Crotty (2016), Robert, Jesus, His Mother, Her Sister Mary and Mary Magdalene: The Gnostic Background to the Gospel of John, David Lovell Publishing 2016 ' The Gospel of John has always been a difficult book to interpret. The differences between John and the Synoptics have always been a stumbling block for students. . . . This book takes up these problems. It demonstrates that the present text has followed a long and tortured journey from Jewish Gnosticism to a Christian Gnostic compendium, later extensively edited by Roman Christianity. The result is a surprising re-reading. The book throws light on a different Jesus to the canonical one (he is not human). . . The Roman Christians disagreed on all these interpretations and heavily edited the gospel in order to silence its Gnostic statement. This book will show how the gospel of John should be read at the present time to take account of this complex tradition history.' 
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Dennett (2006), Daniel C, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, Penguin Viking 2006 Jacket: 'In this daring and important new book, DCD seeks to uncover the origins of this remarkable family of phenomena that means so much to so many people, and to discuss why--and how--they have commanded allegiance, become so potent and shaped so many lives so strongly. What are the psychological and cultural soils in which religion first took root? Is it an addiction or a genuine need that we should try to preserve at any cost? Is it the product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Do those who believe in God have good reasons for doing so? Are people right to say that the best way to live the good life is through religion. In a spirited argument that ranges through biology, history, and psychology, D explores how religion evolved from folk beliefs and how these early "wild" strains of religion were then carefully and consciously domesticated. At the motives of religion's stewards entered this process, such features as secrecy, and systematic invulnerability to disproof emerged. D contends that this protective veneer of mystery needs to be removed so that religions can be better understood, and--more important--he argues that the widespread assumption that they are the necessary foundation of morality can no longer be supported. . . . ' 
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Griffiths (2008), David, Introduction to Elementary Particles, 2008 ' In the second, revised edition of a well-established textbook, the author strikes a balance between quantitative rigor and intuitive understanding, using a lively, informal style. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. A simplified introduction to the Feynman rules, based on a "toy" model, helps readers learn the calculational techniques without the complications of spin. It is followed by accessible treatments of quantum electrodynamics, the strong and weak interactions, and gauge theories. New chapters address neutrino oscillations and prospects for physics beyond the Standard Model. The book contains a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems. A complete solution manual is available for instructors.' 
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Peter (1961), Rozsa, and Z. P Dienes (translator), Playing with Infinity: Mathematical Explorations and Excursions, Dover 1961 ' This popular account of the many mathematical concepts relating to infinity is one of the best introductions to this subject and to the entire field of mathematics. Dividing her book into three parts—The Sorcereer's Apprentice, The Creative Role of Form, and the Self-Critique of pure Reason— Peter develops her material in twenty-two chapters that sound almost too appealing to be true; playing with fingers, coloring the grey number series, we catch infinity again, the line is filled up, some workshop secrets, the building rocks and so on.' 
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Anthony Duncan (2024_06_04), Von Neumann’s 1927 Trilogy on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Annotated Translations, ' Chapter 0 Introduction In his witty and insightful biography of John von Neumann (born December 28, 1903 in Budapest, as Neumann, Janos Lajos), Norman Macrae \autocite*Macrae:1992 suggests that von Neumann had realized “nearly all his achievements while he was mainly engaged in something else.” Perhaps the best illustration of this paradox can be found in the year 1927, when von Neumann, while completing the requirements for his habilitation (basically, approval to lecture officially at a German University) at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin by submitting two separate theses, one on mathematical logic (“The axiomatization of set theory”), the other in functional analysis (“General eigenvalue theory of symmetric functional operators”), also managed to produce three papers laying the foundations for a mathematically rigorous and conceptually coherent formulation of quantum theory. The object of the present article is to present new, fully annotated translations of these remarkable papers.1 We begin with some brief biographical information on von Neumann; this will be followed by a short discussion of the scientific context of von Neumann’s incursion into physics; and, finally, a (very condensed!) description of the contents of each paper of the trilogy. back

Big Bang - Wikipedia, Big Bang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model explaining the existence of the observable universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution. The model describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature, and offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and large-scale structure. ' back

Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, Brouwer fixed point theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Among hundreds of fixed-point theorems] Brouwer's is particularly well known, due in part to its use across numerous fields of mathematics. In its original field, this result is one of the key theorems characterizing the topology of Euclidean spaces, along with the Jordan curve theorem, the hairy ball theorem, the invariance of dimension and the Borsuk–Ulam theorem. This gives it a place among the fundamental theorems of topology.' back

Dannie Peng (2026_02_08), How old is Chinese civilisation? It really dates back 8,000 years, an archaeologist argues, ' A noted archaeologist is challenging conventional wisdom on one of the world’s oldest cultures, arguing that Chinese civilisation has a recorded history stretching back 8,000 years – three millennia beyond the widely accepted benchmark.
An article published late last year on the official portal Chinese Social Sciences Net made the bold new claim that the emergence of astronomy should be seen as the starting point of Chinese civilisation.
The author was Feng Shi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a research fellow at its Institute of Archaeology.
He said archaeological evidence showed that ancient Chinese societies 8,000 years ago had already begun mastering astronomical observation and precise timekeeping techniques for agricultural use.
Unlike some scholars, particularly those aligned with the Marxist tradition who hold that the emergence of the state was the most important sign of civilisation, Feng said discussions of civilisational and state origins were not the same thing.
His claim sparked debate over how “civilisation” should be defined, with some critics warning that the criteria were being arbitrarily adjusted to stretch back China’s civilisational timeline for political reasons.
The question of how old Chinese civilisation is and how its various elements meshed together has been central to archaeology in the country in recent years, and is reflected in a large-scale national project that has been running for more than two decades that has also been used to reinforce the Communist Party’s own view of history. Such efforts come as China is increasingly seeking to reject what it sees as Western historical narratives in favour of its own definitions.' back

Ediberto Román & Ernesto Sagás (2025_10_16), The real reason conservatives are furious about Bad Bunny’s forthcoming Super Bowl performance, ' Soon after the NFL’s announcement that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny would headline the Super Bowl halftime show, conservative media outlets and Trump administration officials went on the attack.
Homeland Security head Kristi Noem promised that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “would be all over the Super Bowl.” President Donald Trump called the selection “absolutely ridiculous.” Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson bemoaned the fact that the rapper has “no songs in English.” Bad Bunny, conservative pundit Tomi Lahren complained, is “Not an American artist.” [, , ,]
And yet, as experts on issues of national identity and U.S. immigration policies, we think Lahren’s and Johnson’s insults get at the heart of why the rapper has created such a firestorm on the right. The spectacle of a Spanish-speaking rapper performing during the most-watched sporting event on American TV is a direct rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to paper over the country’s diversity. [. . .]
Puerto Ricans exist in what we describe as the “alien-citizen paradox”: They are U.S. citizens, but only those residing in the mainland enjoy all the rights of citizenship.
A recent congressional report stated that U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans “is not equal, permanent, irrevocable citizenship protected by the 14th Amendment … and Congress retains the right to determine the disposition of the territory.” Any U.S. citizen that moves to Puerto Rico no longer possesses the full rights of U.S. citizens of the mainland. [. . .]
ICE apprehensions of people merely appearing to be an immigrant – a tactic that was recently given the blessing of the Supreme Court – is an example of their alienlike status.
And the bulk of the ICE raids have occurred in predominantly Latino communities in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. This has forced many Latino communities to cancel Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.
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G. W. Stewart (2011), FREDHOLM, HILBERT, SCHMIDT; Three Fundamental Papers on Integral Equations Translated with commentary, ' In the first decade of the twentieth century, Ivar Fredholm (1903), DavidN Hilbert (1904), and Erhard Schmidt (1907) published three papers on integral equations that together advanced the topic from studies of special cases to a well developed general theory. This work presents English translations of these papers along with a commentary by the translator.' back

Gavin Furrey (2026_02_ 05), The backlash to Bad Bunny’s halftime show reveals how MAGA defines who belongs in America , ' Benito Ocasio, better known as his stage name Bad Bunny, has challenged English dominance in music over the past few years. The streaming era has allowed the Puerto Rican artist to bypass traditional gatekeepers and he recently became Spotify’s most streamed artist globally for the fourth time in his career.
He also made history at the 2026 Grammy Awards, becoming the first artist to win album of the year for a record sung entirely in Spanish, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
Yet his selection to perform at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show has sparked controversy and backlash from President Donald Trump’s administration and its supporters in the United States.
The U.S. has a long history of excluding Latinos from its sense of national identity. In this current era of MAGA politics, Bad Bunny is exposing the many ways the American conservative right has narrowed its ideas about who truly “belongs” in America.
The U.S. has a long history of excluding Latinos from its sense of national identity. In this current era of MAGA politics, Bad Bunny is exposing the many ways the American conservative right has narrowed its ideas about who truly “belongs” in America.
Borders have been central to MAGA politics, most clearly demonstrated by Trump’s hardline stance on immigration. So too has the subject of who can count themselves as part of “the people” — not simply who we agree with, but who is seen as deserving protection and belonging.
In MAGA’s political logic, citizenship status is only one factor of this. Race, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and political leanings have all emerged as markers of belonging or exclusion.
Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren’s insistence that Bad Bunny is “not an American artist,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s threats to have ICE present at the halftime show and one Fox News host’s description of Ocasio as a “cross-dresser who doesn’t speak English” all reveal the importance of ethno-nationalist and populist border-making for the American right. [. . .]
The Super Bowl halftime show is just one manifestation of a larger conversation happening in the U.S. about the validity of a variety of expressions of the American experience.
The MAGA movement may have won the White House, but in terms of America’s cultural values and tastes, its borders aren’t stopping millions of Americans from getting excited about the show.' back

James J. O'Donnell, Augustini Congessiones, ' This page points to the complete Latin text of Augustine's Confessions, one book at a time. N.B.: This is a freeware edition (I cannot yet confirm exactly which edition this represents; best indications suggest that it is Knöll's editio minor of 1898) which I found on another WWW site and will credit to editor and WWW-provider when I have ascertained the provenance; I have also not verified the accuracy of the electronic version. For the edition that I published with Oxford University Press in 1992, please see http://www.stoa.org/hippo or https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/conf and which, for contractual reasons, I am not at present allowed to distribute by net. back

Katharine Richardson & Xuemei Bal (2023_09_19), What are ‘planetary boundaries’ and why should we care?, ' If we keep our activities to a safe level, the sheer exuberance of life and the planet’s own processes can handle it. But in six out of nine vital life support systems, we have blown well past the safe zone. And we’re now in the danger zone, where we – as well as every other species – are now at risk. Planetary boundaries update 2023: Our breach of boundaries is very new In last week’s update, the research team found we had now gone beyond the safe zone into dangerous territory in six of the nine processes. We are still in the green for ozone-depleting chemicals. Ocean-acidification is still, just, in the green, and so is aerosol pollution and dust. But on climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, synthetic chemicals such as plastics, freshwater depletion, and nitrogen/phosphorus use, we’re well out of the safer zone. On these six, we’re deep in the red zone.' back

Lance Dixon: (1996), From Superconductivity to Supercolliders, ' IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, the concept of the “luminifer- ous ether” held sway in physics. The ether was imagined as a material substance, permeating all of space and supporting the propagation of light and other electromagnetic waves. Just as sound travels at a unique velocity through air, so should light travel at a unique velocity through the ether. An observer on Earth, moving through the ether, should then see different velocities for light moving parallel or perpendicular to the Earth’s motion. In 1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley found the velocity ofnlight to be independent of direction, and the theory of the ether thus came crashing down, to be replaced by the theory of special relativity.
In the twentieth century, in the modern theory of the weak interactions, the ether has been resurrected in a relativistic and quantum-mechanical form. This new kind of ether—known as the Higgs field, after Peter Higgs, one of the first to postulate it—is supposed to permeate all of space, and to be responsible for giving mass to the W and Z bosons, carriers of the weak force, and to the quarks and leptons that constitute all matter. What is this new ether made out of? Why should we believe it exists, and how does it give mass to elementary particles? How is it related to the Higgs particle, the main quarry of present and planned supercolliders? The answers to these questions, where known, are not that easy to describe. Fortunately, though, there is a fruitful and precise analogy between the Higgs mechanism for generating the W and Z masses and the phenomenon of superconductivity.'uperconductivity sheds light on the mystery of the Higgs phenomenon in the weak interactions, one of the first to postulate it—is supposed to permeate all of space, and to be responsible for giving mass to the W and Z bosons, carriers of the weak force, and to the quarks and leptons that constitute all matter. What is this new ether made out of? Why should we believe it exists, and how does it give mass to elementary particles? How is it related to the Higgs particle, the main quarry of present and planned supercolliders? The answers to these questions where known, are not that easy to describe. Fortunately, though, there is a fruitful and precise analogy beyween the Higgs mechanism for gen-erating the W and Z masses and the phenomenon of superconductivity. back

Myra Breckinridge (film) - Wikipedia, Myra Breckenridge (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Myra Breckinridge is a 1970 American comedy film based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Michael Sarne, and featured Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia's "studs", and Dan Hedaya has his first uncredited appearance as a hospital patient.[3] Theadora Van Runkle was costume designer for the film, though Edith Head designed West's costumes.
Like the novel, the picture follows the exploits of Myra Breckinridge, a transgender woman who has undergone a sex change operation. Claiming to be her own widow, she manipulates her uncle Buck into giving her a position at his acting school, where she attempts to usurp Hollywood's social order by introducing femdom into the curriculum.
The picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness (including acts like female-on-male rape), but unlike the novel, it received little to no critical praise and has been cited as one of the worst films ever made. In subsequent decades, the film has developed a cult following.' back

Richard Behiel (2025_08_07a), Superconductivity and the Higgs field, ' In this video, we explore the Higgs field, which has a nonzero expectation value throughout our universe, even in "empty" space. The Higgs field is very much like a superconducting condensate, and so we will use superconductivity as a way of exploring the Higgs field. back

Robert Barron, A Life of Heroic Sanctity: Augustine of Hippo, ' Dear Bishop. Thank you for this masterful treatise on Augustine . I feel as if Augustine had been part of my life all of my 81 years. I was taught by the Augustinians in high school and college. More recently I taught at Seton Hall University where the Confessions was required reading for all students. I’ve even visited the site of St. Monica’s home in Ostia Antiqua. Again thank you for this and all of your work. back

Robert F. Worth (2026_02_13), Rod Dreher Thinks the Enlightenment Was a Mistake, ' Unlike many in the crowd, Dreher, then 58, was not a staunch Donald Trump supporter; he had long criticized the president and came around only at the beginning of his second term, after concluding that Trump’s crude energy was needed to defeat progressive ideas. But Dreher has been giving voice to the yearnings and frustrations of religious conservatives for many years—as a magazine blogger with more than 1 million pageviews a month, an author of best-selling books, and a deliriously verbose writer on Substack. In January he joined The Free Press as a regular contributor. More than anyone else I know of, Dreher offers a full-fledged portrait of the cultural despair that haunts our era, a despair that has helped pave a road toward tyranny. [. . .]
When Dreher became a prominent figure a decade ago, he seemed resigned to the idea that religious conservatives like him had lost the political battle. In The Benedict Option—the 2017 book that put him on the map—he counseled a patiently monastic approach to Christians who felt that their faith was endangered in a relentlessly secularizing era. Drawing inspiration from Saint Benedict of Nursia, who founded thriving monasteries in the sixth century as Rome decayed, he wrote of a future in which committed Christians “will have to be somewhat cut off from mainstream society for the sake of holding on to the truth.”
But over the past decade, the rightward shift of politics has made clear that Dreher’s intuitions are more widely shared than he once thought. Take his interest in the supernatural and the demonic, the theme of his latest book, Living in Wonder. “The world is not what we think it is,” Dreher writes. “It is so much weirder.” We must disavow our scientific materialism and learn “to open our eyes to the reality of the world of spirit and how it interacts with matter.” [. . .]
But if Dreher is any sort of courtier—a suggestion he would angrily reject—he is entirely sincere in his beliefs, and his deepest concerns are more religious than political. He seems tempted by the idea that Trump’s wrecking ball could clear the ground for a cultural rebirth. “I had never been enthusiastic about Trump,” Dreher told me, “but I was enthusiastic about him this time because it seemed like only somebody like him could put a stop” to “wokeness and the madness of transgenderism.” Dreher’s writing is a useful indication of just how angry and pessimistic even the most thoughtful conservatives have become in recent years. He seems to see America as a hellscape, drained of religion and hope, drugged and distracted by the false gods of the internet. The renewal he imagines is not the sunlit, future-oriented conservatism of the Reagan era, and he doesn’t look to the Founding Fathers for inspiration. If anything, Dreher’s compass points in the opposite direction. He wants his country to turn back toward Europe—not the homogenized, secular continent of today but premodern Christian Europe, before the Enlightenment and the disenchantment set in.' back

SIPRI, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 'SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public. SIPRI is named as one of the world's leading think tanks in Foreign Policy magazine's "Think Tank Index".' back

Vann R. Newkirk II (2026_02_09), How America Got So Sick, ' Infectious disease is probably not an imminent threat to the United States’ survival. Still, after nearly a century of existence, the American public-health apparatus, which has driven some of the most remarkable advances in global longevity and quality of life in human history, is teetering. The country has lost much of its ability to keep microbes from invading its body politic, and progress in life expectancy and other metrics is slowing or even reversing.
It is tempting to lay these changes all at the feet of President Trump and his current health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who together have shredded America’s global-health organizations, drawn back public-health funding, fomented vaccine skepticism, and begun to dismantle child-vaccination programs. But the “Make America Healthy Again” moment is in some ways just another step in the long retreat of the civic trust and communitarian spirit that have enabled America’s disease-fighting efforts. If this retreat continues, the public-health era—the century-long period of unprecedented epidemiological safety that has been the foundation for so many other breakthroughs—will come to an end. And that end will have dire consequences for this republic and its future.' back

Yvon Gauthier (2004_02_28), The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics by Hilbert and Ackermann, 'Introduction: Mathematical physics can hardly be denied the status of a cross-discipline and mathematical physicists (or physical mathematicians, if I may say) have constantly crossed the boundaries between physics and mathematics. In its very essence, physics is mathematical and the work of Newton, Laplace, Fourier, Maxwell, Helmholtz and Poincaré, to name only a few, can be seen as belonging to mathematical physics. But it is only with the advent of Quantum Mechanics that the fusion of physics and mathematics has been attempted on a grand scale [. . .] ' back

Zoe Williams (2026_02_11), The rise of vice-signalling: how hatred poisoned politics, ' Vice-signalling is attention-seeking – a typical strategy of the hard and far right “to constantly violate taboos, and in this way escalate the dynamics of the whole conversation, while getting immediate media attention, usually front page”, says Ruth Wodak, emeritus professor of linguistics and chair of discourse studies at Lancaster University. It works for a political insurgent, as Trump was, as Nigel Farage still is, because it breaks down establishment barriers to entry, in terms of coverage. Not that winning power stops provocateurs, as Silvio Berlusconi illustrated, still making dog-whistle racist remarks about Barack Obama – “young, handsome, and tanned” – when he had been prime minister of Italy on and off for nearly 10 years. [. . .]
Every time open misogyny is voiced by a politician with no consequence except more attention, it emboldens his allies. And every signal that makes an impact changes the weather. “People’s preferences are endogenous as well as exogenous,” says Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, meaning: “What goes on in politics does shape what people think, as well as what’s happened in their own lives.” Alarming, aggressive, taboo-breaking statements by today’s politicians create an Elysium yearning, so that when Trump appears at a press conference and he’s in a good mood, not threatening to deport anyone or invade anywhere, you get this wash of relief that feels like relaxation, even fellowship. It’s a trauma bond. [. . .]
I originally thought the main point of vice-signalling was to cast its opponents into disarray. Progressives are bad at dealing with binaries and absolutes: we would far rather argue about whether a statement was racist than argue about whether racism is bad. No question, all these signals have cast the left and centre into disarray. Alyssa Elliott, a member of the UK chapter of the largest grassroots anti-Trump movement, Indivisible, since she moved to the UK in 2018, describes the crisis in the Democratic party differently, however. It’s not that they don’t know how to have these arguments, so much as that their worldview is crashing down. “They’re still locked into this ‘Maga can’t do that because it’s against the rules’,” Elliott says. “That applies to the government’s statements as much as to their destruction of institutions. We still have Democrats saying that they will fund ICE as long as we make them do more training. That’s not the problem any more. It is a really big shift, to understand that the rules are over. A lot of people just refuse to do it.” Every vice-signal, whether it’s Trump or Farage or Jenrick or Herbert Kickl, is telling you the rules are over. If you can’t believe them the first time, at least believe them the 100th.' back