Real-analytic, volume-preserving actions of lattices on 4-manifolds

We prove that any real-analytic, volume-preserving action of a lattice $\Gamma$ in a simple Lie group with \Qrank(\Gamma)\geq 7 on a closed 4-manifold of nonzero Euler characteristic factors through a finite group action.Comment: 5 page

Teen Voice 2009: The Untapped Strengths of 15-Year-Olds

Based on a survey, explores how interests that give teenagers purpose, engagement with civic and social issues, and relationships and opportunities that encourage and guide them can shape their choices and potential. Recommends actions to support teens

Dark-matter decays and Milky Way satellite galaxies

We consider constraints on a phenomenological dark-matter model consisting of two nearly degenerate particle species using observed properties of the Milky Way satellite galaxy population. The two parameters of this model, assuming the particle masses are >~ GeV, are v_k, the recoil speed of the daughter particle, and tau, the lifetime of the parent particle. The satellite constraint that spans the widest range of v_k is the number of satellites that have a mass within 300 pc M300 > 5 x 10^6 solar masses, although constraints based on M300 in the classical dwarfs and the overall velocity function are competitive for v_k >~ 50 km/s. In general, we find that tau <~ 30 Gyr is ruled out for 20 km/s <~ v_k <~ 200 km/s, although we find that the limits on tau for fixed v_k can change constraints by a factor of ~3 depending on the star-formation histories of the satellites. We advocate using the distribution of M300 in Milky Way satellites determined by next-generation all-sky surveys and follow-up spectroscopy as a probe of dark-matter properties.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Chiasmus of Mourning and Identification in Jean Genet

The theories of psychological identification proposed by Sigmund Freud and Kaja Silverman are explored in relation to Jean Genet\u27s Funeral Rites and his later essay on Rembrandt. Genet can be seen to separate mourning (which for Freud lies at the basis of identification) from a process of generalized identification in which his difference from other people dissolves. A narcissistic formation of personality, evident in the symbolism of mirrors in Funeral Rites, gives to this process an added impetus. But the fundamental condition of possibility for such generalized identification is the void it reveals at the center of all personality. This void not only makes possible the different kinds of identification (heteropathic and idiopathic) described by Silverman, it also disturbs any clear distinction between them. It is for these reasons that the glamorization of Nazism in Funeral Rites is coextensive with a demystification of its power, and the often brutal eroticism of the book is suffused with an ineradicable dimension of tenderness. Taken further in the essay on Rembrandt, these themes lead to an ambiguous mysticism in which the source of creativity is revealed as inseparable from its ultimate obliteration

The Idea of a Public Basis of Justification for Contract

The essay has two main objects. The first is to take up and to develop certain of the difficulties that Professor Trebilcock finds with autonomy and welfare-based theories of contract law. The essay reaches the conclusion that efficiency, autonomy, and welfare approaches suffer from fundamental and yet qualitatively different kinds of defects. Moreover, in the course of its critical examination of these theories, the essay introduces and makes explicit an ideal of justification which The Limits of Freedom of Contract only implicitly assumes-an ideal of justification which the essay, following the recent work of Rawls, calls a public basis of justification. A public basis of justification purports to incorporate only normative ideas and principles that are present, even if just latently, in the public legal or political culture, and it seeks to show how these ideas and principles may be suitably combined into a coherent and reasonable conception. The second main object of the essay is to provide a sketch (rather than a full discussion) of what a public basis of justification of contract might look like, how it might be developed, and in what way it would elucidate particular doctrinal issues, such as the appropriate measure of contract damages and the legal consequences of non-disclosure, mistake, or frustration. A central premise of the essay is that a public justification of contract is the indispensable first step in theorizing about contract law because it alone can provide theory with a shared, pre-theoretical conception of contract that is fully rooted in and internal to the law. However, despite the need for such a justification, one has yet to be developed

Fist of Fury or Drunken Master: Masculinity, National Identity, and Contemporary China

Despite being products of the same historical moment in Chinese culture, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan approached the kung fu genre with radically different methods that effectually developed two contrasting kung fu identities: that of tragedy, and that of comedy, respectively. Lee and Chan’s embracement of these distinct kung fu identities helped them to engage with transnational issues in Chinese history in ways that were easily accessible to global audiences. While Bruce Lee’s films present Lee as a victor who successfully resists the imperial oppression that victimized China during the Century of Humiliation, Jackie Chan’s represent 21st century China’s rise to power on the international stage. In this paper, I argue that the films of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan can be deployed as a lens to demonstrate their engagement with the fluidity and evolution of the masculinity and national identity of the Chinese people

The Idea of a Public Basis of Justification for Contract

The essay has two main objects. The first is to take up and to develop certain of the difficulties that Professor Trebilcock finds with autonomy and welfare-based theories of contract law. The essay reaches the conclusion that efficiency, autonomy, and welfare approaches suffer from fundamental and yet qualitatively different kinds of defects. Moreover, in the course of its critical examination of these theories, the essay introduces and makes explicit an ideal of justification which The Limits of Freedom of Contract only implicitly assumes-an ideal of justification which the essay, following the recent work of Rawls, calls a public basis of justification. A public basis of justification purports to incorporate only normative ideas and principles that are present, even if just latently, in the public legal or political culture, and it seeks to show how these ideas and principles may be suitably combined into a coherent and reasonable conception. The second main object of the essay is to provide a sketch (rather than a full discussion) of what a public basis of justification of contract might look like, how it might be developed, and in what way it would elucidate particular doctrinal issues, such as the appropriate measure of contract damages and the legal consequences of non-disclosure, mistake, or frustration. A central premise of the essay is that a public justification of contract is the indispensable first step in theorizing about contract law because it alone can provide theory with a shared, pre-theoretical conception of contract that is fully rooted in and internal to the law. However, despite the need for such a justification, one has yet to be developed

The Problem with Pure Economic Loss

It is now virtually a dogma among contemporary tort scholars that the non-recovery of pure economic loss in a variety of situations may be justified, if at all, only as a special, policy-driven rule that limits the usual operation of general negligence principles, in particular the foreseeability doctrine. This familiar view in turn rests on a further assumption as to the underlying conception of negligence in which the central concept is the standard of care, with the notion of duty being a matter of foreseeability and playing at most a subsidiary and instrumental role. My aim has been to challenge these views through a systematic reconsideration of the rationale for the denial of so-called relational economic loss claims – the longest standing category of non-recoverable pure economic loss. Drawing on the leading cases, I argue that the prevailing policy-driven explanation not only fails to account for core instances of the law but in fact obscures the basis for non-recovery as set out in the decisions. A completely different rationale for non-recovery emerges: one that is rights-based and that has nothing to do with foreseeability, limitations on foreseeability or the usual policy concerns which writers endorse and dispute. Not only does this rationale account for this area of negligence; it also suggests a larger conception of negligence which affirms the autonomy and priority of duty and is both rights-based and relational, in contrast to the dominant model widely assumed by scholars. I argue that it is this alternative conception that not only underlies the law’s treatment of relational economic loss but shows this to be fully consonant with the very same principles of negligence that govern physical loss