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Notes

[Notebook: DB 57 Language]

[Sunday 14 August 2005 - Saturday 20 August 2005]

Sunday 14 August 2005
Monday 15 August 2005
Tuesday 16 August 2005
Wednesday 17 August 2005

[page 192]

Thursday 18 August 2005

Our prospectus: intellectual property, exploitation.

'Not that Andre is actually corrupt, he has just had to be clever in certain unorthodox ways in order to survive. Robbins, From, 352. Robbins

Art: creation of attractive and convincing alternatives, points of view.

Coordinate system = point of view. General covariance (the physical world is the same from all points of view) Does this define 'physical'? The spiritual word is different from every point of view.

'The rip in the fabric of consensual reality. We cannot cover a whole manifold with one coordinate system. Robbins page 377.

Divine Will. The divinity needs no will, by definition, since it already has everything it could want? Or does

[page 193]

it? What 'works' 'survives', and this is what we see and our own working and surviving require a certain operational realism in our judgments of the world around us, finding food and shelter, growing, avoiding death, reproduction, etc.

Friday 19 August 2005
Saturday 20 August 2005

Related sites

Concordat Watch

Revealing Vatican attempts to propagate its religion by international treaty


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Further reading

Books

Lawden, Derek F, An Introduction to Tensor Calculus and Relativity, Chapman and Hall 1978  
Amazon
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Lawdon, Derek F, Tensor Calculus and Relativity, back

Misner, Charles W, and Kip S Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation, Freeman 1973 Jacket: 'Einstein's description of gravitation as curvature of spacetime led directly to that greatest of all predictions of his theory, that the universe itself is dynamic. Physics still has far to go to come to terms with this amazing fact and what it means for man and his relation to the universe. John Archibald Wheeler. . . . this is a book on Einstein's theory of gravity. . . . ' 
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Pais, Abraham, 'Subtle is the Lord...': The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford UP 1982 Jacket: In this . . . major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire ouvre. . . . Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography . . . including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before.' 
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Robbins, Tom, Half Asleep in Frog Payjamas, Bantam Books 1995 Editorial review: From Library Journal 'Robbins offers a wild and wacky trip featuring, among other things, a stock market crash and various philosophies about meaning and the origins of cultures. Gwen, an endangered stockbroker, is involved with strait-laced Belford and his born-again monkey. When she is attracted to Larry-who has cancer and is currently between trips to Timbuktu-she must choose among the American dream, the Timbuktu alternate, and something else. The book is a whirlwind of mad incidents, semiprofound observations, and an endless supply of great lines. The author of Skinny Legs and All (LJ 3/1/90) has come up with a very funny book that might incite a bit of thinking as well as laughter.' --Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio 
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Schilpp, Paul Arthur, and (editor), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, Open Court Publishing Company 1949 'Contains Einstein's autobiographical notes in German and English, 25 descriptive and critical essays on the Work of Albert Einstein, Einstein's reply to these essays, and a bibliography of Einstein's writings to May 1951' 
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Wodehouse, P G, The Indiscretions of Archie, SMK Books 2014 'Review "The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare." Evening Standard "Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in" Evelyn Waugh "He exhausts superlatives" Stephen Fry ' 
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Links

Aquinas, Summa, I, 27, 1, Is there procession in God?, 'As God is above all things, we should understand what is said of God, not according to the mode of the lowest creatures, namely bodies, but from the similitude of the highest creatures, the intellectual substances; while even the similitudes derived from these fall short in the representation of divine objects. Procession, therefore, is not to be understood from what it is in bodies, either according to local movement or by way of a cause proceeding forth to its exterior effect, as, for instance, like heat from the agent to the thing made hot. Rather it is to be understood by way of an intelligible emanation, for example, of the intelligible word which proceeds from the speaker, yet remains in him. In that sense the Catholic Faith understands procession as existing in God.' back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 27, 2, Can any procession in God can be called generation?, 'I answer that, The procession of the Word in God is called generation. . . . the procession of the Word in God is generation; for He proceeds by way of intelligible action, which is a vital operation:--from a conjoined principle (as above described):--by way of similitude, inasmuch as the concept of the intellect is a likeness of the object conceived:--and exists in the same nature, because in God the act of understanding and His existence are the same, as shown above (14, 4). Hence the procession of the Word in God is called generation; and the Word Himself proceeding is called the Son.' back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 43, 3, Is Whether the invisible mission of the divine person is only according to the gift of sanctifying grace?, ' . . . no other effect can be put down as the reason why the divine person is in the rational creature in a new mode, except sanctifying grace. Hence, the divine person is sent, and proceeds temporally only according to sanctifying grace.' back

Australian Government, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 'WHEREAS all children deserve a safe and happy childhood. AND Australia has undertaken international obligations to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from sexual abuse and other forms of abuse, including measures for the prevention, identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow up of incidents of child abuse. . . . IN WITNESS, We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent. WITNESS Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Dated 11th January 2013 Governor-General By Her Excellency’s Command Prime Minister back

Catherine Heuzenroeder, The goodbyes they don't remember: Inside a purpose-built dementia unit, ;The $6 million 20-bed Traeger Memory Unit within Riverview Lutheran Rest Home at Loxton, opened in April 2016. Everything from the well-lit bedrooms to the floors (no specks in the pattern or residents try futilely to pick them up) has been thought out. In terms of dementia care this is about as good as it gets but Riverview director and chief executive officer Kathy Goldsack knows just what it costs families to put their loved ones into any facility.; back

Catholic Catechism, Sanctifying grace, '2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.\ back

Chelsea E Manning, Facing my fear: being in public as a woman for the very first time, 'The first time I passed as a woman in public was on leave in the US from my deployment to Iraq in February 2010. I’d long known I was a woman, but I’d been afraid, and a bit embarrassed, to appear publicly as myself before this. Not only was I worried that I could lose my already-tenuous connections with my family, but I was terrified that I could face administrative, or even criminal, charges from the military. It was the height of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” and we in the queer and trans community lived in fear on a regular basis.' back

Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen, Can the Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?, A PDF of the classic paper. 'In a complete theory there is an element corresponding to each element of reality. A sufficient condition for the reality of a physical quantity is the possibility of predicting it with certainty, without disturbing the system. In quantum mechanics in the case of two physical quantities described by non-commuting operators, the knowledge of one precludes the knowledge of the other. Then either (1) the description of reality given by the wave function in quantum mechanics is not complete or (2) these two quantities cannot have simultaneous reality. Consideration of the problem of making predictions concerning a system on the basis of measurements made on another system that had previously interacted with it leads to the result that if (1) is false then (2) is also false, One is thus led to conclude that the description of reality given by the wave function is not complete.' back

Grace in Christianity - Wikipedia, Grace in Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In Western Christian theology, grace has been defined, not as a created substance of any kind, but as "the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not necessarily because of anything we have done to earn it","the condescension or benevolence shown by God toward the human race".It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved"[3] – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God.' back

Jena McGregor, Who Apple's Tim Cook turns to for advice, 'The DNA of the company is really what I was talking about there. The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way — enrich people's lives. And so our reason for being hasn't changed. Other things change. But that's the thread that ties everyone together.' back

Joseph Pohle, Sanctifying Grace (Catholic Encyclopedia), 'Grace (gratia, Charis), in general, is a supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures (men, angels) for their eternal salvation, whether the latter be furthered and attained through salutary acts or a state of holiness. Eternal salvation itself consists in heavenly bliss resulting from the intuitive knowledge of the Triune God, who to the one not endowed with grace "inhabiteth light inaccessible" (1 Timothy 6:16). Christian grace is a fundamental idea of the Christian religion, the pillar on which, by a special ordination of God, the majestic edifice of Christianity rests in its entirety. Among the three fundamental ideas — sin, redemption, and grace — grace plays the part of the means, indispensable and Divinely ordained, to effect the redemption from sin through Christ and to lead men to their eternal destiny in heaven.. back

Kevin Brown, Reflections on Relativity, To Besso in 1954, nearly 50 years after their discussion in the patent office, Einstein wrote: I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field principle, i.e., on continuous structures. In that case, nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included . . ." ' back

Lenore Taylor, Dutton blames Nauru crisis on everything but his rigid policy, 'Peter Dutton would dearly like to channel some of the rising anger over Australia’s indefinite offshore detention of refugees towards those who are trying to hold him to account for the policy. This week he sought to blame Guardian Australia, the ABC, academics, Save the Children, other human rights groups and the refugees themselves for his problems. But by flailing around with inaccurate criticisms, false descriptions of what has been happening and myopic assessments of the possible solutions, the immigration minister only succeeds in highlighting his own increasingly desperate political situation.' back

Liz Buxton, Experience: I see words as colours, 'I was 30 and a mature student in art college when I first realised I saw the alphabet in glorious technicolour. I was building a 3D calendar (three wooden cubes telling the day, date and month) when my tutor asked why I had painted the six blue. “Because that’s what six is,” I told her. I think of my grapheme-colour synesthesia as a curiosity, rather than a condition. I see every letter and number in its own unique hue and, when they are combined into words, every word makes a colour that is equally unique to my mind.' back

Margot Sanger-Katz, Is Terrorism Getting Worse? In the West, Yes. In the World,No, 'The vast majority of terrorist events in the world occur in a handful of countries experiencing civil unrest. More than three-quarters of all terrorism fatalities over the last five years took place in six countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.' back

Masha Gessen, Did the Soviet Union Really End?, 'Mr. Yeltsin and his aides believed that what happened in Russia was better than any revolution, even a velvet one. They were convinced that by taking over existing institutions they would bring democracy to Russia faster, and less painfully, than they would by destroying them. They gave little thought to the fact that these were the institutions of a long-running totalitarian regime: They did not doubt that they had the will and strength necessary to transform them. But these institutions have turned out to be stronger than the men who had set out to reform them.' back

Milhail Prokopenka, How we evolved a winning strategy for the RoboCup competition by imitating nature, '“In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.” This observation by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre has been cited in multiple contexts, ranging from tactical planning in team sports, to game-theoretic modelling of microeconomics, to full-blown robotic warfare. The common thread in all these studies is conflict: adversarial interactions bring about a disorganisation that can disrupt the most prepared of schemes.' back

Nancy Pelosi, On G.O.P. Protecting the Rich, 'There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Donald Trump and what Republicans in Congress have been advancing for years. Mr. Trump’s candidacy has exposed the same moral compromise that the G.O.P. establishment and business community have always made to protect special interests and the wealthy.' back

Nicholas Kristof, Donald Trump Is Making America Meaner, 'We need not be apocalyptic about it. This is not Kristallnacht. But Trump’s harsh rhetoric tears away the veneer of civility and betrays our national motto of “e pluribus unum.” He has unleashed a beast and fed its hunger, and long after this campaign is over we will be struggling to corral it again.' back

Nicole Hasham, Federal goverment asks Australian Federal Police to find Nauru whistleblowers, 'The federal government called in the Australian Federal Police to investigate information leaks from the Nauru detention camp six times in as many months, prompting claims it is pursuing whistleblowers instead of those who allegedly assaulted and raped asylum seekers.' back

Paul Krugman, Pieces of Silver, 'So if you’re wealthy, or you’re someone who has built a career by reliably serving the interests of the wealthy, the choice is clear — as long as you don’t care too much about stuff like shunning racism, preserving democracy and freedom of religion, or for that matter avoiding nuclear war, Mr. Trump is your guy. And that’s pretty much how the Republican establishment still sees it. back

Peter Fisher, Small world: does ecology reach all the way dow to the subatomic scale?, 'Movies made from snapshot X-ray imaging (which can take a staggering 100 trillion images a second) show the inner workings of the molecular machine during photosynthesis – a process where manganese atoms, surrounded by protein, split water and digest carbon dioxide as food in all green plants. Nature uses this same mechanism, in combination with electron transfer reactions, to generate practically all the oxygen breathed on Earth.' back

Peter Gabriel, Games Without Frontiers, 'Published on Apr 16, 2015 (HQ digital stereo remaster) This video has never been released in full on any of the official Peter Gabriel video compilations. The versions that appeared on "CV" (1987) and later the DVD "Play" (2004) included new material over parts of the original video. So here is the original version in full with remastered audio.' back

Peter Gabriel, Solsbury Hill, back

Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel and The New Blood Orchestra Live on Letterman 2011, 'this is Peter Gabriel and The New Blood Orchestra Live on Letterman 2011- It’s not every day you get to see a 46-piece orchestra take the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater--let alone, an orchestra fronted by progressive rock pioneer Peter Gabriel. Red Rain Wallflower Intruder Signal To Noise San Jacinto Mercy Street 43:10 Rhythm of the Heat 49:30 Solsbury Hill 55:10 Biko' back

Sayed Kashua, Yasmine El Rashindi and Kanan Makiya, 'Fractured Lands;: Arab Writers on a Region in Crisis, 'Last week, The New York Times Magazine devoted a special issue to a report on the historic tumult and turmoil in the Middle East. Here, three Arab writers respond, and reflect on the legacy of the Arab Spring revolutions.' back

Zack Beauchamp, A Republican intellectual explains why the Republican Party is going to die, 'But when I caught up with Roy at a bar just outside the Republican convention, he said something I’ve never heard from an establishment conservative before: The Grand Old Party is going to die. “I don’t think the Republican Party and the conservative movement are capable of reforming themselves in an incremental and gradual way,” he said. “There’s going to be a disruption.” . back

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