Fatalism and Savings

We examine the impact of fatalism, the belief that one has little or no control over future events, on the decision of whether or not to save. We develop a model that predicts that fatalism decreases savings for moderately risk averse individuals, increases savings for highly risk averse individuals, and otherwise has no impact. Furthermore, fatalism decreases effort in learning about savings and investment options. We use data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and find general support for the theoretical predictions of the model. The results are robust to the inclusion of a number of additional control variables.fatalism, savings, risk aversion

A Real-Time Novelty Detector for a Mobile Robot

Recognising new or unusual features of an environment is an ability which is potentially very useful to a robot. This paper demonstrates an algorithm which achieves this task by learning an internal representation of `normality' from sonar scans taken as a robot explores the environment. This model of the environment is used to evaluate the novelty of each sonar scan presented to it with relation to the model. Stimuli which have not been seen before, and therefore have more novelty, are highlighted by the filter. The filter has the ability to forget about features which have been learned, so that stimuli which are seen only rarely recover their response over time. A number of robot experiments are presented which demonstrate the operation of the filter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. In Proceedings of EUREL European Advanced Robotics Systems Masterclass and Conference, 200

Novelty Detection for Robot Neotaxis

The ability of a robot to detect and respond to changes in its environment is potentially very useful, as it draws attention to new and potentially important features. We describe an algorithm for learning to filter out previously experienced stimuli to allow further concentration on novel features. The algorithm uses a model of habituation, a biological process which causes a decrement in response with repeated presentation. Experiments with a mobile robot are presented in which the robot detects the most novel stimulus and turns towards it (`neotaxis').Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Neural Computation, 200

Algorithmic television in the age of large-scale customization

One challenge that Television Studies faces today is how to respond to the rise of an industry increasingly organized by what Antoinette Rouvroy calls “data behavioralism.” The rise of streaming prestige television, exemplified by Netflix, has significant implications within the U.S. screen industry, but the “Netflix effect,” as McDonald and Smith-Rowsey call it, is more than just a change in the industrial mode of production, means of distribution, and method of consumption. The datalogic turn on which Netflixism is based also undermines the theoretical models on which Television Studies was largely built, including theories of representation, visual interpellation and pleasure, and power as “productive.” Hence, the rise of algorithmic television is not simply a new “object” or “wave” for us to study and comment upon; it challenges the mode of knowledge-production (or dispositif) on which the field has grounded itself

The Right Books for the Rights Course—A Review of Four Civil Rights Casebooks

This essay originally started out as a review of Charles Abernathy\u27s casebook, <em>Civil Rights and Constitutional Litigation</em>, which the author was using to teach his "Civil Rights Litigation" course at the University of Baltimore. Since at some point in his career the author has used three of the four major casebooks available to law faculty teaching Civil Rights (the Abernathy casebook, Eisenberg\u27s <em>Civil Rights Legislation</em>, and Low and Jeffries\u27s <em>Civil Rights Actions</em>), he decided to extend this review to all four books. All four are quite good, including the newest, Nahmod, Wells & Eaton\u27s <em>Constitutional Torts</em>. They all differ, however, in coverage and focus, and these differences might lead a professor to choose one or the other, depending on the type of Civil Rights course one wants to teach. The author hopes that this essay may prove helpful to someone choosing a casebook for such a course. This review will first discuss the nature of the Civil Rights course, as the author teaches it and as he believes it is taught at many law schools. Next, this review will compare the general suitability of each of the four texts for various kinds of Civil Rights courses. It then discusses the Abernathy book, examining both its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the review will describe the advantages offered by each of the other three texts

Conjunctures, Commodities, and Social State Marxism

In their article, “Conjunctures, Commodities, and Social State Marxism,” Stephen Shapiro discusses our current moment as the conjuncture of three temporalities: a secular trend of centrist liberalism, a Kress cycle of managerial capitalism, and three Kondratieff waves. These can be understood by the addition of implied terms in Marx’s advanced discussion of the commodity-form through an approach that Shapiro calls Social State Marxism

The Right Books for the Rights Course—A Review of Four Civil Rights Casebooks

This essay originally started out as a review of Charles Abernathy\u27s casebook, <em>Civil Rights and Constitutional Litigation</em>, which the author was using to teach his "Civil Rights Litigation" course at the University of Baltimore. Since at some point in his career the author has used three of the four major casebooks available to law faculty teaching Civil Rights (the Abernathy casebook, Eisenberg\u27s <em>Civil Rights Legislation</em>, and Low and Jeffries\u27s <em>Civil Rights Actions</em>), he decided to extend this review to all four books. All four are quite good, including the newest, Nahmod, Wells & Eaton\u27s <em>Constitutional Torts</em>. They all differ, however, in coverage and focus, and these differences might lead a professor to choose one or the other, depending on the type of Civil Rights course one wants to teach. The author hopes that this essay may prove helpful to someone choosing a casebook for such a course. This review will first discuss the nature of the Civil Rights course, as the author teaches it and as he believes it is taught at many law schools. Next, this review will compare the general suitability of each of the four texts for various kinds of Civil Rights courses. It then discusses the Abernathy book, examining both its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the review will describe the advantages offered by each of the other three texts

Liberalism and the early American novel

Literary and cultural studies of the US between the 1780s and 1830s have continually faced a unique burden within the larger domain of American studies, let alone the humanities in general. Within the field, this period has often been the subject of a genteel lack of interest. Even when significant US-based Americanist scholars publish research within the time frame, the organic relation between this study and their larger reputation is often overlooked. The phase also faces categorical and political challenges. The still-dominant designation of “early” (early American Republic, early national, and so on) casts a strong developmental undertow that inevitably presents its cultural production as prefatory, a prelude to more important, or ..

The Effects of Roster Turnover on Demand in the National Basketball Association

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of roster turnover on demand in the National Basketball Association (NBA) over a five-year period (2000-2005) and compare these results to previous research on turnover in Major League Baseball (MLB). A censored regression equation was developed to examine the relationship between roster turnover and season attendance, while controlling for other potentially confounding variables in the model. The censored regression model was used to account for the capacity constraints by forecasting the level of demand beyond capacity using information from the uncensored observations. The regression model was found to be significant with a log-likelihood statistic of 110.446. Previous attendance, current winning percentage, previous winning percentage, number of all-star players, and team history were found to be significant predictors of attendance. However, the variables measuring the effects of roster turnover were not found to be significant. There were substantial differences in the effect of roster turnover on attendance in the NBA compared with MLB. In addition, these findings provide evidence for using censored regression when dealing with constrained variables. Sellouts in the NBA appear to have an effect on all of the variables in the demand model. Future research will need to be conducted to help sport managers understand the role of roster turnover in specific professional leagues and to better understand the importance of using a censored regression model.basketball; roster turnover; demand; regression; censored regression