Lady Gaga as (dis)simulacrum of monstrosity

Lady Gaga’s celebrity DNA revolves around the notion of monstrosity, an extensively researched concept in postmodern cultural studies. The analysis that is offered in this paper is largely informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of monstrosity, as well as by their approach to the study of sign-systems that was deployed in A Thousand Plateaus. By drawing on biographical and archival visual data, with a focus on the relatively underexplored live show, an elucidation is afforded of what is really monstrous about Lady Gaga. The main argument put forward is that monstrosity as sign seeks to appropriate the horizon of unlimited semiosis as radical alterity and openness to signifying possibilities. In this context it is held that Gaga effectively delimits her unique semioscape; however, any claims to monstrosity are undercut by the inherent limits of a representationalist approach in sufficiently engulfing this concept. Gaga is monstrous for her community insofar as she demands of her fans to project their semiosic horizon onto her as a simulacrum of infinite semiosis. However, this simulacrum may only be evinced in a feigned manner as a (dis)simulacrum. The analysis of imagery from seminal live shows during 2011–2012 shows that Gaga’s presumed monstrosity is more akin to hyperdifferentiation as simultaneous employment of heterogeneous and potentially dissonant inter pares cultural representations. The article concludes with a problematisation of audience effects in the light of Gaga’s adoption of a schematic and post-representationalist strategy in the event of her strategy’s emulation by competitive artists

On the influence of the cosmological constant on gravitational lensing in small systems

The cosmological constant Lambda affects gravitational lensing phenomena. The contribution of Lambda to the observable angular positions of multiple images and to their amplification and time delay is here computed through a study in the weak deflection limit of the equations of motion in the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric. Due to Lambda the unresolved images are slightly demagnified, the radius of the Einstein ring decreases and the time delay increases. The effect is however negligible for near lenses. In the case of null cosmological constant, we provide some updated results on lensing by a Schwarzschild black hole.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; v2: extended discussion on the lens equation, references added, results unchanged, in press on PR

Reflection Asymmetric Shapes in Nuclei

Experimental data show that there is no even-even nucleus with a reflection asymmetric shape in its ground state. Maximum octupole- octupole correlations occur in nuclei in the mass 224 (N{approximately}134, Z{approximately}88) region. Parity doublets, which are the characteristic signature of octupole deformation, have been observed in several odd mass Ra, Ac and Pa nuclei. Intertwined negative and positive parity levels have been observed in several even-even Ra and Th nuclei above spin {approximately}8{Dirac h}. In both cases, the opposite parity states are connected by fast El transitions. In some medium-mass nuclei intertwined negative and positive parity levels have also been observed above spin {approximately}7{Dirac h}. The nuclei which exhibit octupole deformation in this mass region are {sup 144}Ba, {sup 146}Ba and {sub 146}Ce; {sup 142}Ba, {sup 148}Ce, {sup 150}Ce and {sup 142}Xe do not show these characteristics. No case of parity doublet has been observed in the mass 144 region. 32 refs., 16 figs., 1 tab

Stellar structure and compact objects before 1940: Towards relativistic astrophysics

Since the mid-1920s, different strands of research used stars as "physics laboratories" for investigating the nature of matter under extreme densities and pressures, impossible to realize on Earth. To trace this process this paper is following the evolution of the concept of a dense core in stars, which was important both for an understanding of stellar evolution and as a testing ground for the fast-evolving field of nuclear physics. In spite of the divide between physicists and astrophysicists, some key actors working in the cross-fertilized soil of overlapping but different scientific cultures formulated models and tentative theories that gradually evolved into more realistic and structured astrophysical objects. These investigations culminated in the first contact with general relativity in 1939, when J. Robert Oppenheimer and his students George Volkoff and Hartland Snyder systematically applied the theory to the dense core of a collapsing neutron star. This pioneering application of Einstein's theory to an astrophysical compact object can be regarded as a milestone in the path eventually leading to the emergence of relativistic astrophysics in the early 1960s.Comment: 83 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the European Physical Journal

The power of political voice: Women's political representation and crime in India 2010-2015

The data consists of records of reported number of crimes at the district and state level from various issues of the “Crime in India” publications of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) at the Ministry of Home Affairs, for the period 1985-2007. It also consists of annual data on the number of arrests made for each crime category. Data on the representation of women in legislature and local government is compiled from different sources including the electoral commission of India. The project uses variation in the timing of political reforms in India to compile some evidence of the effect of increased representation of women in local government on socio-political issues such as crime. Different forms of political representation are examined and reported in the data as well as in the main findings of the project