Princeton University's 2010 Baccalaureate ceremony
Commencement activities start on Sunday with the Baccalaureate ceremony in the University Chapel. This University convocation begins with an academic procession of faculty, trustees, administrators and undergraduate degree candidates. The interfaith program, which lasts approximately one hour, includes music, prayers and readings from a variety of religious traditions, as well as an address by a guest speaker. This year's speaker is Jeff Bezos '86, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.c
Princeton University's 2010 Baccalaureate ceremony
Commencement activities start on Sunday with the Baccalaureate ceremony in the University Chapel. This University convocation begins with an academic procession of faculty, trustees, administrators and undergraduate degree candidates. The interfaith program, which lasts approximately one hour, includes music, prayers and readings from a variety of religious traditions, as well as an address by a guest speaker. This year's speaker is Jeff Bezos '86, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.c
Opening Exercises: A University Convocation - Class of 2014
Challenging the freshman class to embrace two ideas that might seem to be in contradiction, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman told incoming students to spend their Princeton career building deep expertise in a specialty while also developing broad understanding.
The new students and their families -- joined by new and returning graduate students, other undergraduates, faculty and staff -- filled the University Chapel and two simulcast sites for the interfaith service that traditionally ma
Opening Exercises: A University Convocation - Class of 2014
Challenging the freshman class to embrace two ideas that might seem to be in contradiction, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman told incoming students to spend their Princeton career building deep expertise in a specialty while also developing broad understanding.
The new students and their families -- joined by new and returning graduate students, other undergraduates, faculty and staff -- filled the University Chapel and two simulcast sites for the interfaith service that traditionally ma
Opening Exercises: A University Convocation - Class of 2014
Challenging the freshman class to embrace two ideas that might seem to be in contradiction, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman told incoming students to spend their Princeton career building deep expertise in a specialty while also developing broad understanding.
The new students and their families -- joined by new and returning graduate students, other undergraduates, faculty and staff -- filled the University Chapel and two simulcast sites for the interfaith service that traditionally ma
Opening Exercises: A University Convocation - Class of 2014
Challenging the freshman class to embrace two ideas that might seem to be in contradiction, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman told incoming students to spend their Princeton career building deep expertise in a specialty while also developing broad understanding.
The new students and their families -- joined by new and returning graduate students, other undergraduates, faculty and staff -- filled the University Chapel and two simulcast sites for the interfaith service that traditionally ma
A Conversation with Steve Forbes
On November 5, 2010, Steve Forbes, the chairman and CEO of Forbes Media, came to Carnegie Mellon University to provide an analysis of the recent midterm elections. Forbes, who was a Republican presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000, shared his perspective on the elections, the economy, and healthcare with the Carnegie Mellon community.
The speech and subsequent Q & A were moderated by Carnegie Mellon president Jared L. Cohon.
24 - Asymmetric information: auctions and the winner's curse
We discuss auctions. We first distinguish two extremes: common values and private values. We hold a common value auction in class and discover the winner's curse, the winner tends to overpay. We discuss why this occurs and how to avoid it: you should bid as if you knew that your bid would win; that is, as if you knew your initial estimate of the common value was the highest. This leads you to bid much below your initial estimate. Then we discuss four forms of auction: first-price sealed-bid, sec
21 - Repeated games: cooperation vs. the end game
We discuss repeated games, aiming to unpack the intuition that the promise of rewards and the threat of punishment in the future of a relationship can provide incentives for good behavior today. In class, we play prisoners' dilemma twice and three times, but this fails to sustain cooperation. The problem is that, in the last stage, since there is then is future, there is no incentive to cooperate, and hence the incentives unravel from the back. We related this to the real-world problems of a lam
07 - Nash equilibrium: shopping, standing and voting on a line
We first consider the alternative "Bertrand" model of imperfect competition between two firms in which the firms set prices rather than setting quantities. Then we consider a richer model in which firms still set prices but in which the goods they produce are not identical. We model the firms as stores that are on either end of a long road or line. Customers live along this line. Then we return to models of strategic politics in which it is voters that are spread along a line. This time, however
02 - Putting yourselves into other people's shoes
At the start of the lecture, we introduce the "formal ingredients" of a game: the players, their strategies and their payoffs. Then we return to the main lessons from last time: not playing a dominated strategy; and putting ourselves into others' shoes. We apply these first to defending the Roman Empire against Hannibal; and then to picking a number in the game from last time. We learn that, when you put yourself in someone else's shoes, you should consider not only their goals, but also how sop
26 - Learning from and Responding to Financial Crisis, Part II (Guest Lecture by Lawrence Summers)
In the second of his two lectures in honor of Arthur Okun, Professor Summers points out that real interest rates have been very low in the current subprime crisis. This indicates that the shock to the economy was more a financial breakdown shock than a disinflation shock. But financial breakdown shocks are not necessarily very harmful to the economy, so long as financial intermediation capital is not destroyed. In a financial crisis like the present one, financial firms are likely to take the st
21 - Forwards and Futures
Futures markets were started in Osaka, Japan in the 1600s to create an authoritative and meaningful market price for agricultural products, using standardized contracts. Since then, futures markets have been copied around the world to allow the hedging various future risks, financial and other. In the United States, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade have been the most popular futures trading markets. Although futures markets are changing and becoming more electronic,
05 - Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution
Insurance provides significant risk management to a broad public, and is an essential tool for promoting human welfare. By pooling large numbers of independent or low-correlated risks, insurance providers can minimize overall risk. The risk management is tailored to individual circumstances and reflects centuries of insurance industry experience with real risks and with moral hazard and selection bias issues. Probability theory and statistical tools help to explain how insurance companies use ri
03 - Technology and Invention in Finance
Technology and innovation underlie finance. In order to manage risks successfully, particularly long-term, we must pool large amounts of risk among many, diverse people and overcome barriers such as moral hazard and erroneous framing. Inventions such as insurance contracts and social security, and information technology all the way from such simple things as paper, and the postal service to modern computers have helped to manage risks and to encourage financial systems to address issues pertaini
07 - Inferno XIX, XXI, XXV, XXVI
This lecture deals primarily with cantos 19 and 26 of Inferno. Simony, the sin punished in Inferno 19, is situated historically to point out the contiguity of the sacred and the profane and its relevance to the prophetic voice Dante established in this canto. The fine line between prophecy and profanation is shown to resurface in Inferno 24 and 25, where the poet falls prey, as did the pilgrim in Inferno 4, to poetic hubris. Once again, the dangers of Dante’s poetic vocation are dramatized
Cells: Molecules and Mechanisms
Cells: Molecules and Mechanisms is a CC-licensed, open access textbook that can be effectively used as a resource in both introductory (underclassmen) and more advanced (upperclassmen) college cell and molecular biology courses. This book was written and designed for the student learning process, and ...
Lecture 27: Nervous System 2
This course covers the fundamental principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology. Biological function at the molecular level is particularly emphasized and covers the structure and regulation of genes, as well as, the structure and synthesis of proteins, how these molecules are integrated into cells, and how these cells are integrated into multicellular systems and organisms. In addition, each version of the subject has its own distinctive material. The focus of the c
Lecture 23: Immunology 2
This course covers the fundamental principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology. Biological function at the molecular level is particularly emphasized and covers the structure and regulation of genes, as well as, the structure and synthesis of proteins, how these molecules are integrated into cells, and how these cells are integrated into multicellular systems and organisms. In addition, each version of the subject has its own distinctive material. The focus of the c
Lecture 06: Genetics 1
This course covers the fundamental principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology. Biological function at the molecular level is particularly emphasized and covers the structure and regulation of genes, as well as, the structure and synthesis of proteins, how these molecules are integrated into cells, and how these cells are integrated into multicellular systems and organisms. In addition, each version of the subject has its own distinctive material. The focus of the c
