Athletics\u27 Place In Education

The question asked by college students, college athletes, college faculty members, and the world at large is, What is the place athletics should hold in our present (lay educational system, or do athletics belong at all in the college program? The question is a natural one because there exist arguments pro and con. I believe the arguments for athletics far outweigh those listed against them

Currency Areas, Exchange Rate Systems and International Monetary Reform

I. Introduction II. The Pre-Eminence of the Dollar III. The Fate of the Gold Standard IV. Currency Areas and Currency Unions V. The Importance of Monetary Rules VI. Monetary Arrangements in Free Trade Areas and Customs Unions VII. Central Banks, Dollarization and the Maastricht Conditions VIII. Exchange Rate Volatility and Internal vs. External Stability IX. Towards a World Currencypower configuration; currency areas; monetary rules; financial integration; world currency

Debt, Growth, and Poverty in the International Monetary System

This paper explores the relationship between debt, growth, and poverty and the international monetary system. With a well-functioning international monetary system, economic policy works well, instruments are assigned to targets appropriately, and discipline is maintained. The fixed exchange rate is contrasted with alternative monetary rules. The monetary rule is the weakest system; monetary targeting has failed in every country in which it has been tried. An advantage of the fixed exchange rate is the clue it provides to the price level, interest rate, and future monetary policy. Other things being equal, the use of a currencies basket is inferior to a single currency peg, while a freely floating exchange rate system puts itself at the mercy of speculators. The paper points out the conditions for a successful currency area as a consensus on a common inflation rate; a common basket of goods with which to measure inflation; exchange rate that must be locked; member countries must adopt a common monetary policy; and a formula must be devised for distributing and using the seigniorage profits from monetary expansion. There is a need to study the possibility of an Asian currency area and the links between the APEC and the SAARC. Regular and mutual surveillance on monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate convergence, and policies that minimise exchange rate uncertainty and work towards a currency club area based on a common anchor— initially the dollar—are needed. Setting up of an Asian Monetary Fund is also suggested, one that is closely modelled on the original IMF articles of agreement and will provide an anchored fixed exchange rate system.

Gamma Ray Bursts in the Era of Rapid Followup

We present a status report on the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) in the era of rapid follow-up using the world's largest robotic optical telescopes - the 2-m Liverpool and Faulkes telescopes. Within the context of key unsolved issues in GRB physics, we describe (1) our innovative software that allows real-time automatic analysis and interpretation of GRB light curves, (2) the novel instrumentation that allows unique types of observations (in particular, early time polarisation measurements) and (3) the key science questions and discoveries to which robotic observations are ideally suited, concluding with a summary of current understanding of GRB physics provided by combining rapid optical observations with simultaneous observations at other wavelengths.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures; Review article accepted for publication in Advances in Astronomy, special issue 'Robotic Astronomy (Hindawi Publishing Corporation)

The Central Kiloparsec of Seyfert and Inactive Host Galaxies: a Comparison of Two-Dimensional Stellar and Gaseous Kinematics

We investigate the properties of the two-dimensional distribution and kinematics of ionised gas and stars in the central kiloparsecs of a matched sample of nearby active (Seyfert) and inactive galaxies, using the SAURON Integral Field Unit on the William Herschel Telescope. The ionised gas distributions show a range of low excitation regions such as star formation rings in Seyferts and inactive galaxies, and high excitation regions related to photoionisation by the AGN. The stellar kinematics of all galaxies in the sample show regular rotation patterns typical of disc-like systems, with kinematic axes which are well aligned with those derived from the outer photometry and which provide a reliable representation of the galactic line of nodes. After removal of the non-gravitational components due to e.g. AGN-driven outflows, the ionised gas kinematics in both the Seyfert and inactive galaxies are also dominated by rotation with global alignment between stars and gas in most galaxies. This result is consistent with previous findings from photometric studies that the large-scale light distribution of Seyfert hosts are similar to inactive hosts. However, fully exploiting the two-dimensional nature of our spectroscopic data, deviations from axisymmetric rotation in the gaseous velocity fields are identified that suggest the gaseous kinematics are more disturbed at small radii in the Seyfert galaxies compared with the inactive galaxies, providing a tentative link between nuclear gaseous streaming and nuclear activity.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 34 pages, 20 figure

Molecular gas in Arp 94: Implications for intergalactic star formation

We present $^{12}$CO(1-0) observations of the interacting galaxy system Arp 94, which contains the Seyfert galaxies NGC 3227 and NGC 3226 as well as the star-forming candidate dwarf galaxy J1023+1952. We mapped the CO distribution in J1023+1952 with the IRAM 30m telescope and found molecular gas across the entire extent of the neutral hydrogen cloud -- an area of about 9 by 6 kpc. The region where star formation (SF) takes place is restricted to a much smaller ($\sim$ 1.5 by 3 kpc) region in the south where the narrow line width of the CO shows that the molecular gas is dynamically cold. Neither the molecular nor the total gas surface density in the SF region are significantly higher than in the rest of the object suggesting that an external trigger is causing the SF. The fact that CO is abundant and apparently a good tracer for the molecular gas in J1023+1952 indicates that its metallicity is relatively high and argues for a tidal origin of this object.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in the proceedings of "The fate of gas in galaxies", held in Dwingeloo, July 200