But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the — Secrecy

"For thre may kepe a counsel, if twain be awaie."

"Latere semper patere, quod latuit diu."

"“Secrets in Contact: Secrecy as a Promoter of Contacts between Religious Traditions,” edited by Knut Martin Stünkel, Anna Akasoy, and Georgios Halkias (Leiden: Brill, 2026), is a notable academic volume that challenges a pervasive yet often unexamined prejudice. For years, both public discourse and scholarship have been influenced by what Rosita Šorytė has termed “secretophobia”: the reflexive suspicion that secrecy in religion is inherently sinister, serving as a veil for abuse, manipulation, or separatism. In contrast, this book demonstrates that secrets do not merely divide; they also connect, travel, translate, and create bridges between traditions. … Overall, and notwithstanding the unfortunate inclusion of [Hildegard] Piegeler’s chapter, “Secrets in Contact” serves as a persuasive response to “secretophobia.” The volume demonstrates that secrecy is not inherently pathological but rather a human strategy that can be protective, playful, or transformative. While secrets can create divisions, they also have the capacity to connect traditions, generate shared vocabularies, and establish imaginative spaces for interreligious engagement. While today secrecy is frequently associated with danger, this book underscores that the hidden can also function as a site of encounter."

"Leonardo da Vinci is the outstanding example of the comprehensively anticipatory design scientist. Operating under the patronage of the Duke of Milan he designed the fortified defences and weaponry as well as the tools of peaceful production. Many other great military powers had their comprehensive design scientist-artist inventors; Michelangelo was one of them. Many persons wonder why we do not have such men today. It is a mistake to think we cannot. What happened at the time of Leonardo and Galileo was that mathematics was so unproved by the advent of the zero that not only was much more scientific shipbuilding made possible but also much more reliable navigation. Immediately thereafter truly large-scale venturing on the world’s oceans commenced, and the strong sword-leader patrons as designing their new and more powerful world-girdling ships. Next they took their Leonardos to sea with them as their seagoing Merlins to invent ever more powerful tools and strategies on a world-around basis to implement their great campaigns to best all the other great pirates, thereby enabling them to become masters of the world and of all its people and wealth."

"While theres no fair use exception when it comes to trade secrets, anyone who discovers a trade secret without violating a confidentiality agreement can disseminate it freely. For example, if you board a commuter train in Atlanta and discover that a Coca-Cola employee has left the secret formula for the companys flagship product on one of the seats, you have no obligation not to reveal it to the world. More important, this means that newspapers often may legally publish material that may have been obtained illegally, as long as they did not induce the illegal taking or know about it beforehand and as long as no one was induced or solicited by the newspaper to steal the material in question."

"Two may keep counsel when the thirds away."