Lunar architecture and urbanism

Human civilization and architecture have defined each other for over 5000 years on Earth. Even in the novel environment of space, persistent issues of human urbanism will eclipse, within a historically short time, the technical challenges of space settlement that dominate our current view. By adding modern topics in space engineering, planetology, life support, human factors, material invention, and conservation to their already renaissance array of expertise, urban designers can responsibly apply ancient, proven standards to the exciting new opportunities afforded by space. Inescapable facts about the Moon set real boundaries within which tenable lunar urbanism and its component architecture must eventually develop

Snipers, Shills, and Sharks eBay and Human Behavior

Every day on eBay, millions of people buy and sell a vast array of goods, from rare collectibles and antiques to used cars and celebrity memorabilia. The internet auction site is remarkably easy to use, which accounts in part for its huge popularity. But how does eBay really work, and how does it compare to other kinds of auctions? These are questions that led Ken Steiglitz--computer scientist, collector of ancient coins, and a regular eBay user--to examine the site through the revealing lens of auction theory. The result is this book, in which Steiglitz shows us how human behaviors in open markets like eBay can be substantially more complex than those predicted by standard economic theory. In these pages we meet the sniper who outbids you in an auction's closing seconds, the early bidder who treats eBay as if it were an old-fashioned outcry auction, the shill who bids in league with the seller to artificially inflate the price--and other characters as well. Steiglitz guides readers through the fascinating history of auctions, how they functioned in the past and how they work today in online venues like eBay. Drawing on cutting-edge economics as well as his own stories from eBay, he reveals practical auction strategies and introduces readers to the fundamentals of auction theory and the mathematics behind eBay. Complete with exercises and a detailed appendix, this book is a must for sophisticated users of online auctions, and essential reading for students seeking an accessible introduction to the study of auction theory.eBay, auctions, auction theory, human behavior, open markets, strategies, English auctions, Vickrey auctions

Urban Broadband Internet Policies in Europe: A Critical Review

In this paper, urban broadband policies are critically reviewed. Cities and regions in Europe play an increasingly active role in the provision of broadband electronic infrastructure. Some cities are concerned that weaker groups will have little chances to get broadband access, and should be helped. Others take a more offensive stance, and promote broadband access to strengthen the local image, attract innovative companies and/or highly-skilled people. Peripheral cities take action to tackle spatial discrimination by telecom companies. There is now a scientific and political debate as to whether, and to what extent, governments should intervene in broadband markets. Several studies have pointed at the many pitfalls and negative side effects of broadband policies; others are more moderate, or even argue that governments should intervene to prevent a broadband divide. Much of this literature addresses national policies. In this article, we focus on the local level, as local policymakers seem to become more active. In this paper, we present a typology of local/regional broadband policies, based on a number of examples from European cities. We discuss the pro's and cons of various types of intervention, confront the case studies with the arguments listed in the literature, and critically evaluate the policies. Among other things, we conclude that policies are too easiliy justified with "loose" arguments of economic and social benefits, and that too often, policymakers fail to take a technology and supplier neutral approach, which may have perverse impacts in the long run.

Is Inequality Bad for the Environment?

By respecting nature’s limits and investing in nature’s wealth, we can protect and enhance the environment’s ability to sustain human well-being. But how humans interact with nature is intimately tied to how we interact with each other. Those who are relatively powerful and wealthy typically gain disproportionate benefits from the economic activities that degrade the environment, while those who are relatively powerless and poor typically bear disproportionate costs. All else equal, wider political and economic inequalities tend to result in higher levels of environmental harm. For this reason, efforts to safeguard the natural environment must go hand-in-hand with efforts to achieve more equitable distributions of power and wealth in human societies. Globalization – the growing integration of markets and governance worldwide – today poses new challenges and new opportunities for both of these goals.environmental ethics, pollution, willingness to pay, inequality, ecological restoration

Comparing the Economic and Conventional Approaches to Financial Planning

The conventional approach to retirement and life insurance planning, which is used throughout the financial planning industry, differs markedly from the economic approach. The conventional approach asks households to specify how much they want to spend before retirement, after retirement, and in the event of an untimely death of the head or spouse. It then determines the amounts of saving and life insurance needed to achieve these targets. The economic approach is based on the life-cycle model of saving. Its goal is to smooth households' living standards over their life cycles and to ensure comparable living standards for potential survivors. In the economic approach, spending targets are endogenous. They are derived by calculating the most the household can afford to consume in the present given that it wants to preserve that living standard in the future. Although spending targets under the conventional approach can be adjusted in an iterative process to approximate those derived under the economic approach, there are practical limits to doing so. This is particularly the case for households experiencing changing demographics or facing borrowing constraints. This paper illustrates the different saving and insurance recommendations provided by economic financial planning software and the practical application of traditional financial planning software. The two software programs are Economic Security Planner (ESPlanner), developed by Economic Security Planning, Inc., and Quicken Financial Planner (QFP), developed by Intuit. Each program is run on 24 cases, 20 of which are stylized and 4 of which are actual households. The two software programs recommend dramatically different levels of saving or life insurance in each of the 24 cases. The different saving recommendations primarily reflect ESPlanner's adjustment for household demographics and borrowing constraints. The different life insurance recommendations reflect these same factors as well as ESPlanner's accounting for contingent household plans and for Social Security's survivor benefits. The less detailed tax and Social Security retirement benefit calculations used in our implementation of QFP also explain some of the differences between the two programs.

Two-Player Reachability-Price Games on Single-Clock Timed Automata

We study two player reachability-price games on single-clock timed automata. The problem is as follows: given a state of the automaton, determine whether the first player can guarantee reaching one of the designated goal locations. If a goal location can be reached then we also want to compute the optimum price of doing so. Our contribution is twofold. First, we develop a theory of cost functions, which provide a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of this problem. This theory allows us to establish our second contribution, an EXPTIME algorithm for computing the optimum reachability price, which improves the existing 3EXPTIME upper bound.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2011, arXiv:1107.074

The Making of a “Philanthropreneur” (Interview with Trevor Field and Mark Melman, Playpumps International)

“Be mindful of taking care of yourself without excesses.” In the case of Playpumps® International, an NGO based in Johannesburg, South Africa, coupling a not-for-profit with a for-profit company produced the needed incentive to bear truth to the idiom that one person, one simple idea can really change the world. Trevor Field and his partner, Mark Melman, former executives in the outdoor advertising industry, have done just that. With the invention of the PlayPump® water system, government agencies, NGOs and for-profit business have converged to address the disturbing reality that over one billion people lack access to clean water. According to Field, “I remember when I first looked at this water pump; I could never imagine that this is something that could possibly change the world. I remember when I came up with this idea and everyone was laughing. They’re not laughing now.