Darwin (1859, 2001), Charles, and Ernst Mayr, On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press 2001 Amazon review: 'It was a very happy idea to publish a facsimile of the first edition of On the Origin of Species; the price of copies of the original edition has reached the thousand dollar bracket, and in contemporary literature all page-references are to the original pagination, which was not followed in previous reprints of the first edition. Now, with this very reasonably priced and beautifully produced book, not only historians of science but also biologists will have the opportunity of following the fascinating thought-trails, still far from fully explored, of that remarkable man Darwin. Few if any persons are so well qualified as Harvard's Ernst Mayr to execute so helpfully and gracefully the delicate task of writing a worthy foreword to such a classic.' --Sir Gavin de Beer (Science ) 
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Lonergan (1992), 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' 
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic integration of Physics and Theology, Austin Macauley 2025 ' More than 60 years ago my spiritual advisors (rightly or wrongly) diagnosed in me a divine call to the Roman Catholic priesthood. As soon as I turned 18 I entered the Dominican Order
I quickly fell on love with their leading theologian, Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1275) and read him voraciously. His Latin is so easy and his ideas quite cosmic.
Aquinas revolutionized theology by harmonizing it with the work of Aristotle, the best science available in the Middle Ages. Since the time of Galileo (1562 - 1642) modern science has travelled far beyond Aristotle. We now have comprehensive knowledge of the Universe. We can now see that it is big enough and beautiful enough to be considered divine. It seems obvious to me that it is time to introduce science to theology once again. Just three steps are required:
First, we must assume that the Universe is divine. This makes God observable, amenable to modern science which is based on observation.
Second, it follows, if this is the case, that physics and theology have the same subject and must therefore be consistent.
Third we need open up a new field of research, repeating Aristotle’s ancient journey from physics to theology. In this book I have tried to trace a quantum theoretical path from the unstoppable omnipotent emptiness of the initial singularity to the exquisite complexity of our world. My only guide is the logical constraint placed on omnipotence by consistency.'  
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Abstract algebra - Wikipedia, Abstract algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are sets with specific operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, lattices, and algebras over a field. The term abstract algebra was coined in the early 20th century to distinguish it from older parts of algebra, and more specifically from elementary algebra, the use of variables to represent numbers in computation and reasoning. [. . .] Algebraic structures, with their associated homomorphisms, form mathematical categories. Category theory gives a unified framework to study properties and constructions that are similar for various structures. ' back

Albigensian Crusade - Wikipedia, Albigensian Crusade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'When Innocent III's diplomatic attempts to roll back Catharism met with little success and after the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was murdered (allegedly by an agent serving the Cathar count of Toulouse), Innocent III declared a crusade against Languedoc, offering the lands of the schismatics to any French nobleman willing to take up arms. The violence led to France's acquisition of lands with closer cultural and linguistic ties to Catalonia (see Occitan). An estimated 200,000 to 1,000,000 people were massacred during the crusade.' back

Arian Wallach & Erik Lundgren (2025_04_11), Extinctions of Australian mammals have long been blamed on foxes and cats – but where’s the evidence?, ' n 1938, zoologist Ellis Le Geyt Troughton mourned that Australia’s “gentle and specialized creatures” were “unable to cope with changed conditions and introduced enemies”. The role of these “enemies” – namely, foxes and feral cats – in driving dozens of Australia’s animals towards extinction has solidified into a scientific consensus. This is a simple and plausible story: wily new predators arrive, decimating unwary native mammals. In response, conservationists and governments have declared war on foxes and cats with large-scale trapping, shooting and poisoning campaigns. But did foxes and cats definitely cause the extinction of animals such as the desert bandicoot, lesser bilby and the central hare-wallaby? Our new research shows the evidence base is nowhere near as strong as you might assume. [. . . ] We didn’t set out to prove or disprove the idea that foxes and cats drive extinctions. Instead, our study lays out the available primary evidence of historic records and studies to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Sweeping claims have been made about Australia’s introduced predators. But when we analyse the evidence base, we find it ambiguous, weak and – in most cases – lacking. Foxes and cats have been largely convicted by expert opinion which, while useful, can be prone to bias and groupthink. So what did cause Australia’s mammal extinctions? The honest answer is we don’t know. It could be foxes and cats – but it could also be something else.' back

Ben Bohane (2025_04_18), Did we back the wrong war in the ’60s? Now Putin’s Russia is knocking on the door, ' Yet, this week’s news of Indonesia considering a Russian request to base aircraft at the Biak airbase in West Papua throws in stark relief a troubling question I have long asked – did Australia back the wrong war 63 years ago? These different areas – and histories – of South-East Asia may seem disconnected, but allow me to draw some links. [. . .] Following the so-called Bunker Agreement signed in New York in 1962, Holland reluctantly agreed to relinquish West Papua to Indonesia under US pressure. Australia, too, folded in line with US interests. That would also be the year when Australia sent its first group of 30 military advisers to Vietnam. Instead of backing West Papuan nationhood, Australia joined the US in suppressing Vietnam’s. As a result of US arm-twisting, Australia ceded its own strategic interests in allowing Indonesia to expand eastwards into Pacific territories by swallowing West Papua. Instead, Australians trooped off to fight the unwinnable wars of Indochina. To me, it remains one of the great what-ifs of Australian strategic history – if Australia had held the line with Holland against US moves, then West Papua today would be free, the East Timor invasion of 1975 is unlikely to have ever happened and Australia might not have been dragged into the Vietnam War. . . . Instead, as Cambodia and Vietnam mark their anniversaries this month, Australia continues to be reminded of the potential threat Indonesian-controlled West Papua has posed to Australia and the Pacific since it gave way to US interests in 1962. Nor is this the first time Russia has deployed assets to West Papua. Last year, Russian media reported plans under way for the Russian space agency Roscosmos to help Indonesia build a space base on Biak island. [. ..] All because we have abandoned the West Papuans to endure their own “slow-motion genocide” under Indonesian rule. Church groups and NGOs estimate up to 500,000 Papuans have perished under 60 years of Indonesian military rule, while Jakarta refuses to allow international media and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit. Alex Sobel, an MP in UK’s parliament, last week called on Indonesia to allow the UN High Commissioner to visit but it’s exceedingly rare to hear any Australian MPs ask questions about our neighbour West Papua in the Australian parliament.' back

Ben Radley (2025_04_14), The global economy is in turmoil. Now is the time to build a new order, ' In short, we live in a world imperialist economy that continually reproduces inequality, poverty and war and is driven by the capitalist logic of ever-expanding accumulation that is pushing us towards planetary breakdown. We need alternative visions, and fast. With this in mind, the Havana Group of the Progressive International launched its Program of Action on the Construction of a New International Economic Order towards the end of 2024. The launch was timed to mark the 50th anniversary of its namesake. The Program of Action, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1974, sought to establish principles for equality between nations and peoples, but it was undone by the oil and Global South debt crises, combined with United States-led resistance to its implementation. Arguably, the 2024 Program of Action stands a better chance. Many Global South countries have significantly increased their economic and political power over the past 50 years while the North is shaken by US President Donald Trump’s economic policies in pursuit of his “America first”. US unilateralism may well undo the Global North’s decades-long coordinated action to maintain its dominant position. In this context, the updated 2024 programme proposes policies that can break the developmental divide between the Global North and South and deliver a “sustainable future” of “shared prosperity across the world”. To achieve these goals, the programme identifies five major areas for collective action by governments in the South: climate, industry, finance, technology and governance. Within each area, several objectives are set out, followed by implementable measures for how to get there.' Taken together, the programme’s set of 31 proposed measures can be read as a suggestive roadmap for what the late Egyptian economist Samir Amin called “delinking”. For him, the essence of the anti-imperialist strategy of delinking lies in the South, breaking from the demands imposed by the North and reorienting towards the priorities, needs and interests of its peoples. back

Bob Dylan (1965), Ballad of the Thin Man, 'You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?" You try so hard but you don't understand Just what you will say when you get home Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?" And somebody points to you and says, "It's his" And you say, "What's mine?" and somebody else says, "Well, what is?" And you say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?" But something is happening and you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? You hand in your ticket and you go watch the geek Who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak And says, "How does it feel to be such a freak?" And you say, "Impossible!" as he hands you a bone And something is happening here but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? You have many contacts among the lumberjacks To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination But nobody has any respect, anyway they already expect you to all give a check To tax-deductible charity organizations Ah, you've been with the professors and they've all liked your looks With great lawyers you have discussed lepers and crooks You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books You're very well-read, it's well-known But something is happening here and you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you and then he kneels He crosses himself and then he clicks his high heels And without further notice, he asks you how it feels And he says, "Here is your throat back, thanks for the loan" And you know something is happening but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? Now, you see this one-eyed midget shouting the word "Now" And you say, "For what reason?" and he says, "How" And you say, "What does this mean?" and he screams back, "You're a cow! Give me some milk or else go home" And you know something's happening but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? Well, you walk into the room like a camel, and then you frown You put your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground There ought to be a law against you comin' around You should be made to wear earphones 'Cause something is happening and you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Bob Dylan Ballad of a Thin Man lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group back

Catharism - Wikipedia, Catharism - Wikipedia, the free ecyclopedia, ' Catharism (from the Ancient Greek: καθαροί,) was a Christian quasi-dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a heretical sect by the Catholic Church, its followers were attacked first by the Albigensian Crusade and later by the Medieval Inquisition, which eradicated the sect by 1350. Around 1 million were slaughtered, hanged, or burnt at the stake. Followers were known as Cathars or Albigensians, after the French city Albi where the movement first took hold, but referred to themselves as Good Christians. They famously believed that there were not one, but two Gods—the good God of Heaven and the evil god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4). According to tradition, Cathars believed that the good God was the God of the New Testament faith and creator of the spiritual realm. Many Cathars identified the evil god as Satan, the master of the physical world. The Cathars believed that human souls were the sexless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the evil god. . . . From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and persuading the local authorities to act against the Cathars. In 1208, Pierre de Castelnau, Innocent's papal legate, was murdered while returning to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who, in his view, was too lenient with the Cathars. Pope Innocent III then declared de Castelnau a martyr and launched the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. The nearly twenty-year campaign succeeded in vastly weakening the movement. The Medieval Inquisition that followed ultimately eradicated Catharism.' back

Characteristic polynomial - Wikipedia, Characteristic polynomial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In linear algebra, the characteristic polynomial of a square matrix is a polynomial which is invariant under matrix similarity and has the eigenvalues as roots. It has the determinant and the trace of the matrix among its coefficients. The characteristic polynomial of an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space is the characteristic polynomial of the matrix of that endomorphism over any basis (that is, the characteristic polynomial does not depend on the choice of a basis). The characteristic equation, also known as the determinantal equation, is the equation obtained by equating the characteristic polynomial to zero.' back

Claire Isabella Gilmour (2025_04_08), Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been key part of complex afterlife rituals, ' Tutankhamun inherited a throne tainted by the shifts in religious and political practices implemented by his father, Akhenaten. His reign had been hallmarked by the move from the capital city of Thebes to a new city, Akhetaten (“the horizon of the Aten”). Under Akhenaten, the solar deity Aten was elevated above all others, including the principal state god Amun. This resulted in the king being the sole high priest and beneficiary (along with his family) of the Aten. The resulting disconnection between state and religion severely reduced the power and influence of priests and members of the royal court. But on Akhenaten’s death, these were restored by his son.' [. . .] Tutankhamun and his treasures are so familiar today that it is possible to overlook, or even forget, the fact that once the doors were sealed after his funeral they were meant to never be seen again. Some of his grave goods – particularly those made from gold – have outshone others. However, the ordinariness of the trays among all the riches suggests that they are crucial components of his burial. They confirm Tutankhamun as both renewed in death through Osiris, and the king who restored order to Egypt.' back

Darius von Guttner Sporzynski (2025_04_15), Why does Putin insist Ukranians and Russians are ‘one people’? The answer spans centuries of colonisation and resistance, ' Russian president Vladimir Putin does not seem interested in peace: Sunday’s missile strike on Sumy, the worst civilian attack this year, proves he is determined to expand into Ukraine at any cost. This is a war of ideas, narratives and myths – one that can be traced to the mid-1500s, when Ivan the Terrible, Grand Duke of Muscovy declared himself the first “tsar” of all Russia. As part of his quest for power, Ivan the Terrible challenged King Sigismund I of Poland, who as Duke of Rus, ruled over territories that now comprise parts of modern-day Ukraine. Russian rulers have often repurposed history to build their power, according to historian Orlando Figes. Putin wrote a well known essay in 2021 that called Russians and Ukrainians “one people”. He was relying on old beliefs that Russia has the right to “restore” or reunite lands it once ruled. Ukraine has survived bans on its language, forced assimilation policies, and famines like the Holodomor, orchestrated by Stalin in the 1930s. The country declared independence from Russia in 1991. Now, teachers, artists and local leaders have joined soldiers in resisting Russia. [. . .] When the Soviet Union collapsed, many hoped for a new era of cooperation in Eastern Europe. Instead, authoritarian politics and old beliefs about empire have led to a devastating conflict. By refusing to be pulled back into Russia’s orbit, Ukrainians send a message about self-determination. They reject the claim bigger nations can absorb smaller ones simply by invoking a shared past.' back

Ed Pilkington (2025_04_18), If Harvard, armor-plated by history and padded with funds, can’t beat Trump, no one can, 'Donald Trump attended the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event of his new presidency on Saturday, reveling off stage in a standing ovation from Maga supporters and on stage in the barely controlled violence of a sport he has long adored. The previous day he instigated his own UFC bout, picking a fight with one of the US’s most formidable opponents: Harvard is not only the world’s richest university, with a $53bn endowment that is bigger than the GDP of almost 100 countries, it is also the oldest in the US. It was founded in 1636, which makes it 140 years older than the United States itself. Round one to Harvard! The terms in which the US president picked this fight, though, suggests that he was itching to start it even against such heavyweight competition. The five-page screed that the Trump administration sent late on Friday night to Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, made demands that would have been virtually impossible for any self-respecting academic leader to accept. They included federal government oversight of admissions and an end to recruitment of international students “hostile to American values” – whatever that meant. Most egregiously, the administration insisted on imposing “viewpoint diversity”, essentially ideological control, over faculty appointments. Harvard, which had previously made conciliatory gestures in the face of Trump’s accusations of campus antisemitism, finally stepped into the ring on Monday. In a message titled The Promise of American Higher Education, Garber bluntly rejected the demands and stated that Harvard would “not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”.' back

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors - Wikipedia, Eigenvalues and eigenvectors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In linear algebra, an eigenvector or characteristic vector of a linear transformation is a nonzero vector that changes at most by a scalar factor when that linear transformation is applied to it. The corresponding eigenvalue, often denoted by λ, is the factor by which the eigenvector is scaled. Geometrically, an eigenvector, corresponding to a real nonzero eigenvalue, points in a direction in which it is stretched by the transformation and the eigenvalue is the factor by which it is stretched. If the eigenvalue is negative, the direction is reversed. Loosely speaking, in a multidimensional vector space, the eigenvector is not rotated.' back

Esther Webber, Csongor Körömi & Chris Lunday (2025_04_11) , Allies pledge €21B in weapons for Ukraine while denouncing Russian attacks, ' Peace in Ukraine is “out of reach in the immediate future,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned Friday as allies pledged a record €21 billion in new military aid to Kyiv. Pistorius said that “Russia needs to understand that Ukraine is able to go on fighting, and we will support it,” after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group — a format that organizes military aid for Kyiv. The record pledge of military assistance includes £4.5 billion which the U.K. has committed for this year, as well as a further €11 billion from Germany. Advertisement Advertisement The summit, held at NATO headquarters in Brussels, was hosted jointly by Germany and the U.K. after the U.S. abandoned its leadership of the group following Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Despite that shift, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth participated via videolink, and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov insisted America was still seen as a “prime partner” in the fight against Russia. But there was broader concern about the future of the U.S. security role in Europe. Pistorius stressed the need for the continent to “look on our own at what we can do” and "take on more responsibility as Europeans together with the U.K".' back

Fundamental theorem of algebra - Wikipedia, Fundamental theorem of algebra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The fundamental theorem of algebra, also called d'Alembert's theorem or the d'Alembert–Gauss theorem, states that every non-constant single-variable polynomial with complex coefficients has at least one complex root. This includes polynomials with real coefficients, since every real number is a complex number with its imaginary part equal to zero. Equivalently (by definition), the theorem states that the field of complex numbers is algebraically closed. The theorem is also stated as follows: every non-zero, single-variable, degree n polynomial with complex coefficients has, counted with multiplicity, exactly n complex roots. The equivalence of the two statements can be proven through the use of successive polynomial division. Despite its name, it is not fundamental for modern algebra; it was named when algebra was synonymous with the theory of equations. ' back

Geoffrey Robertson (2025_04_18), Trump has declared war on the world order, so nations like Australia must step up, ' Palm Sunday in sunny Sumy, when a ballistic missile fired from Russia targets a trolley bus taking citizens and their children to church. Then a second missile hits, a minute or so later, to kill the rescuers who have come to help the 34 dead and more than 100 injured. US President Donald Trump says that he’s heard (from whom?) that it was a mistake. It was not a mistake, it was a crime to add to the 150,000 war crimes committed by Russia in the past three years. Putin denies his army made any mistake. His spokesman, Dimitry Peskov, claims that citizens were a legitimate target, because of “the participation of soldiers at the centre of a densely populated city”. This is not a defence – the presence of a few soldiers going to church would not alter the fact that this was the intentional murder of innocent civilians, but it is advanced as a defence by Russia (and by Israel) for most of its unlawful attacks. So what, if anything, can be done about this war into which Trump has now blundered, blaming it on Volodymyr Zelensky and “Crooked Joe” and appointing an utterly unqualified billionaire property developer to negotiate a settlement, to the exclusion of Ukraine. Putin’s reported terms – 20 per cent of the country, resignation of Zelensky and disavowal of NATO forever – are unacceptable, so Russia will continue mass murdering its citizens with the indifference of the US.' back

Greg Jericho (2025_04_17), Excuse my cynicism, but after 25 years of the same housing policies, could Australian leaders try something else?, ' In 1999 Howard also introduced a 50% capital gains tax discount that made investing in housing a speculator’s delight, and he laughed about how no one ever complained to him about the value of their house going up. On Monday, Peter Dutton told reporters that he wanted “to see [house prices] steadily increase”. And when asked on Tuesday if he wanted to see wages rise faster than house prices (the key to improving housing affordability, and something even his shadow housing minister, Michael Sukkar, admits is needed) he dodged the question and instead talked about wanting house values to rise. Nearly 70% of people born in 1947-51 owned a home when they were in their early 30s; now it is less than half.' back

Henry Belot (2025_04_16), Muslim advocacy group to preference Greens above Labor in some seats despite disagreement on religious freedom, ' A potentially influential Muslim advocacy group is planning to tell voters to preference the Greens above Labor on how-to-vote cards in several key seats, despite objecting to the minor party’s position on religious freedom in schools. Muslim Votes Matter has expressed concern about the party’s plan to ensure religious schools cannot discriminate against teachers or students on the basis of their sexuality, but has welcomed a commitment to ensure “all rights are acknowledged and taken into account”. [. . .] Equality Australia’s chief executive, Anna Brown, accused Labor of breaking an election commitment by “failing to pursue the available pathway through parliament for a government bill that would have finally protected LGBTQ+ students and staff in religious schools”. “More children will now be refused enrolment or miss out on school leadership roles and more teachers will continue to lose their jobs or be denied promotions because of the gaps in our laws that allow religious schools to play by their own rules,” Brown said. A Labor spokesperson said if re-elected the party would continue to consult on religious freedom but only introduce legislation once bipartisan support was clear.' back

HR 619, 84th Congress, An Act to provide that all United States currency shall bear the inscription “In God We Trust.”, ' Public Law 140 CHAPTER 303 T , , , ,occ AN ACT July 11, 1955 [H. R. 619] To provide that all United States currency shall bear the inscription "In God We Trust". Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That at such time as new dies for the printing of currency are adopted in connection with the current program of the Treasury Department to increase the capacity of presses utilized by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the dies shall bear, at such place or places thereon as the Secretary of the Treasury may determine to be appropriate, the inscription " I n God We Trust", and thereafter this inscription shall appear on all United States currency and coins. Approved July 11, 1955 back

In God We Trust - Wikipedia, In God We Trust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' "In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States. It was adopted as the nation's motto in 1956 as an alternative or replacement to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in 1782. [. . .] A law passed in July 1955 by a joint resolution of the 84th Congress (Pub. L. 84–140) and approved by President Dwight Eisenhower requires that "In God We Trust" appear on all American currency. [. . .] The 84th Congress later passed legislation (Pub. L. 84–851), also signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, declaring the phrase to be the national motto. [. . .] The Supreme Court has discussed the motto in footnotes but has never directly ruled on its compliance with the U.S. constitution.[ back

Jessica Keating , MODERN MAGIC UNLOCKS MERLIN’S MEDIEVAL SECRETS, ' A fragile 13th century manuscript fragment, hidden in plain sight as the binding of a 16th-century archival register, has been discovered in Cambridge and revealed to contain rare medieval stories of Merlin and King Arthur. The manuscript, first discovered at Cambridge University Library in 2019, has now been identified as part of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a French-language sequel to the legend of King Arthur. The story was part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle, a medieval best seller but few now remain. There are less than 40 surviving manuscripts of the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, with each one unique since they were individually handwritten by medieval scribes. This latest discovery has been identified as having been written between 1275 and 1315. The inner front cover of the manuscript as it was discovered. Seen here are some of the folds, including flaps and turn-ins, making reading and accessing the text hidden beneath particularly difficult without damaging the material. The manuscript had survived the centuries after being recycled and repurposed in the 1500s as the cover for a property record from Huntingfield Manor in Suffolk, owned by the Vanneck family of Heveningham. It meant the remarkable discovery was folded, torn, and even stitched into the binding of the book - making it almost impossible for Cambridge experts to access it, read it, or confirm its origins. What followed the discovery has been a ground-breaking collaborative project, showcasing the work of the University Library’s Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory (CHIL) and combining historical scholarship with cutting-edge digital techniques, to unlock the manuscript's long-held secrets - without damaging the unique document. \' back

Joel Achenbach (2025_04_17), Webb telescope detects a possible signature of life on a distant world, ' A distant planet’s atmosphere shows signs of molecules that on Earth are associated only with biological activity, a possible signal of life on what is suspected to be a watery world, according to a report published Wednesday that analyzed observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope/ The peer-reviewed report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters presents more questions than answers, acknowledges numerous uncertainties and does not declare the discovery of life beyond Earth, something never conclusively detected. But the authors do claim to have found the best evidence to date of a possible “biosignature” on a planet far from our solar system. The planet, known as K2-18b, is 124 light-years away, orbiting a red dwarf star. Earlier observations suggested that its atmosphere is consistent with the presence of a global ocean. The molecule purportedly detected is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth it is produced by the decay of marine phytoplankton and other microbes, and it has no other known source. The astronomers want to observe the planet further to strengthen the evidence that the molecule is present. The lead author of the new paper, Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England, repeatedly urged reporters in a briefing to be cautious in describing the new research. But his warning bracketed more dramatic statements. This possible detection of a biosignature could be “potentially one of the biggest landmarks in the history of science,” Madhusudhan said.' back

Liaoyi Xu et al (2025_04_06), The genetic architecture of and evolutionary constraints on the human pelvic form, ' INTRODUCTION: Human pelvic shape has undergone significant evolutionary change since the divergence from the chimpanzee lineage. This transformation involved the reduction of pelvic canal dimensions to support bipedal locomotion. At the same time, human brain size also expanded significantly, which gave rise to the obstetrical dilemma, a hypothesis that highlights the mismatch between the large brain size of infants and the narrowed female birth canal. Initially proposed in the 1960s, empirical support for this classic hypothesis has been equivocal, largely owing to limitations in sample size and a lack of appropriate types of data.' back

Luke Johnson (2025_04_11), ‘Ambitious’ or ‘pretentious’? The contested legacy of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, ' So what am I doing here then? Getting you all excited about a series you’ve been pining for since former prime minister Tony Abbott shirtfronted the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award committee with one of his classic “captain’s picks”, naming Narrow Road the joint winner alongside the committee’s preferred choice, Steven Carroll’s A World of Other People? [. . .] How we commemorate conflict and to what end we employ the archetypes born therein has a lot to do with the way we view ourselves as a nation. As historian Joan Beaumont puts it: The memory of war has played a prominent role in Australia’s political culture since the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 gave birth to the ‘Anzac legend’, a mythologised account of the character and performance of the citizen soldier that endures to this day as a signifier of national identity.[. . .] Overwhelmingly, however, other critics were kinder – effusive even. With more than a few praising the very attribute Hofmann derided. The novel was admired for its “huge”, “ambitious”, “multi-stranded” scope (all of those descriptors are taken from a single sentence in Morag Fraser’s review in the Sydney Morning Herald). One presumes these are the kinds of adjectives producers look for when scouring the literary pages for their latest adaptation project. For with them come the promise of exotic employment opportunities and awards for cinematography. No such luck for the novelist who sets the whole train in motion, though. For this lonely figure, it’s back to his writing desk to watch the fanfare from a flannelette-pyjamaed distance like the rest of us. As Flanagan put it in his Booker Prize acceptance speech, the writer must accept that his fate “is to be defeated by ever greater things”. Or, in the case of television, ever glitzier things.' back

Medieval Inquisition - Wikipedia, Medieval Inquisition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions (Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). It was in response to large popular movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in southern France and northern Italy. These were the first inquisition movements of many that would follow.' back

Michael Laris (2025_04_15), A university confronts the dark history of a stolen heart in a vibrant way, ' More than 50 years after his heart was taken and used in a landmark transplant without his or his family’s permission, Bruce Tucker’s life has been formally honored in a pair of vibrant murals outside a medical school auditorium in Virginia’s capital. In one, two large hands hold up a stylized, detached heart. In the other, a pensive Tucker wears a dark tie. “Justice begins in the quiet places in the heart,” says one of several quotations from family members that are incorporated into the murals at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Tucker’s heart has been described as “stolen” by his family and an author, who said surgeons eager to make history took a Black man’s heart less than 24 hours after a fall landed him in the hospital. It was then transplanted into a White businessman. It’s a fraught moment to confront the racial inequities that run through American history, with Trump administration officials dismantling federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Washington and pressuring corporations and universities to pull back from such efforts nationwide.' back

Miley Cyrus, Lets pretend its not the end of the eworld, ' [Intro] Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh [Verse 1] Today, you woke up and you told me that you wanted to cry The sky was fallin' like a comet on the Fourth of July Baby, you've been thinkin' 'bout the future like it's already yours Show me how you'd hold me if tomorrow wasn't comin' for sure [Chorus] Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) [Verse 2] Let's spend the dollars you've been savin' on a Mercedes-Benz (Ah) And throw a party like McCartney with some help from our friends Yeah, let's go down to Malibu and watch the sun fade out once more Show me how you'd hold me if tomorrow was comin' for sure [Chorus] Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) The sky is fallin', fallin' like a comet now, oh, oh I can see it comin' down (Oh, oh, oh, oh) The sky is fallin', fallin' like a comet now, oh, oh See upcoming pop shows Get tickets for your favorite artists You might also like All Of My Love* Miley Cyrus Henry, come on Lana Del Rey Something Beautiful Miley Cyrus [Bridge] Ooh, let's go to Paris, I don't care if we get lost in the scene Paint the city like Picasso would've done in his dreams Do the things that we were way too terrified of before Oh, I wanna take you to Nirvana, we can't take it too far Hit the bottom of the bottle and forget who we are Hold me close, you know tomorrow isn't comin' for sure [Breakdown] Let's pretend it's not the end of the world Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Let's pretend it's not the end of the world) Let's pretend It's not the end (Let's pretend it's not the end of the world) Let's pretend (The sky is fallin') It's not the end (Like the end of the world) Let's pretend It's not the end, end, end [Chorus] (Oh, oh, oh, oh) Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) The sky is fallin', fallin' like a comet now, oh, oh Let's pretend it's not the end of the world (Oh, oh, oh, oh) The sky is fallin', fallin' like a comet now, oh, oh Let's pretend it's not the end of the world The sky is fallin', fallin' like a comet now, oh, oh I can see it comin' down' back

Musa al-Gharbi (2025_04_16), Trump’s war on universities will not end well for him, Vice President JD Vance has called for a “de-Baathification” strategy for elite institutions, a reference to the total purge of military and civil institutions with ties to Saddam Hussein after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and it’s an apt metaphor. The policy played a central role in creating an insurgency, thereby undermining the United States’ ability to achieve its objectives in the country. In a similar way, despite an easy “shock and awe” victory at Columbia University, Harvard is gearing up for a fight — one that will probably inspire other schools to follow suit — largely as a result of the White House’s own actions. There are real problems at universities. The professoriat, especially in the humanities and social sciences, is unrepresentative of the country writ large and ideologically homogeneous in a way that interferes with our ability to accurately understand contentious social phenomena. Though academics have extraordinary freedom on paper, universities tend to be highly censorial places due to cultural factors. Meanwhile, not only are many initiatives carried out in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion ineffective, but they’re demonstrably counterproductive relative to their stated mission. [. . .] The White House’s moves at Harvard and Columbia cleanly illustrate the self-defeating nature of its strategy for higher ed reform. At Columbia, administrators granted Trump everything he asked for ahead of the imposed deadline, without resistance of any kind. This was a big opportunity for the White House because, in conditions where a lot of competing trade-offs are paired with high risks and uncertainty, institutions tend to copy a “first mover” — especially if that first mover is a prestigious institution such as Columbia. [. . .] In short, Trump’s bid to reform higher ed has been complicated by Trump’s own actions. Harvard has the money to make do without federal funding while it fights this out in court, even to the point of riding out this administration altogether. Harvard is older than the United States. It’s not going anywhere. It has the time and resources for patient, disciplined action. The White House, meanwhile, does not seem comparably endowed. This is a state of affairs that favors the insurgency. The Trump administration would do well to learn from America’s mistakes in Iraq rather than trying to repeat them at home.' back

Noah Feldman (2025_04_11), ‘Showerhead’ Executive Order Hides a Serious Surprise, ' Donald Trump has issued a new executive order explicitly challenging the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA) — the law most used by the federal courts to block his other unlawful executive actions. Disguised as a trivial order about (of all things) low-flow showerheads, it is, in reality, an invitation to the Supreme Court to gut the APA. That would be a disaster for the rule of law. The APA requires federal agency actions to be based on reasons and thus functions as the constitution of the modern administrative state. [. . .] The only way to repeal or rescind a regulation is by a new process of notice and comment. That’s because rescinding a regulation is itself a regulation. The same logical reasoning that must be demonstrated in assuring regulation must be demonstrated in its repeal. Yet Trump’s executive order commands an immediate repeal to take effect in 30 days without any process, input or reasons. That’s a flat-out violation of the APA.; back

Rev Adalbert Fazokas OP , Born 20/04/1920, Ordained in Slovakia 21/09/1946 - Dominican Fathers., Died 14 September 2014 Adalbert was born in Hungary. Before World War II he entered the Premonstratensians, and was ordained as a priest on 11 April 1944 in St Elizabeth's Cathedral in Kassa (now Ko�ice, Slovakia). After the war he joined the Dominicans, making profession 21 September 1946. He was sent to the Angelicum in Rome to obtain a Doctorate in Theology. One of his classmates was Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II). Adalbert came to Australia in 1954 and taught philosophy and the theology of Thomas Aquinas in the Dominican House of Studies in Melbourne and, from 1966, in Canberra. His method was innovative for the time, teaching directly from the texts of Aristotle and Thomas rather than using the standard manuals. When the Dominican House of Studies closed in the early 1970s, Fr Adalbert moved to St Elizabeth's Home for aged Hungarians at Dean Park (near Blacktown) to be chaplain to the Hungarian community, travelling around Australia. Ever the teacher, he gave classes in the philosophy of Aristotle and Thomas to the Hungarian community in Sydney and taught the theology of St Thomas at the Aquinas Academy. He also played a key role in the visit of Cardinal Mindszenty to Australia in 1974. After the collapse of communism he returned to Hungary, but things had changed too much for a man in his 70s to comfortably adapt. He returned to his ministry in Australia until about 2007 when the effects of age brought him back to St Elizabeth's home, this time to be cared for by others. Rest now in peace dear Adalbert. back

Ro Khanna (2025_04_18), Trump and Vance fear universities for a reason, ' Ro Khanna, a Democrat, represents California’s 17th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. This op-ed is adapted from a speech the writer gave at Yale Law School on Tuesday. There are moments in a mature democracy — dating as far back as the prosecution of Socrates — when institutions must stand firm as guardians of free thought against the roar of the crowd. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter This is such a moment. In our nation, a mobocratic spirit — fanned by amoral, ambitious men — threatens not only our constitutional way of life but also freedom of thought itself. For generations, American power has been checked by the Constitution and the quiet strength of reasoned debate. Politicians have bowed to the courts and stood before the people — not to silence opposition but to answer it. But today, a great anger grips much of the public — burned by years of war, wearied by economic stagnation and fearful that the foreign-born among us now compose a larger share of our population than at any point in a century. From this disquiet has risen a call not to reform but to dismantle — to cast off the judges in their robes, the free press with its inconvenient questions and the scholars in their gowns.' back

Ross Gittins (2025-04_14), This election is one of the worst I’ve seen. Here’s the one thing we can do to fix Australian politics, ' In my 51 years as a journalist, this is the 20th federal election campaign I’ve observed at close quarters, and I’m convinced they’re getting worse: more contrived, manipulative, transactional and misleading, and less focused on the various serious problems facing us, which are far greater than they used to be, and now include America’s abdication from leadership of the free world. In short, election campaigns have become dishonest, aimed at tricking us into voting for one side rather than the other, using trinkets to distract us from the bigger issues that neither side has thought much about nor has any great desire to tackle.[. . .] Between the careerism and the carefully gathered knowledge of what voters think, election campaigns have become more contrived. We’re transported to a fantasy land, where everything is nice and nothing is nasty (except the bad guys on the other side). [. . . ] So if you don’t like what the two major parties have done to campaigns and timidity in government, you should share my hope that this election puts neither major party back in majority government.' back

SBS On Demand (2025_04_14), Mesopotamia, ' In the middle of the war, Jawad Bashara, an Iraqi writer exiled to France during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, decides to travel back to his country to rescue some of the treasures of Mesopotamia. back

Snoswell, Witzenberger & El Masri (2025_04_15(, A weird phrase is plaguing scientific papers – and we traced it back to a glitch in AI training data, ' Earlier this year, scientists discovered a peculiar term appearing in published papers: “vegetative electron microscopy”. This phrase, which sounds technical but is actually nonsense, has become a “digital fossil” – an error preserved and reinforced in artificial intelligence (AI) systems that is nearly impossible to remove from our knowledge repositories. Like biological fossils trapped in rock, these digital artefacts may become permanent fixtures in our information ecosystem. The case of vegetative electron microscopy offers a troubling glimpse into how AI systems can perpetuate and amplify errors throughout our collective knowledge. Vegetative electron microscopy appears to have originated through a remarkable coincidence of unrelated errors. First, two papers from the 1950s, published in the journal Bacteriological Reviews, were scanned and digitised. However, the digitising process erroneously combined “vegetative” from one column of text with “electron” from another. As a result, the phantom term was created.' back

Uruk - Wikipedia, Uruk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. [. .. ] Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC. By the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BC, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000–90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. After the end of the Early Dynastic period, with the rise of the Akkadian Empire, the city lost its prime importance. It had periods of florescence during the Isin-Larsa period, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods and throughout the Achaemenid (550–330 BC), Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to AD 224) periods, until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638.' back

Veronica Melkozerovs (2025_04_14), Russian attack that left bodies scattered on city streets is not a ‘mistake’ — it’s a strategy , back

Veronika Melkozerova (2025_04_14), Russian attack that left bodies scattered on city streets is not a ‘mistake’ — it’s a strategy, ' KYIV — U.S. President Donald Trump described Russia’s double ballistic missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy that killed 35 and wounded 117 as a “mistake” by the Russians. But it’s no such thing. The Sunday attack on Sumy, like the April 4 strike on Kryvyi Rih, where a Russian ballistic missile filled with cluster munitions killed 20 people and wounded 80, is actually part of a Russian military strategy. The aim is to terrorize the civilian population and turn them against the Ukrainian military and government, forcing them to sue for peace with Moscow. Advertisement Advertisement “Russia wages total war against Ukraine,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst and research fellow at the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies. “The goal of [this] total war is to force civilians to create pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to negotiate [a] settlement on Russia’s terms. So far [the] Russians [have] failed, but they believe there’s a tipping point beyond which civilians will begin to direct their hatred not at the Russian Federation, but at our government,” he added. It’s a tactic that countries have used against each other since the advent of air warfare in the 20th century, but there are few if any examples of terror bombing being effective in getting civilians to rebel against their government; usually, the response to such attacks is the opposite. Blaming their own However, the Russian attacks are highlighting strains in Ukrainian society as the war drags into its fourth year. After the attack on Sumy, Mariana Bezuhla, an opposition MP, accused the Ukrainian military of endangering civilians by holding an award ceremony for soldiers in Sumy despite knowing about the upcoming Russian attack. The soldiers were unharmed as they were in a shelter.' back

Will Hutton (2025_04_13), Donald Trump is now badly wounded. Europe and the UK can seize an advantage, ' The game-changing geopolitical event last week was the near collapse of the immense $29tn ­market in US government debt, threatening the stability of the American and global financial system and the safe-haven status of dollar assets. The US president boasted as the collapse unfolded that world leaders were queueing to “kiss his arse”. Twelve hours later, he was in the same humiliatingly weak position as the then British prime minister Liz Truss found herself after her tax-slashing “mini-budget” in 2022. The markets had forced him to pause for 90 days the swingeing range of “reciprocal” tariffs that he announced on what he proclaimed “liberation day”; instead he lowered all of them, bar that on China, to 10%. The markets sighed relief, but “liberation’” had boomeranged. It was Trump who was imprisoned. He and his sycophants insisted it was all part of a grand plan. Nonsense – he is economically and politically gored. [. . .] The democracies must find a common front over the next 90 days as an exercise in damage limitation, and then go beyond that to fashion a new trade order from the ruins of the old – but necessarily without the US. Equally, they must have their eyes wide open about China. While it must be engaged with, it is not a benevolent power. Rather, it is the lynchpin of what author Anne Applebaum has called “Autocracy Inc”, a network of countries including Russia whose aim is to undermine rule-of-law democratic societies, human rights and political pluralism. [. . .] So what is it to be? Bail out a stricken Trump with a third-rate trade deal on which he will boast Britain has kissed his arse? Or make common cause with the EU to boost our growth and fashion a new global free-trade architecture?' back

Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Quantum origin of quantum jumps: breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer and the transition from quantum to classical, 'Submitted on 17 Mar 2007 (v1), last revised 18 Mar 2008 (this version, v3)) Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus, and then further on – to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide framework for the “wavepacket collapse”, designating terminal points of quantum jumps, and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates.' back

Zeynep Tufekci (2025_04_16), Magical Thinking About a Miracle Mineral, " I remember when railing against the supposed evils of fluoride in drinking water was the work of a few voices clustered on the fringes of political discourse. The map shifted after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office as the secretary of health and human services. Last week he announced that as part of his plan to “make America healthy again,” he would call for an end to fluoridation. Utah has already banned it. Florida is now proposing to do so, and other states seem poised to follow. If these bills pass, what will occur is no mystery. More children’s teeth will rot, which will cause pain, social stigma, impaired development and lifelong health problems and raise the costs of their medical care. The worst effects will fall on disadvantaged children, the kids who don’t have access to frequent dentist visits and special treatments like varnishes to make up for the loss. Adults with bad oral health also suffer more from cardiovascular complications and even Alzheimer’s. At their worst, tooth decay and resulting infections can be deadly. The effects of all this will emerge slowly but surely, over many years, and persist long after this administration. We know this because it has already happened in the other places that stopped fluoridating their water. Calgary, Alberta. Juneau, Alaska. The entire country of Israel. In all these cases, children’s teeth got worse, more so over time. They had to undergo more dental procedures, a greater number of which required general anesthesia, an indicator of severe problems and a risk factor itself. The costs went up. back