Thursday, June 28, 2012
Vineri, 29 iunie, partide internaţionale oficiale
Campionatul European Feminin Juniori sub 17 ani
Finala mică
ora 12.00, Nyon (Elveţia):
Elveţia - Danemarca
Marte Soro (foto) (Norvegia) - Katalin Torok (Ungaria), Tzvia Malca (Israel) - Daniela Stricker (Elveţia)
Finala
ora 15.30, Nyon (Elveţia):
Franţa - Germania
Amy Rayner (Anglia) - Svetlana Bilic (Serbia), Yana Mazanova (Rusia) - Daniela Stricker (Elveţia)
Finala mică
Elveţia - Danemarca
Marte Soro (foto) (Norvegia) - Katalin Torok (Ungaria), Tzvia Malca (Israel) - Daniela Stricker (Elveţia)
Finala
ora 15.30, Nyon (Elveţia):
Franţa - Germania
Amy Rayner (Anglia) - Svetlana Bilic (Serbia), Yana Mazanova (Rusia) - Daniela Stricker (Elveţia)
Do You Believe He Can Fly? Royce White and Reasonable Accommodations Under the Americans with Disabilities Act for NBA Players with Phobias
I have posted on SSRN an early draft of my forthcoming article in the Pepperdine Law Review: Do You Believe He Can Fly? Royce White and Reasonable Accommodations Under the Americans with Disabilities Act for NBA Players with Phobias.The article is about Royce White, who is expected to be selected in the first round of tonight's NBA draft (rumors are the Celtics will pick him, though other teams are interested), and what impact his severe fear of flying will have on his NBA career. The article also considers the legal mechanisms that may be available to White under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Here's an excerpt:
Hope you have a chance to read this early draft and email me thoughts.If fear of flying constitutes a disability for White under the ADA, he could argue that the NBA or his team should accept any reasonable request for accommodation. They may disagree about what constitutes "reasonable". Allowing White to take a train from Boston to New York City, or even a ship to Europe, would probably be reasonable so long as White does not miss meetings, practices or games. Then again, White as a rookie traveling alone, might not gain valuable insight from conversations with coaches and teammates or develop camaraderie with them.
Seemingly less reasonable would be allowing White to miss a road trip. Unless he is injured, suspended or assigned to the D-League (the NBA's minor league), White will be contractually obligated to play 82 regular season games, along with four to six pre-season games, up to 28 postseason games, and possibly a handful of summer league games. No player signs a standard contract to play in "some games." Consider the impact of such an arrangement on White's coach: if White's only an occasional player, his coach might struggle to set his rotation. On the other hand, professional leagues have carved out exceptions for players to miss road games. This has been true of NBA players recovering from injury. Gilbert Arenas, returning from a knee injury in 2009, was allowed a flexible schedule whereby he would play in all home games but only some road games. Other circumstances have led to similar arrangements. Last year the Central Hockey League allowed Rapid City Rush forward Brett Nylander, a second lieutenant in the Air Force, to only play home games because his military service limited travel.
Another Economic History of the US
I liked Land of Promise, but I will offer two critiques. One is that while history provides an unbroken narrative structure to economics, it can mask changes that make one era incomparable with another. This is illustrated in the slide above from my presentation.It shows that in 1800 the size of the entire US economy (GDP in 2005 dollars) was the same size as the GDP of Pascagoula, Mississippi in 2005. (Data from here and here.) By 1850 the US economy had grown to the size of Rhode Island's 2005 GDP, by 1900 it was Virginia, and 1950 it was the size of California's 2005 GDP.
While I am sure that Robbie Maxwell, current mayor of Pascagoula, has some fine ideas on economic development, they probably don't carry the authority of invoking George Washington. Yet, both public officials manage(d) economies of comparable size. So I do have some issues with applying lessons from economic history to innovation-focused policies of the 21st Century.
That said, I do agree with Lind's bottom line:
"Industrial policy is not alien to the American tradition. It is the American tradition." (p. 465)The bulk of my response will focus on explaining the mythology of the so-called "linear model of innovation" (discussed here in PDF by Godin) which surrounds Vannevar Bush and post-War US science policy -- which Lind accepts far too uncritically. The linear model, married to a convenient misreading of economics theory, has restricted our view of innovation policy for decades.
Land of Promise is a stimulating book. Despite these issues, I enjoyed it a great deal. (See also David Douglas here).
Manny Pacquiao wants Floyd Next
According Ronnie Nathanielsz, Manny Pacquiao has asked promoter Bob Arum to make a bout with Floyd Mayweather a priority. Bob Arum has made it clear that they can only realistically working on the possible fight the world wants to see sometime next year.
Arum said "Obviously the one fight that Pacquiao wants is Floyd." "I don't think we have enough time to do it." Mayweather is in the middle of an 87-day jail sentence for domestic battery at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.
Arum indicated that Pacquiao understand that the Mayweather fight is not going to be this November and that he would need to choose among Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. However, no decisions were reached.
Age of Entry and NBA Success
The NBA’s age eligibility rule is controversial. To examine the on-court efficacy of the NBA’s age eligibility rule, we test the effect of age of entry on NBA career performance. Our data set comprises the 332players selected in the first round of the NBA draft from 1989 and 2000. Using censored normal regression models, we found that players drafted at a relatively younger age have more successful NBA careers across three different metrics. To explore a beneficial effect of one year in college, group selection bias tests were conducted by comparing differences in career success between quasi-“one-and-done” players and players who entered the NBA straight out of high school. The results were consistent with our main analyses – players who moved into the NBA directly from high school generally perform better than players with a single year of college experience. We find no systematic evidence in support of the on-court efficacy of the NBA’s age eligibility rule.
