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OwenBloggers: Sam - MBA 2008 |
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Vanderbilt's favorite SEC Player of the Year SLASH newest member of the Dallas Mavericks SLASH Singer-Songwriter Shan Foster wrote a little ditty about the NBA draft. Check out the video on YouTube and check out our man Shan next season in Dallas.
Oh.
My.
God.
I don't really know what else to say except that that was one of the best Vanderbilt basketball games that I've ever attended. Neltner was on fire, equally effective on both sides of the court. He was making plays underneath, he was shooting from the outside, he even got a couple steals in the first half. Shan Foster missed only 2 shots all night, with the first one coming deep in the second half.
That's 4 in a row for the boys, 2 of which were on the road. This gives us some much needed momentum going into the Florida game this Saturday afternoon (2pm CST).
Technorati Tags: basketball, Business School, MBA, Memorial Gym, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Oh.
My.
God.
I don't really know what else to say except that that was one of the best Vanderbilt basketball games that I've ever attended. Neltner was on fire, equally effective on both sides of the court. He was making plays underneath, he was shooting from the outside, he even got a couple steals in the first half. Shan Foster missed only 2 shots all night, with the first one coming deep in the second half.
That's 4 in a row for the boys, 2 of which were on the road. This gives us some much needed momentum going into the Florida game this Saturday afternoon (2pm CST).
Technorati Tags: basketball, Business School, MBA, Memorial Gym, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
For the Faithful amongst you, check out FSJ's live Twitter feed from the MWSF Keynote. I'm laughing so hard that people in the library are starting to stare.
http://twitter.com/fakestevetwit
PS - you don't need a Twitter account for any of this.
UPDATED - He's a bit on the graphic side, so anyone who is easily offended should probably look elsewhere for MWSF coverage.
For the Faithful amongst you, check out FSJ's live Twitter feed from the MWSF Keynote. I'm laughing so hard that people in the library are starting to stare.
http://twitter.com/fakestevetwit
PS - you don't need a Twitter account for any of this.
UPDATED - He's a bit on the graphic side, so anyone who is easily offended should probably look elsewhere for MWSF coverage.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group Gets Healthy [WSJ]
Apparently taking on the airline and music industries (not to mention all the hot air balooning) isn't quite challenging enough for Sir Richard. The Virgin Group has announced plans for 6 Virgin Healthcare Centers in a country, as the WSJ so aptly puts it, where "... doctors are employed by the government and healthcare is free." VHC would offer a second tier of services on top of the National Health Services primary care.
Figuring Out HIV's Protein Diet [WSJ]
Scientists at Harvard Medical School have published a preliminary list of 270 host cell proteins on which HIV depends. This is the first step in a new approach to defeating the virus - instead of trying to attack the virus directly, the thinking is to remove things provided by the host cell that HIV needs to survive and perpetuate itself.
Scientists Create Stem-Cell Line [WSJ.com]
A new technique for generating stem cells that doesn't destroy the embryo from which they are derived. This is yet another way to get around some of the ethical concerns surrounding this incredibly important, and incredibly controversial, line of research.
Autism and the Limits (For Now) of Genetic Screening [WSJ.com]
Two different reports (here and here) suggest that a certain mutation on human chromosome 16 is present in nearly 1% of patients with autism. As the health blog so accurately points out, this does very little to inform us about the other 99%, but it does begin to chip away at the genetic causes for this disease.
U.S. Worst At Beating Death From Preventable Illness [Health Affairs - REQUIRES SUBSCRIPTION]
The US comes in at the bottom of the 18 country pile. Even more heartening is the fact that rate of improvement in the six years between 1997 and 2003 was the smallest of the bunch as well. While the death rate did decline by 4% (people under age of 75), the rest of the list showed an average of 16% decline over the same timeframe. The "winning" numbers were put up by France, with 72.6/100,000 for men and Japan with 54.3/100,000 for women. The US came in with 123.4 for men and 96.4 for women (both per 100,000 patients).
Mass. Greenlights Drugstore Clinics [WSJ.com]
Massachusetts joins the growing trend of in-store retail clinics to treat minor ailments. CVS and Wal-Mart are two of the more recognizable names getting involved in this movement. Doctors are, predictably, not wild about the idea, as it "... might not have enough oversight from MD's."
Teva To Spend $1B In India On Deals And Plants [Pharmalot]
The world's largest maker of generic prescription drugs announced plans to expand operations into India, spending nearly $300M in the coming years in building and acquisitions. These are in addition to the already established Teva India and research facility near New Delhi. The move offers them not only access to lower cost manufacturing but also entrance into the Indian market, whose economy is experiencing an incredible amount of growth.
D.C. Bill Could Require Licenses for Drug Reps [WSJ]
In the ongoing struggle to enforce more order on the marketing and promotional juggernaut that is pharma sales, the District is considering a bill that would require drug reps to register and obtain licenses. The bill prohibits off-label marketing and promotes the education of doctors on generic substitutes.
San Francisco Hearts Compulsory Health Insurance [WSJ.com]
Another ongoing struggle is that of universal healthcare. The City by the Bay is one step further down a path they believe will lead them to nirvana - a federal appeals court ruled that the city can, in fact, force employers to either offer coverage to their employees or pay into city-run fund.
Technorati Tags: Business School, Health Care, Healthcare, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Earlier tonight the VU men's basketball team hosted the Fighting Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina in the SEC opener at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym. The 'Dores came into the regular season undefeated and ranked 13th (AP, 12th in the coaches poll). With Ole Miss falling to Tennessee, that leaves Vanderbilt and four other teams (Kansas, UNC, Memphis, and Washington State) with undefeated records.
Shan Foster hit two from outside the arc early in the game to move into the all-time lead for 3 pointers at Vanderbilt and then couldn't seem to find his shot for most of the remainder of the game. Aside from a pretty sweet fading jumper late in the second half, most of the late game scoring was left to freshman center AJ Ogilvy, who delivered 21 in the second half for a total of 25 for the game.
The students (pictured at right) were out in full force tonight. It looked like the entire section was SRO tonight. They made so much noise that at times it was hard to hear the band, which is no small feat.
VU faces the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena this Saturday afternoon (12:30pm central). The game is listed on CBS and should be a good one.
Technorati Tags: basketball, Memorial Gym, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Yesterday a friend of mine asked me about graduation requirements for the Marketing Concentration here at the Owen School. As is the case with most graduate institutions, the Owen School is continuously learning and reevaluating itself and its requirements for graduation. This past year the marketing department changed the requirements for the incoming first year class, while the second year class had the choice of following the old or new requirements.
The only problem is that the department's website only lists the new requirements. While it makes sense that most people visiting the department's website are prospective students and therefore need the requirements to which they'll be held, it does make it a bit more difficult to find the information that for some reason I forgot to save on my computer.
Enter the Internet Archive.
Over at archive.org they have a tool called the "WayBack Machine." You type in the URL and hit the conveniently titled "Take Me Back" button and the archive spits out dated links to different versions of the page in question.
Once again, the interwebs save my bacon ...
Technorati Tags: Business School, Marketing, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Internet Archive
Mod 3 is now officially 2 days old. My schedule this mod (and next mod, for that matter) is a bit on the peculiar side in that I only have classes 2 days a week (Tue and Thu this mod, Mon and Wed next mod). Whereas in my six previous mods I've had a fairly even distribution of classes (2-3 per day every day), this mod they're all stacked up one right after the other.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you ...
A few notes from the first two days of class:
That's all for now.
Technorati Tags: Business School, Health Care, Marketing, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
We've all seen those videos that rip around the 'net, seemingly taking on a life of their own. In marketing classes we've heard about the Viral Revolution and how a campaign that goes that way is some of the most effective marketing around.
This morning I stumbled across a post on TechCrunch (as well as the follow up) written by one of the founders of the Commotion Group, self-proclaimed "Viral Marketing Hired Guns" (their description, not mine). In the post Dan Greenberg outlines a few strategies his company employs to nudge videos along the viral path.
Some of the highlights include:
Whether you condone this sort of thing or not, it does make for an interesting read. Check it out.
The video is a personal favorite from the Duke University Business School's annual FuquaVision. Check out the "Real MBA's of Genius" clip while you're at it.
Technorati Tags: Business School, Facebook, MBA, Myspace, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Techcrunch, Vanderbilt
We've all seen those videos that rip around the 'net, seemingly taking on a life of their own. In marketing classes we've heard about the Viral Revolution and how a campaign that goes that way is some of the most effective marketing around.
This morning I stumbled across a post on TechCrunch (as well as the follow up) written by one of the founders of the Commotion Group, self-proclaimed "Viral Marketing Hired Guns" (their description, not mine). In the post Dan Greenberg outlines a few strategies his company employs to nudge videos along the viral path.
Some of the highlights include:
Whether you condone this sort of thing or not, it does make for an interesting read. Check it out.
The video is a personal favorite from the Duke University Business School's annual FuquaVision. Check out the "Real MBA's of Genius" clip while you're at it.
Technorati Tags: Business School, Facebook, MBA, Myspace, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Techcrunch, Vanderbilt
As I'm sure many of you out there did, this morning my wife and I made coffee and then commenced to tearing open the gifts. With my family off in Texas and hers in New Hampshire (while we spend the holidays in Tennessee), it was only the two of us making our way through the gift pile.
Somewhere near the end of said pile my wife grabbed a gift from her best friend (who, incidentally, had her second child yesterday). And under the colorful wrapping paper and Christmas bows she found what has to be the coolest geek gift ever - How the Grinch Stole Christmas ... in latin!!.
Apparently there are also latin translations of both The House at Pooh Corner and Harry Potter.
Very cool ...
Technorati Tags: Business School, MBA, Nashville, New Hampshire, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Pooh, Grinch, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.
Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.
But back to the Brits. They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable? Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones? What's the probability of being caught in the first place? What's the probability of being convicted once caught? What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted? The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.
Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.
UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy. Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.
** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.
Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.
Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.
But back to the Brits. They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable? Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones? What's the probability of being caught in the first place? What's the probability of being convicted once caught? What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted? The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.
Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.
UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy. Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.
** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.
Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.
Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.
But back to the Brits. They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable? Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones? What's the probability of being caught in the first place? What's the probability of being convicted once caught? What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted? The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.
Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.
UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy. Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.
** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.
Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.
Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.
But back to the Brits. They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable? Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones? What's the probability of being caught in the first place? What's the probability of being convicted once caught? What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted? The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.
Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.
UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy. Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.
** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.
Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.
Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.
But back to the Brits. They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable? Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones? What's the probability of being caught in the first place? What's the probability of being convicted once caught? What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted? The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.
Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?
I don't know the answers to these questions. I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.
UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy. Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.
** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.
Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt
Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist. Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.
I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles. The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.
I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated. I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.
The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies. Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving. On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail. Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.
That's right ... jail ...
The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news. While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.
But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade. Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain. Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability. The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough
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