Einstein (1916, 2005), Albert, and Robert W Lawson (translator) Roger Penrose (Introduction), Robert Geroch (Commentary), David C Cassidy (Historical Essay), Relativity: The Special and General Theory, Pi Press 1916, 2005 Preface: 'The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. ... The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated.' (page 3)  
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Einstein (2009), Albert, and Translated by Alan Harris, Einstein's Essays in Science, Philosophical Library / Dover 1934, 2009 'His name is synonymous with "genius," but these essays by the renowned physicist and scholar are accessible to any reader. In addition to outlining the core of relativity theory in everyday language, Albert Einstein presents fascinating discussions of other scientific fields to which he made significant contributions. The Nobel Laureate also profiles some of history's most influential physicists, upon whose studies his own work was based. Assembled during Einstein's lifetime from his speeches and essays, this book marks the first presentation to the wider world of the scientist's accomplishments in the field of abstract physics. Along with relativity theory, these articles examine the methods of theoretical physics, principles of research, and the concept of scientific truth. Einstein's speeches to audiences at Columbia University and the Prussian Academy of Science appear here, along with his insightful observations on such giants of science as Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Niels Bohr, Max Planck, and others.' 
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Galilei (1610, 1957), Galileo, and Stillman Drake (translator), Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: Including the Starry Messenger (1610 Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina), Doubleday Anchor 1957 Amazon: 'Although the introductory sections are a bit dated, this book contains some of the best translations available of Galileo's works in English. It includes a broad range of his theories (both those we recognize as "correct" and those in which he was "in error"). Both types indicate his creativity. The reproductions of his sketches of the moons of Jupiter (in "The Starry Messenger") are accurate enough to match to modern computer programs which show the positions of the moons for any date in history. The appendix with a chronological summary of Galileo's life is very useful in placing the readings in context.' A Reader. 
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Nicholls (2025), Jeffrey, Cognitive Cosmogenesis: A systematic unification 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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Teilhard de Chardin (1965), Pierre, The Phenomenon of Man, Collins 1965 Sir Julian Huxley, Introduction: 'We, mankind, contain the possibilities of the earth's immense future, and can realise more and more of them on condition that we increase our knowledge and our love. That, it seems to me, is the distillation of the Phenomenon of Man.'  
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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

Catholic Catechism, Article 12: I believe in life everlasting, ' "I BELIEVE IN LIFE EVERLASTING" 1020 The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards him and an entrance into everlasting life. When the Church for the last time speaks Christ's words of pardon and absolution over the dying Christian, seals him for the last time with a strengthening anointing, and gives him Christ in viaticum as nourishment for the journey, she speaks with gentle assurance:
Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father,who created you,n the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God,who suffered for you,n the name of the Holy Spirit,who was poured out upon you.
Go forth, faithful Christian1 May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God in Zion, with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints....
May you return to [your Creator] who formed you from the dust of the earth. May holy Mary, the angels, and all the saints come to meet you as you go forth from this life.... May you see your Redeemer face to face. 589." 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

Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, Cosmological constant problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In cosmology, the cosmological constant problem or vacuum catastrophe is the disagreement between the observed values of vacuum energy density (the small value of the cosmological constant) and theoretical large value of zero-point energy suggested by quantum field theory. Depending on the Planck energy cutoff and other factors, the discrepancy is as high as 120 orders of magnitude, a state of affairs described by physicists as "the largest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of science" and "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".' back

Differential geometry - Wikipedia, Differential geometry - Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia, ' Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that uses the techniques of differential calculus and integral calculus, as well as linear algebra and multilinear algebra, to study problems in geometry. The theory of plane and space curves and of surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space formed the basis for development of differential geometry during the 18th century and the 19th century. Since the late 19th century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with the geometric structures on differentiable manifolds.' back

Farah N. Jan (2026_03_10), Iraq war’s aftermath was a disaster for the US – the Iran war is headed in the same direction, ' In April 2003, American L. Paul Bremer arrived in Baghdad as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which served as a transitional government, and issued two orders that would define the next two decades.
Order 1 dissolved the ruling Baath Party and removed all senior party members from their government positions, purging the administrative class that ran its ministries, hospitals and schools. Order 2 disbanded the Iraqi army but did not disarm it. Approximately 400,000 soldiers went home with their weapons and without their paychecks.
Washington had just handed the insurgency – the Sunni-led armed resistance that would turn into a decade-long war – its recruiting pool. The logic behind Bremer’s de-Baathification was intuitive: You cannot build a new Iraq with the people who built the old one. The logic was also catastrophic. Political scientists have long observed that countries are held together not by ideology but by organized coercion. That is, by the bureaucratic machinery, institutional memory and trained professionals who keep the lights on and the water running. Destroy that machinery, and you do not have a clean slate. You have a collapsed state, and collapsed states do not stay empty of leadership. [. . .]
Tehran did not need to build infrastructure in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, because it had spent the previous two decades building it. When the old order collapsed, Iran’s networks were ready.
The opposition the U.S. had cultivated in Iraq – Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress – had Washington’s ear but no Iraqi constituency. They had not governed the country, or built networks inside it.
The lesson is that military success created the precise conditions for political catastrophe, and that chasm is where American strategy has gone to die – in Iraq and in Libya, where the Obama administration helped bring about regime change in 2011, but where political instability has endured since. And perhaps now in Iran.
The fundamental misunderstanding at the heart of American regime-change strategy is the assumption that destroying the existing order creates space for something better. It does not. It creates space for whoever is best organized, best armed and most willing to fill it. In Iraq, that was Iran. The question now is who fills it in Iran itself. In Iran, the group that meets all three criteria – organized, armed and willing – is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Revolutionary Guard is not simply a military institution. It controls an estimated 30% to 40% of the Iranian economy and runs construction conglomerates, telecommunications companies and petrochemical firms. And it has cultivated a parallel state infrastructure for decades. Since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death at the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign, the Revolutionary Guard has taken effective control of decision-making. As one Iran expert told NBC News: “Even if they replace the supreme leader, what is left of the regime is the IRGC.” [. . .]
Who governs 92 million Iranians? President Donald Trump has said whoever governs Iran must receive Washington’s approval. But a veto is not a vision. Approving or rejecting candidates from Washington requires a functioning political process, a legitimate transitional authority and a population willing to accept an American imprimatur on their leadership — none of which exists. Washington has a preference; it does not have a plan. If the objective is eliminating the nuclear program, then why does Iran still hold an unverified stockpile of weapon-usable uranium eight months after the 2025 strikes? The strikes have not resolved the proliferation question. They have made it more dangerous and less tractable.
If the objective is regional stability, why has every round of strikes produced a wider regional war?
Washington has no answer to any of these questions – only a theory of destruction.' back

Hilbert's program - Wikipedia, Hilbert's program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In mathematics, Hilbert's program, formulated by German mathematician David Hilbert, was a proposed solution to the foundational crisis of mathematics, when early attempts to clarify the foundations of mathematics were found to suffer from paradoxes and inconsistencies. As a solution, Hilbert proposed to ground all existing theories to a finite, complete set of axioms, and provide a proof that these axioms were consistent. Hilbert proposed that the consistency of more complicated systems, such as real analysis, could be proven in terms of simpler systems. Ultimately, the consistency of all of mathematics could be reduced to basic arithmetic.' back

Hylomorphism - Wikipedia, Hylomorphism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Hylomorphism (Greek ὑλο- hylo-, "wood, matter" + -morphism < Greek μορφή, morphē, "form") is a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle, which analyzes substance into matter and form. Substances are conceived of as compounds of form and matter.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (2025_09_14), e01 Quantocracy: The universal quantum mechanical foundations of democracy and freedom, ' I.1: Abstract: We construct a very simple model of the universe, beginning with Darwinian evolution and exploiting a series of ancient and modern philosophical, theological and scientific ideas to highlight the political role of quantum mechanics in forming the social network structure of the universe. We go deeper than modern field theory, written in Minkowski space, to the underlying Hilbert space to reveal the initial quantum mechanical and gravitational nature of the universe.
The symmetry of quantum mechanics with respect to complexity repeats this initial structure at all scales from elementary particles to the universe as a whole.
The first part of this essay outlines this scenario; the second part draws on the notions of symmetry which lie at the root of modern physics to point out how the human political consequences of quantum theory support freedom and democracy at all scales. It explains our relationship to the divine universe we inhabit.
This approach contests the picture of the natural world promoted by the Populist Right as described by Quinn Slobodian. Quinn Slobodian (2025): Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right. back

John von Neumann - Wikipedia, John von Neumann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' John von Neumann (December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, and polymath. He made major contributions to a number of fields, including mathematics (foundations of mathematics, functional analysis, ergodic theory, representation theory, operator algebras, geometry, topology, and numerical analysis), physics (quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics, and quantum statistical mechanics), economics (game theory), computing (Von Neumann architecture, linear programming, self-replicating machines, stochastic computing), and statistics.' back

Joshua Zeitz (2026_03_08), How the Rapture Explains the Rupture Over Israel on the Right, ' It’s no secret that Israel is losing ground in American public opinion on both the left and the right, even as many American Jews feel newly besieged by rising antisemitism. On much of the left, activists and intellectuals increasingly interpret Israel and Zionism through anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks, casting the conflict in the moral language of oppressor and oppressed. [. ..]
For decades, one of the most reliable pillars of pro-Israel sentiment in the United States was not just Jews but conservative Christians. That support had a theological motor: Israel mattered not just as an ally on a Cold War map, but as a central actor on the map of the End Times. Put simply, Christians needed Jews to return to the homeland of Israel to usher in the second coming of Christ.
But now, that theological motor is sputtering. [. . .]
With hardline readings of scripture on the decline, many young evangelicals are less tethered to elaborate prophetic systems and more likely to see evangelicalism as a kind of political identity. As the political scientist, Baptist pastor and Washington University professor Ryan Burge has argued, “more and more Americans are conflating evangelicalism with Republicanism — and melding two forces to create a movement that is not entirely about politics or religion but power.” [. . .]
That older moral vocabulary was never confined to conservative foreign policy; it also informed strands of civil rights activism and antiwar protest, grounding politics in ideas of covenant, justice and human dignity. As its theological foundations erode, something is lost on both the left and the right — a shared language that once bound political argument to transcendent moral claims rather than to partisan identity alone. For conservatives who care about Israel, and for Christians who care about the moral integrity of their public witness, the implication is uncomfortable: The old alliance was sustained by doctrine, not just by party. Once doctrine recedes, the guardrails it provided — however imperfect — recede with it.' back

Kon-Yu,Booth, Bourke & Clasrk (2026_03_13, Friday essay: ‘epic fury’ – the men of MAGA might be the most emotional US leaders ever, ' In 2016 and again in 2024, Donald Trump ran against two supremely qualified presidential candidates, who both lost. Both had decades of service to government and high-ranking jobs within Democratic administrations. Both were women.
Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris’ losses have prompted a thousand think pieces on whether or not the United States is ready to elect a female president. The old adage, dating back to the Cold War, is that women are too emotional to be trusted with the nuclear button.
But the men in the current White House might be the most emotional leadership group the US has ever had. And while their outbursts often seem spontaneous and even silly, we should take them seriously.
Trump chronicler Michael Wolff shared his belief this week that “nothing” Trump says is ever “related to meaning” but it’s “all related to what he is feeling” – which, he says, informs Trump’s behaviour around the Iran war. The Daily Beast, which reported Wolff’s comments, approached the White House for comment.
Communications director Steven Cheung responded by calling Wolff “a lying sack of s–t” who has “been proven to be a fraud”. (Wolff has been criticised for his casual approach to fact-checking, including in his Trump biography.) Cheung continued:
He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.
This in itself is unusually emotional (and colloquial) language for an official White House communication, but is not surprising in the era of Trump 2.0. [. . .]
Even the name for the current war on Iran, Operation Epic Fury, is emotional. Compare it to the names of the initial wars on Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom).
This comes after Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War last year, to make it sound more aggressive. “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” Hegseth said of the change, which is reflected in his language about Iran this week:
Death and destruction from the sky all day long […] This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be. [. . .]
For centuries, political philosophy has noted that much social power is “affective”, relating to moods, feelings and attitudes. Whatever you think of Trump, his policy and style make him exactly the kind of case study political affect theorists have been waiting for.
He is the most conspicuous proponent yet of what we call aesthetarchy – or rule by feelings. [. . .]
Yet in MAGA, we have something different happening.
MAGA women can be emotional – but we only see them unleashing emotions that serve the needs of the most powerful men. [. . .]
Even the name for the current war on Iran, Operation Epic Fury, is emotional. Compare it to the names of the initial wars on Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom). This comes after Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War last year, to make it sound more aggressive. “Maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” Hegseth said of the change, which is reflected in his language about Iran this week: Death and destruction from the sky all day long […] This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be. For centuries, political philosophy has noted that much social power is “affective”, relating to moods, feelings and attitudes. Whatever you think of Trump, his policy and style make him exactly the kind of case study political affect theorists have been waiting for [. . .] What about the women of MAGA? How does emotion drive their involvement?
In 1983, Andrea Dworkin published Right-Wing Women, a confronting study of Republican women’s active participation in conservative politics in the US. She proposed that right-wing activist women submit to men and the patriarchy in exchange for structure to their lives: shelter, safety, rules and love from men.
As these rewards are conditional on their ongoing obedience to men, right-wing activist women become not just complicit, but enthusiastic perpetrators of violence and discrimination against other women.
What motivates the trade? Fear of vulnerability to men and male violence, which they believe naturally finds a target in “an independent woman”.
The “hates” Dworkin documents are just as relevant now, more than 40 years later: anti-abortion, antisemitism, homophobia, anti-feminism, disregard for female poverty, and more. The tirades of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt against diversity, equity and inclusion are prime examples of a woman attacking feminine solidarity to strengthen her quest for power.
MAGA women can be emotional – but we only see them unleashing emotions that serve the needs of the most powerful men.
Instead of embodying soft emotions such as empathy, care and kindness (like New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Adern), the women of MAGA strive to be as tough as the men in their administration. [. . .]
Behind the machismo there is a strange vulnerabilty, a heightened sensitivity to the slightest criticism or perceived threat to the white, male order.n [. . .]
Political philosophy tells us social power often manifests primarily through aesthetics, or how things feel, rather than logic. The rise of totalitarianism in Europe during the 1920s and ‘30s motivated many journalists and commentators to pay close attention to this problem. Much of the work was published after 1945, some of it posthumously, by well-known writers such as Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Primo Levi and Simone Weil.
Emotions – particularly anger and fear – are classic tools used by authoritarian leaders. But anger can work the other way, too. Political science professor Bryn Rosenfeld argues it can power action against repressive regimes, fuelling resistance and encouraging risk.
Either way, Trump’s electoral success and political power – helped by his supporters’ deep emotional identification with him – show that the philosophers are onto something important.' back

Marc Fennell, Jeannette Francis & Patrick Abboud, Sex, War, Robots, ' An incredible original documentary. Insightful, thought-provoking, and a must watch. We need more intelligent pieces like this in the mainstream media.' back

Martie-Louise Verreynne (2026_03_09), Andrew Leigh maps the drivers of history’s big breakthroughs — and why they still matter, ' Review: The Shortest History of Innovation – Andrew Leigh (Black Inc.)
The alliteration is elegant. More importantly, however, it captures much of what innovation scholars have long observed: ideas become valuable not through inspiration alone, but through experimentation, collaboration and exchange.
Leigh’s definition aligns broadly with the OECD’s Oslo Manual, the global standard for measuring innovation. Innovation is not invention per se, but the introduction of new products, processes or organisational methods that create value. [. . .]
One of the most compelling threads in the book is the idea of “recombination” – innovations build on prior innovations. Mathematics developed in Persia later enabled European scientific advances. Precision machine tools in the 19th century unlocked new industries. As enabling technologies accumulate, the pace of innovation accelerates.
This virtuous spiral means that the more ideas in circulation, the greater the opportunities for recombination. This resonates strongly with contemporary innovation theory: we are increasingly remixing rather than inventing from scratch. Digital platforms, open data and interdisciplinary research intensify this dynamic.[. . .]
Innovation improves humanity’s capacity for progress and harm. These darker sides are present in the book, but not laboured. Gunpowder and the Haber process fuelled war. Coal warms the planet. The atomic bomb altered geopolitics. Marie Curie died from radiation exposure. Patents have both protected and restricted life-saving technologies. [. . .]
Given Leigh’s background as a sitting member of parliament, the role of government features prominently. Wartime research, public institutions and state-led programs are presented as catalytic forces. Public dollars, he argues, are best spent creating environments that encourage experimentation.
This is largely persuasive. Public investment has historically underwritten foundational technologies. Yet there is a delicate balance between public leadership and market dynamism. [. . .]
Leigh repeatedly returns to luck and serendipity. Leonardo da Vinci’s trajectory depended on patronage, timing and freedom to experiment. Post-it notes and friction matches emerged from unexpected discoveries.
He also acknowledges that history has not been kind to diversity. Innovation has disproportionately reflected the opportunities available to wealthy men, with notable but limited exceptions among women pioneers and bottom-of-the-pyramid innovators. ' back

Mary Sirridge (1999), Quam videndo intus dicimus: Seeing and Saying in De Trinitate XV, ' What is being asserted is that thought has the same form as seeing or speaking respectively, i.e., that it works essentially like seeing or speaking, that thought is a formal and functional isomorph of seeing or speaking.' back

Measurement problem - Wikipedia, Measurement problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the problem of definite outcomes: quantum systems have superpositions but quantum measurements only give one definite result.
The wave function in quantum mechanics evolves deterministically according to the Schrödinger equation as a linear superposition of different states. However, actual measurements always find the physical system in a definite state. Any future evolution of the wave function is based on the state the system was discovered to be in when the measurement was made, meaning that the measurement "did something" to the system that is not obviously a consequence of Schrödinger evolution. The measurement problem is describing what that "something" is, how a superposition of many possible values becomes a single measured value.' back

Neringa Klumbytė (2026_03_05), Front lines of humor: Dark humor voices Ukrainians’ hopes for victory, Image: A banner reading, ‘Regrettably, Putin did not die today. We are waiting …’ hangs in the City Garden of Odesa, Ukraine, on April 1, 2023.
Share article Print article In 1991, a simple line appeared in Broom, a Lithuanian satire and humor journal. “A shortest joke: Communism,” it said. A one-liner to celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, a shortest joke could be told about Russia’s war in Ukraine: “Liberation.”
Since the Russian Federation began its “special military operation” to “liberate” Ukrainians on Feb. 24, 2022, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, cities have been destroyed, and water and land have been contaminated. But people in Ukraine still laugh. Laugh to overcome pain, express solidarity and resilience, and hope for the victory.
In the first two months of 2026, there have been over 200 attacks on energy infrastructure across Ukraine, damaging thermal and hydroelectric plants and causing prolonged electricity outages. Millions were left without power or with just a few hours of electricity. I asked my friend in Kyiv how she is holding up. She responded, “Organic matter survives better in cold.”
I have studied humor in authoritarian and democratic states for many years. I have been fascinated by humor’s power to overcome pain and liberate from absurdity and oppression. In Ukraine, war humor has mobilized people, expressed their resistance and helped them overcome daily hardships.
[. . .] Some of the jokes provide commentary on global geopolitics, including Russia’s propaganda that it had been threatened by NATO. “Did you hear? It turns out Russia is at war with NATO,” one man asks. “How is it going for them?” asks another. “They already lost tens of thousands of soldiers and a ton of military equipment.” “And NATO?” “Oh, they have not arrived yet.” [...] back

Northumbria Univerity Newcastle Press Release (2003_06_19), Population bottlenecks can lead to evolutionary dead ends by eroding genetic diversity and intensifying inbreeding. Although theory predicts possible escape routes, direct observations of this process are rare. Using whole-genome data from 418 koalas, we found that populations with higher genetic diversity harbored the greatest mutational loads and had declining effective population sizes (Ne), whereas historically bottlenecked but recovering populations displayed reduced mutational load, exhibited increasing Ne, and regenerated new, rare variants. We concluded that this pattern was due to rapid demographic expansion, which reshuffled genetic variation through recombination and affected Ne more quickly than it did conventional diversity metrics. Our findings suggest that recovery of bottlenecked populations can occur through rapid demographic growth and that this can reestablish evolutionary potential in threatened populations, In a project funded by the National Geographic Society, Dr Randolph-Quinney was one of a team of experts that unearthed new evidence in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa suggesting ‘Homo naledi’ – an extinct human cousin – buried their dead. This symbolic behaviour has been previously associated only with modern humans and Neanderthals.
In their search to understand human origins, the team of explorers identified depressions deep in the chambers of the Rising Star cave system. Bodies of Homo naledi adults and several children, estimated to be younger than 13 years of age, were deposited in foetal positions within pits, which suggests intentional burial of the dead. The Homo naledi fossils have been dated to around 226,000 – 335,000 years old. This predates the earliest known Homo sapiens’ burials by at least 100,000 years, making the Rising Star burials the most ancient in the human evolutionary record.
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Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem - Wikipedia, Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In the field of digital signal processing, the sampling theorem is a fundamental bridge between continuous-time signals (often called "analog signals") and discrete-time signals (often called "digital signals"). It establishes a sufficient condition for a sample rate that permits a discrete sequence of samples to capture all the information from a continuous-time signal of finite bandwidth.' back

Shalom Goldman (2026_03_12), As Iran war expands, some conservative Christians interpret the conflict through biblical prophecies, ' Today, however, it seems Christian Zionism’s influence has risen to a new level in government.
Since the strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, 2026, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog group, reported over 200 complaints about commanders telling troops across branches of the U.S. armed forces that the current war with Iran was part of a divine plan, invoking biblical ideas about the “end times.”
“Anytime Israel or the U.S. is involved in the Middle East, we get this stuff about Christian nationalists who’ve taken over our government, and certainly our U.S. military,” Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, the foundation’s president, told The Guardian.
A further sign of Christian Zionism moving into government was the 2025 appointment of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Among the most influential and prominent Christian Zionists, Huckabee, a Baptist minister, for years led “Holy Land tours” to Israel.
“I believe it is a special place because God made it special,” Huckabee told conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September 2025. “I believe the Scripture, Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side, not the curse side'.' back

Swan dress - Wikipedia, Swan dress - Wikipedia, the cree encyclopedia, ' The swan dress is a dress resembling a mute swan designed by Marjan Pejoski and worn by the Icelandic artist Björk at the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001, as well as on the cover of her album Vespertine. A Debenhams poll published in The Daily Telegraph in 2008 voted it the ninth-most iconic red carpet dress of all time. Björk's swan dress was reimagined by Valentino at its Spring 2014 Couture fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, which received praise from fashion blogs and social media. In 2019, the dress was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibition Camp: Notes on Fashion.' back

Tamer Morris (2026_03_11), ‘We’re the good guys’: why moral storytelling doesn’t make the war on Iran necessary or legal, ' Since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, most international law experts appear to be speaking with one voice on the legality of the attacks.
Legal experts have said the attacks violated Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against states. The US and Israel have not produced any evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to either of them. And neither has brought the matter to the UN Security Council. As such, this was a clear breach of international law.
But even though most scholars agree the strikes were unlawful, the public and political debate has shifted somewhere else entirely.
Instead of wrestling with the legal questions, many politicians, commentators, and everyday observers are counterbalancing the illegality with arguments about legitimacy.[. . .]
In modern debates, arguments about the legitimacy of wars tend to fall into two categories.
The first claims attacks like the ones launched by the US and Israel are morally just and therefore ought to be permitted, regardless of what international law says. [. . .]
The second argument dismisses international law altogether as ineffective or irrelevant.
The strand of legitimacy reasoning is also becoming common. It’s reflected in statements like: “Where was international law when people were being killed on the streets in Iran?” or “How can international law matter if Iran is constantly threatening western states and funding a proxy war?”
The conclusion drawn here is simple: if the law fails to prevent harm, it must be irrelevant. And if international law is irrelevant, then the US-Israeli strikes on Iran are legitimate. Both of these lines of reasoning carry their own risks, not least the danger of allowing subjective morality to replace objective legal constraints. [. . .]
But who decides what is just?
For the US and some of its allies, this is a binary moral equation: Iran is bad, we are good.
But this argument can also be made from Iran’s perspective: Israel and the US are bad. Therefore, we need nuclear weapons to protect ourselves.
Once states are permitted to act on their own sense of morality and justice, the international system goes down an extremely dangerous road. Every state can consider itself the “good” actor in its own story. If we allow individual morality to override the law, moral chaos follows.
Historically, moral arguments about “civilisation”, “enlightenment”, or “improvement” were also used to justify colonisation and slavery.
This is still happening in different contexts today: one group assumes its moral compass is universal, superior and mandatory for all others. If the world returns to that mode of thinking, the strongest states will once again become the arbiters of what counts as “good”.
International law must therefore remain objective, free from claims of moral exceptionalism. [. . .]
The Iran war reveals a dangerous shift in the way states justify their actions: a growing preference for moral storytelling over legal reasoning.
Once the narrative of a “just war” replaces the rule of law, there is little left to restrain the powerful states from dominating the weaker ones.
The purpose of international law is not to determine who is morally good; it is to maintain order in a world where every state believes it is waging the “good” fight.' back

The Voice of Hind Rajab - Wikipedia, The Voice of Hind Rajab - Wikipedia, the fre enecyclopedia, ' The Voice of Hind Rajab (Arabic: صوت هند رجب, romanized: Ṣawt Hind Rajab) is a 2025 docudrama film written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. It follows the Red Crescent response during the killing of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl, by the Israel Defense Forces during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. It stars Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hlehel, and Clara Khoury. The film is a co-production between Tunisia and France. [. . .]
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.' back

Theory of Forms - Wikipedia, Theory of Forms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. When used in this sense, the word form or idea is often capitalized. Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only true objects of study that can provide us with genuine knowledge; thus even apart from the very controversial status of the theory, Plato's own views are much in doubt. Plato spoke of Forms in formulating a possible solution to the problem of universals.' back

Thomas Friedman (2026_03_09), Trump Has No Idea How to End the War With Iran, ' Because this war took me and many others completely by surprise, I am feeling my way forward — trying to think through the best-case and worst-case scenarios with humility, because none of us have been here before.
As I do, events are telling me that Trump and Netanyahu should take their military achievement and call it a day, at least for now. Why?
First, it is obvious that Trump and Netanyahu started this war without any clear endgame in mind.
Netanyahu, I suspect, would probably be happy to turn Iran into another big Gaza and to just keep “mowing the grass,” or periodically putting down threats there, as he was so inclined to do in Gaza. As the Haaretz military analyst Amos Harel put it: “A few months ago, Netanyahu described Israel as a modern Sparta. But to preserve its militarist identity, a Sparta requires permanent military friction — of a kind that would also enable its ruler to remain in power — regardless of the price it exacts from the country.”
Keeping Israel at war with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah enables Netanyahu to drag out his corruption trial and avoid a commission of inquiry for his failure to prevent Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion. (If you think that is too cynical, you don’t know Netanyahu.)
For his part, Trump has been all over the map when talking about the morning after in Iran — and saying truly ridiculous and often contradictory things that reveal a commander in chief who is just making it up as he goes along. One day it’s regime change, one day not; one day he doesn’t care about Iran’s future, the next day he will have a say in choosing the country’s next leader; one day he’s open to negotiations, the next day he is demanding “unconditional surrender.”
I thought the Middle East analyst Hussein Ibish summed up the Trump strategy in Iran concisely when he wrote: “It goes like this: The U.S. and Israel bomb and destroy assets. Then (fill in the blank) Iranians will secure (fill in the blank) political change that will achieve (fill in the blank) U.S. war aims".' back

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (movie) - Wikipedia, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (movie) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 British-French spy movie. It was directed by Tomas Alfredson.
The movie is based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. It is set in London in the early 1970s. The story follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of MI6.
The novel had also been the basis of a 1979 BBC Television miniseries with Alec Guinness in the lead role.
The 2011 movie stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke supporting. It is set in London in the early 1970s.' back

Zoe Daniel (2026_03_06), PM’s pragmatism on Trump’s Iran fury risks Australia following US into Operation Epic Fail, ' PM’s pragmatism on Trump’s Iran fury risks Australia following US into Operation Epic Fail Zoe Daniel Zoe Daniel Anthony Albanese’s support for actions that do not adhere to international law stands in stark contrast to the principles demonstrated by Labor two decades ago Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Sun 8 Mar 2026 06.00 AEDT 234 For all of our sakes, let’s hope that Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury doesn’t turn into Operation Epic Fail. It could still go either way. And although I’ve written here before that hope is not a strategy, the rapid disintegration of the global order means there’s little else to lean on in this moment. Last year, in an interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump said the only constraint to his power as US president was: “My own morality, my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” He added: “I don’t need international law.” back