Nietzsche for physicists

One of the most important philosophers in history, the German Friedrich Nietzsche, is almost ignored by physicists. This author who declared the death of God in the 19th century was a science enthusiast, especially in the second period of his work. With the aid of the physical concept of force, Nietzsche created his concept of will to power. After thinking about energy conservation, the German philosopher had some inspiration for creating his concept of eternal recurrence. In this article, some influences of physics on Nietzsche are pointed out, and the topicality of his epistemological position$-$the perspectivism$-$is discussed. Considering the concept of will to power, I propose that the perspectivism leads to an interpretation where physics and science in general are viewed as a game.Comment: 14 pages. Version 3 with improvements, corrections. Accepted in Philosophia Scientia

Constraining the tidal charge of brane black holes using their shadows

A constraint on the tidal charge generated within a brane world is shown. Using the shadow of a rotating black hole in a brane context in order to describe the M87* parameters recently announced by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, the deviation from circularity of the reported shadow produces an upper bound on the bulk's nonlocal effect, which is conceived of as a tidal charge in the four-dimensional brane induced by the five-dimensional bulk. Therefore, a deviation from circularity $\lesssim 10\%$ leads to an upper bound on the tidal charge $\lesssim 0.004M^2$.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. V2 with minor changes and new references. Published in The European Physical Journal

Financial constraints, migration and inequality

Although the self-selection of emigrants is determined by di¤erences in the returns to education, according to the celebrated Roy model, empirical evidence suggests that migrants tend to be favorably selected. This paper argues that financial con- straints might be useful to explain this controversy. These constraints might impose positive correlations between (i) wealth and education, and (ii) wealth and migra- tion, implying a positive bias in the empirical results. We also show that high levels of migration premium and return to education in the source country explain the migration of middle-class individuals, a situation in which migration increases in- equality in the home country.migration, financial constraints, self-selection, human capital

Discrimination of increases in the brightness of a flashing beacon

Human performance measured as function of reaction time required to discriminate change in beacon brightnes

Superheroes, Bandits, and Cyber-nerds: Exploring the History and Contemporary Development of the Vigilante

This article will first discuss what defines a vigilante, the history of vigilantes, and the contemporary vigilante’s effect on the legal system as a whole. Also, this article will focus on those scenarios that bring an ordinary person to react in an illegal way to a perceived injustice. In focusing on these scenarios, this article will examine a little more closely the answers of deeper questions about the nature of law and justice, and their roles in the accelerating world of new media.Â