Nielsen (2000), Michael A, and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press 2000 Review: A rigorous, comprehensive text on quantum information is timely. The study of quantum information and computation represents a particularly direct route to understanding quantum mechanics. Unlike the traditional route to quantum mechanics via Schroedinger's equation and the hydrogen atom, the study of quantum information requires no calculus, merely a knowledge of complex numbers and matrix multiplication. In addition, quantum information processing gives direct access to the traditionally advanced topics of measurement of quantum systems and decoherence.' Seth Lloyd, Department of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Nature 6876: vol 416 page 19, 7 March 2002. 
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Weyl (1985), Hermann, and Henry L. Brose (translator), Space Time Matter , Dover 1985 Amazon customer review: ' The birth of gauge theory by its author: This book bewitched several generations of physicists and students. Hermann Weyl was one of the very great mathematicians of this century. He was also a great physicist and an artist with ideas and words. In this book you will find, at a deep level, the philosophy, mathematics and physics of space-time. It appeared soon after Einstein's famous paper on General Relativity, and is, in fact, a magnificent exposition of it, or, rather, of a tentative generalization of it. The mathematical part is of the highest class, striving to put geometry to the forefront. Actually, the book introduced a far-reaching generalization of the theory of connections, with respect to the Levi-Civita theory. It was not a generalization for itself, but motivated by the dream (Einstein's) of including gravitation and electromagnetism in the same (geometrical) theory. The result was gauge theory, which, slightly modified and applied to quantum mechanics resulted in the theory which dominates present particle physics. Weyl's unified theory was proved wrong by Einstein, and his criticism alone, accepted by Weyl and included in the book, would justify the reading. Though wrong, Weyl's theory is so beautiful that Paul Dirac stated that nature could not afford neglecting such perfection, and that the theory was probably only misplaced. Prophetic words! . . . ' Henrique Fleming 
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Al Jazeera and Agencies, Israeli coalition fails to pass bill on upholding settler law, ' The Israeli government has failed to pass a bill that would renew and uphold the legal status of illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, marking a significant setback for the fragile coalition that could hasten its demise. The failure to renew the bill on Monday highlighted the separate legal systems in the occupied West Bank, where nearly 500,000 Israeli settlers enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship and law while some 3 million Palestinians live under military rule that is now well into its sixth decade.' back

Al Jazeera and Agencies, Israel wants ‘complete control’ of Palestinian land: UN report, ' An independent commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council after the 2021 Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip said Israel must do more than end the occupation of land that Palestinian leaders want for a future state. “Ending the occupation alone will not be sufficient,” according to the report released on Tuesday, urging that additional action be taken to ensure the equal enjoyment of human rights for Palestinians. The report cites evidence that Israel has “no intention of ending the occupation”. Israel is pursuing “complete control” over what the report calls the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which was taken by Israel in a 1967 war and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.' [Image: Israel's assault on Gaza in 2021 killed at least 260 people, including 67 children, and wounded more than 2,200, according to the UN] back

Belen Fernandez, A ‘cosmic stink’: Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, 40 years on, ' Following the Beirut withdrawal, Said Makdisi notes, the city’s residents began to hear of the occupation’s “most extraordinary aspect”, which was that Israeli soldiers had defecated all over the place: on books, clothes, carpets, furniture, school desks, you name it. In the place of wanton death and destruction, then, a “great heap of excrement” remained – a “cosmic stink” that served as a memorial to the siege. Now, 40 years after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon – as Israel persists with its lunatic urges to kill in Palestine and beyond – the stink is still pretty cosmic.' back

Caroline Elkins, The Imperial Fictions Behind the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, ' Reformist fictions laundered Britain’s past, watermarking official narratives of end-of-empire conflicts in Kenya, Cyprus, Aden, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Fragments of damning evidence remain, however. Historians, myself included, have spent years reassembling them, demonstrating liberal imperialism’s perfidity and the ways in which successive monarchs manifestly performed the empire and its myths, drawing symbolic power from their sublime in loco parentis role civilizing colonial subjects while — perhaps unwittingly given their governments’ cover-ups — honoring the dishonorable with speeches, titles and medals.' back

Gregory Patmore, Our business schools have a blindspot that’s hindering a more co-operative culture, ' Though co-operatives exist throughout Australian society, making a hugely valuable economic contribution, their distinctive nature and management requirements are largely ignored by university business schools. . . . . Co-ops range in size from small neighbourhood operations, such the Gymea community preschool in Sydney to major enterprises such as Cooperative Bulk Handling in Western Australia, which reported a $133 million surplus in 2021. All up there are more than 1,700 in Australia. It’s possible you’re a member of one – or a closely aligned “mutual” organisation (such as the NRMA or RACV). About eight in ten Australians are, yet fewer than two in ten realise it.' back

Haaretz Editorial, Gantz, Where’s the Proof of Terrorism?, ' The organizations that were classified as terrorist organizations are Addameer, which provides legal aid to Palestinian prisoners, collects data about administrative detainees and opposes torture; Al-Haq, which documents violations of Palestinians’ human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Defense for Children International-Palestine, which monitors the killing of children and the situation of children who have been arrested; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which helps Palestinian farmers; the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; and the Bisan Center for Research & Development. All are long-standing, serious human rights organizations that are known internationally.' back

Haaretz: Editorial, At Least the West Bank's Secret Is Out, ' The right’s commitment to toppling the current “government of change” at any price has sabotaged the automatic legal mechanism that maintains apartheid in the West Bank – a mechanism that has operated for years far from the public’s eye – and thereby essentially revealed the fact of its existence. The public has learned the legal truth that makes the settlement enterprise possible – the existence of two separate legal systems in the same territory, one for Israelis (that is, Jews) and one for Palestinians, as well as two separate justice systems. There’s a military justice system for subjects without citizenship who live under a military dictatorship, and there’s a second system for privileged Jews with Israeli citizenship, who live under Israeli law in a territory that’s not under Israeli sovereignty. For the first time, Israel’s general public has an opportunity to understand what the world is talking about when it talks about apartheid.' back

Linden, Smith & Staples, Why AMP and IOOF went rogue, ' The ‘M’ in AMP stood for Mutual. Like another former mutual, IOOF, it was owned by, and set up to benefit, its members. Both AMP and IOOF were presented with draft findings that they acted against the interests of their members at the conclusion of the round five hearings of the Royal Commission into Banking and Financial Services. . . . The early twentieth century German sociologist Max Weber argued the culture of an organisation was the product of its history, institutional structure and a consciously held shared ethos of its members. . . . From a Weberian perspective the current governance problems of AMP and IOOF can in part be attributed to abandoning of the original founding ascetic ideal in favour of an unconstrained focus on profit maximisation for the benefit of shareholders rather than members.' back

Luke Harding, Yulia Tymoshenko on war in Ukraine: ‘It’s a chance for the free world to kill this evil’, ' Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has described Vladimir Putin as “absolutely rational, cold, cruel, black evil” and claimed he is determined to go down in Russian history alongside Stalin and Peter the Great. . . . His ambitions went beyond seizing Ukrainian territory and toppling its pro-western, pro-Nato government, Tymoshenko suggested. His geopolitical aim was to take over Belarus, Georgia and Moldova as well, and to control central and eastern Europe including the Baltic states, just as Moscow did in Soviet times, she said. . . . The stakes for her country were existential, she said. The Kremlin’s objective was to “depersonify” Ukraine, stripping it of its language and culture, and leaving it weak and “atomised”. The civilised world had a unique opportunity to stop Russia and to prevent it from spreading “war, corruption, blackmail, disinformation and unfreedom,” she said. . . . Considering her words, the veteran politician concluded: “This is a great battle for our territory and our freedom. It’s a historic chance for the free world to kill this evil.” back

Matthew Ricketson, A new book argues Julian Assange is being tortured. Will our new PM do anything about it?, Review: The Trial of Julian Assange: A Story of Persecution – Nils Melzer (Verso) ' What [Meltzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture] finds is stark and disturbing: ' The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights. ' It is the story of wilful collusion by intelligence services behind the back of national parliaments and the general public. It is a story of manipulated and manipulative reporting in the mainstream media for the purpose of deliberately isolating, demonizing, and destroying a particular individual. It is the story of a man who has been scapegoated by all of us for our own societal failures to address government corruption and state-sanctioned crimes.' back

Patrick Gathra, Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: A collective misremembering of empire, ' Her Platinum Jubilee is a call to a collective misremembering of her imperial past and the violence and misery the state she heads and represents has wrought in the world. But like Jekyll, the supply of carefully crafted falsehoods keeping the Hyde-bound truth at bay is running out. Around the world, as evidenced by the protests during recent royal tours of the Caribbean and the determination expressed by those nations to rid themselves of the queen as head of state, the demand for an acknowledgement of the truth and for justice is building steam. If the UK persists in trying to hide from its dark past, it risks its international reputation and standing being consumed by it.' back

Rafael M Almeida et. al, Floating solar power could help fight climate change — let’s get it right, ' Solar power is space-intensive, requiring at least 20 times more area than conventional fossil-fuel plants to produce one gigawatt (GW) of electricity3. Several environments have been proposed as locations for extensive installations, each with pros and cons. . . . Placing solar arrays on reservoirs could have many advantages. The arrays are simply conventional solar panels installed on floats that are anchored through mooring lines. Proximity to water tends to keep them cool, making floating panels about 5% more efficient than land-based ones. Arrays shield the surface from the sun and might reduce evaporation, retaining water for hydropower, drinking and irrigation. Hydropower reservoirs already have the grid infrastructure for conveying electricity to consumers, reducing transmission costs. Pairing solar with pumped-storage hydropower could address the twin challenges of providing energy when sunlight is weak and storing it as potential energy in reservoirs when solar-power production is high.' back

Sisonke Msimang, Will the hateful army who bullied Yassmin Abdel-Magied come after Australia’s diverse new parliamentarians?, ' If the euphoria and back-patting over the federal election results are anything to go by, Australia is a vastly different country from the one Yassmin Abdel-Magied left five years ago. A new cohort of confident, competent, successful and ethnically diverse parliamentarians are about to enter public life. They have been widely celebrated as a sign that the country is getting multiculturalism right. I am sceptical of these good vibes. History teaches us to be worried about how they will be treated over the next few years. If recent history is anything to go by, at least some of them will be in for a rough ride. The ones most likely to attract negative attention will be those who are unlucky enough to have the deadly combination of confidence and “difference” due to wearing a hijab, having dark skin or non-Anglo features. back