Cornell's SD site, in "Other Resources", at the bottom line, lists this:
The main concept behind system dynamics is feedback thinking. To explore the history of feedback thinking, see:
- Richardson, George P. (1991, 1999) Feedback Thought in Social Science and Systems Theory. Now available from Pegasus Communications (Click on the System Dynamics link in the “Browse Products by Subject box on the left-hand side.)
Why are the Big Three auto companies going broke, and if their high-tech Detroit area assembly-line operation is our model for health care, is that our destiny as well?
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 18 — The Ford Motor Company, which is struggling to keep its grip on second place in the American car market, said Friday that it would cut by one-fifth the number of vehicles it plans to build in the final three months of the year.The mental-model of fine-tuning assembly-line clinical medicine may break down when seen through public health's wider lens, or in light of the impact on the humans whose bodies and lives provide the pixels on which this video is displayed, or be fine in both those contexts but have issues when seen in terms of globalization and the increasing ability of patients to fly to Singapore for surgical care at a total cost well less than similar care here.
The slowdown represented the deepest production cuts since the industry’s crisis of the 1980’s. It also underscored the difficulty that Detroit, whose business relies on sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, is having as gas prices remain around $3 a gallon. Detroit’s market share has dropped to its lowest level in history, while Asian brands, known for their fuel efficiency, are setting sales records...
On Friday, Ford officials contended that no one in the industry could have anticipated that gasoline prices would remain so high ... [emphasis added]
When you are confronted by any complex social system, such as an urban center or a hamster, with things about it that you're dissatisfied with and anxious to fix, you cannot just step in and set about fixing with much hope of helping. This realization is one of the sore discouragements of our century. You cannot meddle with one part of a complex system from the outside without the almost certain risk of setting off disastrous events that you hadn't counted on in other, remote parts. If you want to fix something you are first obligated to understand... the whole system.. Intervening is a way of causing trouble.
By Tara Bahrampour and Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 17, 2006; A01
No one under 18 would be surprised to hear that teenagers like to post their intimate thoughts and photographs online -- they've done it for years. But school administrators have begun to take notice, and some are warning students that their online activities may affect not only their safety, but also their academic and professional lives.
In recent weeks, several Washington area schools have taken action against the use of blog sites, in particular Facebook.com but also the sites MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which allow teenagers -- and sometimes younger children -- to post details of their lives for all to see.
Exclusive private schools such as these have so far been more aggressive than public schools in specifically targeting the use of blogs, but local public schools have begun to warn parents and students about the dangers of Internet use. Fairfax County will hold seminars on the subject for parents this week, and Arlington County, at the suggestion of a parent who is a computer safety consultant, plans a similar meeting next week.
...ssistant head of school ... said officials there were "shocked and amazed" to see how many students use Facebook, which began for college students in 2004 and was expanded late last year to include high school students.
Besides the most obvious danger -- adult stalkers enticing teenagers into face-to-face meetings -- Cole warned that personal information posted online can also be read by college admissions officers and future employers.
...said that the issue came to the attention of administrators only recently, when they became aware of "inappropriate material that was being posted on Facebook."In some ways, the Web sites are the modern equivalent of diaries kept by generations of teenagers.
But lockable journals and triple-underlined threats of "PRIVATE, KEEP OUT!" have given way to instant messaging, reality shows and a cyberculture that many adults find naive at best and exhibitionist and dangerous at worst.
... rules forbid students to "use technology ...that defames individual members of any community."
In November, after a student ...posted derogatory comments about black students on a blog, printouts of the comments were circulated on campus. The student eventually left; administrators would not say whether disciplinary action was taken.
Many schools forbid the use of school computers for anything not school-related. But it is much harder to regulate what students do on home computers.
Schools are scrambling to come up with policies on the issue.
...
Ironically, many teenagers are outraged or embarrassed when parents or other adults go to their sites. "I think they see it as a violation of their personal space," said Madeira's Cole. "They feel as if their diaries are being read."
But adults do read the sites. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported 1,224 incidents last year of "online enticement" of children by adults and estimates that one in five children gets sexual solicitations online. Staff members of NetSmartz, an arm of the national center, discuss the issue with local students. Staca Urie, a NetSmartz manager, said that after she gave a talk recently at the Lab School in the District, students raced to their computers to delete information.
And yet to many teenagers, the sites are irresistible.
"I'm in seventh grade," the girl said. "It's really hard to be in seventh grade these days. It's really hard if you're shy and you're not a cheerleader or extraordinarily popular. I travel, I take pictures, I write poetry. I'm a nice kid, and if I can write a profile that will make people notice me, why shouldn't I?"
To Aftab, "It's a very sad testimonial these days that a kid has to post something on a site where potentially 700 million people can see it in order to attract the attention of a kid two seats down."
Her mother, said that she and her husband have talked to [their daughter] about smart Internet use and that she is not worried. ...[but] hasn't looked at her daughter's page., "This offers them a way to have a sense of community."
But it can also be isolating. "They do less face-to-face talking, less phone talking, less playing outside than any other generation, and because of that, the Internet is real to them, but the risks aren't," Aftab said.
Neither are some of the worlds they create. Experts, and teenagers themselves, say that much of what is on the sites is made up.
Teenagers often act online in ways they wouldn't off-line -- bullying each other, posing in underwear, using foul language or sporting guns and Ku Klux Klan hoods.
Increasingly, many teenagers feel pressured to show themselves doing more risque things, even if they are not actually doing them. Aftab cited an example of girls who had blogged about weekends of drinking and debauchery, while in reality they were coloring with their younger siblings or watching old movies with Grandma.
"Even if you weren't out drunk and partying on the weekend, you have to pretend you were," Aftab said. "Maybe parents should be relieved."
Staff writer Jamie Stockwell contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
