Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Monday, 13 June 2011
60 Fighting Crime With Mathematics
One major problem in crime-fighting is that a police crackdown in one neighborhood may simply push criminal behavior into a nearby area. In March two mathematicians, working with an anthropologist and a criminologist, announced a way to quantify this reaction. “Crimes tend to cluster together in space and time, forming hot spots,” says UCLA mathematician Martin Short, the study’s lead author. Drawing on real-world data, his team developed a model showing that hot spots come in two varieties. One type forms when an area experiences a large-scale crime increase, such as when a park is overrun by drug dealers. Another develops when a small number of criminals—say, a pair of burglars—go on a localized crime spree. The model suggests that a focused police response can relatively easily extinguish larger hot spots because the criminals there scatter randomly, making it unlikely that they will resume coordinated unlawful activity nearby. But for smaller crime waves, crooks just migrate together into an adjacent neighborhood, where they are likely to start another spree. By analyzing police reports as they come in, Short hopes to determine which type of hot spot is forming so police can handle it more effectively. DANIEL LAMETTI
78 Good Listeners Get Inside Your Head
What is it like to get inside another
person’s head? You already
know the answer, according to
Princeton neuroscientist Lauren
Silbert. She placed herself in an
fMRI brain scanner and noted
her neural response when she
spoke about a vivid memory (two
boys fighting over her at her high
school prom). Later she and her
collaborators scanned the brains
of a group of volunteers as they
listened to a recording of her story.
The outcome, published last
June, was remarkable. Among the
listeners who paid close attention
to the story—as measured by a
subsequent questionnaire—brain
activity paralleled the activity in
Silbert’s own brain. More surprising,
among the most attentive
listeners, key brain regions lit up
before her words even came out,
suggesting anticipation of what
she would say next. “The more
you anticipate someone, the more
you’re able to enter their space,”
Silbert says. AMY BARTH
Discover Magazine Jan 2011
person’s head? You already
know the answer, according to
Princeton neuroscientist Lauren
Silbert. She placed herself in an
fMRI brain scanner and noted
her neural response when she
spoke about a vivid memory (two
boys fighting over her at her high
school prom). Later she and her
collaborators scanned the brains
of a group of volunteers as they
listened to a recording of her story.
The outcome, published last
June, was remarkable. Among the
listeners who paid close attention
to the story—as measured by a
subsequent questionnaire—brain
activity paralleled the activity in
Silbert’s own brain. More surprising,
among the most attentive
listeners, key brain regions lit up
before her words even came out,
suggesting anticipation of what
she would say next. “The more
you anticipate someone, the more
you’re able to enter their space,”
Silbert says. AMY BARTH
Discover Magazine Jan 2011
Friday, 21 January 2011
Genius and Ethics
How is it that those deemed as making positive contributions to society ie Wagner, Ezra Pound, Heidegger, can also behave in a political and morally irresponsible manner?
What assumptions are made within a given society that assumes that people that have made outstanding contributions are imbued with superior moral qualities also?
What assumptions are made within a given society that assumes that people that have made outstanding contributions are imbued with superior moral qualities also?
Friday, 7 January 2011
Politics of change topics
1. The Crisis in Education
2. Higher University Tuition Fees.
EMA - DfE EMA costs £560 million per year. It's replacement the learners support fund has a budget of £26million. the 157 group say that £225million is the bare minimum needed to support disadvantaged students.
EMA application form.
2 Pupils who do not want to learn?
Article "The destructive presence always in our minds" TES 17 12 2010
Paul Willis
Cultural inheritence.
Manufacturing to knowledge economy.
3. Education or Entertainment
4. Pupil Teacher Relationships.
GTC has reprimanded Simon Hipps for grabbing two boys by the shoulders to break up a fight... or was he reprimanded for having the whole class write lines for a separate incident.
Students are required to bring in a media article to discuss inappropriateness.
5. Free Schools
6. The pupil premium.
£430 per pupil.
£625 million in 2011/12 despite the £2.5 billion pledged in the Lib Dem manifesto.
There is an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. IFS.
In an average secondary that could mean a loss of £150,000, savings might be made from job cuts.
The Institute for economic affairs claim that Sweden's free schoold have been successful when allowed to operate 'for profit'.
Free Market. Adam Smith. Two parties to contractual agreement, not three ie seller, buyer and 'government' [Milton Friedman's 'Right to Choose'].
Article for analysis: "On a roll: Gove wants pupil premium's reach expanded" TES 17 12 2010.
Key Questions:
7. CRB Soham and Risk Aversion.
Article "Eight years on from Soham, some Cambs schools are failing CRB duties" TES 17 12 2010
SATS
"League toppers share secrets of their success" TES 17 12 2010
8. SureStart
Durham University researchers studying 117,000 children at primary claim that language development and numaracy have not improved.
2. Higher University Tuition Fees.
EMA - DfE EMA costs £560 million per year. It's replacement the learners support fund has a budget of £26million. the 157 group say that £225million is the bare minimum needed to support disadvantaged students.
EMA application form.
2 Pupils who do not want to learn?
Article "The destructive presence always in our minds" TES 17 12 2010
Paul Willis
Cultural inheritence.
Manufacturing to knowledge economy.
3. Education or Entertainment
4. Pupil Teacher Relationships.
GTC has reprimanded Simon Hipps for grabbing two boys by the shoulders to break up a fight... or was he reprimanded for having the whole class write lines for a separate incident.
Students are required to bring in a media article to discuss inappropriateness.
5. Free Schools
6. The pupil premium.
£430 per pupil.
£625 million in 2011/12 despite the £2.5 billion pledged in the Lib Dem manifesto.
There is an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. IFS.
In an average secondary that could mean a loss of £150,000, savings might be made from job cuts.
The Institute for economic affairs claim that Sweden's free schoold have been successful when allowed to operate 'for profit'.
Free Market. Adam Smith. Two parties to contractual agreement, not three ie seller, buyer and 'government' [Milton Friedman's 'Right to Choose'].
Article for analysis: "On a roll: Gove wants pupil premium's reach expanded" TES 17 12 2010.
Key Questions:
7. CRB Soham and Risk Aversion.
Article "Eight years on from Soham, some Cambs schools are failing CRB duties" TES 17 12 2010
SATS
"League toppers share secrets of their success" TES 17 12 2010
8. SureStart
Durham University researchers studying 117,000 children at primary claim that language development and numaracy have not improved.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Market for Lemons
"The Market for 'Lemons': Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism". Quarterly Journal of Economics (The MIT Press) is a paper by Akerlof, George A. (1970).
http://hydrogen.its.ucdavis.edu/eec/education/EEC-classes/eeclimate/class-readings/akerlof-the%20market%20for%20lemons.pdf
In this article Akerlof demonstrates a variation of Gresham's law in the operation of the 'principle of lemons. (Lemon being a bad automobile). This principle holds that in a 'seller's market', buyers have no way of ascertaining a poor purchase ("Lemons") from a good one. ("Cherries"). Prices naturally settle to the 'fair price' of a poor purchase. Akerlof argues that dishonest sellers dominate the market, as no buyers are willing to risk paying higher prices in the hope of getting a good purchase. (so purchases are influenced by damage limitation). Akerlof applies his lemon principle to a variety of applications including medical insurance, employment of minorities, economically developing countries.
Mitigating factors may arise out of what Akerlof calls "Counteracting Institutions" ie 1) Guarantees, 2) Brand Name Goods. 3) Licensing Practices (ie award of a BA degree)
"There are many markets in which buyers use some market statistic to judge the quality of prospective purchases".
"The Costs of Dishonesty
The Lemons model can be used to make some comments on the costs of dishonesty. Consider a market in which goods are sold honestly or dishonestly; quality may be represented, or it may be misrepresented. The purchaser's problem, of course, is to identify
quality".
"But the difficulty of distinguishing good quality from bad is inherent in the business world; this may indeed explain many economic institutions and may in fact be one of the more important aspects of uncertainty".
Conclusion: Akerlof's Lemon principle may have some currency in the changing English Higher Education landscape. If we assume that the increased costs of undertaking graduate study, do not offer a guarantees of obtaining a degree, it merely offers the student the chance to compete to obtain a degree. Brand Name is also problematic as the 'market value' of a student's degree is determined before a student embarks on a study programme. It is unlikely that the market value of a degree is likely to vary, either up or down over the course of three years (The period on study). University brand names seem to be quite static entities built over centuries or decades, not withstanding administrative crises. Licensing practices, which loosely interpreted might mean explicit and valued content of the degree programme might be the only avenue. Consequently, degree programmes will have to reduce the ambiguity of their content, as prospective students are less likely to pay cherry amounts for an ambiguous product which might just turn out to be a lemon.
http://hydrogen.its.ucdavis.edu/eec/education/EEC-classes/eeclimate/class-readings/akerlof-the%20market%20for%20lemons.pdf
In this article Akerlof demonstrates a variation of Gresham's law in the operation of the 'principle of lemons. (Lemon being a bad automobile). This principle holds that in a 'seller's market', buyers have no way of ascertaining a poor purchase ("Lemons") from a good one. ("Cherries"). Prices naturally settle to the 'fair price' of a poor purchase. Akerlof argues that dishonest sellers dominate the market, as no buyers are willing to risk paying higher prices in the hope of getting a good purchase. (so purchases are influenced by damage limitation). Akerlof applies his lemon principle to a variety of applications including medical insurance, employment of minorities, economically developing countries.
Mitigating factors may arise out of what Akerlof calls "Counteracting Institutions" ie 1) Guarantees, 2) Brand Name Goods. 3) Licensing Practices (ie award of a BA degree)
"There are many markets in which buyers use some market statistic to judge the quality of prospective purchases".
"The Costs of Dishonesty
The Lemons model can be used to make some comments on the costs of dishonesty. Consider a market in which goods are sold honestly or dishonestly; quality may be represented, or it may be misrepresented. The purchaser's problem, of course, is to identify
quality".
"But the difficulty of distinguishing good quality from bad is inherent in the business world; this may indeed explain many economic institutions and may in fact be one of the more important aspects of uncertainty".
Conclusion: Akerlof's Lemon principle may have some currency in the changing English Higher Education landscape. If we assume that the increased costs of undertaking graduate study, do not offer a guarantees of obtaining a degree, it merely offers the student the chance to compete to obtain a degree. Brand Name is also problematic as the 'market value' of a student's degree is determined before a student embarks on a study programme. It is unlikely that the market value of a degree is likely to vary, either up or down over the course of three years (The period on study). University brand names seem to be quite static entities built over centuries or decades, not withstanding administrative crises. Licensing practices, which loosely interpreted might mean explicit and valued content of the degree programme might be the only avenue. Consequently, degree programmes will have to reduce the ambiguity of their content, as prospective students are less likely to pay cherry amounts for an ambiguous product which might just turn out to be a lemon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)