vol VII: Notes

1982

[Sunday 21 February 1982 - Saturday 28 February 1982]

[Notebook DREAMING DB 1]

[page 1]

Sunday 21 February 1982

. . .

Dream from about 8 years old: "BRASS GEARS"

I have lost a tooth and put under my pillow, expecting a ten cent piece. I dream that I am given an interesting and elaborately machined set of gears, in brass, which can be reassembled into all sorts of systems. (looks like a clock, also reminiscent of Meccano set received around this time, as of a little device made to measure depth of Little Blue Lake by unwinding cotton with nail polish marks and a weight on the end). Maybe also my attempts to make a centrifugal pump out of cast lead. Used to get very excited about making something which was beyond my ability - remember running quite excitedly across the yard to begin work on pump castings. Had attempted to make pumps out of old bandage reels. Little Blue Lake- Wikipedia

Monday 22 February 1982

Tuesday 23 February 1982

[page 2]

. . . To bed fragmentary dream about pulling a negative off a stereotype (flong) - corner of neg turned back to reveal print, plus feeling that the was stupid, not the way to make negatives. Did not pull it off far; seemed good.

printing, writing, information from improbable source, translating old medium into new, positive —> negative, new vision, paper —> plastic.

. . .

Pulling message off amorphous unconscious, good data from dubious, wish to be good dream interpreter.

Maybe some palm trees, bush setting, as happening in country. Using negative to read shamanistic text, Castaneda.

[page 3]

Wednesday 24 February 1982

More very impatient loaded dreams. Even waking up did not make it go away. Some relationship to pain in knee. Analyzing dream in sleep, but almost totally forgotten as soon as I become fully awake. Something about women's lib, Amazon Acres, paper bags with something inside. Must be aggressive, otherwise meaningless. Series of valleys with something in each (like new country). Got up to write this - hungry. Covered myself with sheet and then sleeping bag as though to get relief from affect. Small episodes seemed so distinct and clear while dreaming. Something to do with war and war production. Censorship is certainly effective because I was sure I could remember details while I was asleep. AA in there somewhere. Back to bed for another try. Had the feeling that it was closer to dawn than it actually is. Feeling of anger and frustration very strong. Similar to daytime feeling I often get with cats, dogs, kids and hippies.

. . .

Last evening was thinking what an utter waste of my life and reality coming [here], away from the world. This escape must be part of my overall psychopathology, which begets desire for dream analysis etc. . . . Have a feeling that this is all a bit boring and will yield no great insights but may at least clear my head. Frustration last evening with metaphysical speculations. Know that I am relying on some break-

[page 4]

through, some fame to offset manifest failure in my life, to salvage something from the wreckage. Sense of failure compounded by poor result at Uni. Feeling yesterday, (after mum's letter) that I should fight with them, stand up for myself instead of saying that it means nothing to me.

. . .

Have a strong feeling that all this is very strong for me, that a big abscess is rising just beneath my consciousness cf my experiences with a need for a "nervous breakdown" at the end of each year since I came up here, and the generally very unsatisfactory tone of my life.

Can remember many tossing, turning irritated dreams but cannot remember any of their content (Seem to have happened ever since I came here). Why have I suffered so long and have not tried to do anything about it. . . . have been getting nowhere ever since; have been getting nowhere since leaving monastery; since school; since birth

Would seem that much of my back pain etc was an hysterical reaction to

[page 5]

the rigors of boarding school, intellectual, religious and sexual repression etc. Do not remember any physical troubles before puberty, was fit, positive, good runner etc. . . . All collapsed during two years at Blackfriars, where I think my frustration and hatred of life began to burgeon. Probably found an outlet in the Optimist. December sheer embarrassment of prefects ball; decision to go for religious life must have come during those years (1960-61) . . . Blackfriars Priory School

Writing all this has a releasing and saddening effect on me. The wounds and immobilization of Christianity run far deeper than I suspect. Much of my tendency to give in and acquiesce must date from basic collapse before authority which took place at Blackfriars - I should have run away and gone to sea or something like that, instead I knuckled under completely. . . .

Freud very proud that he diagnosed cause of hysteria at 15 in 40 year old patient. So am I. Want to sleep a bit more, to see it again, and then spend the day . . . writing.

[page 6]

Pain in knee must remind me of sciatic pains of 60-61. . . . I have ability but find whole system repulsive - like the repulsive nature of the school system No good teachers, no good times.

Recall my feeling in grade one when I asked if it was all really finished and was crushed to be told that there were seven years primary followed by 5 years secondary followed by university. I have done all that and more and it has yielded me nothing. UNE has brought home to me the futility of educational institutions. System and its writers praise education and attach emotional tones to institutionalized knowledge that are just not there. Inspired authors should be divorced from institutions. I have been deceived in looking for salvation in that direction.

. . .

[page 7]

. . .

Last night also experienced a rare recurrence of part of a childhood nightmare. In the nightmare everything seems to become very thick. Parts of the body thicken to enormous size at the same time as the walls of the room thicken to reduce its internal size. The result is a feeling of terror and suffocation. Peculiar sensory modality connected with this phenomenon.

Last night my head seemed to grow to a large size (say two feet) while my hand, which touched my head, appeared to maintain its usual fineness and size, a spatial contradiction. The texture of my head appeared to be like a vinyl covered beanbag.

Maybe a sort of birth dream, moving from womb to vagina - world closing in - elicits fear. First remembered in Ferrers St, twins born. Maybe nn, say 7-8 years old. Maybe buzzing ears and teeth feeling, heartbeat, masturbation, mass, altar boy, getting up early, exam results, father waking me to go to Mass and to hear exam results, reproach for lying in after woken, nn's father made same reproach, shape of my head in dream similar to nn's, rotten zucchini, spacey noises (childhood), curtains, getting up early to play under Convent with nn, visit to Vansittart Park early in morning, Moloney's soft drinks, wrecking

[page 8]

trains, house, nn's house on the way to MBC - was it SS, bottle collecting, swimming pool with nn, new Christmas bike after working very hard to paint bedroom, paint fumes oppressive, ceiling difficult off ladder - must have been Xmas hols, piano in bedroom, used to play rubbish, someone asked me if I learned, lessons at convent in room near front door near garden, trellis of flowers in convent garden, dream Thur 18, Poesis p 23, bike riding to school (12 yo), being immobile before that - painting room relieved me of bike-less immobility (historically dreams before this though - by the time I had the bike I was sleeping in sleepout near sitting room, listening to parent's parties, playing with battery, spotlight, boats). Beautiful hardwood front gate in privet hedge - surgery gate - surgery for immunisations - horror of needle - conscious efforts to overcome fear of pain and blood to become a doctor - watching sheep slaughter - mother noticed that I sensitive to this - felt sick when buffalo butchered in NT - smell of surgery - used to go there when folks out - play with receptionists, learn to type - typed out religion notes - looking through microscope - seems fear of injections partly right trail, recent dream consciousness that hand felt quite normal; also aware that recurrence of old feeling, though no changes in room - reborn through psychoanalysis, foetel head,? rotten - feeling of fear and immobility in original dreams - hell, suffering, pursatory, punishment for masturbation, eternal damnation.

Happy times making houses in beds. nn beating me with hearth broom after I had provoked her; provoked maids; very arrogant = "isn't it

[page 9]

amazing how much I have stored in my little head' - maids room out back, past laundry and Xray room (new additions), sandpit, fence, elm? tree, surgery gate - earlier surgery hedge - demolition of thick hedge by bulldozer, playing in hedge - HH clipping it, replaced by wooden fence, glasshouse, glover sisters, sex, chrome steel beds from Rowe at end of Herriott St. . . .

Main fear of pristhood was fear of public speaking - singing to tape recorder at B's was very painful - worked hard to overcome that fear, but still cannot perform in public.

Reminiscence from Garth's house — uneven glass in windows used to make the lawn look hilly. Used to run out to play and find the hills gone.

Given tin of small flat butterscotch - made out it was holy communion. Had moved to Ferrers St by the time I was in grade 1.

Reminiscences from school: . . . Inability to write 'e' the

[page 10]

right way round; writing with pencil lead because too shy to ask for a new one; doing roman numerals on blackboard, sweeping classroom after school; black babies; kerosine prints.

Marist Brothers College Mr DD, room in back of intermediate classroom, concerts; helping on coloured lights.

MCC - hit D with kitbag and seemed to make big cut. Stayed home from school next day. Varcoes factory. Municipal electricity supply; huge pole on corner of Ferrers and Sturt streets; Herriott St mud and grass; train passing;

Afternoon dream/reverie about compound words assembled at random, pig-dog, screw-nipple etc. Thinking about assortment of words in mind vis a vis freudian theory. Moved to forming compounds in different modalities, ie visual images, sounds, smells. Woken by [child] wanting food.

Herriott St tarred, walking in tar and grtavel to make 'shoes'. Migrants in railway houses. Allotments opposite. Stealing carrots; toothache. Old cars along railway. Removed pressure guages, ammeters etc. Flattening silver paper with water pump bearing. Pratts pie shop. People in big house up the road. Box mill, sawdust heap and material for carpentry. Wanted to build the kids a fire engine. "One pass stabilizer". Tunnels in tennis court. Hiding in new and old tennis club roofs - wrecking new tennis club cupboards. Playing in GGs, around practice wall. Tennis with M on high courts. Burning H's house. H making boats. "Bostik". Dad's new workshop and boat.

[page 11]

More childhood memories

Willow Grove: threw kitten on ground and killed it. It taken away by uncle on tractor.

Used to collect old cogs and assemble them into machines. . . . Goanna in rubbish tip. Watching wheat loaded onto dray with horse and loading device. Not allowed to walk in the midday sun. Beaten with switches.

[page 12]

Thursday 25 February 1982

. . . No dreams remembered but root pains (very common, dating from schooldays) . . .

. . .

Associations to seek: anger, tenseness, back pain, . . . , in OPs used to put masturbation down to back problem - vice versa? biggest hangup was inability to stop masutrbating even though it was a mortal sin, contrary to vows, etc; this problem with me since very early age; acute at Blackfriars when contemplating vocation? 'shaggers back" root pains, . . . back pain radiating along lower ribs, similar cause to sciatica; back pain thus closely linked to masturbation; anger associated with sexual desire? frustrated that I cannot control it? sadism (mild) toward animals, children, women (wrestling fantasies?); back brought attention from nurses, radiologists; fell in love with nurses at back hospital; "how can such a lively person be going into

[page 13]

monastery"; "best monks are ones women fall in love with"; (Declan Geraghty?) . . . Dominicans

anger felt in dreams probably at Christianity which fouled me up in many directions a) sexually b) wasted years of life learning rubbish c) emotionally crippled, d) unable to function as nonbeliever - having cast off old, have not got a satisfactory new. Also find myself very much not at home in world. Good to get more detail into dreams, some more clues - deeply repressed anger at self, failed ambition, failed hopes of my father, cannot face him without success, have rejected much but come up with nothing new, seeking insight but finding it impossible.

Resisting creativity, . . . taking critical attitude that seems sour grapes. Why don't I do it? because I think it is silly I say that (like matchbox collection, geodesic spheres in the sky, space travel, orbiting living etc). My intuition tells me so many ideas are crap. Is it valid? When will intuition start yielding non-crappy ideas? Everything must be tried. Give it all a go.

[page 14]

Friday 26 February 1982

Not a lot to report - seems as though it works better if the dream will wake me up so that I can write it down. Woke some back pain. Dreams but no tossing and turning.

Fragment to do with a French farm, probably to do with . . . the purchase of G's next door . . .

Fixed record player. Lizt Hungarian Rhapsodies. Perhaps wish we had bought farm.

Saturday 27 February 1982

Dreams, goodish feeling but cannot recall details. Came home last night early from dance because seemed to fear that house would catch fire from stove. Many people to dinner previously. . . . Any connections with fire? Coming home early good because it rained heavily soon after . . .

[page 15]

Note: masturbatory fantasies seldom seem to focus on real poeple, and those that do rarely come to orgasm. Maybe reality of person precludes 'taking advantage' of them in this way.

This day seemed too excited to write. Maybe due to reliving Lonergan, I think. Record machine is good idea. It is nice to hear a little classical music after R+R. Maybe when noise level in society is high, creativity is high too. R+R is part of the noise. Can the selective process keep up?

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Castaneda, Carlos, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, 1968   Amazon   back

Dawkins, Richard, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design, Penguin/Pelican 1996 Preface: '[Darwinism] is, indeed a remarkably simple theory; . . . In essence it amounts simply to the idea that non-random reproduction where there is hereditary variation, has consequences that are far reaching if there is time for them to be cumulative . . . '  Amazon   back

Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene , Oxford UP 1976 Amazon: Editorial review: 'Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.' Rob Lightner  Amazon   back

Dawkins, Richard, Climbing Mount Improbable, W. W. Norton & Company 1997 Amazon editorial review: 'How do species evolve? Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most eminent zoologists, likens the process to scaling a huge, Himalaya-size peak, the Mount Improbable of his title. An alpinist does not leap from sea level to the summit; neither does a species utterly change forms overnight, but instead follows a course of "slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, non-random survival of random variants" -- a course that Charles Darwin, Dawkins's great hero, called natural selection. Illustrating his arguments with case studies from the natural world, such as the evolution of the eye and the lung, and the coevolution of certain kinds of figs and wasps, Dawkins provides a vigorous, entertaining defense of key Darwinian ideas.'  Amazon   back

Genesis, and Alexander Jones (editor), in The Jerusalem Bible, Darton Longman and Todd 1966 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water.' (I, 1-2)  Amazon   back

Higman, Bryan, Applied Group-Theoretic and Matrix Methods, Dover Publications Jacket: '... This work, a comprehensive, thoroughly reliable exposition of the basic ideas of group theory (realized through matrices) and its applications to various areas of physics and chemistry, systematically covers this important ground for the first time. ... Although [it] deals basiclaly with advanced level material, the unusually clear exposition provides much valuable insight and fruitful suggestion for student and specialist alike. Chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and others who would like an idea of the applications and methods of group and matrix theory in the physical sciences will profit greatly from this book. ...'back

Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '. . . Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding'  Amazon   back

Lonergan, Bernard J F, Method in Theology, University of Toronto Press for Lonergan Research Institute 1996 Introduction: 'A theology mediates between a cultural matrix and the signifcance and role of religion in that matrix. ... When the classicist notion of culture prevails, theology is conceived as a permanent achievement, and then one discourses on its nature. When culture is conceived empirically, theology is known to be an ongoing process, and then one writes on its method. Method ... is a framework for collaborative creativity.'  Amazon   back

Marais, Eugene, and (translated by Winifred de Kok, The Soul of the White Ant, Penguin Books 1973 Jacket: 'Is nature a state of chaos or a predetermined pattern of existence? Is a termite colony a collection of individuals or a single, unified organism working toward a single aim? In this utterly absorbing study of a termite colony, Eugène Marais, the brilliant South African journalist, lawyer poet and natural scientist poses these intriguing questions. Ten years of close observation led him to some startling conclusions - with disturbing social implications.'  Amazon   back

Merton, Robert C, Continuous Time Finance, Wiley-Blackwell 1992 Amazon Product Description 'Robert C. Merton's widely used text provides an overview and synthesis of finance theory from the perspective of continuous-time analysis. It covers individual financial choice, corporate finance, financial intermediation, capital markets, and selected topics on the interface between private and public finance. For this revised edition a new section on managing university endowments has been added. The book begins with a foreword by Paul Samuelson.'  Amazon   back

Partterson, Scott, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It, Crown Business (February 2, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0307453375 ISBN-13: 978-0307453372 2010 Amazon Editorial Reviews “Scott Patterson has the ability to see things you and I don’t notice. In The Quants he does an admirable job of debunking the myths of black box traders and provides a very entertaining narrative in the process.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb  Amazon   back

Streater, Raymond F, and Arthur S Wightman, PCT, Spin, Statistics and All That, Princeton University Press 2005 Amazon product description: ' PCT, Spin and Statistics, and All That is the classic summary of and introduction to the achievements of Axiomatic Quantum Field Theory. This theory gives precise mathematical responses to questions like: What is a quantized field? What are the physically indispensable attributes of a quantized field? Furthermore, Axiomatic Field Theory shows that a number of physically important predictions of quantum field theory are mathematical consequences of the axioms. Here Raymond Streater and Arthur Wightman treat only results that can be rigorously proved, and these are presented in an elegant style that makes them available to a broad range of physics and theoretical mathematics.'  Amazon   back

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Studies in Zen, Rider and Co, for the Buddhist Society 1953 Studies in Zen is the eigth volume of the collected works of DT Suzuki. Jacket: 'These studies, packed with the jewels of Zen wisdom, and written with unrivalled knowledge, will appeal to all who seek a deeper understanding of Eastern ways of thought and spiritual achievement. For Zen is unique in the whole range of human understanding, and Dr. Suzuki is accepted as its greatest exponent.  Amazon   back

Veltman, Martinus, Diagrammatica: The Path to the Feynman Rules, Cambridge University Press 1994 Jacket: 'This book provides an easily accessible introduction to quantum field theory via Feynman rules and calculations in particle physics. The aim is to make clear what the physical foundations of present-day field theory are, to clarify the physical content of Feynman rules, and to outline their domain of applicability. ... The book includes valuable appendices that review some essential mathematics, including complex spaces, matrices, the CBH equation, traces and dimensional regularization. ...'  Amazon   back

von Neumann, John, and Robert T Beyer (translator), Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 1983 Jacket: '. . . a revolutionary book that caused a sea change in theoretical physics. . . . JvN begins by presenting the theory of Hermitean operators and Hilbert spaces. These provide the framework for transformation theory, which JvN regards as the definitive form of quantum mechanics. . . . Regarded as a tour de force at the time of its publication, this book is still indispensable for those interested in the fundamental issues of quantum mechanics.'  Amazon   back

Wilson, Edward Osborne, Sociobiology: The new synthesis, Harvard UP 1975 Chapter 1: '... the central theoretical problem of sociobiology: how can altruism, which by definition reduces personal fitness, possibly evolve by natural selection? The answer is kinship. ... Sociobiology is defined as the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behaviour. ... It may not be too much to say that sociology and the other social sciences, as well as the humanities, are the last branches of biology waiting to be included in the Modern Synthesis.'   Amazon   back

Woolf, Virginia, A Room of One's Own, Granada 1977 Amazon editorial review: 'Surprisingly, this long essay about society and art and sexism is one of Woolf's most accessible works. Woolf, a major modernist writer and critic, takes us on an erudite yet conversational--and completely entertaining--walk around the history of women in writing, smoothly comparing the architecture of sentences by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, all the while lampooning the chauvinistic state of university education in the England of her day. When she concluded that to achieve their full greatness as writers women will need a solid income and a privacy, Woolf pretty much invented modern feminist criticism.'  Amazon   back

Papers

Burkard, Guido, "Splitting States on a Chip", Science, 327, 5966, 5 February 2010, page 650-51. 'The different colors on the surface of a soap bubble arise from the interference of light waves reflecting from the outer and inner surface of the liquid film. As the thickness of the film varies, so will the wavelength of light that undergoes constructive interference and remains visible. This effect can be used to measure small changes in distance if a single coherent beam is used (see the figure, panel A) through the formation of interference fringes. According to quantum mechanics, even material particles such as electrons behave like waves, and indeed, interference can be observed when the electric charge associated with an electron travels along two arms of a ring-like interferometer in the Aharonov-Bohm effect. In addition to their charge, electrons also have two distinguishable spin states, spin-up and spin-down. On page 669 of this issue, Petta et al. (1) demonstrate beam splitting and interferometry for the spin degrees of freedom of two electrons on a semiconductor chip. In this system, the phase of partial waves is associated with spin direction. Nuclear spins, whose coupling to electrons can destroy phase coherence, actually help control spin-state evolution.'. back

Yovel, Yossi, Ben Falk, Cynthia F Moss, Nachum Ulanovsky, "", Science, 327, 5966, 5 February 2010, page 701-704. 'Is centering a stimulus in the field of view an optimal strategy to localize and track it? We demonstrated, through experimental and computational studies, that the answer is no. We trained echolocating Egyptian fruit bats to localize a target in complete darkness, and we measured the directional aim of their sonar clicks. The bats did not center the sonar beam on the target, but instead pointed it off axis, accurately directing the maximum slope ("edge") of the beam onto the target. Information-theoretic calculations showed that using the maximum slope is optimal for localizing the target, at the cost of detection. We propose that the tradeoff between detection (optimized at stimulus peak) and localization (optimized at maximum slope) is fundamental to spatial localization and tracking accomplished through hearing, olfaction, and vision... back

Links

Alan Greenspan, Greenspan on Sources of Financial Crisis, 'It was the failure to properly price such risky assets that precipitated the crisis. In recent decades, a vast risk management and pricing system has evolved, combining the best insights of mathematicians and finance experts supported by major advances in computer and communications technology. A Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of the pricing model that underpins much of the advance in derivates markets. This modern risk management paradigm held sway for decades. The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer of last year because the data inputted into the risk management models generally covered only the past two decades, a period of euphoria. Had instead the models been fitted more appropriately to historic periods of stress, capital requirements would have been much higher and the financial world would be in far better shape today, in my judgment.' back

Amir E Khadani and Andrew W Lo, What Happened to the Quants in 2007, 'Abstract During the week of August 6, 2007, a number of high-profile and highly successful quantitative long/short equity hedge funds experienced unprecedented losses. Based on empir-ical results from TASS hedge-fund data as well as the simulated performance of a specific long/short equity strategy, we hypothesize that the losses were initiated by the rapid un-winding of one or more sizable quantitative equity market-neutral portfolios. Given the speed and price impact with which this occurred, it was likely the result of a sudden liquidation by a multi-strategy fund or proprietary-trading desk, possibly due to margin calls or a risk reduction. These initial losses then put pressure on a broader set of long/short and long-only equity portfolios, causing further losses on August 9th by triggering stop-loss and de-leveraging policies. A significant rebound of these strategies occurred on August 10th, which is also consistent with the sudden liquidation hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that the quantitative nature of the losing strategies was incidental, and the main driver of the losses in August 2007 was the firesale liquidation of similar portfolios that happened to be quantitatively constructed. The fact that the source of dislocation in long/short equity portfolios seems to lie elsewhere—apparently in a completely unrelated set of markets and instruments—suggests that systemic risk in the hedge-fund industry may have increased in recent years.' back

Apple Inc., Mac Dev Center: Applescript Language Guide: AppleScript Fundamentals, This chapter describes basic concepts that underlie the terminology and rules covered in the rest of this guide. back

Archimedean property - Wikipedia, Archimedean property - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In abstract algebra, the Archimedean property, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, is a property held by some ordered or normed groups, fields, and other algebraic structures. Roughly speaking, it is the property of having no infinitely large or infinitely small elements (i.e. no nontrivial infinitesimals). The notion arose from the theory of magnitudes of Ancient Greece; it still plays an important role in modern mathematics such as David Hilbert's axioms for geometry, the theory of ordered groups, the one of ordered fields and the one of local fields. An algebraic structure in which any two non-zero elements are comparable, in the sense that neither of them is infinitesimal with respect to the other, is said to be Archimedean. A structure which has a pair of non-zero elements, one of which is infinitesimal with respect to the other, is said to be non-Archimedean.' back

Benedict Carey, Evidence That Little Touches Do Mean So Much, '“We think that humans build relationships precisely for this reason, to distribute problem solving across brains,” said James A. Coan, a a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “We are wired to literally share the processing load, and this is the signal we’re getting when we receive support through touch." back

Black-Scholes - Wikipedia, Black-Scholes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes' back

Blackfriars Priory School, Blackfriars - Catholic School for boys in Adelaide, South Australia, 'Our Mission Is founded on our stewardship of God’s creation to reach its full potential. Blackfriars Priory School is a Catholic Dominican school for boys which promotes the spiritual, intellectual, physical and social development of each member of the school community. It aims, in co-operation with parents, to engage students in an educational experience within the context of a Christian community which is fulfilling and rewarding.' back

Bose-Einstein statistics - Wikipedia, Bose-Einstein statistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Bose–Einstein statistics (or more colloquially B–E statistics) determines the statistical distribution of identical indistinguishable bosons over the energy states in thermal equilibrium.' back

Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics at Örebro University, EconPapers: Papers on Economics of Religion, 'EconPapers use the RePEc bibliographic and author data, providing access to the largest collection of online Economics working papers and journal articles. The majority of the full text files are freely available, but some (typically journal articles) require that you or your organization subscribe to the service providing the full text file. RePEc is a distributed data set residing in over 400 archives operated by research organizations, academic departments and publishers. EconPapers would not be possible without the effort of the maintainers of these archives.' back

Diffusion - Wikipedia, Diffusion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Diffusion is a time-dependent process, constituted by random motion of given entities and causing the statistical distribution of these entities to spread in space. The concept of diffusion is tied to notion of mass transfer, driven by a concentration gradient. The concept of diffusion emerged in the physical sciences. The paradigmatic examples were heat diffusion, molecular diffusion and Brownian motion. Their mathematical description was elaborated by Joseph Fourier in 1822, Adolf Fick in 1855 and by Albert Einstein in 1905.' back

Dirac delta function - Wikipedia, Dirac delta function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Dirac delta or Dirac's delta is a mathematical construct introduced by theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. Informally, it is a function representing an infinitely sharp peak bounding unit area: a function ?(x) that has the value zero everywhere except at x = 0 where its value is infinitely large in such a way that its total integral is 1. In the context of signal processing it is often referred to as the unit impulse function. Note that the Dirac delta is not strictly a function. While for many purposes it can be manipulated as such, formally it can be defined as a distribution that is also a measure.' back

Dominicans, Dominicans: Order of Preachers, 'WWW.OP.ORG is the official international Web site of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). The branches of the Dominican family are multiple: brothers, contemplative nuns, congregations of contemplative and apostolic sisters, lay persons in fraternities or secular institutes, secular priests in fraternities. "Each one has its own character, its autonomy. However by taking part in the charism of saint Dominic, they share between them a single vocation to be preachers in the Church (Chapter of Mexico, 1992)."' back

Emanuel Derman and Paul Wilmott, Financial Modeler's Manifesto, 'The Modelers' Hippocratic Oath ~ I will remember that I didn't make the world, and it doesn't satisfy my equations. ~ Though I will use models boldly to estimate value, I will not be overly impressed by mathematics. ~ I will never sacrifice reality for elegance without explaining why I have done so. ~ Nor will I give the people who use my model false comfort about its accuracy. Instead, I will make explicit its assumptions and oversights. ~ I understand that my work may have enormous effects on society and the economy, many of them beyond my comprehension.' back

Fermi-Dirac statistics - Wikipedia, Fermi-Dirac statistics - Wikipedia, the fre encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Fermi-Dirac statistics is a particular case of particle statistics developed by Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac that determines the statistical distribution of fermions over the energy states for a system in thermal equilibrium. In other words, it is the distribution of the probabilities that each possible energy levels is occupied by a fermion. back

Hopfield net - Wikipedia, Hopfield net - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'A Hopfield net is a form of recurrent artificial neural network invented by John Hopfield. Hopfield nets serve as content-addressable memory systems with binary threshold units. They are guaranteed to converge to a local minimum, but convergence to one of the stored patterns is not guaranteed.' back

Little Blue Lake - Wikipedia, Little Blue Lake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Little Blue Lake is a water-filled doline located near Mount Schank in South Australia. It is notable locally as a swimming hole and nationally as a cave diving site. It is managed by the District Council of Grant and has been developed as a recreational and tourism venue.' back

Lourdes - Wikipedia, Lourdes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Lourdes (Occitan name Lorda) is a town and commune situated in the Southwest of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, lying in the first Pyrenean foothills, in southwestern France. , , , Lourdes was originally a small unremarkable market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. At that time the most prominent feature was the fortified castle which rises up from the centre of the town on a rocky escarpment. Following the claims that there were apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Christian pilgrimage. Today Lourdes has a population of around 15,000 inhabitants but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels in France after Paris with about 270 establishments.' back

Lourdes-france.org, Lourdes france, le site officiel des Santuaires vous acceuille, Site internet de Sanctuaires Notre-Dame de Lourdes back

Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics - Wikipedia, Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In statistical mechanics, Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics describes the statistical distribution of material particles over various energy states in thermal equilibrium, when the temperature is high enough and density is low enough to render quantum effects negligible.' back

Paul Wilmott, The Use, Misuse and Abuse of Mathematics in Finance, 'Abstract The once ‘gentlemanly’ business of finance has become a game for ‘players.’ These players are increasingly technically sophisticated, typically having Ph.D.s in a numerate discipline. The roots of this transformation have their foundation in the 1970s. Since then the financial world has become more and more complex. Unfortunately, as the mathematics of finance reaches higher levels so the level of common sense seems to drop. There have been some well publicised cases of large losses sustained by companies because of their lack of understanding of financial instruments. In this article we look at the history of financial modelling, the current state of the subject and possible future directions. It is clear that a major rethink is desperately required if the world is to avoid a mathematician-led market meltdown.' back

Quantum fluctuations - Wikipedia, Quantum fluctuations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation is the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space, arising from Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.' back

Scott Patterson and Aaron Luchetti, Boom in 'Dark Pool' Trading Networks is Causing headaches on Wall Street, 'When Cheryl Cargie, head trader at Ariel Investments LLC in Chicago, decided last month to buy 1.3 million shares of a midcap stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange, she spread orders among several "dark pools," the secretive electronic trading networks that match buyers and sellers anonymously. The pools are booming in popularity as big institutional investors look for ways to trade blocks of stock without triggering ripples in the share price, as can happen on traditional stock markets such as the NYSE and Nasdaq Stock Market. But all that darkness is causing nightmares on Wall Street.' back

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - Wikipedia, Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred in the United States, over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC) on January 28, 1986. The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The seal failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it filled, allowing a flare to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent attachment hardware and external fuel tank. The SRB breach flare led to the separation of the right-hand SRB and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter. The shuttle was destroyed and all seven crew members were killed.' back

Thanu Padmanabhan, Thermodynamical Aspects of gravity: New Insights, '(Submitted on 26 Nov 2009 (v1), last revised 19 Jan 2010 (this version, v2)) The fact that one can associate thermodynamic properties with horizons brings together principles of quantum theory, gravitation and thermodynamics and possibly offers a window to the nature of quantum geometry. This review discusses certain aspects of this topic concentrating on new insights gained from some recent work. After a brief introduction of the overall perspective, Sections 2 and 3 provide the pedagogical background on the geometrical features of bifurcation horizons, path integral derivation of horizon temperature, black hole evaporation, structure of Lanczos-Lovelock models, the concept of Noether charge and its relation to horizon entropy. Section 4 discusses several conceptual issues introduced by the existence of temperature and entropy of the horizons. In Section 5 we take up the connection between horizon thermodynamics and gravitational dynamics and describe several peculiar features which have no simple interpretation in the conventional approach. The next two sections describe the recent progress achieved in an alternative perspective of gravity. In Section 6 we provide a thermodynamic interpretation of the field equations of gravity in any diffeomorphism invariant theory and in Section 7 we obtain the field equations of gravity from an entropy maximization principle. The last section provides a summary.' back

www.op.org, Dominicans : Order of Preachers, ..., '... the official international Web site of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). The branches of the Dominican family are multiple: brothers, contemplative nuns, congregations of contemplative and apostolic sisters, lay persons in fraternities or secular institutes, secular priests in fraternities.' back