1,219 research outputs found
Stature Trends in Ancient Maya Populations: Re-Examining Studies from Tikal and Altar de Sacrificios
On groups generated by two positive multi-twists: Teichmueller curves and Lehmer's number
From a simple observation about a construction of Thurston, we derive several
interesting facts about subgroups of the mapping class group generated by two
positive multi-twists. In particular, we identify all configurations of curves
for which the corresponding groups fail to be free, and show that a subset of
these determine the same set of Teichmueller curves as the non-obtuse lattice
triangles which were classified by Kenyon, Smillie, and Puchta. We also
identify a pseudo-Anosov automorphism whose dilatation is Lehmer's number, and
show that this is minimal for the groups under consideration. In addition, we
describe a connection to work of McMullen on Coxeter groups and related work of
Hironaka on a construction of an interesting class of fibered links.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at
http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol8/paper36.abs.htm
Retribution and the Experience of Punishment
In a prior article, we argued that punishment theorists need to take into account the counterintuitive findings from hedonic psychology about how offenders typically experience punishment. Punishment generally involves the imposition of negative experience. The reason that greater fines and prison sentences constitute more severe punishments than lesser ones is, in large part, that they are assumed to impose greater negative experience. Hedonic adaptation reduces that difference in negative experience, thereby undermining efforts to achieve proportionality in punishment. Anyone who values punishing more serious crimes more severely than less serious crimes by an appropriate amount - as virtually everyone does - must therefore confront the implications of hedonic adaptation. Moreover, the unadaptable negativity of post-prison life which is caused by the experience of imprisonment results in punishments that go on far longer than is typically assumed. Objectivist retributive theories that fail to incorporate these facts risk creating grossly excessive punishments. Certain retributivists have disputed the claim that adaptation is important to punishment theory, but their arguments are unavailing
Happiness and Punishment
This article continues our project to apply groundbreaking new literature on the behavioral psychology of human happiness to some of the most deeply analyzed questions in law. Here we explain that the new psychological understandings of happiness interact in startling ways with the leading theories of criminal punishment. Punishment theorists, both retributivist and utilitarian, have failed to account for human beings\u27 ability to adapt to changed circumstances, including fines and (surprisingly) imprisonment. At the same time, these theorists have largely ignored the severe hedonic losses brought about by the post-prison social and economic deprivations (unemployment, divorce, and disease) caused by even short periods of incarceration. These twin phenomena significantly disrupt efforts to attain proportionality between crime and punishment and to achieve effective marginal deterrence. Hedonic psychology thus threatens to upend conventional conceptions of punishment and requires retributivists and utilitarians to find novel methods of calibrating traditional punitive sanctions if they are to maintain the foundations upon which punishment theory rests
Ergodic directions for billiards in a strip with periodically located obstacles
We study the size of the set of ergodic directions for the directional
billiard flows on the infinite band with periodically placed
linear barriers of length . We prove that the set of ergodic
directions is always uncountable. Moreover, if is rational
the Hausdorff dimension of the set of ergodic directions is greater than 1/2.
In both cases (rational and irrational) we construct explicitly some sets of
ergodic directions.Comment: The article is complementary to arXiv:1109.458
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