Auyang (1995), Sunny Y., How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?, Oxford University Press 1995 Jacket: 'Quantum field theory (QFT) combines quantum mechanics with Einstein's special theory of relativity and underlies elementary particle physics. This book presents a philosophical analysis of QFT. It is the first treatise in which the philosophies of space-time, quantum phenomena and particle interactions are encompassed in a unified framework.' 
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Coyne (2011), Christopher J., and Rachel L. Mathers, Handbook on the Political Economy of War, Edward Elgar 2012 'The Handbook on the Political Economy of War highlights and explores important research questions and discusses the core elements of the political economy of war. By defining political economy and war in the broadest sense, this unique Handbook brings together a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars from economics, political science, sociology, and policy studies to address a multitude of important topics. These include an analysis of why wars begin, how wars are waged, what happens following the cessation of war, and various alternatives to conflict.' 
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Lonergan (2007), Bernard J F, and Michael G Shields (translator), Robert M Doran & H Daniel Monsour (editors), The Triune God: Systematics (Collected Works, volume 12), University of Toronto press 2007 De Deo trino, or The Triune God, is the third great instalment on one particular strand in trinitarian theology, namely, the tradition that appeals to a psychological analogy for understanding trinitarian processions and relations. The analogy dates back to St Augustine but was significantly developed by St Thomas Aquinas. Lonergan advances it to a new level of sophistication by rooting it in his own highly nuanced cognitional theory and in his early position on decision and love. . . . This is truly one of the great masterpieces in the history of systematic theology, perhaps even the greatest of all time.' 
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic integration of physics and theology, Austin Macauley Publishers 12025 ' This book is a personal narrative of those events and a defense of the belief that the universe itself is divine. The central argument is that by embracing this reality and abandoning notions of supernatural deities, humanity can resolve its problems. The universe, it is argued, is self-creating, and a proper understanding of physics leads to a plausible scientific theology. The natural intelligence inherent in the universe, from cellular organization to ecosystems, far surpasses any artificial intelligence. Comprehending this natural order, the author suggests, would make achieving world peace relatively straightforward. The book contends that modern theologians should recognize the physical world, rather than ancient texts, as the foundation for credible theology. It also addresses the historical entanglement of religion and politics, asserting that the model of creation presented herein fundamentally rejects the imperialistic ambitions that have fueled genocidal holy wars.'  
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Nielsen (2016), Michael A., and Isaac L Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Communcation, Cambridge University Press 2016 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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von Neumann (2018), John, and Nicholas A. Wheeler (editor), Robert T Beyer (translator), Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 2018 ' Quantum mechanics was still in its infancy in 1932 when the young John von Neumann, who would go on to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, published Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics--a revolutionary book that for the first time provided a rigorous mathematical framework for the new science. Robert Beyer's 1955 English translation, which von Neumann reviewed and approved, is cited more frequently today than ever before. But its many treasures and insights were too often obscured by the limitations of the way the text and equations were set on the page. In this new edition of this classic work, mathematical physicist Nicholas Wheeler has completely reset the book in TeX, making the text and equations far easier to read. He has also corrected a handful of typographic errors, revised some sentences for clarity and readability, provided an index for the first time, and added prefatory remarks drawn from the writings of Léon Van Hove and Freeman Dyson. The result brings new life to an essential work in theoretical physics and mathematics.' 
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Abdus Salam (1979), Nobel Lecture 1979: Gauge Unification of Fundamental Forces, ' But are all fundamental forces gauge forces? Can they be understood as such, in terms of charges - and their corresponding currents - only? And if they are, how many charges? What unified entity are the charges components of? What is the nature of charge? Just as Einstein comprehended the nature of gravitational charge in terms of space-time curvature, can we comprehend the nature of the other charges - the nature of the entire unified set, as a set, in term sof something equally profound? This briefly is the dream, much reinforced by the verification of gauge theory predictions. back

Albert Einstein (1933), Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933: On the Method of Theoretical Physics , ' It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. back

Alfred North Whitehead & Bertrand Russell (1903), Principia Mathematica, Preface.' THE mathematical treatment of the principles of mathematics, which is the subject of the present work, has arisen from the conjunction of two different studies, both in the main very modern. On the one hand we have the work of analysts and geometers, in the way of formulating and systematising their axioms, and the work of Cantor and others on such matters as the theory of aggregates. On the other hand we have symbolic logic, which, after a necessary period of growth, has now, thanks to Peano and his followers, acquired the technical adaptability and the logical comprehensiveness that are essential to a mathematical instrument for dealing with what have hitherto been the beginnings of mathematics. From the combination of these two studies two results emerge, namely (1) that what were formerly taken, tacitly or explicitly, as axioms, are either unnecessary or demonstrable; (2) that the same methods by which supposed axioms are demonstrated will give valuable results in regions, such as infinite number, which had formerly been regarded as inaccessible to human knowledge. Hence the scope of mathematics is enlarged both by the addition of new subjects and by a backward extension into provinces hitherto abandoned to philosophy.' back

Alvarez et al (1980_6_6), Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction, ' Abstract Platinum metals are depleted in the earth's crust relative to their cosmic abundance; concentrations of these elements in deep-sea sediments may thus indicate influxes of extraterrestrial material. Deep-sea limestones exposed in Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand show iridium increases of about 30, 160, and 20 times, respectively, above the background level at precisely the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions, 65 million years ago. Reasons are given to indicate that this iridium is of extraterrestrial origin, but did not come from a nearby supernova. A hypothesis is suggested which accounts for the extinctions and the iridium observations. Impact of a large earth-crossing asteroid would inject about 60 times the object's mass into the atmosphere as pulverized rock; a fraction of this dust would stay in the stratosphere for several years and be distributed worldwide. The resulting darkness would suppress photosynthesis, and the expected biological consequences match quite closely the extinctions observed in the paleontological record. One prediction of this hypothesis has been verified: the chemical composition of the boundary clay, which is thought to come from the stratospheric dust, is markedly different from that of clay mixed with the Cretaceous and Tertiary limestones, which are chemically similar to each other. Four different independent estimates of the diameter of the asteroid give values that lie in the range 10 ± 4 kilometers. back

Anne Applebaum (2024_12_16), The Longest Suicide Note in American History, ' Last year, a team of American diplomats from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center traveled to two dozen countries and signed a series of memoranda. Along with their counterparts in places as varied as Italy, Australia, and Ivory Coast, they agreed to jointly expose malicious and deceptive online campaigns originating in Russia, China, or Iran.
This past September, the Trump administration terminated these agreements. The center’s former head, James Rubin, called this decision “a unilateral act of disarmament,” and no wonder: In effect, the United States was declaring that it would no longer oppose Russian influence campaigns, Chinese manipulation of local politics, or Iranian extremist recruitment drives. Nor would the American government use any resources to help anyone else do so either.
The recent publication of the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy showed that this decision was no accident. Unilateral disarmament is now official policy. Because—despite its name—this National Security Strategy is not really a strategy document. It is a suicide note. If the ideas within it are really used to shape policy, then U.S. influence in the world will rapidly disappear, and America’s ability to defend itself and its allies will diminish. The consequences will be economic as well as political, and they will be felt by all Americans. back

Cabinet, Oxford Unversity, The phases of Venus, 1610 - 23, The year 1610 saw Galileoi undertake the first series of telescopic observations of the phases of Venus. [. . .]
As Galileo observed for the first time Venus - just like the moon - goes through a full series of phases: beginning from a thin crescent, it gradually waxes to as full disk and then wanes again to a crescent before disappearing altogether, after which the cycle begins again.Moreover, in its crescent phase Venus appears far larger: as it waxes, it gradually shrinks in apparent size until it reaches its full phase, after which it begins to grow in apparent size once again as it wanes. [. . .]
These changes in phase and apparent size are irreconcilable with the traditional geocentric cosmology of Ptolemy, since in the Ptolemaic system, Venus is always interposed roughly between the Earth and the Sun, the planet weould only display only a very small range of phases never exceeding a narrow sickle. back

Claude Shannon (1949), Communication in the Presence of Noise, 'A method is developed for representing any communication system geometrically. Messages and the corresponding signals are points in two “function spaces,” and the modulation process is a mapping of one space into the other. Using this representation, a number of results in communication theory are deduced concerning expansion and compression of bandwidth and the threshold effect. Formulas are found for the maximum rate of transmission of binary digits over a system when the signal is perturbed by various types of noise. Some of the properties of “ideal” systems which transmit at this maximum rate are discussed. The equivalent number of binary digits per second for certain information sources is calculated.' [C. E. Shannon , “Communication in the presence of noise,” Proc. IRE, vol. 37, pp. 10–21, Jan. 1949.] back

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event - Wikipedia, Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, formerly known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K–T) extinction event, was a major mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs. Most other tetrapods weighing more than 25 kg also became extinct, with the exception of some ectothermic species such as sea turtles and crocodilians. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and with it the Mesozoic era, while heralding the beginning of the current geological era, the Cenozoic Era. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary or K–T boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows unusually high levels of the metal iridium,] which is more common in asteroids than in the Earth's crust.
As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter, it is now generally thought that the K–Pg extinction resulted from the impact of a massive asteroid 10 to 15 km wide 66 million years ago, causing the Chicxulub impact crater and devastating the global environment, mainly through a lingering impact winter which halted photosynthesis in plants and plankton.' back

Dale Tuggy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Trinity, ' The New Testament contains no explicit trinitarian doctrine. However, many Christian theologians, apologists, and philosophers hold that the doctrine can be inferred from what the New Testament does teach about God. But how may it be inferred? Is the inference deductive, or is it an inference to the best explanation? And is it based on what is implicitly taught there, or on what is merely assumed there? Many Christian theologians and apologists seem to hold it is a deductive inference.
In contrast, other Christians admit that their preferred doctrine of the Trinity not only (1) can’t be inferred from the Bible alone, but also (2) that there’s inadequate or no evidence for it there, and even (3) that what is taught in the Bible is incompatible with the doctrine.' back

David Hilbert (1925), On the Infinite, ' We encounter a completely different and quite unique conception of the notion of infinity in the important and fruitful method of ideal elements. The method of ideal elements is used even in elementary plane geometry. The points and straight lines of the plane originally are real, actually existent objects. One of the axioms that hold for them is the axiom of connection: one and only one straight line passes through two points. It follows from this axiom that two straight lines intersect at most at one point. There is no theorem that two straight lines always intersect at some point, however, for the two straight lines might well be parallel. Still we know that by introducing ideal elements, viz., infinitely long lines and points at infinity, we can make the theorem that two straight lines always intersect at one and only one point come out universally true. These ideal "infinite" elements have the advantage of making the system of connection laws as simple and perspicuous as possible. Another example of the use of ideal elements are the familiar complex-imaginary magnitudes of algebra which serve to simplify theorems about the existence and number of the roots of an equation.' back

Daya Guo et al. (2025_09_7), DeepSeek-R1 incentivizes reasoning in LLMs through reinforcement learning, ' General reasoning represents a long-standing and formidable challenge in artificial intelligence (AI). Recent breakthroughs, exemplified by large language models (LLMs) and chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting have achieved considerable success on foundational reasoning tasks. However, this success is heavily contingent on extensive human-annotated demonstrations and the capabilities of models are still insufficient for more complex problems. Here we show that the reasoning abilities of LLMs can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning (RL), obviating the need for human-labelled reasoning trajectories. The proposed RL framework facilitates the emergent development of advanced reasoning patterns, such as self-reflection, verification and dynamic strategy adaptation. Consequently, the trained model achieves superior performance on verifiable tasks such as mathematics, coding competitions and STEM fields, surpassing its counterparts trained through conventional supervised learning on human demonstrations. Moreover, the emergent reasoning patterns exhibited by these large-scale models can be systematically used to guide and enhance the reasoning capabilities of smaller models.' back

Derek Scissors & Zack Cooper (2025_12_15), America first? Not when Trump is dealing with China., ' In the roughly 10 months since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has made many threats against perceived adversaries. He has even followed through on some of them — for example, against Iran. The president has been remarkably generous, though, toward the United States’ most prominent adversary: China. Since April, Trump has repeatedly given ground to the People’s Republic. He did it again last week by agreeing to allow export of the advanced H200 chip to Chinese customers. [. . .]
Rare earths are valuable to a range of U.S. economic sectors. The auto industry, in particular, warned that without low-cost but indispensable rare-earth magnets, assembly lines might be shut down. This was quite a predictable predicament, as Beijing had long bragged about its rare-earth reserves and used export limits in disputes.
Yet the administration seemed completely unprepared. It embarked on what turned out to be a farcical series of trade meetings. At various points, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed a deal was possible that would “fully open” the Chinese market to U.S. business or rebalance the trade relationship — claims no longer being made because they were ridiculous from the start. [. . .]
Combining economic and national security yields perhaps the worst outcome. China has pressured Nvidia to sell advanced semiconductors by rejecting the older technology that the U.S. initially allowed the tech giant to sell. Nvidia, in turn, pushed the White House to greenlight exports of more advanced chips. By permitting H200 exports, the president effectively gave in to Beijing on another vital issue. This year has seen Trump go completely in reverse.' back

Douglas Preston (2019_03_29), The Day the Dinosaurs Died, ' If, on a certain evening about sixty-­six million years ago, you had stood somewhere in North America and looked up at the sky, you would have soon made out what appeared to be a star. If you watched for an hour or two, the star would have seemed to grow in brightness, although it barely moved. That’s because it was not a star but an asteroid, and it was headed directly for Earth at about forty-five thousand miles an hour. Sixty hours later, the asteroid hit. The air in front was compressed and violently heated, and it blasted a hole through the atmosphere, generating a supersonic shock wave. The asteroid struck a shallow sea where the Yucatán peninsula is today. In that moment, the Cretaceous period ended and the Paleogene period began. [. . .]
“We can trace our origins back to that event,” DePalma said. “To actually be there at this site, to see it, to be connected to that day, is a special thing. This is the last day of the Cretaceous. When you go one layer up—the very next day—that’s the Paleocene, that’s the age of mammals, that’s our age".' back

E J Dionne Jr (2025_12_13), Trump Confronts a Backlash of the Reasonable, ' Believing in democracy does not require faith that majorities are always right. It does mean having confidence that most of your fellow citizens will, over time, approach public questions with a basic reasonableness. Abraham Lincoln, tradition has it, said it more pithily: “You cannot fool all the people all the time.”
A corollary to Lincoln, that you can’t fool all the people who voted for you all the time, explains the sharp decline in President Trump’s approval ratings.
A significant share of the voters who backed Mr. Trump have decided that he has largely ignored the primary issue that pushed them his way, the cost of living. A billionaire regularly mocking concern about affordability only makes matters worse. They see him as distracted by personal obsessions and guilty of overreach, even when they sympathize with his objectives. Many of his former supporters see him breaking promises he made, notably on not messing with their access to health care.
Some abuses are too blatant to be ignored. A recent The Economist/You Gov poll found that 56 percent of Americans said Mr. Trump was using his office for personal gain; only 32 percent didn’t. A similar 56 percent saw Mr. Trump as directing the Justice Department to go after people he saw as his political enemies; just 24 percent didn’t. [. . .]
The decay of Mr. Trump’s standing is a rebuke to widespread claims a year ago that his victory represented a fundamental realignment in American politics, akin to those led by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s or Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.' back

Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox - Wikipedia, Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox is a thought experiment proposed by physicists Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, which argues that the description of physical reality provided by quantum mechanics is incomplete.[1] In a 1935 paper titled "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?", they argued for the existence of "elements of reality" that were not part of quantum theory, and speculated that it should be possible to construct a theory containing these hidden variables. Resolutions of the paradox have important implications for the interpretation of quantum mechanics.' back

Galileo affair - Wikipedia, Galileo affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Galileo affair (Italian: il processo a Galileo Galilei) began around 1610 and culminated with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. Galileo was prosecuted for his support of heliocentrism, the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the Solar System. ' back

Galileo Galilei (1633), Recantation of Galileo (June 22, 1633), ' Therefore, desiring to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of all faithful Christians, this vehement suspicion, justly conceived against me, with sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and generally every other error, heresy, and sect whatsoever contrary to the said Holy Church, and I swear that in the future I will never again say or assert, verbally or in writing, anything that might furnish occasion for a similar suspicion regarding me; ' back

Gerardus 't Hooft, Nobel Lecture 1999: A Confrontation with Infinity, ' Early attempts at constructing realistic models of the weak interaction were offset by the emergence of infinite, hence meaningless expressions when one tried to develop radiative corrections. When models based on gauge theories with Higgs mechanism were discovered to be renormalizable, the bothersome infinities disappeared - they cancelled out. If this success seemed to be due to sorcery, it may be of interest to explain the physical insights on which it is actually based.' back

Gnosticism - Wikipedia, Gnosticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός gnōstikós, "having knowledge") is a collection of ancient religious ideas and systems which originated in the first century AD among early Christian and Jewish sects. These various groups emphasised personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over orthodox teachings, traditions, and ecclesiastical authority. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a blind, malevolent demiurge responsible for creating the material universe. Viewing this material existence as flawed or evil, Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.' back

Hamilton's principle - Wikipedia, Hamilton's principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In physics, Hamilton's principle is William Rowan Hamilton's formulation of the principle of stationary action . . . It states that the dynamics of a physical system is determined by a variational problem for a functional based on a single function, the Lagrangian, which contains all physical information concerning the system and the forces acting on it. The variational problem is equivalent to and allows for the derivation of the differential equations of motion of the physical system. Although formulated originally for classical mechanics, Hamilton's principle also applies to classical fields such as the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and plays an important role in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and criticality theories.' back

Jerome I. Friedman (1990), Nobel Lecture III: Deep Inelastic Scattering: Comparisons with the quark model, ' The first suggestion that deep inelastic scattering might provide evidence of elementary constituents was made by Bjorken in his 1967 Varenna lectures. Studying the sum rule predictions derived from current algebra, he stated, ". . . We find these relations so perspicuous that, by an appeal to history, an interpretation in terms of elementary constituents is suggested." . . . The constituent model which opened the way for a simple dynamical interpretation of the deep inelastic results was the parton model of Feynman. He developed this model to describe hadon hadron interactions in which the constituents of one hadron interact with those of the other.' back

John Paul II (1994), Ordinatio Sacerdotalis: Apostolic Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone, 'When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church".' back

Martinus J G Veltman, Nobel Lecture 1999: From weak interactions to gravitation, ' This lecture is about my contribution to the renormalizability of gauge theories. There is of course no perfectly clear separation between my contributions and those of my co-laureate 't Hooft, but I will limit mysef to some brief comments on those publications that carry only his name. An extensive review on the subject including detailed references to contemporary work can be found elsewhere. As is well known, the work on renormalizability of gauge theories caused a complete change in the landscape of particle physics.' back

Matilda Bookshop, Welcome to Matilda Bookshop in the Adelaide Hills, Owned and staffed by booklovers, Matilda Bookshop is an independent bookshop with a loyal following of customers whose tastes and interests we love to get to know. Visit us in-store in Stirling in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, or browse all of our books here. back

Paul Clark: The Melbourne Anglican, When theology was 'The Queen of the Sciences', ' The study of theology once reigned supreme, even more so than science as we know it today. Here’s why we should rethink our understanding of how science and theology shape our worldviews.
Like me, you are probably a product of the Enlightenment and modernity. That is, you have been shaped by a worldview that—to put it starkly—champions reason over religion, science over superstition, and technology over tradition. [. . .]
Yet there is one problem. In bringing reason and science to the front of human endeavour, we have pushed them onto pedestals that are too high. This has demoted other life pursuits—spirituality, community, the arts—we are beginning to discover we need in order to live a truly fulfilling life.
This is why we moved to postmodernism: it was a realisation that while science was a wonderful thing, it wasn’t everything. While reason can take you a long way, it can’t take you all the way. While technology can solve many problems, it can’t solve the problems of the soul.
As a child of modernity, I remember hitting university and being shocked to learn that university as an entity wasn’t started (in the eleventh century!) to study the hard sciences; rather universities were started to study what was considered the highest science of all at the time: theology.
Theology—the study of God—was known as the “Queen of the Sciences” at the time. Theology was considered the highest knowledge you could attain. It makes logical sense: God is the highest being; seeking to comprehend God must be the highest calling.
The term “science” was also used more generically back then to refer to knowledge. Most people who went to universities were going to become clergy, and so they studied theology. [. . .]
However, through the Enlightenment (1685 to1815), a certain shade was thrown on theology; it was caricatured as superstition (although ironically Christianity was the worldview that had tossed aside the superstition of earlier eras). back

Philippe Bohstrom (2016_04), Were Hebrews Ever Slaves in Ancient Egypt? Yes, ' Every Passover, Jews retell the story about the Hebrews' flight from slavery in Egypt and their miraculous escape across the Red Sea, giving birth to the nation of Israel. The colorful story has also been retold by Hollywood time and again, shaping the modern generation's understanding of the Israelite bondage in Egypt.
But if ancient Egypt had slaves from the region known today as Israel, were they really “Israelites”?
There is no direct evidence that people worshipping Yahweh sojourned in ancient Egypt, let alone during the time the Exodus is believed to have happened. There is indirect evidence that at least some did. What's for sure is that thousands of years ago, Egypt was crawling with Semitic-speaking peoples.
Throughout antiquity, Egypt was known as the breadbasket of the world. The annual flooding of the Nile produced rich harvests, and when famine hit neighboring lands, starving peoples often made their way to the fruitful soils of Egypt. The archaeological record clearly shows that at least some of these peoples were of Semitic origin, coming from Canaan specifically and the Levant in general. [. . .]
In fact, by the late Middle Kingdom era, around 3700 years ago, Canaanites had actually achieved absolute power, in the form of a line of Canaanite pharaohs ruling the Lower Kingdom, coexisting with the Egyptian-ruled Upper Kingdom. (These Canaanite pharaohs included the mysterious "Yaqub," whose existence is attested by 27 scarabs found in Egypt, Canaan and Nubia and a famous one found at Shikmona, by Haifa.) The biblical tradition of the patriarch Jacob settling in Egypt could well derive from this time.' back

Pope John Paul II (22 October 1996), Address to Plenary Session on 'The Origins and Early Evolution of Life', ' John Paul II refers to Pius XI’s hope that the Academy would become a Senatus scientificus. In relation to the origins of life and the universe the Pope asks: ‘How do the conclusions reached by the various scientific disciplines coincide with those contained in the message of Revelation? And if, at first sight, there are apparent contradictions, in what direction do we look for their solution?’ John Paul II surveys the Magisterium’s comments on the theory of evolution and adds that ‘to tell the truth, rather than the theory of evolution, we should speak of several theories of evolution’. Those theories of evolution which ‘consider the mind as emerging from the forces of living matter’ are ‘incompatible with the truth about man’. The human being, indeed, is ‘called to enter into eternal life’.' back

Quantum logic gate - Wikipedia, Quantum logic gate - Wikipedia, the free eneyclopedia, ' In quantum computing and specifically the quantum circuit model of computation, a quantum logic gate (or simply quantum gate) is a basic quantum circuit operating on a small number of qubits. They are the building blocks of quantum circuits, like classical logic gates are for conventional digital circuits. Unlike many classical logic gates, quantum logic gates are reversible. It is possible to perform classical computing using only reversible gates. For example, the reversible Toffoli gate can implement all Boolean functions, often at the cost of having to use ancilla bits. The Toffoli gate has a direct quantum equivalent, showing that quantum circuits can perform all operations performed by classical circuits.' back

Rchard Behiel (2025_12_12), Bell's Theorem, a Glitch in Reality, ' You've heard of it. But what is it, exactly?

In this video, we go deep on Bell's legendary 1964 paper.
It's an advanced topic, but worth the effort!


 back

Richard Behiel (2025_12_12), Bell's Theorem, a Glitch in Reality, ' In this video, we explore Bell's legendary 1964 paper in full technical detail, to explore the glitch in reality that he unveiled unto the world, which has been troubling physicists and philosophers ever since. This video is a sequel to my video on the EPR paper (just as Bell's 1964 paper is a sequel the 1935 EPR paper), so I recommend checking out that video first, unless you're already familiar with EPR. back

Richard Zach (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Hilbert's Program, 'In the early 1920s, the German mathematician David Hilbert (1862–1943) put forward a new proposal for the foundation of classical mathematics which has come to be known as Hilbert's Program. It calls for a formalization of all of mathematics in axiomatic form, together with a proof that this axiomatization of mathematics is consistent. The consistency proof itself was to be carried out using only what Hilbert called “finitary” methods. The special epistemological character of finitary reasoning then yields the required justification of classical mathematics.' back

Sacred Band of Thebes - Wikipedia, Sacred Band of Thebes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopeia, ' The Sacred Band of Thebes (Ancient Greek: Ἱερὸς Λόχος τῶν Θηβῶν, Hieròs Lóchos tôn Thēbôn) was an elite heavy infantry of select soldiers, allegedly consisting of 150 pairs of male couples, 300 men total,[1] organized by age that formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC,[1] it was first organised under commander Gorgidas in 378 BC and later Pelopidas, and played a crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra.[2] It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon and young Alexander the Great in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. back

Schulte et al (2010_03_05), The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary, ' Abstract
The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary ~65.5 million years ago marks one of the three largest mass extinctions in the past 500 million years. The extinction event coincided with a large asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, and occurred within the time of Deccan flood basalt volcanism in India. Here, we synthesize records of the global stratigraphy across this boundary to assess the proposed causes of the mass extinction. Notably, a single ejecta-rich deposit compositionally linked to the Chicxulub impact is globally distributed at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The temporal match between the ejecta layer and the onset of the extinctions and the agreement of ecological patterns in the fossil record with modeled environmental perturbations (for example, darkness and cooling) lead us to conclude that the Chicxulub impact triggered the mass extinction. back

Second Vatican Council (1965), Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love. back

Sheldon Glashow (1979_12_08), Nobel lecture 1979: Toward a Unified Theory - Threads in a Tapestry: , ' In 1956, when I began doing theoretical physics, the study of elementary particles was like a patchwork quilt. Electrodynamics, weak interactions, and strong interactions were clearly separate disciplines, separately taught and separately studied. There was no coherent theory that described themall. Developments such as the observation of parity violation, the successes of quantum electrodynamics, the discovery of hadron resonances and the appearance of strangeness were well-defined parts of the picture, but they could not be easily fitted together. Things have changed. Today we have what has been called a “standard theory” of elementary particle physics in which strong, weak, and electro-magnetic interactions all arise from a local symmetry principle. It is, in a sense, a complete and apparently correct theory, offering a qualitative description of all particle phenomena and precise quantitative predictions in many instances. There is no experimental data that contradicts the theory. In principle, if not yet in practice, all experimental data can be expressed in terms of a small number of “fundamental” masses and coupling constants. The theory we now have is an integral work of art: the patchwork quilt has become a tapestry. ' back

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - Wikipedia, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Founded in 1962 as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the facility is located on 172 ha (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west of the university's main campus. The main accelerator is 3.2 km (2 mi) long—the longest linear accelerator in the world—and has been operational since 1966.
Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics:
1976: The charm quark—see J/ψ meson
1990: Quark structure inside protons and neutrons
1995: The tau lepton . ' back

Steven Weinberg, Nobel lecture 1979: Conceptual Foundations of the Unified Theory of Weak and Electromagnetic Interactions, ' Our job in physics is to see things simply, to understand a great many complicated phenomena in a unified way, in terms of a few simple principles. At times, our efforts are illuminated by a brilliant experiment, such as the 1973 discovery of neutral current neutrino reactions. But even in the dark times between experimental breakthroughs, there always continues a steady evolution of theoretical ideas, leading almost imperceptibly to changes in previous beliefs. In this talk, I want to discuss the development of two lines of thought in theoretical physics. One of them is the slow growth in our understanding of symmetry, and in particular, broken or hidden symmetry. The other is the old struggle to come to terms with the infinities in quantum field theories. To a remarkable degree, our present detailed theories of elementary particle interactions can be understood deductively, as consequences of symmetry principles and of a principle of renormalizability which is invoked to deal with the infinities. I will also briefly describe how the convergence of these lines of thought led to my own work on the unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions. For the most part, my talk will center on my own gradual education in these matters, because that is one subject on which I can speak with some confidence back

The British Museum, Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, ' The ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses. Each one had their own role to play in maintaining peace and harmony across the land. Find out about their special powers and duties.
Some gods took part in creation and others brought a flood every year, which was important for growing crops. Some offered protection while others took care of people after they died. There were local gods who represented towns and minor gods who represented plants or animals. A few gods were very dangerous! The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to recognise and worship these gods and goddesses so that life would continue smoothly.
Learn about the first nine gods and goddesses (the Ennead). Then browse our list of 35 ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses below, or use the letters above to find a specific god. back

Transmission of the Greek Classics - Wikipedia, Transmission of the Greek Classics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The transmission of the Greek Classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe. Interest in Greek texts and their availability was scarce in the Latin West during the earlier Middle Ages, but as traffic to the East increased, so did Western scholarship. [. . .]
' After the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the Sack of Constantinople (1204), scholars such as William of Moerbeke gained access to the original Greek texts of scientists and philosophers, including Aristotle, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Proclus, that had been preserved in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and translated them directly into Latin. back