Mechanisms of conflict and dispute resolution in Ancient Near Eastern Treaties

The paper focuses on the problems of a juridical classification and evaluation of Ancient Near Eastern treaties with regard to the question if there existed an Ancient Near Eastern International Law or not. Alternatively treaties and their content are looked at uncommitted as mechanisms of conflict and dispute resolution. Main aspects are preliminary and prophylactic conflict resolution in treaties and the procedural context and efficiency of treaties

Redshift and lateshift from homogeneous and isotropic modified dispersion relations

Observables which would indicate a modified vacuum dispersion relations, possibly caused by quantum gravity effects, are a four momentum dependence of the cosmological redshift and the existence of a so called lateshift effect for massless or very light particles. Existence or non-existence of the later is currently analyzed on the basis of the available observational data from gamma ray bursts and compared to predictions of specific modified dispersion relation models. We consider the most general perturbation of the general relativistic dispersion relation of freely falling particles on homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes and derive the red- and lateshift to first order in the perturbation. Our result generalizes the existing formulae in the literature and we find that there exist modified dispersion relations causing both, one or none of the two effects to first order.Comment: 9 pages, refs added, extended outlook added, matches published versio

Review – Correct English: Reality or Myth?

Geoffrey Marnell presents philosophical arguments favoring grammatical descriptivism over grammatical prescriptivism. I argue that his explanation and defence of descriptivism reveal that his descriptivism is itself prescriptivist

Radar orthogonality and radar length in Finsler and metric spacetime geometry

The radar experiment connects the geometry of spacetime with an observers measurement of spatial length. We investigate the radar experiment on Finsler spacetimes which leads to a general definition of radar orthogonality and radar length. The directions radar orthogonal to an observer form the spatial equal time surface an observer experiences and the radar length is the physical length the observer associates to spatial objects. We demonstrate these concepts on a forth order polynomial Finsler spacetime geometry which may emerge from area metric or pre-metric linear electrodynamics or in quantum gravity phenomenology. In an explicit generalisation of Minkowski spacetime geometry we derive the deviation from the euclidean spatial length measure in an observers rest frame explicitly.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, axes label in figures corrected, journal references adde

Review – Mathematical Doodlings

A review of Geoffrey Marnell, Mathematical Doodlings: Curiosities, conjectures, and challenges

Naïve Panentheism

Karl Pfeifer attempts to present a coherent view of panentheism that eschews Pickwickian senses of “in” and aligns itself with, and builds upon, familiar diagrammed portrayals of panentheism. The account is accordingly spatial-locative and moreover accepts the proposal of R.T. Mullins that absolute space and time be regarded as attributes of God. In addition, however, it argues that a substantive parthood relation between the world and God is required. Pfeifer’s preferred version of panpsychism, viz. panintentionalism, is thrown into the mix as an optional add-on. On this account, God is conceived of as a “spiritual field” whose nature can be made more intelligible by regarding “God” as having a mass-noun sense in some contexts. Pfeifer closes with the suggestion that we look to topology and mereology for further development of the position outlined in his paper

The Heterogeneous Economic Consequences of Works Council Relations

I use a question about works council relations from the 2006 wave of the IAB Establishment panel to analyze the heterogeneous effects of works councils on productivity, wages, and profits. The results indicate that the effects differ significantly between works council relationship types in a systematic pattern. The overall findings are in line with productivity-enhancing and rent-sharing functions of works councils.industrial relations, firm performance, codetermination, works councils

A Note on Risk Aversion and Labour Market Outcomes: Further Evidence from German Survey Data

Using the large-scale German Socio-Economic Panel, this note reports direct empirical evidence for significant correlations between risk aversion and labour market outcomes (full-time employment, temporary agency work, fixed-term contracts, employer change, quits, training, wages, and job satisfaction).employment, job search, human capital, risk aversion, wages

Effective Working Hours and Wages: The Case of Downward Adjustment via Paid Absenteeism

This paper compares contractual with effective working hours and wages, respectively. Effective working hours are defined as contractual working hours minus absent working hours. This approach takes into account workers' downward adjustment of working time via paid absenteeism if working time constraints are present, which induce workers to accept contracts with larger than their optimal choice of working hours. A German personnel data set, which contains precise information on wages as well as working and absence hours, is used to assess the impact of such downward adjustment on wage inequality and wage differentials (gender, schooling, age).absenteeism, earnings, inequality, wage differentials, working hours