge.
People continued to live on this “land bridge”, but by 12,700 years ago it had narrowed to just 5 kilometres wide (lime-green shading on the map above). Habitable land was gradually reduced as the sea closed in. Less than 300 years later, the “land bridge” was gone and Lutruwita was completely surrounded by water.
Palawa traditions from that time survived hundreds of generations of retelling, forming part of a larger canon of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories around Australia. They described rising seas and submerging coastlines as the ice sheets melted before levelling off around 7,000 years ago. Stories of similar antiquity are known from other parts of the world.' back

Heart of Darkness - Wikipedia, Heart of Darkness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad, in which sailor Charles Marlow tells the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of European colonialism in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality.
Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing, the Congo Free State—the location of the large and economically important Congo River—was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is given an assignment to find Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition.
Central to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between "civilised people" and "savages". Heart of Darkness implicitly comments on imperialism and racism. The novella's setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his fascination for the prolific ivory trader Kurtz. Conrad draws parallels between London ("the greatest town on earth") and Africa as places of darkness.' back

Jeremy Bernstein (2007_01_01), The Reluctant Father of Black Holes, 'Great science sometimes produces a legacy that outstrips not only the imagination of its practitioners but also their intentions. A case in point is the early development of the theory of black holes and, above all, the role played in it by Albert Einstein. In 1939 Einstein published a paper in the journal Annals of Mathematics with the daunting title On a Stationary System with Spherical Symmetry Consisting of Many Gravitating Masses. With it, Einstein sought to prove that black holes--celestial objects so dense that their gravity prevents even light from escaping--were impossible.
The irony is that, to make his case, he used his own general theory of relativity and gravitation, published in 1916--the very theory that is now used to argue that black holes are not only possible but, for many astronomical objects, inevitable. Indeed, a few months after Einstein's rejection of black holes appeared--and with no reference to it--J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland S. Snyder published a paper entitled On Continued Gravitational Contraction. That work used Einstein's general theory of relativity to show, for the first time in the context of modern physics, how black holes could form.
Perhaps even more ironically, the modern study of black holes, and more generally that of collapsing stars, builds on a completely different aspect of Einstein's legacy--namely, his invention of quantum-statistical mechanics. Without the effects predicted by quantum statistics, every astronomical object would eventually collapse into a black hole, yielding a universe that would bear no resemblance to the one we actually live in.' back

Judeo-Christian - Wikipedia, Judeo-Christian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to a shared history before Christianity split from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture (constituting the Old Testament of the Christian Bible), or values supposed to be shared between them. The term Judæo Christian first appeared in the 19th century as a word for Jewish converts to Christianity. In the United States, the term was not common before the 1930s but became widely used during the Cold War in an attempt to invoke a unified American identity that stood opposed to communism.
The term has received criticism, largely from Jewish thinkers, as relying on supersessionism, which is not a tenet of Judaism, as well as glossing over fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian thought, theology, culture and practice. Even using the more inclusive term "Abrahamic religions" to refer to the common grouping of faiths which are attributed to Abraham—Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, Samaritanism, Druzism, and other faiths (in addition to Judaism and Christianity)—is sometimes seen as problematic.' back

Marina Yusupova-Ryder (2026_10_14), How the ‘geopolitical stigma’ associated with Putin’s Russia is affecting ordinary Russians, ' Russia’s international standing collapsed within weeks of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions swept across Russian banks, businesses and political elites, while western companies exited the country en masse. For those living inside Russia, it was the everyday, tangible shifts that made this feel real.
Western goods disappeared from supermarket shelves, direct flights to Europe stopped and getting visas to travel abroad became more difficult. Russian athletes, artists and scholars, meanwhile, were excluded from international competitions, cultural platforms and academic events.
For Russians living elsewhere in Europe, the change was often more subtle. Questions about their nationality in job applications, negative media coverage and offhand comments about Russia all contributed to a growing sense that being Russian now meant carrying a stigma. Russia’s changing international reputation had suddenly become personal.
I have seen this transformation in my own research on Russian masculinities, which has involved interviewing Russian men living in Russia and abroad. When I first interviewed my 40 participants in 2013-14, most viewed Russia positively and had a relatively secure sense of national identity.
When I returned to interview 27 of them between 2022 and 2023, this picture had changed dramatically. Only two of the men still described Russia in unambiguously positive terms.' back

On shell and off shell - Wikipedia, On shell and off shell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In physics, particularly in quantum field theory, configurations of a physical system that satisfy classical equations of motion are called on shell, and those that do not are called off shell. [. ..]
Mass shell is a synonym for mass hyperboloid, meaning the hyperboloid in energy–momentum space describing the solutions to the equation: E2 − |p|2c2 = m02c4 The mass–energy equivalence formula which gives the energy E in terms of the momentum p and the rest mass m 0 of a particle. The equation for the mass shell is also often written in terms of the four-momentum; in Einstein notation with metric signature (+,−,−,−) and units where the speed of light c = 1, as pμpμ ≡ p2. [. . .]
Virtual particles corresponding to internal propagators in a Feynman diagram are in general allowed to be off shell, but the amplitude for the process will diminish depending on how far off shell they are. [. . .] The propagator typically has singularities on the mass shell.
In quantum field theory, virtual particles are termed off shell because they do not satisfy the energy–momentum relation; real exchange particles do satisfy this relation and are termed on shell (mass shell). In classical mechanics for instance, in the action formulation, extremal solutions to the variational principle are on shell and the Euler–Lagrange equations give the on-shell equations. Noether's theorem regarding differentiable symmetries of physical action and conservation laws is another on-shell theorem.' back

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Sonnet: 'Lift not the painted veil', ' Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread,—behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.
I knew one who had lifted it—he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
Through the unheeding many he did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.
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Phases of Venus, Wikipedia, Phases of Venus, Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia, ' The first observations of the full planetary phases of Venus were by Galileo at the end of 1610 (though not published until 1613 in the Letters on Sunspots). Using a telescope, Galileo was able to observe Venus going through a full set of phases, something prohibited by the Ptolemaic system that assumed Venus to be a perfect celestial body. In the Ptolemaic system, the Sun and Venus circle the earth, with Venus orbiting around a point on the Earth-Sun axis, so that Venus is never on the far side of the sun. One could never expect an alignment Sun-Earth-Venus or Venus-Sun-Earth to occur, so that a full Venus could never be observed.' back

Ravasini et al. (2026_07_26), A New Perspective on the Arrival of the Eastern Mediterranean Genetic Influx in Central Italy Before the Onset of the Roman Empire, ' Abstract Italian genetic history was profoundly shaped by the Romans. While the Iron Age Central Italian gene pool was comparable to that of other coeval Central/Western European regions, during the Imperial age, it was significantly influenced by Eastern Mediterranean ancestries. To explain this genetic shift, it has been proposed that people from eastern provinces of the Empire migrated toward its political center: Rome and its surroundings. In this study, by presenting a new Roman Republic individual (1.25×) and comparing it to other published Republican samples, we propose a novel perspective for the presence of the Eastern Mediterranean ancestry in the Imperial gene pool. We show that the spread of this genetic ancestry may have taken place earlier than previously thought, during the Late Republican period, therefore predating the onset of the Empire by ∼200 years. The diffusion of this ancestry occurred due to early East-to-West movements, either because Eastern Mediterranean regions were under Roman political influence since the Late Republican period or even as a result of internal movements from Southern Italy where several Greek and Phoenician settlements were established during the 1st millennium BCE.' back

Renormalization - Wikipedia, Renormalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, the statistical mechanics of fields, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, that are used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of quantities to compensate for effects of their self-interactions. But even if it were the case that no infinities arose in loop diagrams in quantum field theory, it could be shown that renormalization of mass and fields appearing in the original Lagrangian is necessary.' back

Russell's paradox - Wikipedia, Russell's paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'According to naive set theory, any definable collection is a set. Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R is not a member of itself, then its definition dictates that it must contain itself, and if it contains itself, then it contradicts its own definition as the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. This contradiction is Russell's paradox.' back

S. N. Bose (1924), Planck’s Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis., 'Planck’s formula for the distribution of energy in the radiation from a black body was the starting point of the quantum theory, which has beendeveloped during the last 20 years and has borne a wealth of fruit in energy domain of physics. Since its publication in 1901 many methods for deriving this law have been proposed. It is recognized that basic assumptions of the quantum theory are irreconcilable with the laws of classical electrodynamics.
All derivations up to now use the relation ρνdν = (8πν2dν E)/c3>br> that is, the relation between the radiation density and the mean energy of an oscillator, and they make assumptions about the number of degrees of freedom of the ether, which appear in the above formula (the first factor on the right– hand side). This factor, however, can be derived only from classical theory. This is the unsatisfactory feature in all derivations and it is therefore no wonder that attempts are being made to obtain a derivation that is free of this logical flaw. back

SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Increasing focus on nuclear weapons amid heightened escalation risks—new SIPRI Yearbook out now, 'World’s nuclear arsenals expanded and upgraded The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel—continued programmes to modernize and enhance their nuclear arsenals in 2025, and most deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems during the year. Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12 187 warheads in January 2026, about 9745 were in military stockpiles for potential use (see the table below). An estimated 4012 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft and the rest were in central storage. Between 2100 and 2200 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles. Nearly all of these warheads belonged to Russia or the USA, and to a lesser extent France and the UK, but China and India may now occasionally deploy a small number of warheads mounted on missiles during peacetime.' back

Standard model - Wikipedia, Standard model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory that describes three of the four known fundamental interactions between the elementary particles that make up all matter. It is a quantum field theory developed between 1970 and 1973 which is consistent with both quantum mechanics and special relativity. To date, almost all experimental tests of the three forces described by the Standard Model have agreed with its predictions. However, the Standard Model falls short of being a complete theory of fundamental interactions, primarily because of its lack of inclusion of gravity, the fourth known fundamental interaction, but also because of the large number of numerical parameters (such as masses and coupling constants) that must be put "by hand" into the theory (rather than being derived from first principles) . . . ' back

The AIATSIS journey, The AIATSIS journey, ' The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an Indigenous-led, national institute that celebrates, educates and inspires people from all walks of life to connect with the knowledge, heritage and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples. But it wasn't always like that. Sixty years ago a group of white academics met at the Australian National University to discuss the state of Aboriginal studies in Australia. The conference, convened by anthropologist and Emeritus Professor WEH Stanner, recommended a national institute be established to record Aboriginal cultures ‘before those traditions perished in the face of European ways’. So how did a national institute evolve from one that recorded ‘disappearing cultures’ to one that reflects the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and serves to support cultural survival and resurgence? The history of AIATSIS is as much a history of the changing relationship between Australia’s First Peoples and the Australian nation. It’s a history that spans sixty years of political and social transformation led mainly by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and allies. Take a look back at this journey. back

The Telegraph, Telegraph View: Russia must pay for its aggression , ' Since the invasion in 2022, it is estimated that EU countries have spent around €200bn (£174bn) buying Russian energy. The Kremlin puts the figure higher than that and Russia still supplies 12 per cent of EU gas.
Although imports have fallen considerably as a result of sanctions, this is still a significant sum that is helping Putin continue the war. Donald Trump's plan to buy diesel from Russia has broken months of European efforts to convince him to support Ukraine.
If Europe, including the UK, is to be taken seriously in its support for Ukraine, there is a readily available weapon that could and should be used.
Some £200bn of Russian state assets are lying frozen in financial institutions across the continent, principally Euroclear in Brussels. Britain is sitting on around £25bn.
The amount available comes to 140 per cent of Ukraine’s entire GDP and more than four times that country’s defence budget.
If Europe could seize those reserves and transfer them to Ukraine, it would have a strategic effect, allowing the purchase of new weapons, notably interceptor missiles. A dearth of such weapons is allowing Russia to attack Ukraine with virtual impunity.
f back

Turing machine - Wikipedia, Turing machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer. The "machine" was invented in 1936 by Alan Turingwho called it an "a-machine" (automatic machine). The Turing machine is not intended as practical computing technology, but rather as a hypothetical device representing a computing machine. Turing machines help computer scientists understand the limits of mechanical computation.' back

USCCB, Exodus: Chapter 20, ' 1Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 You shall not have other gods beside me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 5 You shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.' back

Wee Kek Koon (2026_09_26), When centuries of Chinese knowledge were destroyed by a warlord who burned the capital, ' https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3368383/when-centuries-chinese-knowledge-were-destroyed-warlord-who-burned-capital?module=further_reading_RM&pgtype=article back

William Zhng & Alcot Wei )3036_10_24), What will China’s fifth plenum mean for the root-and-branch corruption drive?, ' The political analyst, who asked not to be named as his school required him to seek approval when speaking to media, detailed some of the opportunities for corruption that the country still faced.
“In China, areas like promotion of officials, public projects, military equipment acquisition and natural resources development remain highly lucrative black boxes in which one or a few key persons can dictate the decisions involving billions of dollars, despite the relentless anti-corruption fight,” he said.>br> “While Western analysts would suggest the scrutiny of the public and the media to be part of the equation, it will not be the party’s priority as Xi firmly believes strengthening the party’s self-governance is sufficient.” back

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