Adam Behr, Sinéad O'Connor: a troubled soul with immense talent and unbowed spirit , ' Her later releases were stronger on critical acclaim than commercial clout, and her well-publicised mental health difficulties led to hiatuses in her music. . . .. Despite these gaps, and the personal tragedies like her son’s suicide in 2022, O’Connor’s fierce adherence to her principles of self-expression saw her win considerable public affection. She was, of course, vindicated over her accusations of abuse in the Catholic church. But her uneven approach to public life – announcements of retirement followed by retractions, a spell as a “priest” followed by her conversion to Islam (she went by the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat from 2019) – did little to dim her appeal in the long term. Ultimately despite her difficulties, or even because of them, she exemplified what it was to be an icon. Her visual distinctiveness, determination and refusal to meet the mainstream half-way mean that her instantly recognisable voice cut through the shifts and uncertainty of her personal life and public debate. In the end, nothing quite compares to her.' back

Alan W. Walker & Lesley Hoyles, Human microbiome myths and misconceptions, ' Over the past two decades, interest in human microbiome research has increased exponentially. Regrettably, this increased activity has brought with it a degree of hype and misinformation, which can undermine progress and public confidence in the research. Here we highlight selected human microbiome myths and misconceptions that lack a solid evidence base. By presenting these examples, we hope to draw increased attention to the implications of inaccurate dogma becoming embedded in the literature, and the importance of acknowledging nuance when describing the complex human microbiome.' back

Barbie (film) - Wikipedia, Barbie (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Barbie is a 2023 American fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig and written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Based on the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, it is the first live-action Barbie film after numerous computer-animated direct-to-video and streaming television films. The film follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) on a journey of self-discovery following an existential crisis.' back

Carl D Anderson, The Positive Electron, Out of a group of 1300 photographs of cosmic-ray tracks in a vertical Wilson chamber 15 tracks were of positive particles which could not have a mass as great as that of the proton. From an examination of the energy-loss and ionization produced it is concluded that the charge is less than twice, and is probably exactly equal to, that of the proton. If these particles carry unit positive charge the curvatures and ionizations produced require the mass to be less than twenty times the electron mass. These particles will be called positrons. Because they occur in groups associated with other tracks it is concluded that they must be secondary particles ejected from atomic nuclei.' back

Cartl Hoffman, Creepy, wondrous — and expensive — journeys to the ocean’s depths, ' Reviews: ‘The Bathysphere Book’ (Brad Fox) and ‘The Underworld’ (Susan Casey) dive into the century-long project to plumb the ocean’s darkest regions and find what lives there. Beebe was the first human to slip more than a few dozen feet beneath that wonderland, which covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and holds, by volume, 99 percent of its habitable space. He did so from a 4½-foot steel sphere with tiny port holes of thick quartz, lowered into the abyss on a cable for the first time in 1930. “The world outside the steel ball was blue, blue, and nothing else, slowly fading to black but still bright with a strange brightness Beebe could not put into words,” writes Brad Fox in his splendid, hypnotic ode to wonder and curiosity, “The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths.” “Blacker than blackest midnight yet brilliant,” said Beebe from the depths, dictating via telephone cord to his assistant and paramour, Gloria Hollister, who listened on the support vessel 1,050 feet above. As he emerged at the surface after that dive, he knew “something in him had permanently changed,” writes Fox. “The yellow of the sun, [Beebe] wrote, ‘can never hereafter be as wonderful as blue can be".' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1967), How universal is the universe?, ' 61 The future is beyond our comprehension, but we can get an idea of it and speed its coming by studying what we already have. Contemplating the size and wonder of the universe as it stands in the light of its openness to the future must surely be a powerful incentive to men to love God. We have come a long way since the little world of St Thomas. Ours is open to all things, even participating in god. This is what I mean by universal. ' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (2019), A prolegomenon to scientific theology, ' This thesis is an attempt to carry speculative theology beyond the apogee it reached in the medieval work of Thomas Aquinas into the world of empirical science. Since the time of Aquinas, our understanding of the Universe has increased enormously. The ancient theologians not only conceived a perfect God, but they also saw the world as a very imperfect place. Their reaction was to place God outside the world. I will argue that we live in a Universe which approaches infinity in size and complexity, is as perfect as can be, and fulfils all the roles traditionally attributed to God, creator, lawmaker and judge.' back

Lina M. Khan, Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, ' Abstract: Amazon is the titan of twenty-first century commerce. In addition to being a retailer, it is now amarketing platform, a delivery and logistics network, a payment service, a credit lender, an auction house, a major book publisher, a producer of television and films, a fashion designer, a hardware manufacturer, and a leading host of cloud server space. Although Amazon has clocked staggering growth, it generates meager profits, choosing to price below-cost and expand widely instead. Through this strategy, the company has positioned itself at the center of e-commerce and now serves as essential infrastructure for a host of other businesses that depend upon it. Elements of the firm’s structure and conduct pose anticompetitive concerns—yet it has escaped antitrust scrutiny. . . . This analysis reveals that the current framework in antitrust—specifically its equating competition with “consumer welfare,” typically measured through short-term effects on price and output24—fails to capture the architecture of market power in the twenty-first century marketplace. In other words, the potential harms to competition posed by Amazon’s dominance are not cognizable if we assess competition primarily through price and output. Focusing on these metrics instead blinds us to the potential hazards.' back

Natasha May, Overseas-trained doctors could be fast-tracked to work as Australia’s staff shortage projected to swell, ' Overseas-trained doctors may be able to start working in Australia more quickly under changes being considered by the peak body for general practitioners aimed at addressing a ballooning doctor shortage. Hundreds of foreign-trained doctors living in Australia were unable to work during the pandemic due to a complex and rigorous system of approving international medical graduates to work locally. It prompted the federal government to in September announce a rapid review of regulatory settings for health professionals that will be independently led by the former New South Wales health secretary Robyn Kruk. Ahead of Kruk’s final report, expected to be delivered to the government imminently, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Dr Nicole Higgins, said the college would simplify assessments that compared the skills of overseas doctors to local ones, often requiring doctors to undergo expensive additional training. . . . Increasing demand for GP services has left Australia short at least 860 general practitioners, a number which is projected to ballon to 10,600 in less than 10 years. skip past newsletter promotion But skilled GPs from overseas are being discouraged from working in Australia as result of a recruitment process which can take up to 21 months and cost in excess of $25,000 even for cohorts from fast-tracked countries.' back

Orlando (film) - Wikipedia, Orlando (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Orlando is a 1992 British period drama film loosely based on Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I. It was written and directed by Sally Potter, who also co-wrote the music for the film (with David Motion). Potter chose to film much of the Constantinople portion of the book in the isolated city of Khiva in Uzbekistan, and made use of the forest of carved columns in the city's 18th century Djuma Mosque. Critics praised the film, and particularly applauded its visual treatment of the settings of Woolf's novel.' back

Richard Feynman & Steven Weinberg (1986), Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures, Foreword: John C Taylor: 'Dirac Died in 1984, and St John's College, Cambridge (Dirac's College), very generously endowed an annual lecture to be held at Cambridge University in Dirac's memory. The First two lectures, printed here, are contrasting variations of Dirac's theme of the union of quantum theory and relativity.' back

Sinéad O'Connor / Kathryn Ferguson (Director), Nothing Compares Documentary, Follows the career of singer Sinéad O'Connor through her rise to fame and how her iconoclastic personality led to her exile from the pop mainstream. [Quote begins 1:25:15] back

Sinead O/connor, Nothing Compares to You, back

Vita & Virginia - Wikipedia, Vita & Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Vita & Virginia is a 2018 biographical romantic drama film directed by Chanya Button. The screenplay, written by Button and Eileen Atkins, is adapted from the 1992 play Vita & Virginia by Atkins. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Elizabeth Debicki, and Isabella Rossellini. Set in the 1920s, Vita & Virginia tells the story of the love affair between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. back