NGC 2419 does not challenge MOND, Part 2

I argue that, despite repeated claims of Ibata et al., the globular cluster NGC 2419 does not pose a problem for modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). I present a new polytropic model with a running polytropic index. This model provides an improved representation of the radial distribution of surface brightness while maintaining a reasonable fit to the velocity dispersion profile. Although it may be argued that the differences with these observations remain large compared to the reported random errors, there are several undetectable systematic effects which render a formal likelihood analysis irrelevant. I comment generally upon these effects and upon the intrinsic limitations of pressure supported objects as tests of gravity.Comment: 3 page, 2 figure

Dignity and Social Meaning: \u3ci\u3eObergefell\u3c/i\u3e, \u3ci\u3eWindsor\u3c/i\u3e, and \u3ci\u3eLawrence\u3c/i\u3e as Constitutional Dialogue

The U.S. Supreme Court’s three most important gay and lesbian rights decisions—Obergefell v. Hodges, United States v. Windsor, and Lawrence v. Texas—are united by the principle that gays and lesbians are entitled to dignity. Beyond their tangible consequences, the common constitutional evil of state bans on same-sex marriage, the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and sodomy laws was that they imposed dignitary harm. This Article explores how the gay and lesbian dignity cases exemplify the process by which constitutional law emerges from a social and cultural dialogue in which the Supreme Court actively participates. In doing so, it draws on the scholarly literatures on dialogic judicial review and the role of social meaning in constitutional law. It illuminates how the Supreme Court interprets democratic preferences and constructs social meaning in order to apply fundamental constitutional norms to emerging legal claims. Contrary to the speculations of some commentators, “dignity” in these cases did not operate as some new form of constitutional right. Rather, the identification and protection of dignitary interests served as the unifying principle for a process, unfolding in three cases over thirteen years, through which constitutional law was brought into alignment with evolving public attitudes and policy preferences. The dignity decisions should be understood as majoritarian, not as acts of judicial will. They were broadly accepted because the Court’s insights about the status of gays and lesbians in American society were consistent with dramatic and long-term changes in cultural and public attitudes. As culture and attitudes evolved, so did the social meaning of anti-gay laws. Sodomy laws and marriage restrictions, once accepted as presumptively constitutional protections of tradition and public morality, increasingly came to be understood as impositions of stigma and humiliation—the kind of expressive harms that the U.S. Constitution forbids

On the Bogolyubov-Ruzsa lemma

Our main result is that if A is a finite subset of an abelian group with |A+A| < K|A|, then 2A-2A contains an O(log^{O(1)} K)-dimensional coset progression M of size at least exp(-O(log^{O(1)} K))|A|.Comment: 28 pp. Corrected typos. Added appendix on model settin

Elizabeth Bishop and the Modern Miraculous: Filling Station and Some Sources

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Where there is great love, says Willa Cather’s Jean Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop, there are always miracles. . . . The Miracles of the Church . . . rest not so much upon power coming suddenly . . . from far off, but on our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always (50). In this modern view, a miracle bespeaks the sudden perception or recognition of a power immanent in the world rather than one thrust into ordinary affairs—an idea closer to the showing forth of the Greek “epiphany” than the wonder or marvel of the Latin “miraculum.” The modernity of Cather’s definition lies also, I believe, in its emphasis on human perception, directing us more toward the experience of the miraculous rather than the underlying nature of the miracle itself. Accordingly, Cather’s Latour, priest though he is, leaves richly ambiguous whether the “great love” required by the miracle is God’s or our own, and while the divinity of the “power . . . about us always” is clearly implied, it is never explicitly named

Effective Resource Utilization in Arkansas Public Schools

Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. There is a standard per student budget given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher salary. This research has two main objectives: 1) investigate what variables affect student performance in Arkansas public schools and 2) determine the cost-effectiveness associated with changing possible decision variables in terms of improving student performance. The objectives were achieved by using public data available through the Arkansas Department of Education. Objective 1 was accomplished using feature selection and predictive modeling. Objective 2 integrated the results found from the first objective with district budget information in order to analyze the cost-effectiveness of different district budget policies. Results from this study are valuable to districts trying to improve student performance in the most cost-effective way

Why All Published Research Findings Are Likely False (and a possible remedy)

The physiological constraints of our neuro-sensory instrumentation limit the information we receive and from which we fashion our impressions. These limitations precede the psychological issues of data generation and analysis described by Ioannidis [1]. Scientific models widely accepted for at least 50 years [2,3] suggest that the peripheral and central nervous systems do not provide direct information about phenomena as they exist in nature. Instead, perceptible phenomena stimulate sense organs to produce nerve impulses. Sensory nerve impulses are not replicas of the phenomena stimulating their production. The brain, by obscure mechanisms, then fabricates personal experience from the sensory nerve impulses. The relationship of phenomena to the brain's experiential construct is unknown. Since evidence is produced by sense organs and the brain (neither of which incorporates bona fide replicas of phenomena), all scientific conclusions are likely false in the sense that they are not based on direct knowledge of phenomena as they exist in nature