Markets and Mindwork

Competition is pervasive in America. It is almost blasphemous to question its efficacy in ordering human affairs. Despite this wave of popularity, I question how beneficial competition is for institutions that traffic in the work of the mind. Cervantes asks, “Can we ever have too much of a good thing?” I would suggest that there can be too much competition in intellectual pursuits. At least, in these fields of endeavor—including law and education—there is no invisible hand that automatically guides human activity to optimum results. On the contrary, intellectual services share certain characteristics that make competition highly problematic unless great care is applied. In fact, competition is already doing some damage to America’s three most prominent intellectual institutions: public schools, universities, and law firms

Law school admissions and the fight over racial preferences / Derek C. Bok, talk given at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, March 25, 1998

Sumner Canary lecture given March 25, 1998 at the Law School of Case Western Reserve Universit

Distinct element modeling of coupled chemo-mechanical compaction of rock salt

The chemically-mediated compaction of rock salt is represented as a problem in granular mechanics using a distinct element model. The model follows the motion of the interacting particles by combining conservation of momentum with a contact law between particles, which accounts for the time dependent closure due to pressure solution via a viscous resistance (Fig.1a for verification). Attributes of the model are explored through a variety of studies to explore the effect of packing, (i.e., regular versus random packing), and size distribution of granular particles. The results show that random packing, which is typically the case for natural compaction, allows for significantly larger pressure solution-induced viscoelastic displacement than regular packing, a frequently-used generic model for pressure solution, due mainly to the increased contact areas between particles (Fig.1b). A range of diameter distributions of the particles tested to investigate the dependency on size distribution show that size distribution is an important factor in inducing and triggering pressure solution. The code is used to explore effects apparent in laboratory experiments on granular mixtures of salt, in which pressure solution is known to operate at rapid rates under room temperature conditions. The rock salt was crushed and sieved to obtain 6 grain size fraction ranging from 38 – 212 μm to investigate the effects of grain size and grain size distribution. The experiments were performed in a steel pressure vessel inside a biaxial loading frame under both constant stress and constant strain (stress relaxation) conditions with controlled pore pressure and confining pressure