Course timing and readings
We had to skip a class session last week so we are a bit behind. We will going over efficiency examples next week, and either moving into discussions of the Precautionary Principal or into the next section on Valuation.
Assignments and due dates
Your sixth weekly assignment is posted. Lots of stuff in there for discussion. There is an element of the assignment that asks for a little bit of engagement over multiple days, so can you make sure you read through it early enough in the week so you can get moving on that?
Course projects
EETT Advice: Use Economics! Frame the questions. Always ask where the tradeoffs are. If your group has met and has an outline, but feels an extension is warranted in order to make it excellent, send me a note with a description of your work and why you’d like the extension. Note I am not on email this weekend.
Group Project Cheat Sheet
We have THREE group experiences in lieu of quizzes and exams.
- 1. Get Outside Project:
- a. Due November 4th.
- b. Group size between 4 and 8.
- 2. EETT (this is part one of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Reflection 1: due as part of Week 3 RRR (Sept 14th)
- b. Reflection 2: due as part of Week 4 RRR (Sept 21st)
- c. Individual EETT Submission: due Sept 25th
- d. Group Precis: due Oct 5th
- e. Final Project: due Oct 17th
- f. Group size between 4 and 8
- 3. Interview Project (this is part two of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Project due December 11th
- b. Group size between 4 and 8
Other class administration and availability
TA Office Hours and Info Look for an announcement from our Head TA Cailtin Lipton for an update.
- The TAs are continue to offer office hours and weekly discussion sessions which will enable you to explore class topics more deeply, and to dive into portions of the weekly class work (and possibly receive credit for doing so).
My Availability: For the most up to date info on my office hours availability, and campus whereabouts and other ways (possibly) to meet and get in touch with me, check our Office Hours Blackboard page at tiny.cc/RizzoHours. I also post some job info on there and other items to discuss.
Office hours are a great place to bring your EETT group to bounce ideas off of me, and I am happy to help you all get a baseline start on the topics you are interested in.
Please stop by our picnic lunch bunches on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30am to 12:45pm, they’ve been fun. Meet new people! Talk to my freshmen!
I will be out in the ADKs this weekend mostly out of phone contact.
GET OUTSIDE
ADK Hike: I have campsite at Frontier Town this weekend, and am actually pivoting from Rocky Peak Hike to hit a few smaller ones I have not made the effort to see – so a likely Hurricane, Poke-o-Moonshine, Mt. Van Ho, Owls Head combo in the offing.
PICK YOUR OWN: Rochester is an awesome place to enjoy the fall harvest. My favorite two places are Lagoner Farms (on East side, they also host a nice restaurant, fudge shoppe and cidery) and West Wind Farms (on West side).
Upcoming Special Events
Department of Economics Engerman Lecture
Who: Robert Margo of Boston University
When: Wednesday, October 15th
Time: 5:00pm
Where: Morey 321
What: From the Artisan Shop to the Mechanized Factory: Inanimate Power and the Transformation of American Manufacturing, 1820 to 1900
The Politics and Markets Project, Hosted by Professor David Primo
Title: Topic TBD (this will be a moderated panel discussion, likely on immigration)
Date: Wednesday, November 5th
Time: 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Wegmans Hall, 1400.
The Department of Economics will be hosting several additional events this fall, TBA, coming soon!
Expected Guests/Topics: Paul Bloom on Empathy/Compassion; David Livingstone-Smith (philosopher); Victor Haghani (money manager)
Some Things That Captured Our Attention
Bye Bye Ms. American Pie: “You probably think “Florida oranges” are still a thing, as that marketing was so successful they became a part of our national culture. But the numbers are in, and over the last decade that industry has effectively died. Despite hopeful predictions, the state sold just a little over 12 million boxes of the citrus this year, a sharp decline from 150 million in the early 2000s. The problem is the invasive Asian citrus psyllid, detected back in 1998, which spreads the “citrus greening disease.” Nobody knows how it got here,
nothing we’ve tried has been able to stop it, and now it’s clear we have bigger problems than we ever realized. Our country lives and dies on three crops: corn, soy, and wheat. Important to remember we’re just a few invasive — or, worst case, engineered — pests away from oblivion. Now dust off that gene drive, boys. Florida needs a mad science Hail Mary.”
Orwell-Tube: “YouTube to allow reinstatement of content creators previously banned by the streaming platform for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 election ()” More
The US to pay $180 to prevent $61 of damages.
Environmental Murder Mystery in Maine: “Tests of liquid from inside the bore holes revealed herbicidal poison. The poisoning was “limited to a distinct corridor of trees directly in line with the deck of the Antonson residence,” the board said ” in a report.
Who Wants to Bet? Will NASA get these astronauts around the moon by February on Artemis II?
The Collapse of Offshore Wind: “Let me translate that into English: One of Japan’s most influential think tanks, a group that’s backed by Japan’s richest citizen, is admitting that one of the country’s biggest and most influential corporations would rather pay $135 million in penalties than try to build three offshore wind projects where costs are spiraling out of control and return on its investment is unlikely.” Glacier. Crying
1.4 million wildfire deaths modeled: “The two key levers are reducing extreme wildfire activity through other approaches, so fuels management, and second, making sure we are well protected when smoke events happen. Right now we are not very well protected.”
(We’ve gone from warming to heating I guess)
People Don’t Want Wind and Solar: “Furthermore, Emanuel’s op-ed was a marvel for what it didn’t say. The former Obama aide claims that the ‘big opportunities to add power overwhelmingly come from clean sources of electricity.” He didn’t mention the raging backlash against Big Solar and Big Wind that’s happening across rural Illinois. As can be seen in the Renewable Rejection Database, more than 40 local communities in Illinois have banned or rejected solar and wind projects over the past few years.”
Do 55% of Your Calories Really Come from Ultra Processed Foods?
Chart of the Week
“We begin by quantifying the sheer scale of what the US has already constructed. In early September, the US Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration released its annual report on the total mileage of natural gas pipelines. According to the document, more than 110,000 miles of gathering pipelines, 300,000 miles of transmission pipelines, and 2.37 million miles of distribution pipelines crisscross the nation. As their names imply, gathering pipelines bring gas from wellheads to processing facilities, transmission pipelines move molecules across long distances in large volumes, and distribution pipelines deliver gas to the homes and businesses that ultimately burn the fuel.”
Photo of the Week
Ummmm
Film, music, cultural item of the Week
(from the U of R International Theatre Program Announcement)
Mark your calendar for the following events presented by the International Theatre Program:
The Memo. Vaclav Havel’s classic satire The Memo, a biting, darkly comic satire of bureaucracy run amok, will run Oct. 2 through Oct. 11 at Smith Theatre in Sloan Performing Arts Center on the River Campus. Curtain times are 8 p.m. and 2 p.m. for matinees. Matinees on Oct 3 and Oct 5 will be ASL interpreted.
Ticket prices are $20 for the general public; $15 for Seniors (65 and over) and University staff, faculty, alumni; $10 in advance for University students; and $10 for non-University students. (Free tickets for University students at all mainstage/Smith Theatre shows are only available at the Sloan Performing Arts Center or Todd Theatre Box Offices 1 hour before showtime.) Purchase tickets online or visit the Todd Theatre or SPAC Box Office. The box office opens 1 hour prior to curtain. Read more information about the production.
They Said It
“If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that God has left for you to complete. But if you only see what is wrong and what is ugly in the world, then it is you yourself that needs repair.”
- Lubavitch rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (reportedly)