In this essay I argue that one can understand the relationship between those who rule and those who are ruled in civil society as an implicit contractual relationship or contract by convention. I use variations of the extensive form Trust Game to summarize the structures of alternative forms of contracts, and apply these variations to model the relationship between the rulers and those under th...

We derive general covariant expressions for the six independent observable modes of distortion of ideal standard rulers in a perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime. Our expressions are gauge invariant and valid on the full sky. These six modes are most naturally classified in terms of their rotational properties on the sphere, yielding two scalars, two vector (spin-1), and two tensor (s...

What is a ‘molecular ruler’? The lengths of many linear polymers in biology are specified with remarkably accuracy, indicating they have very similar or the same numbers of subunits. Examples include bacteriophage tails, bacterial flagellum hooks, bacterial ‘injectisome’ needles, and the thin and thick filaments of striated muscles. Such exact assembly requires explanation, because the same sub...

during the reign of the seljuks (431–590), a considerable number of persian poets and writers lived in their territory. reviewing the lives of the kings, and that of their ministers and other politicians and dignitaries of seljuks ear, this article tries to show how much each of these individuals had supported persian literature.  at the next step, the patrons are classified in six categories: ...

The contemporary world is organized into a system of territorial states in which rulers exercise authority inside clearly defined boundaries and recognize the authority of other rulers outside those boundaries. We argue that this system can be rationalized as an economic cartel in which self-interested and forward-looking rulers maintain high tax revenues by reducing competition in the “market ...