Tidbits on September 23, 2010
Bob Jensen

I hate yard sales, but I agreed to one this summer as long as Erika promised it would be the last yard sale in my lifetime. Dr. Clapp and his July 4 house guests helped immensely up here in the White mountains.
Our cottage is next door. If you want to see more pictures from up here go the links provided at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Today Dr. Clapp forwarded a picture of a female moose that appeared during our yard sale.
 She did not buy a single thing. Actually she could've had anything for free.

 

Jay and Maureen (Moe) live near Boston, but their huge brick home up here gets used quite often in the summer.
The swimming hole is the original pool of the old resort that was torn down in 1973.
The water is heated throughout our cool summers
This is why the water is covered most of the time when not in use

The hot tub is new along with their kitchen and several other rooms in this big House

This is the old resort that was torn down in 1973
Except for the three VIP houses, the Annex, and the Power House that is now my barn
Our cottage was one of the so-called VIP homes on the golf course
In 1975 it was moved across the tennis court to where the main hotel once stood
I'm told the resort provided beds for over 300 guests
A bowling alley and casino once stood beside my now-lonesome barn

The red-roofed barns in the foreground housed the carriage horses that pulled guests up Sunset Hill
from the train depot. Guests stayed for weeks to escape the heat of the non-air conditioned cities.

The present Sunset Hill House Hotel is the former Annex of the big resort

Poems About Mountains --- http://www.poetseers.org/poem_of_the_day_archive/poems_about_mountains

Always she reigns, with absolute rule,
and her rule is bounty and blessing.
She is the daughter of Sun, the son
of Moon, and waxes, heaves, cries, folds,
sings. She sings and there is silence. I AM

the Mountain. I go into these hills
as into my Self. Ground hogs, moles,
mushroom, moss, hawk, and helix-
spiral of flower and cone, cicadas
are my messengers. Leaves fallen
from trees are my skin. Gray wolves
are my solitude . . .

 

The FASB's new proposed rules for lease accounting will make leasing for the birds

I can't believe how fast this spruce tree has grown since I planted it three years ago

We have such fearsome winds and snow/ice storms that electric power can be unreliable
Which can lead to frozen pipes in very cold weather
So we have a propane-fired generator that can power the entire house
This is the view of our generator from inside the garage
The yellow hose carries in gas from a new underground tank

And this is one of hundreds of pesky mole holes
I figure the moles were here before me
So I don't bother them as long as they stay outdoors

Some pictures sent to me by other retired folks

FRIENDSHIP OR LOVE ♥ PRIJATELJSTVO ILI LJUBAV --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfbchq0xQmQ I
This is unbelievable

Destination Hong Kong --- Click Here

Beautiful Tulip Fields --- http://www.golberz.com/2010/02/most-beautiful-tulip-fields.html

Dancing at the Movies (wonderful clips of famous dancing scenes)--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYL3j27sSH8&feature=player_embedded
Link Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Wolfram Alpha:  A Personal Experience
Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:  The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm

 

Tidbits on September 23, 2010
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.




Wolfram Alpha:  A Personal Experience
Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:  The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Dancing at the Movies (wonderful clips of famous dancing scenes)--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYL3j27sSH8&feature=player_embedded
Link Forwarded by Auntie Bev

FRIENDSHIP OR LOVE ♥ PRIJATELJSTVO ILI LJUBAV --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfbchq0xQmQ I
This is unbelievable

My Beautiful America --- http://oldbluewebdesigns.com/mybeautifulamerica.htm
I know, I've linked to this one several times before. So sue me!

Video: Behavioral economics humor on Conan: Anchoring on a reference point ---
http://nudges.org/2010/09/15/behavioral-economics-humor-anchoring-on-a-reference-point/ 

TED Video on Our Natural Sleep Cycle ---
http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html

Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation [Flash Player] --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/

Detroit Public Television's American Black Journal --- http://abj.matrix.msu.edu/

PBS: Circus --- http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/

Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson

Harvard Profession Video:   Niall Ferguson: Empires on the Edge of Chaos ---
http://fora.tv/2010/07/28/Niall_Ferguson_Empires_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos

Call it the fatal arithmetic of imperial decline. Without radical fiscal reform, it could apply to America next.
Niall Ferguson, "An Empire at Risk:  How Great Powers Fail," Newsweek Magazine Cover Story, November 26, 2009 --- http://www.newsweek.com/id/224694/page/1
Please note that this is NBC’s liberal Newsweek Magazine and not Fox News or The Wall Street Journal.

 


Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Swan Lake (China) --- http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

The Bellamy Brothers - Jalapenos --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4j_9IQ6wzk

Alisa Weilerstein: Tiny Desk Concert (cello) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129702424

Innocence Exploited: Gounod's 'Faust' (Acts 1 and 2) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129751569

First Listen: Hilary Hahn Violin Concertos, Old And New --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129750428

The Sousa Archives and Center For American Music --- http://www.library.illinois.edu/sousa/

Web outfits like Pandora, Foneshow, Stitcher, and Slacker broadcast portable and mobile content that makes Sirius look overpriced and stodgy ---
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090327_877363.htm?link_position=link2

TheRadio (my favorite commercial-free online music site) --- http://www.theradio.com/
Slacker (my second-favorite commercial-free online music site) --- http://www.slacker.com/

Gerald Trites likes this international radio site --- http://www.e-radio.gr/
Songza:  Search for a song or band and play the selection --- http://songza.com/
Also try Jango --- http://www.jango.com/?r=342376581
Sometimes this old guy prefers the jukebox era (just let it play through) --- http://www.tropicalglen.com/
And I listen quite often to Soldiers Radio Live --- http://www.army.mil/fieldband/pages/listening/bandstand.html
Also note
U.S. Army Band recordings --- http://bands.army.mil/music/default.asp

Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials) --- http://www.slacker.com/ 


Photographs and Art

Guggenheim: Interact [Real Player, Flash Player] --- http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact

Lewis Hine Collection (historical photographs of immigrants, children, and poverty) ---  http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/hine.php

Fulfilling a Prophecy: The Past and Present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania (native American history)  ---
http://www.penn.museum/sites/fap/index.shtml

Interborough Rapid Transit Company Subway Posters ---
http://diglib.princeton.edu/xquery?_xq=getCollection&_xsl=collection&_pid=mc085-ivylee

NYPL Digital Gallery: Turn of the Century Posters ---
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=printing&col_id=212

F&M Pennsylvania German Broadside Collection (German American History) --- http://dspace.nitle.org/handle/10090/4701

Earth from Above --- http://justpaste.it/3ky

Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History


Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Electronic Poetry Center [iTunes]  --- http://epc.buffalo.edu/

Off the Page [iTunes poetry] --- http://poetry.eprints.org/

Cosmos and Culture (science) --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/  

Jewish Archives Collection --- http://content.lib.washington.edu/jhpweb/ 

The Association of Jewish Libraries --- http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/

Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI




Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on September 23, 2010
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2010/TidbitsQuotations092310.htm  

Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm




Wolfram Alpha:  A Personal Experience
Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:  The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm




On September 13, 2010 The Wall Street Journal issued rankings of the “25 Best” college accounting education programs.

In May 2010 Bloomberg/Business Week issued its rankings of the “111 Best” college accounting education programs.

In an IAE paper, Woods et al. issues its rankings of the best college accounting research programs.

My tidbit comparing the rankings of these great accounting education programs is at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryRankings.htm


Contrary to an erroneous news item, MIT will not charge for its vast collection of open courseware
"MIT Looks to Make Money Online, but Not With an OpenCourseWare Paywall," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/MIT-Looks-to-Make-Money/26958/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing videos and course materials from prestigious universities are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


And winners are?  Great Teachers
Time Magazine
has a cover story on "What Makes a School Great" by Amanda Ripley, Time Magazine, September 8, 2010 ---
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2016978,00.html

COVER
A Call to Action for Public Schools (Cover)
Decades into America's fight over how to improve education, a new documentary makes a compelling case for urgent reform on behalf of kids. Why Waiting for "Superman" is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution

How to Recruit Better Teachers (The Well / National Service)
There aren't enough good educators to fill the toughest--and even the not-so-tough--classrooms. Pay and prestige are part of the problem. Here's a fix


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine#ixzz0ziGLy6Rs
COVER
A Call to Action for Public Schools (Cover)
Decades into America's fight over how to improve education, a new documentary makes a compelling case for urgent reform on behalf of kids. Why Waiting for "Superman" is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution

How to Recruit Better Teachers (The Well / National Service)
There aren't enough good educators to fill the toughest--and even the not-so-tough--classrooms. Pay and prestige are part of the problem. Here's a fix


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine#ixzz0ziGLy6Rs
COVER
A Call to Action for Public Schools (Cover)
Decades into America's fight over how to improve education, a new documentary makes a compelling case for urgent reform on behalf of kids. Why Waiting for "Superman" is not just a movie but a dispatch from a revolution

How to Recruit Better Teachers (The Well / National Service)
There aren't enough good educators to fill the toughest--and even the not-so-tough--classrooms. Pay and prestige are part of the problem. Here's a fix


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine#ixzz0ziGLy6Rs

Watch the MSNBC Video --- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/39075636#39075636


Every student should learn about the "Tragedy of the Commons"

Tragedy of the Commons --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

"Garrett James Hardin (Dallas 1915—Santa Barbara 2003)," by Vaclav Smil, American Scientist ---
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/garrett-james-hardin-dallas-1915-santa-barbara-2003

In the world fond of simple associations, Garrett Hardin will be remembered above all as the man who made millions familiar with a concept known as "the tragedy of the commons." He wrote an article with that title for Science in 1968, when the first wave of environmental consciousness was swelling. That short essay became one of the most famous (and among the most cited and reprinted) pieces of ecological or, as Hardin would have preferred, "bioethical" writing.

Contrary to the usual perception, this concept was not Hardin's invention. Such grand generalizations almost always have important precedents. Hence it is doubtful that even Aristotle, who pointed out long ago that "what is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it," was the first to reach this conclusion. Hardin does, however, deserve credit for recognizing the magnitude and the inevitability of this tragedy: It's not a deviancy or madness but rather perfectly rational behavior that leads to the long-term ruin of the commons, a word that evokes communal agricultural lands but also applies to ecosystems, rivers, oceans, organisms or mineral resources. That is, actions that benefit the individual (meaning single persons, households, villages, companies or nations) in the short term often end up hurting the collective.

Hardin's greatest service was presenting this notion in the form of a captivating parable about an overgrazed pasture and expressing it in precise, resonant language that left no room for appealing the initial verdict. He wrote: "Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons." (Today's editors would, of course, have tried to force Hardin to change "men" to "people" or some other politically correct choice—probably to no avail.) He realized that this ruinous dynamic operates in any number of cases involving environmental pollution and the degradation of ecosystems. These instances include three of the leading concerns of our generation: extensive and drastic commercial overfishing of the oceans, continuing deforestation of the humid tropics and rising emissions of greenhouse gases, which may cause serious global warming during the latter half of this century.

Hardin was a man of many causes, yet several of his major writings were variations on the theme of the ruined commons. This is true about another of his widely read and reprinted essays, "Living on a Lifeboat," published in BioScience in 1974. There he used another parable to argue that immigration of the poor to affluent countries hurts those already living there, just as taking too many drowning people into a lifeboat risks sinking everybody. If the connection between these two essays wasn't apparent enough, it became so in 1995, when he published a book with the title The Immigration Dilemma: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons.

Clearly, Hardin was concerned about the number of people the United States could support. So it should not come as a complete surprise to learn that he was a founding member of Planned Parenthood and one of the nation's most influential advocates of population control and abortion on demand—the issue he said occupied most of his time between 1963 and 1973, the year that the Supreme Court made its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. (It might come as a surprise, however, to learn that Hardin and his wife had four children.)

Continued in article


Does the worry you like it worries me?

From: AECM, Accounting Education using Computers and Multimedia [mailto:AECM@LISTSERV.LOYOLA.EDU] On Behalf Of Glen Gray
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 5:09 PM
To: AECM@LISTSERV.LOYOLA.EDU
Subject: Who knew a school could do this?

Convicted CPA Loses MBA and Court Ruling

A federal court judge has upheld New York University’s decision to deny an MBA degree to a CPA who neglected to tell the graduate business school about his conviction on insider trading charges.

Former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee Ayal Rosenthal pleaded guilty in February 2007 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud after he was accused of disclosing confidential information to his brother about a 2005 transaction between two public companies. The conviction came only three months after he finished taking the necessary classes to earn his master’s degree in business administration, according to Bloomberg.com. He was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

However, he did not disclose the charges against him, his guilty plea, or his jail term to NYU’s Stern School of Business. Once the faculty found out about his conviction, a committee voted to withhold the MBA from him and to alter his grade to F in his professional responsibility course, where he had been a teaching assistant. He sued the Stern faculty in 2008, but U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan upheld the decision on Monday. He noted that the faculty’s “decision was fully within the faculty’s power and discretion.”

“Rosenthal managed to complete his course requirements only by concealing his criminal investigation from Stern,” Kaplan wrote, according to Reuters. “In the last analysis, the authority and discretion to determine whether Rosenthal was qualified to receive an MBA degree from Stern properly rested with its faculty.”

From: http://www.webcpa.com/news/Convicted-CPA-Loses-MBA-Court-Ruling-55619-1.html?ET=webcpa:e1023:37462a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WebCPA_Daily_091610

 


"Podcast: The Google Generation — Myth or Reality?" by Rick Lillie, Thinking Outside the Box Blog, September 17, 2010 --- http://iaed.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/podcast-the-google-generation-myth-or-reality/ 


Damien Hirst --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst

"Damien Hirst in plagiarism row – does it really matter?," by Ben East, The National, September 12, 2010 ---
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100912/ART/709119970 

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating and plagiarism ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm


Greg Smith, chief information officer at George Fox, said the iPad's technological limitations—its inability to multitask and print, and its limited storage space—have kept students dependent on their notebooks. "That's the problem with the iPad: It's not an independent device," he said.
"Classroom iPad Programs Get Mixed Response," by Travis Kaya, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 20, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Classroom-iPad-Programs-Get/27046/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

A few weeks after a handful of colleges gave away iPads to determine the tablet's place in the classroom, students and faculty seem confident that the device has some future in academe.

But they're still not exactly sure where that might be.

At those early-adopter schools, iPads are competing with MacBooks as the students' go-to gadget for note taking and Web surfing. Zach Kramberg, a first-year student at George Fox University, which allowed incoming students to choose between a complimentary iPad or MacBook this fall, said the tablet has become an important tool for recording and organizing lecture notes. He also takes the device with him to the university's dimly lit chapel so he can follow along with an app called iBible. "The iPad's very easy to use once you figure them out," he said.

Still, Mr. Kramberg said the majority of students rely on bound Bibles in chapel and stick to pen and paper or MacBooks in the classroom.

Greg Smith, chief information officer at George Fox, said the iPad's technological limitations—its inability to multitask and print, and its limited storage space—have kept students dependent on their notebooks. "That's the problem with the iPad: It's not an independent device," he said.

Mr. Smith said that the 67 students—10 percent of the freshman class—that opted for iPads over MacBooks are really excited about the technology but have not been "pushing the capabilities" of the device.

Caitlin Corning, a history professor at George Fox, said it's been hard to meld iPads into the curriculum because only a small subset of her students has the device. Ms. Corning used the iPad as a portable teaching tool during a student art trip to Europe this summer, flashing Van Gogh works on the screen when they were in the places he painted them. Translating that portable-classroom experience into her classroom back in Oregon, however, has not been easy. "It's still a work in progress," she said. "It's a little complex because only some of the freshmen have iPads."

Faculty members at Seton Hill University, which gave iPads to all full-time students, are working with the developers of an e-book app called Inkling to come up with new ways to integrate the iPad into classroom instruction. The textbook software—one of many in development—allows students to access interactive graphics and add notes as they read along. Faculty members can access the students' marginalia to see whether they understand the text. They can also remotely receive and answer questions from students in real time.

Catherine Giunta, an associate professor of business at Seton Hill, said the technology has changed the way students interact with their textbooks and how she interacts with her students. While reviewing the margin notes of a student in her marketing class, Ms. Giunta was able to pinpoint and correct a student's apparent misunderstanding of a concept that was going to be covered in class the next day. "The misunderstanding may not have been apparent until [the student] did a written report," Ms. Giunta said. "I could really give her individualized instruction and guidance."

As students and faculty members around the country feel around for new ways to integrate the iPad into academic life, a handful of programs are taking a more formal approach to finding its place in the classroom. Students in the Digital Cultures and Creativity program at the University of Maryland at College Park will turn a critical eye on the iPad as a study tool while integrating it into their curriculum. "I think [students are] taking a sort of wait-and-see approach," said Matthew Kirschenbaum, the program director and an associate professor of English.

Similarly, the faculty at Indiana University has formed a 24-member focus group to evaluate iPad-driven teaching strategies. The groups have started meeting this month to assess how their iPad experiments are going, with a preliminary report due in January. "It's meant to be a supportive, collaborative, formalized conversation," said Stacy Morrone, Indiana's associate dean of learning technologies. "We don't expect that everything will go perfectly."

Although not entirely related to the substance of the iPad educational debate, a pilot program at Long Island University was thrust into the spotlight over the weekend in an animated e-mail exchange between a college journalist and Apple's founder Steve Jobs. As Gawker reports it, complaints about a few unreturned media inquiries from a deadline-stressed reporter led to a curt "leave us alone" response from the Apple chief executive.

In the e-mail chain, Mr. Jobs said, "Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade."

"Finding the Best Way to Read Books on an iPad," by Walter S. Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2010 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703743504575493883578854158.html 

Though it's just five months old, Apple's iPad is a certifiable hit, having already sold millions of units and spawning tens of thousands of apps tailored for its 10-inch screen. The tablet has prompted many of its owners to use it instead of their laptops for everything from email and social networking to games and Web surfing.

It's also a very good e-reader, in my view.

Unlike dedicated e-reader devices like Amazon's Kindle, the iPad offers a wide selection of e-reading apps, and I have used several of them heavily to devour scores of books. In particular, I have spent the past few weeks testing the best known of these iPad e-reader apps, comparing their strengths and weaknesses.

My verdict is that none of the three apps I focused on—which mimic and often interact with dedicated e-readers like the Kindle device—towers over the others. Each has its good and bad points, and I personally switch among them.

First, let me note that this isn't a comparison of the iPad and the dedicated e-readers. It is about software readers on the iPad itself. Some folks will prefer the focused e-reader hardware, such as Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook. The latter devices cost much less—the base Kindle is now $139 versus the iPad's $499 starting price. They also have longer battery life and are much lighter. But others—including me—prefer the iPad's big, bright, backlit color screen to the smaller, gray screens of the dedicated e-readers, and the fact that they can pause periodically in their reading to do so many other things on the iPad without reaching for a laptop.

For this review, I compared Apple's own fledgling e-reader software and store, called iBooks; Amazon's Kindle iPad app; and the newly revamped Barnes & Noble iPad app, called Nook.

Overall, they are more similar than different. Each is free and operates much like the pioneering Kindle device, offering access to an online library of books you already own and an online store to buy more. Each remembers where you left off in your books, and includes built-in search, dictionaries and the ability to enter notes and to highlight text. All also offer the option to search for more information on terms in your books, using Google or Wikipedia.

Apple's iBooks app visually is the slickest of the three. Its library screen looks like a wooden bookcase, and when you turn a page, it curves like a paper page and even shows the text on the other side bleeding through. When you hold the iPad horizontally, iBooks switches to a two-page view with a rounded rise in the middle, like a paper book's binding. The iBooks app is the only one of the three to offer a built-in bookstore, while the Amazon and Nook apps require you to jump into the Web browser on the iPad to shop. This is because Apple charges third-party app developers 30% to make in-app purchases, a price Amazon and Barnes & Noble prefer not to pay. This may be an unfair advantage for Apple, but it's convenient for users.

The iBooks app also can handle personal PDF files, synced to the app via iTunes on your computer. Neither of the other two apps offer PDFs on the iPad, though Amazon and Barnes & Noble say they're working on it. Also, Apple has harnessed the iPad's accessibility features to allow its e-books to be read aloud, something I couldn't make happen in the other two apps.

But iBooks has some big downsides. The most important is that, being only five months old, it has a smaller catalog than its rivals—just 130,000 titles, versus around 700,000 for the Kindle app and about one million for the Nook app. For instance, the popular Swedish mystery series by Stieg Larsson is absent from the iBooks catalog. And iBooks doesn't offer any periodicals.

More Mossberg's Mailbox: Giving 'Ribbon' a 'Classic' Look Amazon's Kindle app has the biggest catalog of commercial, copyrighted, in-print books—about 655,000 titles. The Nook catalog of a million books is larger overall, but about half consists of out-of-print books. The Kindle app also instantly displays the dictionary definition of any word you highlight. The others require you to press a dictionary icon to look up a word. And, like iBooks, it was fast at opening books.

The Kindle app also lets you see popular highlighted passages selected by other users, and it synchronizes the last page read, your bookmarks and notes with the Kindle hardware reader and Kindle apps on Windows PCs, Macs, and BlackBerry and Android devices. iBooks only syncs these things to the iBooks app on other Apple hand-held devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch. The Kindle app also can be set to turn pages with the same curved effect as iBooks (but without the text-bleeding effect) and it has a two-page view in horizontal mode.

The Kindle app also lacks periodicals, though Amazon says it's working on this. And the Kindle app, like the Kindle hardware, doesn't use real page numbers, relying on confusing "location" numbers. The others use page numbers. Also, some books appeared in the Kindle app in scanned, hard to read typefaces, while the same books on the others appeared in more readable type.

The Nook iPad app, like the Nook hardware device, has a big plus: It lets you lend and borrow some titles to and from other Nook users for two weeks. It's also the only one of the three to offer periodicals, though not all are available. For instance, The Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe can't be downloaded, though the New York Times can.

The Nook also offers more visual effects than the others, including color themes for background and text colors. Also, like the Kindle app, it syncs with Nook apps on numerous other devices, though, curiously, not yet with the Nook hardware device.

But I found more limitations and flaws in the Nook app's basic book functions. For many words, the app lacked dictionary entries the others had, and books loaded more slowly. Also, one book I downloaded on the Nook app had the first few pages missing and another turned out to be a different book from its title. Also, its horizontal view didn't work for all the titles I tested.

In my tests, book prices seemed roughly similar on all three apps, though some books may cost less on one or another. For instance, Jonathan Franzen's new book "Freedom," is $12.99 on each; David McCullough's classic "1776" costs $13.99 on each; and Laurie King's "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" is $9.99 on all three. Amazon says 574,000 of its 700,000 e-books are $9.99 or less. Barnes & Noble says the "vast majority" of its commercial e-books are $9.99 or less. And Apple says 75% of its paid books are $9.99 or less and 25% of its paid books are less than $4.99.

Overall, each of the three iPad apps makes the device a fine way to read e-books. Multiple apps and stores—including many not covered here—allow choices absent from dedicated reading devices.

 

Bob Jensen's threads on Tricks and Tools of the Trade are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on electronic books are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ebooks.htm


Re-Branding the CPA Profession

September 20, 2010 message from Bob Jensen

Hi Denny,

Yes, I could access the PwC re-branding video directly without having to log in:
http://www.pwc.ch/en/video.html?objects.mid=362&navigationid=3856

I do have a PwC Direct password, but I really doubt that the Switzerland link is using a cookie.

In any case the home page of PwC does not require any login --- http://www.pwc.com/
The video is now on this home page.

This takes me back to the days when Bob Eliott, eventually as President of the AICPA, was proposing great changes in the profession, including SysTrust, WebTrust, Eldercare Assurance, etc. For years I used Bob’s AICPA/KPMG videos as starting points for discussion in my accounting theory course. Bob relied heavily on the analogy of why the railroads that did not adapt to innovations in transportation such as Interstate Highways and Jet Airliners went downhill and not uphill. The railroads simply gave up new opportunities to startup professions rather than adapt from railroading to transportation.

Bob’s underlying assumption was that CPA firms could extend assurance services to non-traditional areas (where they were not experts but could hire new kinds of experts) by leveraging the public image of accountants as having high integrity and professional responsibility. That public image was destroyed by the many auditing scandals, notably Enron and the implosion of Andersen, that surfaced in the late 1990s and beyond ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

This is a 1998 lecture given by Bob Eliott before his world (the lofty public perception of CPA firm integrity) collapsed ---
http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/saxe/saxe_1998/elliott_98.ht

The AICPA commenced initiatives on such things as Systrust. To my knowledge most of these initiatives bit the dust, although some CPA firms might be making money by assuring Eldercare services.

The counter argument to Bob Elliot’s initiatives is that CPA firms had no comparative advantages in expertise in their new ventures just as railroads had few comparative advantages in trucking and airline transportation industries, although the concept of piggy backing of truck trailers eventually caught on.

I still have copies of Bob’s great VCR tapes, but I doubt that these have ever been digitized. Bob could sell refrigerators to Eskimos.

September 21, 2010 reply from Roger Debreceny [roger@DEBRECENY.COM]

Isn't interesting that the pwc video has nothing at all to say about protection of the investor or maintenance of the public interest. It is all about value for the client. The client gets mentioned at least a dozen times -- investors and the public, zero times.

If these are truly the internalized values of the firm, we're sure to have more audit failures in coming years.

<sigh>

Roger

September 22, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Roger,

 In 1998, Bob Elliott argued that financial audits were destined in the 21st Century to be money losing assurance services ---
http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/saxe/saxe_1998/elliott_98.ht
This is a great lecture that can be debated in various accounting courses, notably AIS, Ethics, and Auditing courses.

Sarbox (Sarbanes, SOX) revived the profitability of financial audits but possibly not for long as worldwide lawsuits commence to take their toll on the auditing firms.
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

A key point made by Bob Elliott is that expansion of assurance services (e.g., SysTrust and Eldercare) is levered on the public image of CPA firms’ high integrity and professional responsibility. After this shining public image of CPA firms’ integrity and professional responsibility was tarnished since the turn of the Century, the question becomes what comparative advantages do CPA firms have that gives them comparative advantage. If you believe Francine, there’s not much left for the largest auditing firms aside from an existing global network of offices, infrastructures, vast teams of lawyers, and whatever is left of a once-shining public image

Bob Jensen

September 22, 2010 reply from Francine McKenna re: The Auditors Blog [retheauditors@GMAIL.COM]

Bob, it's all about branding. If you look at what Deloitte now says on their new boilerplate legal language- they recently converted from Swiss Verein to UK private firm structure - you'll see that brand is king. "Deloitte is a brand..." It begins.

Deloitte has a consulting firm they never shed, PwC wants one bad and is counting on it to grow to pull the rest if the firm up. KPMG is trying to get back in. They were advertising their presence at Oracle Open World user conf. EY seems the only one laying low, but then again I predicted that. Time and money is being spent on lots of litigation and they have the whopper of the day-Lehman. Yes, we are back pre-2000 and no one is doing anything to stop it. In the UK the regulators and media are rattling sabers but in the US nada but me and a few others like Jim Peterson. The PCAOB has no powers to stop acquisitions like BearingPoint and Diamond by PwC that distract them and waste resources that should be spent on training and quality assurance.

Francine

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor independence and professional responsibility ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Professionalism


Intelligence Versus Work Ethics:  Comment on Some Psychometric Slides
"More on Psychometrics," Stephen Hsu, MIT's Technology Review, September 14, 2010 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/post.aspx?bid=354&bpid=25750&nlid=3505

I've had some email discussions elaborating on the psychometrics slides I posted earlier. The slides themselves don't convey a lot of the important points I made in the talks so I thought I'd share this message on the blog.
Hi Guys,

I'm very interested in exactly the question Henry is getting at.

I think our simple two factor model

Grades = ability + work ethic = IQ + W

is not too crazy. Note that once you fix the ability level (=SAT score) the remaining variance in GPA has about the same SD regardless of value of SAT score (vertical red lines in the big figure in the slides). That suggests that we can think of IQ and W as largely uncorrelated random variables -- so there are smart lazy people, hard working dumb people, etc. I can't really prove the residual variance after IQ is controlled for is due to work ethic, but my experience in the classroom suggests that it is. (Note work ethic here isn't necessary general work ethic as a personality factor, but how hard the kid worked in the specific course. However, in our data we average over many courses taken by many kids, so perhaps it does get at variation of personality factor(s) in the overall population.) Beyond work ethic, some people are just more "effective" -- they can get themselves organized, are disciplined, can adapt to new challenges, are emotionally robust -- and this is also absorbed in the W factor above.

Now, in some fields there seems to be a minimum cognitive threshold. I've known physics students who worked incredibly hard and just couldn't master the material. That is reflected in our data on pure math and physics majors at UO. For all majors there is a significant positive correlation between SAT and upper GPA (in the range .3-.5).

Whether IQ has a large impact on life outcomes depends on how you ask the question. I do believe that certain professions are almost off-limits for people below a certain IQ threshold. But for most jobs (even engineer or doctor), this threshold is surprisingly low IF the person has a strong work ethic. In other words a +1 SD IQ person can probably still be a doctor or engineer if they have +(2-3) SD work ethic. However, such people, if they are honest with themselves, understand that they have some cognitive disadvantages relative to their peers. I've chosen a profession in which, every so often, I am the dumbest guy in the room -- in fact I put myself in this situation by going to workshops and wanting to talk to the smartest guys I can find :-) For someone of *average* work ethic I think you can easily find jobs for which the IQ threshold is +2 SD or higher. The typical kid admitted to grad school in my middle-tier physics department is probably > +2 SD IQ and at least +1.5 SD in work ethic -- ditto for a top tier law or med school. That's probably also the case these days for any "academic admit" at a top Ivy.

For typical jobs I think the correlation between success/income and IQ isn't very high. Other factors come into play, like work ethic, interpersonal skills, affect, charisma, luck, etc. This may even be true in many "elite" professions once you are talking about a population where everyone is above the minimum IQ threshold -- if returns to IQ above threshold are not that large then the other factors dominate and determine level of success. What is interesting about the Roe and SMPY studies is that they suggest that in science the returns to IQ above the +2 SD threshold (for getting a PhD) are pretty high. ***

Henry is right that for ideological reasons many researchers are happy to present the data so as to minimize the utility of IQ or testing in making life predictions. They might even go so far as to claim that since we use g-loaded tests in admissions, the conclusion that some professions require high IQ is actually circular. The social scientist who walked out of my Sci Foo talk actually made that claim.

Finally, when it comes to *individual* success I think most analysts significantly underestimate the role of
pure blind luck (i.e., what remains when all other reasonable, roughly measurable variables have been accounted for; of course this averages out of any large population study). Or perhaps I am just reassuring myself about my limited success in life :-)


Steve

PS In the actual talks I gave I made most of these points. The slides are kind of bare bones.
..


*** You would be hard pressed to find someone in hard science who would disagree with the statement it is a big advantage in my field to be super smart. However, thanks to political correctness, social science indoctrination, or unfamiliarity with psychometrics, it IS common for scientists to deny that being super smart has anything to do with scores on IQ tests. I myself question the validity of IQ tests beyond +(3-4) SD -- I'm more impressed by success on the IMO, Putnam, or in other high level competitions. (Although I realize tha
t training has a big impact on performance in these competitions I do think real talent is a necessary condition for success.)

Jensen Comment
Our Iowa country-town school never had IQ tests so I will never know --- I don't think I would've tested really high. In college I graduated summa cum laude and had a GMAT sufficient for Stanford's PhD program.. Personally I think I overcame intelligence deficiencies with a work ethic. But it's interesting where I had strengths and deficiencies. I was an outstanding chemistry/botany student, a good math student (the A grades took extra effort), an outstanding Russian language/literature student, a struggling accounting student (got A grades and passed the CPA examination in my senior year with a lot of memorization), and a lousy physics student. Actually I never completed a single physics course since I was able to drop physics twice and substitute advanced chemistry.

I seriously contemplated majoring in chemistry and then going to medical school, but my parents really could not afford medical school, My PhD from Stanford was totally free thanks to the Ford Foundation (for four years) and the Arthur Andersen Foundation (Dissertation Grant for Year 5). Since I was already a CPA/MBA upon entering Stanford, my doctoral course work was mostly in operations research, economics, math, and statistics. I never once went near the physics building. And Paul Williams will tell you that I'm still deficient in philosophy.

I'm definitely a believer that a work ethic can move mountains (except in physics). But a few of my students over the years who had really exceptional work ethic just could not pull it off in graduate school. It really, really pained me to flunk them. Every time I pulled the records to check on their GMAT scores they all had scores at the bottom of their entering class. So there may be something revealing in GMAT scores.

One time at Michigan State I had to flunk the hardest working MBA student I ever met in my life. This really, really hurt me and him. He was the first person in his family to ever get an undergraduate degree. I still can't get him out of my head.

September 15, 2010 reply from AMY HAAS [haasfive@MSN.COM]

For a very interesting perspective on How important work effort is to success, read Outliers by Maxwell Gladwell. 

Amy

September 15, 2010 reply from Richard.Sansing [Richard.C.Sansing@TUCK.DARTMOUTH.EDU]

For another example on this theme, see "Talent is Overrated" by Geoffrey Colvin.

Richard

Bob Jensen's threads on learning and memory ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm


"Fibbing With Numbers," by Steven Strogatz, The New York Times, September 19, 2010 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/books/review/Strogatz-t.html?_r=1&hpw

Charles Seife is steaming mad about all the ways that numbers are being twisted to erode our democracy. We’re used to being lied to with words (“I am not a crook”; “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”). But numbers? They’re supposed to be cold, hard and objective. Numbers don’t lie, and they brook no argument. They’re the best kind of facts we have.

And that’s precisely why they can be so powerfully, persuasively misleading, as Seife argues in his passionate new book, “Proofiness.” Seife, a veteran science writer who teaches journalism at New York University, examines the many ways that people fudge with numbers, sometimes just to sell more moisturizer but also to ruin our economy, rig our elections, convict the innocent and undercount the needy. Many of his stories would be darkly funny if they weren’t so infuriating.

Although Seife never says so explicitly, the book’s title alludes to “truthiness” — the Word of the Year in 2005, according to the American Dialect Society, which defined it as “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.” The term was popularized by Stephen Colbert in the first episode of “The Colbert Report.” The numerical cousin of truthiness is proofiness: “the art of using bogus mathematical arguments to prove something that you know in your heart is true — even when it’s not.”

. . .

Falsifying numbers is the crudest form of proofiness. Seife lays out a rogues’ gallery of more subtle deceptions. “Potemkin numbers” are phony statistics based on erroneous or nonexistent calculations. Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion that only 0.027 percent of convicted felons are wrongly imprisoned was a Potemkin number derived from a prosecutor’s back-of-the-envelope estimate; more careful studies suggest the rate might be between 3 and 5 percent.

“Disestimation” involves ascribing too much meaning to a measurement, relative to the uncertainties and errors inherent in it. In the most provocative and detailed part of the book, Seife analyzes the recounting process in the astonishingly close 2008 Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. The winner, he claims, should have been decided by a coin flip; anything else is disestimation, considering that the observed errors in counting the votes were always much larger than the number of votes (roughly 200 to 300) separating the two candidates.

“Comparing apples and oranges” is another perennial favorite. The conservative Blue Dog Democrats indulged in it when they accused the Bush administration of borrowing more money from foreign governments in four years than had all the previous administrations in our nation’s history, combined. True enough, but only if one conveniently forgets to correct for inflation.

Seife is evenhanded about exposing the proofiness on both sides of the political aisle, though we all know who’s responsible for a vast majority of it: the other side.

He calls Al Gore to task for “cherry-picking” data about global warming. Although Seife doesn’t dispute that the warming is real and that human activities are to blame for a sizable portion of it, he chastises Gore for showing terrifying simulations of what would happen to Florida and Louisiana if sea levels were to rise by 20 feet, as could occur if the ice sheets in Greenland or West Antarctica were to melt almost completely. That possibility, while not out of the question, is generally considered an unlikely “very-worst-case” scenario, Seife writes.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration committed a more insidious form of proofiness when it crowed, in 2004, that its tax cuts would save the average family $1,586. This is technically correct, but deliberately misleading — a trick that Seife calls “apple polishing.” (Again with the fruit!) The average is the wrong measure to use when a set of numbers contains extreme outliers — in this case, the whopping refunds received by a very few, very wealthy families. In such situations, the average is far from typical. That’s why, paradoxical as it might seem, most families received less than $650.

In one of the book’s lighter moments, Seife even looks askance at the wholesome folks at Quaker Oats, who in addition to selling a “bland and relatively unappetizing product” once presented a graph that gave the visual impression that their “barely digestible oat fiber” was a “medicinal vacuum cleaner” that would reduce your cholesterol far more than it actually does. For the most part, though, he is deadly serious. A few other recent books have explored how easily we can be deceived — or deceive ourselves — with numbers. But “Proofiness” reveals the truly corrosive effects on a society awash in numerical mendacity. This is more than a math book; it’s an eye-opening civics lesson.

Steven Strogatz is a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell and a contributor to the Opinionator blog on NYTimes.com. He is the author, most recently, of “The Calculus of Friendship.”

Bob Jensen's threads on creative accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#Manipulation

Bob Jensen's Rotten to the Core threads are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on theory are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm


"Peer review highly sensitive to poor refereeing, claim researchers," Physics World, September 9, 2010 ---
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/43691
Thank you Roger Collins for the heads up.

Daniel Kennefick, a cosmologist at the University of Arkansas with a special interest in sociology, believes that the study exposes the vulnerability of peer review when referees are not accountable for their decisions. "The system provides an opportunity for referees to try to avoid embarrassment for themselves, which is not the goal at all," he says.

Kennefick feels that the current system also encourages scientists to publish findings that may not offer much of an advance. "Many authors are nowadays determined to achieve publication for publication's sake, in an effort to secure an academic position and are not particularly swayed by the argument that it is in their own interests not to publish an incorrect article."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Especially take note of the many and varied comments on this article.

Bob Jensen's threads on the peer review process are as follows:

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PeerReview

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#PeerReviewFlaws

http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm


Although now women lead in doctoral degree recipients, they account for only 39% of the new business doctoral recipients
"Women Lead in Doctorates," Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, September 14, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/14/doctorates

With female enrollments growing at all levels of higher education, doctoral degrees have been one area where men have continued to dominate. No more. New data being released today show that in 2008-9, for the first time ever, women earned a majority of the doctoral degrees awarded in the United States.

The data are part of an analysis of graduate enrollments and degrees from the Council of Graduate Schools. The majority for women in doctoral degrees is slight -- 50.4 percent. But the shift has been steady and significant. As recently as 2000, women were earning only 44 percent of doctoral degrees. In master's degrees, where women have already accounted for a majority of degrees, their share now stands at 60 percent.

Nathan Bell, director of research and policy analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools, said that the female majority for doctoral recipients was "a natural progression of what we have been seeing" in the rest of higher education. Given that female enrollments have overtaken male enrollments in associate, bachelor's and master's programs, he said, "the pipeline is increasingly female."

In fact, he said that the only reason that women did not become a majority of doctoral recipients earlier is that a greater share of doctoral degrees are awarded in fields like engineering that remain disproportionately male than is the case at the undergraduate level.

The majority for women in doctoral degrees is not seen in all disciplines. Only 22 percent of engineering doctorates in 2008-9 were awarded to women, and only 27 percent in mathematics and computer science. But the fields in which women now make up a majority go well beyond arts and humanities, and include health sciences and the biological sciences. Further, the rate of increase in doctoral awards for women outpaces that for men in all disciplines. Over all, women became the majority of new doctorate recipients in a year in which their numbers increased by 6.1 percent while male numbers increased by 1.0 percent.

For now, the odds of a new doctorate holder being male or female depend on the field studied:

The female percentages are likely to go up, if trends of the last 10 years continue. During that time, the average annual rate of increase in doctorates earned by women was 5.5 percent, more than twice the male percentage of 2.1 percent. While the size of that gap varies by discipline, it is present even in disciplines where the vast majority of doctorates today go to men.

Continued in article

 

"Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 1999 to 2009," Council of Graduate Schools, 2010 ---
http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/R_ED2009.pdf

A few quotations of possible interest:

The broad fields of education, business, and health sciences enrolled the largest numbers of first-time graduate students, with about half of all firsttime students enrolled in one of these three broad fields. The majority of all first-time graduate students in fall 2009 (85%) were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate. Sixty-four percent of all first-time graduate students were enrolled full-time in fall 2009. About 58% of all first-time graduate students in fall 2009 were women. Among first-time graduate students whose citizenship was known, 83% were U.S. citizens and permanent residents and 17% were temporary residents. Nearly one-quarter of all first-time graduate students were members of U.S. citizen and permanent resident racial/ethnic minority groups.
Page 10

More than half of all graduate students in fall 2009 were enrolled in programs in education, business, or health sciences. About three-quarters of all graduate students were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate.
Page 11

At the doctoral level, about 42% of all degrees awarded were in education, engineering, and biological and agricultural sciences. At the master’s degree level, education and business were the largest broad fields, accounting for 51% of all master’s degrees awarded in 2008-09. Women earned about two-thirds of the graduate certificates awarded in 2008-09, 60% of the master’s degrees, and 50.4% of the doctorates. Academic year 2008-09 marked the first year ever that women earned the majority of the degrees awarded at the doctoral level.
Page 12

Business, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences accounted for the largest numbers of graduate applications in fall 2009 (Table 2.2. Fortyone percent of all graduate applications
Page 18

Page 40

 

Page 108

Bob Jensen's threads on gender differences in higher education are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GenderSalaryDifferences


Need Some Inspiration to be a better Teacher?
Joe Hoyle recommends that you watch a particular film
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2010/09/need-some-inspiration.html


"Effort to 'Change the Equation' on Science Education," Inside Higher Ed, September 17, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/17/qt#238407

President Obama on Thursday announced the launch of "Change the Equation," a new nonprofit organization, led by corporate CEOs, to promote improvements in science education. The new organization will seek to replicate various successful efforts so that they can spread to many more schools and localities. Among the areas of emphasis: expose more school-age students to robotics, improve professional development for math and science teachers and increase the number of students who take and achieve good test scores on Advanced Placement courses in math and science. The new organization also plans to create a state-by-state scorecard on efforts to improve science education

Jensen Comment
The bit about introducing edutainment (robotics) to motivate students to major in science reminds me of several reasons for using edutainment in some courses.

The biggest conflict is that the best kinds of learning are often at odds with the most fun kinds of learning, especially for relatively mature students who often get more out of pain than pleasure ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
For young children pain may be more of a turn off to learning in general.  Mature students are more likely to endure pain that is more efficient and effective to their goals such as better preparation for graduate studies, passing a certification examination such as the CPA examination, landing a job, improving performance on after landing a job, and being better able to teach and do research a complicated topic.


But in science for K-12, President Obama's launch of  "Change the Equation," is right on target.


I've not been a huge fan of the Harvard Business Review ever since, years ago, it refused to publish my technical corrections to an article dealing with discounted cash flow and real estate valuation. Coincidentally the author was a wealthy Harvard alumnus.

Be that as it may I still scan the HBR and its blog regularly. Here's a blog item worth noting ---
"HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials" --- Click Here
http://hbr.org/product/hbr-s-10-must-reads-the-essentials/an/13292-PDF-ENG?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

Your library might have hard copy versions in the stacks and/or electronic access via database passwords.


When Love Can Be Hazardous
"Gen Y's Most Perilous Trait?" by Andrew McAfee, Harvard Business Review Blog, September 14, 2010 --- Click Here
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/mcafee/2010/09/a-few-years-back-i.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date


Expensive Underwear:  Ex-Dean Accused of Stealing $1 Million From St. John’s
Among the many jobs performed by college administrators, Cecilia Chang’s was at once challenging and glamorous. As dean of the Institute of Asian Studies at St. John’s University in Queens, she traveled the world soliciting donations, luring potential contributors with sumptuous meals, entertainment and gifts, all of it paid for by the college. Her expenses sometimes reached $50,000 a month.  . . . On Wednesday, Ms. Chang, 57, was arrested at her 15-room colonial in Jamaica Estates and accused of embezzling about $1 million from the university, money that prosecutors said she used to pay for lingerie, trips to casinos and her son’s tuition bills . . .   As part of her scheme, prosecutors said, Ms. Chang siphoned a $250,000 donation from a Saudi prince’s foundation into a nonprofit organization she had created ostensibly for the university but that, in fact, was a personal piggy bank.
Fernanda Santos, "Ex-Dean Accused of Stealing $1 Million From St. John’s," Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2010 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/nyregion/16scam.html?_r=1&hpw

Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


"A Measure of Education Is Put to the Test Results of national exam will go public in 2012," by David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2010 --- http://chronicle.com/article/A-Measure-of-Learning-Is-Put/124519/

You have 90 minutes to complete this test.

Here is your scenario: You are the assistant to a provost who wants to measure the quality of your university's general-education program. Your boss is considering adopting the Collegiate Learning Assessment, or CLA, a national test that asks students to demonstrate their ability to synthesize evidence and write persuasively.

The CLA is used at more than 400 colleges. Since its debut a decade ago, it has been widely praised as a sophisticated alternative to multiple-choice tests. At some colleges, its use has helped spark sweeping changes in instruction and curriculum. And soon, many more of the scores will be made public.

But skeptics say the test is too detached from the substantive knowledge that students are actually expected to acquire. Others say those who take the test have little motivation to do well, which makes it tough to draw conclusions from their performance.

You may review the following documents:

Graphs of Collegiate Learning Assessment scores on the University of Texas system's campuses over a four-year period. An essay in which an assistant provost at a flagship campus describes her "grave concerns" about using CLA scores to compare different colleges. A report in which the CLA's creators reply to their critics. Your task: Write a two-page memorandum to your boss that describes and analyzes the major arguments for and against adopting the CLA. When you have finished, please hand your materials to the proctor and leave the room quietly.

It is easy to see why the test format that you just tasted has been so appealing to many people in higher education. The CLA is a direct measure of skills, in contrast to surveys about how much time students spend studying or how much they believe they have learned. And unlike multiple-choice-based measures of learning, the CLA aspires to capture a student's ability to make an argument and to interpret multiple types of evidence. Those skills are close to the heart of a liberal-arts education.

"Everything that No Child Left Behind signified during the Bush administration—we operate 180 degrees away from that," says Roger Benjamin, president of the Council for Aid to Education, which developed and promotes the CLA. "We don't want this to be a high-stakes test. We're putting a stake in the ground on classic liberal-arts issues. I'm willing to rest my oar there. These core abilities, these higher-order skills, are very important, and they're even more important in a knowledge economy where everyone needs to deal with a surplus of information." Only an essay test, like the CLA, he says, can really get at those skills.

Richard J. Shavelson, an educational psychologist at Stanford University and one of the CLA's creators, makes a similar point in his recent book, Measuring College Learning Responsibly: Accountability in a New Era (Stanford University Press). "If you want to find out not only whether a person knows the laws governing driving but also whether she can actually drive a car," he writes, "don't judge her performance solely with a multiple-choice test. Rather, also administer a behind-the-wheel driving test."

"The CLA is really an authentic assessment process," says Pedro Reyes, associate vice chancellor for academic planning and assessment at the University of Texas system. "The Board of Regents here saw that it would be an important test because it measures analytical ability, problem-solving ability, critical thinking, and communication. Those are the skills that you want every undergraduate to walk away with." (Other large systems that have embraced the CLA include California State University and the West Virginia system.)

One feature that appealed to Mr. Reyes and his colleagues is that the CLA typically reports scores on a "value added" basis, controlling for the scores that students earned on the SAT or ACT while in high school. In raw terms, the highest scores in the Texas system are at Austin and Dallas, the most-selective campuses. But in value-added terms, it appears that students at San Antonio and El Paso make stronger gains between their freshman and senior years.

The CLA's overseers, however, say they do not want colleges to become overly concerned with bean-counting and comparing public scores. Instead, they emphasize the ways in which colleges can use their own CLA scores to experiment with improved models of instruction. Since 2007, Mr. Benjamin's organization has invested heavily in "performance-task academies," which encourage colleges to add CLA-style assignments to their liberal-arts courses.

One campus that has gone down that road is the University of Evansville, where first-year-experience courses have begun to ask students to do performance tasks.

"We began by administering a retired CLA question, a task that had to do with analyzing crime-reduction strategies," says Brian R. Ernsting, an associate professor of biology at Evansville. "We talked with the students about the modes of thinking that were involved there, how to distinguish correlation from causation and anecdotes from data."

Similar things are happening at Pacific Lutheran University. "Our psychology department is working on a performance task that mirrors the CLA, but that also incorporates disciplinary content in psychology," says Karen E. McConnell, director of assessment. "They're planning to make that part of their senior capstone course."

How to Interpret the Scores? Mr. Ernsting and Ms. McConnell are perfectly sincere about using CLA-style tasks to improve instruction on their campuses. But at the same time, colleges have a less high-minded motive for familiarizing students with the CLA style: It just might improve their scores when it comes time to take the actual test.

And that matters, in turn, because by 2012, the CLA scores of more than 100 colleges will be posted, for all the world to see, on the "College Portrait" Web site of the Voluntary System of Accountability, an effort by more than 300 public colleges and universities to provide information about life and learning on their campuses. (Not all of the colleges have adopted the CLA. Some use the Educational Testing Service's "Proficiency Profile," and others use the ACT's Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency.)

A few dozen colleges in the voluntary project, including those in the Texas system, have already made their test scores public. But for most, the 2012 unveiling will be a first.

"If a college pays attention to learning and helps students develop their skills—whether they do that by participating in our programs or by doing things on their own—they probably should do better on the CLA," says Marc Chun, a research scientist at the Council for Aid to Education. Such improvements, he says, are the main point of the project.

But that still raises a question: If familiarizing students with CLA-style tasks does raise their scores, then the CLA might not be a pure, unmediated reflection of the full range of liberal-arts skills. How exactly should the public interpret the scores of colleges that do not use such training exercises?

Trudy W. Banta, a professor of higher education and senior adviser to the chancellor for academic planning and evaluation at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, believes it is a serious mistake to publicly release and compare scores on the test. There is too much risk, she says, that policy makers and the public will misinterpret the numbers.

"Standardized tests of generic skills—I'm not talking about testing in the major—are so much a measure of what students bring to college with them that there is very little variance left out of which we might tease the effects of college," says Ms. Banta, who is a longtime critic of the CLA. "There's just not enough variance there to make comparative judgments about the comparative quality of institutions."

Compounding that problem, she says, is the fact that most colleges do not use a true longitudinal model: That is, the students who take the CLA in their first year do not take it again in their senior year. The test's value-added model is therefore based on a potentially apples-and-oranges comparison.

The test's creators reply that they have solved that problem by doing separate controls for the baseline skills of freshman test-takers and senior test-takers. That is, the freshman test-takers' scores are assessed relative to their SAT and ACT scores, and so are senior test-takers' scores. For that reason, colleges cannot game the test by recruiting an academically weak pool of freshmen and a strong pool of seniors.

Another concern is that students do not always have much motivation to take the test seriously. That problem is especially challenging with seniors, who are typically recruited to take the CLA toward the end of their final semester, when they can already taste the graduation champagne. Who at that stage of college wants to carefully write a 90-minute essay that isn't required for any course?

For that reason, many colleges have had to come up with elaborate incentives to get students to take the test at all. (See the graphic below.) A recent study at Central Connecticut State University found that students' scores were highly correlated with how long they had spent writing their essays.

Take My Test — Please The Collegiate Learning Assessment has been widely praised. But it involves an arduous 90 minutes of essay writing. As a result, many colleges have resorted to incentives and requirements to get students to take the test, and to take it seriously.

As of last week, there were some significant bugs in the presentation of CLA scores on the College Portrait Web site. Of the few dozen universities that had already chosen to publish CLA data on that site, roughly a quarter of the reports appeared to include erroneous descriptions of the year-to-year value-added scores. In some cases, the errors made the universities' gains appear better than they actually were. In other cases, they made them seem worse.

Seniors at California State University at Bakersfield, for example, had CLA scores that were 155 points higher than freshmen's, while the two cohorts' SAT scores were similar. The College Portrait site said that the university's score gains were "below what would be expected." The University of Missouri at St. Louis, meanwhile, had senior scores that were only 64 points higher than those of freshmen, and those two cohorts had identical ACT scores. But those score gains were reported as "well above what would be expected."

"It doesn't make sense, what's presented here," said Stephen Klein, the CLA's director of research and development, when The Chronicle pointed out such discrepancies. "This doesn't look like something we would produce." Another official at the Council for Aid to Education confirmed that at least three of the College Portrait reports were incorrect, and said there appeared to be systematic problems with the site's presentation of the data.

As The Chronicle went to press, the Voluntary System of Accountability's executive director, Christine M. Keller, said her office would identify and fix any errors. The forms that institutions fill out for the College Portrait, she said, might be confusing for administrators because they do not always mirror the way the CLA itself (and the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency and ETS's Proficiency Profile) present their official data. In any case, Ms. Keller said, a revised version of the College Portrait site is scheduled to go online in December.

It is clear that CLA scores do reflect some broad properties of a college education. In a study for their forthcoming book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press), the sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa asked students at 24 colleges to take the CLA during their first semester and then again during their fourth. Their study was conducted before any significant number of colleges began to consciously use CLA-style exercises in the classroom.

The two authors found one clear pattern: Students' CLA scores improved if they took courses that required a substantial amount of reading and writing. Many students didn't take such courses, and their CLA scores tended to stay flat.

The pattern was consistent across the ability spectrum: Regardless of whether a student's CLA scores were generally low or high, their scores were more likely to improve if they had taken demanding college courses.

So there is at least one positive message in Mr. Arum and Ms. Roksa's generally gloomy book. Colleges that make demands on students can actually develop their skills on the kinds of things measured by the CLA.

"We found that students in traditional liberal-arts fields performed and improved more over time on the CLA," says Mr. Arum, a professor at New York University. "In other fields, in education, business, and social work, they didn't do so well. Some of that gap we can trace back to time spent studying. That doesn't mean that students in education and business aren't acquiring some very valuable skills. But at the same time, the communication and reasoning skills measured by the CLA really are important to everyone."

Dueling Purposes For more than a century, scholars have had grand visions of building national tests for measuring college-level learning. Mr. Shavelson, of Stanford, sketches several of those efforts in his book, including a 1930s experiment that tested thousands of students at colleges throughout Pennsylvania. (Sample question: "Of Corneille's plays, 1. Polyeucte, 2. Horace, 3. Cinna, 4. Le Cid shows least the influence of classical restraint.")

Mr. Shavelson believes the CLA's essays and "performance tasks" offer an unusually sophisticated way of measuring what colleges do, without relying too heavily on factual knowledge from any one academic field. But in his book he also notes the tension between the two basic uses of nationally normed tests: Sometimes they're used for internal improvements, and sometimes they're used as benchmarks for external comparisons. Those two uses don't always sit easily together. Politicians and consumers want easily interpretable scores, while colleges need subtler and more detailed data to make internal improvements.

Can the CLA fill both of those roles? That is the experiment that will play out as more colleges unveil their scores.

Teaching to the Test Somewhat
"An Assessment Test Inspires Tools for Teaching," by David Glenn. Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/An-Assessment-Test-Inspires/124537/

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm


"Smart Phones that Know Their Users by How They Walk:  Biometric security is obtrusive--unless it's on all the time, analyzing your gait," MIT's Technology Review, September 16. 2010 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/25767/?nlid=3518

Jensen Comment
I wonder if you have to feed in reference points after having each Martini 1, Martini 2, Martini 3, Martini 4 (after that I can't walk)?

Do you have to read in different gait for different drinks --- Cubalibra, Long Island Tea (a killer), Gimlet, Margarita, Daiquiri, Merlot, etc.?


From the Scout Report on September 17, 2010

Google Chrome 6.0.472.59 --- http://www.google.com/chrome 

Google's well-known web browser Chrome has received a number of significant upgrades over the past two years, and this latest version is worth a look. This version provides a stable upgrade from the beta version and features an auto-update feature and automatic translation of web pages. Also, the "Under the Hood" tab features a number of new privacy settings, and built-in plug- ins for Adobe Flash and the Chrome pdf reader. This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP and newer, and Linux.


Earth Alerts 2010.2.4 --- http://earthalerts.manyjourneys.com/ 

Looking out for an earthquake? Concerned about a tsunami? All of these natural disasters and their ilk can be effectively monitored with this application. Earth Alerts draws on a variety of online resources to effectively track specific natural hazards around the globe, and users just need to pick the hazards and locations that are of prime interest. It's a rather interesting application, and it is compatible with computers running Windows XP and newer.


Controversial artist Damien Hirst experiences a setback (of sorts) The art market: Hands up for Hirst
http://www.economist.com/node/16990811 

Damien Hirst in plagiarism row - does it really matter?
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100912/ART/709119970 

Art may yet imitate life with Lehman Brothers' auction (Free registration may be required)
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2010-09-13/art-may-yet-imitate-life-with-lehman-brothers-auction  

Damien Hirst Online --- http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hirst_damien.html 

Art + Auction --- http://www.artinfo.com/artandauction/ 

Sotheby's --- http://www.sothebys.com/


Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance, economics, and statistics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks


Education Tutorials

Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:  The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm

Cosmos and Culture (science) --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/  

Maine Humanities Council [iTunes, pdf] --- http://mainehumanities.org/index.php

Find a College
College Atlas --- http://www.collegeatlas.org/
Among other things the above site provides acceptance rate percentages
Online Distance Education Training and Education --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud  (College, Inc.) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud

Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Cosmos and Culture (science) --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/  

Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation [Flash Player] --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/

Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Science


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

Video:  Behavioral economics humor on Conan: Anchoring on a reference point ---
http://nudges.org/2010/09/15/behavioral-economics-humor-anchoring-on-a-reference-point/

Maine Humanities Council [iTunes, pdf] --- http://mainehumanities.org/index.php

Creating Communities --- http://creatingcommunities-denverlibrary.org/

Lewis Hine Collection (historical photographs of immigrants, children, and poverty) ---  http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/hine.php

Indiana Humanities Council: Food for Thought --- http://www.indianahumanities.org/foodforthought/index.php

Food Timeline --- http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html

Food Research And Action Center --- http://www.frac.org/index.html

Cosmos and Culture (science) --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/  

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology: Delphi Collections Browser --- http://pahma.berkeley.edu/delphi/ 

Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation [Flash Player] --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/

Fulfilling a Prophecy: The Past and Present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania (native American history)  ---
http://www.penn.museum/sites/fap/index.shtml

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Social


Law and Legal Studies

Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law


Math Tutorials

Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:  The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics


History Tutorials

Cosmos and Culture (science) --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/  

Guggenheim: Interact [Real Player, Flash Player] --- http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact

PBS: Circus --- http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/

Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson

Harvard Profession Video:   Niall Ferguson: Empires on the Edge of Chaos ---
http://fora.tv/2010/07/28/Niall_Ferguson_Empires_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos

Call it the fatal arithmetic of imperial decline. Without radical fiscal reform, it could apply to America next.
Niall Ferguson, "An Empire at Risk:  How Great Powers Fail," Newsweek Magazine Cover Story, November 26, 2009 --- http://www.newsweek.com/id/224694/page/1
Please note that this is NBC’s liberal Newsweek Magazine and not Fox News or The Wall Street Journal.

Creating Communities --- http://creatingcommunities-denverlibrary.org/

The Sousa Archives and Center For American Music --- http://www.library.illinois.edu/sousa/

Electronic Poetry Center [iTunes]  --- http://epc.buffalo.edu/

Off the Page [iTunes poetry] --- http://poetry.eprints.org/

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology: Delphi Collections Browser --- http://pahma.berkeley.edu/delphi/ 

Never Lost: Polynesian Navigation [Flash Player] --- http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/

Fulfilling a Prophecy: The Past and Present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania (native American history)  ---
http://www.penn.museum/sites/fap/index.shtml

Jewish Archives Collection --- http://content.lib.washington.edu/jhpweb/

North American Jewish Data Bank --- http://www.jewishdatabank.org/default.as

The Association of Jewish Libraries --- http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/

Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Community --- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/n/ncjw/

Lewis Hine Collection (historical photographs of immigrants, children, and poverty) ---  http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/hine.php

Detroit Public Television's American Black Journal --- http://abj.matrix.msu.edu/

F&M Pennsylvania German Broadside Collection (German American History) --- http://dspace.nitle.org/handle/10090/4701

Interborough Rapid Transit Company Subway Posters ---
http://diglib.princeton.edu/xquery?_xq=getCollection&_xsl=collection&_pid=mc085-ivylee

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  


Language Tutorials

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages


Music Tutorials

The Sousa Archives and Center For American Music --- http://www.library.illinois.edu/sousa/

Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Music

Swan Lake (China) --- http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm


Writing Tutorials

Do as I says, not as I does!
I'll be the first to admit that I make a lot of grammar mistakes on quickly-fired off messages and postings to my Website that I did not even proof read in my rush to get more things done. But the following grammar mistakes on the Read/Write Blog disturb me more from a fundamental grammar problem in society as a whole --- the mixing of singular nouns with plural verbs and vice versa. Countless people make these errors even after proof reading! Particularly troubling is the use of the word data as either singular or plural. Also the name of a company is singular but is often used with a plural verb. I find these two types of examples particularly annoying.

"Big Java Joins the Age of Big Memory," by Alex Williams, Read/Write Blog, September 14, 2010
http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/09/big-java-joins-the-age-of-big.php

Terracotta is trying to solve one of the biggest issues for Java developers. It's called garbage collection. And it wastes time. It can makes a mess of big data, causing all kinds of latency issues.

Terracotta says they solved the issue by creating their own memory manager. The product, called Big Memory, pushes the data into the cache. Traditional trash collectors will store the data in a tree format. The data is networked to different nodes on the tree. Terracotta uses the cache so all trash goes into memory. Instead of a tree, the trash looks like a huge map.

Continued in article

September 14, 2010 reply from Amy Dunbar [Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]

I struggle with whether I should treat a paper as singular or plural when there are multiple authors. For example, A, B, and C (2009) state or states?

Amy Dunbar
UConn

September 14, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen

Good point,

Dunbar et al. state or states?

I think plural is best (wink)

Bob Jensen

Bob Jensen's tutorials and other helpers for writers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries


Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/

September 15, 2010

September 16, 2010

September 17, 2010

September 18, 2010

September 20, 2010

September 21, 2010


TED Video on Our Natural Sleep Cycle ---
http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html




From Maxine

MY LIVING WILL Last night, my kids and I were sitting in the living room and I said to them, 'I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.'

They got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out my wine.

They are SO on my shit list ...

1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.

2. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

3. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.

4. I used to have a handle on life,but it broke .

5. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.

6. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder .

8. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe .

9. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.

10. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes .

11. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.

12. God must love stupid people; He made so many.

13. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

14. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

15. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

16. Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!

17. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up .

18 . Procrastinate Now!

19. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?

20. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

21. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

22. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!

23. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken .

24 . He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.

25. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.

26 . Ham and eggs... A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig. (how true)

27. The trouble with life is there's no background music .

28. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

29. I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on .

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends! Life is too short and friends are too few !


Forwarded by Dick Haar,

In the dead of summer a fly was resting on a leaf beside a lake. A hot, dry fly who said to no one in particular, "Gosh, if I go down three inches, I will feel the mist from the water and I will be refreshed."

There was a fish in the water thinking, "Gosh, if that fly goes down three inches I can eat him."

There was a bear on the shore thinking, "Gosh, if that fly goes down three inches, that fish will jump for the fly, and I will eat him."

It also happened that a hunter was farther up the bank of the lake preparing to eat a cheese sandwich. "Gosh," he thought, "if that fly goes down three inches, and that fish leaps for it, that bear will expose himself and grab for the fish. I'll shoot the bear and then have a proper trophy."

You probably think this is enough activity for one bank of a lake, but I can tell you there was more.

A wee mouse by the hunter's foot was thinking, "Gosh, if that fly goes down three inches, and that fish jumps for that fly, and that bear grabs for that fish, the dumb hunter will shoot the bear and drop his cheese sandwich."

A cat lurking in the bushes took in this scene and thought, as was fashionable to do on the banks of this particular lake around lunch time, "Gosh, if that fly goes down three inches, and that fish jumps for that fly, and that bear grabs for that fish, and that hunter shoots that bear, and that mouse makes off with the cheese sandwich, then I can have mouse for lunch."

The poor fly is finally so hot and so dry that he heads down for the cooling mist of the water, The fish swallows the fly, The bear grabs the fish, The hunter shoots the bear, The mouse grabs the cheese sandwich, The cat jumps for the mouse, The mouse ducks, and The cat falls into the water and drowns.

This is a bit like when a researcher has a seminal discover that pushes the knowledge bound three inches.


Forwarded by Gene and Joan

While creating Husbands, God promised Women that good and ideal Husbands would be found in all corners of the world.

And then God made the earth round.


Forwarded by Paula

The Manitoba Herald, Canada, as Reported by Clive Runnels, August 26, 2010

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and to agree with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. "I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?"

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields. "Not real effective," he said. "The liberals still got through and Rush annoyed the cows so much that they wouldn't give any milk."

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons and drive them across the border where they are simply left to fend for themselves." A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a single bottle of imported drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley Cabernet, though." When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR races.

In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans in powdered wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed seniors by asking questions about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the '50s. "If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age." an official said. Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and are renting all the Michael Moore movies. "I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them." an Ottawa resident said. How many art-history majors does one country need?"

In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Biden met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals. A source close to President Obama said, "We're going to have some Paul McCartney and Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might even put some endangered species on postage stamps. The President is determined to reach out." he said. The Herald will be interested to see if Obama can actually raise Mary from the dead in time for the concert.

 




Tidbits Archives --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/

Find a College
College Atlas --- http://www.collegeatlas.org/
Among other things the above site provides acceptance rate percentages
Online Distance Education Training and Education --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud  (College, Inc.) --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

 

World Clock --- http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/

Interesting Online Clock and Calendar --- http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones --- http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) --- http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
         Also see http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
        
Facts about population growth (video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth --- http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq --- http://www.costofwar.com/ 
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons --- http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.

Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle --- http://cpareviewforfree.com/

Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at http://iaed.wordpress.com/

Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social Networking ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm 
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials

Accounting program news items for colleges are posted at http://www.accountingweb.com/news/college_news.html
Sometimes the news items provide links to teaching resources for accounting educators.
Any college may post a news item.

Accountancy Discussion ListServs:

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM (Educators)  http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/ 
AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc

Roles of a ListServ --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
 

CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ 
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.
Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.
AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1 
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.
Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com 
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM

Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) --- http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm

 

Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Some Accounting History Sites

Bob Jensen's Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
 

Accounting History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) --- http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.

MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting --- http://maaw.info/

Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/

Sage Accounting History --- http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269

A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005 --- http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 --- http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm 

A nice timeline of accounting history --- http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING

From Texas A&M University
Accounting History Outline --- http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html

Bob Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds

History of Fraud in America --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

 

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone:  603-823-8482 
Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu