Tidbits on September 8, 2011
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

This week I feature my favorite photographs of Erika's domestic roses
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Roses/Domestic/Set01/DomesticRosesSet01.htm  

 

I must thank Professor Albrecht for the honor.
"Prof Albrecht’s Most Influential," by David Albrecht, The Summa, August 28, 2011 ---
http://profalbrecht.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/profalbrechts-most-influential/

 

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Blogs of White Mountain Hikers (many great photographs) ---
http://www.blogger.com/profile/02242409292439585691

Especially note the archive of John Compton's blogs at the bottom of the page at
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/

Question
Are their trails in our White Mountains of New Hampshire that have ice in summer as well as winter?
See "The Ice Gulch, Would I do it Again" by John Compton, August 5, 2011 ---
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/2011_08_05_archive.html

Okay, you might ask, is there really ice in the Ice Gulch, even in August? Yes, there is! The next photo shows one small patch of ice. There were many larger patches, but they were at the bottom of some of those deep gaps that I mentioned above. I took some photos, but none of them really turned out, even with using a flash to illuminate these dark, dank, deep spots.

 White Mountain News --- http://www.whitemtnews.com/

 

"Say goodbye to cavities: New gel could help your teeth fix themselves," (see tidbit below)

 

Tidbits on September 8, 2011
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/.


Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   


Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/




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

Demonstration of an optical illusion by an MIT professor --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/mit_checker_shadow_illusion.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Marlene Dietrich Screen Tests for The Blue Angel (1929) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/marlene_dietrich_screen_tests_for_the_blue_angel.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Destino: The Salvador Dalí – Disney Collaboration 57 Years in the Making --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/destinodalidisney.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Enlightened Muslim, explains he has been ill, and then he begins to speak eloquently in Toronto and wisely about the problems facing us and other countries and how we are losing our freedom in silence ---
http://www.livestream.com/ideacity/video?clipId=flv_fd017d81-dc18-42cc-821a-18b86fdea840

Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame sings "The Elements" ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs&feature=youtu.be

Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" animated  ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Much more seriously
The Periodic Table of Videos --- http://www.periodicvideos.com/

Download Free Courses from Top Philosophers: From Bertrand Russell to Michel Foucault --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/stars_of_philosophy_offer_free_courses_online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of free lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

American Geological Institute: Educational Resources [included earth science promo videos] ---  http://www.agiweb.org/education/resource/

Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Future in 1964 … And Kind of Nails It --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/09/arthur_c_clarke_looks_into_the_future_1964.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
What Clarke admits he failed to predict was the worldwide explosion in cell phone technology.


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

Taps (beautiful) --- http://www.flixxy.com/trumpet-solo-melissa-venema.htm

Sing About Science --- http://www.singaboutscience.org/

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

The Guardian’s Guide to Opera (and Free Opera Until Sept. 12) --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/the_guardians_introduction_to_opera_and_free_opera_until_sept_12.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

'Porgy And Bess': Messing With A Classic ---
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/21/139784251/porgy-and-bess-messing-with-a-classic

Mozart's Sister --- http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/08/22/139847160/picturing-nannerl-a-new-film-about-mozarts-silenced-sister

Partner Content from WGBH (complete concert) --- http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134765307/cellist-wendy-warner-in-a-russian-mood

The Banjo's Roots, Reconsidered --- http://www.npr.org/sections/music-news/

Hear the world premiere recording of Philippe Gaubert's rare ballet Le Chevalier et la Damoiselle ---
http://www.npr.org/music/genres/classical/

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

The Search for Cleopatra --- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/cleopatra/brown-text

George Handy Bates Samoan Papers (and photographs) --- http://fletcher.lib.udel.edu/collections/bsp/

Miami Art Museum [Flash Player] --- http://www.miamiartmuseum.org/

Tse-Tsung Chow Collection of Chinese Scrolls and Fan Paintings --- http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/scroll/

National Portrait Gallery: Asian American Portraits of Encounter --- http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/encounter/

Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) Archives, 1885-1990s --- http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/oaaaarchives/

Mathematical Imagery --- http://www.ams.org/mathimagery/thumbnails.php?album=28#galleries

2010 Found Math Gallery --- http://www.maa.org/FoundMath/FMgallery10.html

William P. Palmer III Collection [pre-Columbian and Northwest Coas] --- http://library.umaine.edu/hudson/palmer/

Photography of Homer L. Shantz (botany) --- http://uair.arizona.edu/item/274074

Spode Exhibition Online (pottery and art history) --- http://www.winterthur.org/?p=824

Apple’s Steve Jobs: A decade in pictures --- http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apples-steve-jobs-a-decade-in-pictures-2010-12-08

The City That Time Forgot --- http://vlm32.com/savedHTML_2/thecitythattimeforgot.html

Burgert Brothers Collection of Tampa Photographs --- http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=86148&sid=640824#

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

Literature Brings the Physical Past to Life ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Literature-Brings-the-Physical/128706/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

The Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764-1765 --- http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/sally/

Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages --- http://www.bartleby.com/89/

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 8, 2011
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2011/TidbitsQuotations090811.htm           

The booked National Debt on August 21, 2011 was slightly over $14 trillion ---
U.S. National Debt Clock --- http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

The January 2010 Booked National Debt Plus Unbooked Entitlements Debt
The GAO estimated $76 trillion Present Value in January 2010  unless something drastic is done.
Click Here |
 http://www.pgpf.org/~/media/PGPF/Media/PDF/2010/03/fiscalsustainabilityGAONationsLongTermFiscalOutlook03032010.ashx?pid={97E10657-8193-4455-871C-4E7A6A9EE084}
 

There are many ways to describe the federal government’s long-term fiscal challenge. One method for capturing the challenge in a single number is to measure the “fiscal gap.” The fiscal gap represents the difference, or gap, between revenue and spending in present value terms over a certain period, such as 75 years, that would need to be closed in order to achieve a specified debt level (e.g., today’s debt to GDP ratio) at the end of the period.2 From the fiscal gap, one can calculate the size of action needed—in terms of tax increases, spending reductions, or, more likely, some combination of the two—to close the gap; that is, for debt as a share of GDP to equal today’s ratio at the end of the period. For example, under our Alternative simulation, the fiscal gap is 9.0 percent of GDP (or a little over $76 trillion in present value dollars) (see table 2). This means that revenue would have to increase by about 50 percent or noninterest spending would have to be reduced by 34 percent on average over the next 75 years (or some combination of the two) to keep debt at the end of the period from exceeding its level at the beginning of 2010 (53 percent of GDP).

 

Peter G. Peterson Website on Deficit/Debt Solutions ---
http://www.pgpf.org/

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




"An Idea from My Boss" (former AAA President Nancy Bagranoff), by Joe Hoyle, Teaching-Getting the Most from Your Students. September 2, 2011 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2011/09/idea-from-my-boss.html

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


Competency-Based Assessment --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/competency.htm

There are a few really noteworthy competency-based distance education programs including Western Governors University (WGU) and the Chartered Accountancy School of Business (CASB)  in Canada. But these compentency-based programs typically have assigned instructors and bear the costs of those instructors. The instructors, however, do not assign grades to students.

It appears that the Southern New Hampshire University (a private institution) is taking competency-based distance education to a new level by eliminating the instructors. It should be noted that SNHU has both an onsite campus and online degree programs.

"Online Education Is Everywhere. What’s the Next Big Thing?" by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-education-is-everywhere-whats-the-next-big-thing/32898?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

. . .

The vision is that students could sign up for self-paced online programs with no conventional instructors. They could work at their own speeds through engaging online content that offers built-in assessments, allowing them to determine when they are ready to move on. They could get help through networks of peers who are working on the same courses; online discussions could be monitored by subject experts. When they’re ready, students could complete a proctored assessment, perhaps at a local high school, or perhaps online. The university’s staff could then grade the assessment and assign credit.

And the education could be far cheaper, because there would be no expensive instructor and students could rely on free, open educational resources rather than expensive textbooks. Costs to the student might include the assessment and the credits.

“The whole model hinges on excellent assessment, a rock-solid confidence that the student has mastered the student-learning outcomes,” the memo says. “If we know with certainty that they have, we should no longer care if they raced through the course or took 18 months, or if they worked on their courses with the support of a local church organization or community center or on their own. The game-changing idea here is that when we have assessment right, we should not care how a student achieves learning. We can blow up the delivery models and be free to try anything that shows itself to work.”

Continued in article

"A Russian University Gets Creative Against Corruption:  With surveillance equipment and video campaigns, rector aims to eliminate bribery at Kazan State," by Anna Nemtsova, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 17, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Russian-University-Gets/63522/

Jensen Comment
In its early history, the University of Chicago had competency-based programs where grades were assigned solely on the basis of scores on final examinations. Students did not have to attend class.

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

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

I should point out that this is very similar to the AAA's Innovation in Accounting Education Award Winning BAM Pedagogy commenced at the University of Virginia (but there were instructors who did not teach) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm


Newsweek Magazine on September 5, 2011 has a feature entitled "The Best Colleges for You," by Clark Merrefield, Lauren Streib, Ian Yarett, Newsweek Magazine, September 5, 2011---
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/28/newsweek-ranks-the-best-colleges.html
I still can't get Google to give me Newsweek instead of The Daily Beast

The lists are linked at
http://www.thedailybeast.com/topics/college-rankings-2011.html 

Whereas we pretty much understand the university rankings from US News, the WSJ, Business Week, etc., the Tina Brown (Newsweek Editor)-inspired rankings are vague and open to as much dispute as publicity seeker Tina Brown herself..

Categories include the following "Best Colleges for":

Future CEOs
Partiers
Return on Investment (job pay)
Best Food
Future Politicians
Free-Spirited
Most Rigorous
Least Rigorous
Activists
Service-Oriented
International
Gay-Friendly
Brainiacs
Athletic
Cheapest
Best Weather
Horniest
Artistic
Computer Geeks
Greenest
Most Beautiful
Healthiest
Accessible Professors
Happiest
Foreign Students

Obviously some of these rankings are jokes.
The supposed "Horniest" universities are:
Wesleyan
Yale
Rice
Bowdan
Stanford

Newsweek testers obviously did not test the horny students at Texas A&M where males have to travel hundreds of miles to find good looking women
The old joke about the difference between a brainy Aggie Engineering Student and a Catfish is that one's a fish.

 

The "Least Rigorous" universities purportedly are:
SUNY Binghamton (where's that?)
University of Florida
University of Wisconsin at Madison
University of Minnesota
University of Maryland

Aside from the University of Florida what about the dumb-jock schools like Auburn, LSU, FSU, etc.?

 

The "Most Rigorous" universities purportedly are:
St. John's NM (where's that on the map?)
Furman University
Middlebury College
Franklin & Marshall
Columbia University

It appears that the Newsweek testers did not study the grade inflation tables for some of these winners ---
http://www.gradeinflation.com/
For example, grade inflation at Furman rose from 2.68 in 1984 to 3.22 in 2007.
Grade inflation rose at Middlebury from 3.04 in 1987 to 3.34
Grade inflation at Columbia rose from 3.20  in 1982 to 3.42 in 2006

Do the above universities sound "more rigorous" to you than colleges like Iowa University, Evergreen, and Wright State where grade averages remain today below 3.0?

 

The "Free-Spirited" colleges are:
Burlington College
Sarah Lawrence College
Bennington College
Hampshire College
Lewis & Clark College

But "Free-Spirits" are not noted for being horny accounting to Newsweek Magazine.
And they don't care much for "Partying" like:
West Virginia
Alabama
UCLA
Illinois
Syracuse

 

You might laugh at some of these outcomes, but how many high school graduates starting up classes at the University of Texas are sorry that they did not choose a university that partied more, was less rigorous, or had a more horny student body?

Bob Jensen's threads on controversial media rankings of colleges and universities are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings

 


Harvard Entrance Examination from 1869 ---
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf

Jensen Comment
How times have changed over the years. Harvard graduates today could not pass the entrance examination of 1869 because what was deemed important to scholarship in the 19th Century is no longer deemed as important in the 21st Centrury.
 

On August 29, 2011 Professor XXXXX at Trinity University wrote the following reply:

Better yet, could a Harvard student of 1869 show you an aerial view of each of the listed Geography sites on the exam. I trust a 2011 student can.

Would a 1869 student be able to use Mathematica to solve the math problems listed on the exam.

Only the year before (1868) DNA was described. Could the 1869 student suggest how DNA controlled growth? Could the 1869 student detail the chromosome number of humans, after all Mendel was in his garden at the time.

Could the Harvard student of 1869 recount Darwin's work which had been around for 10 years? My goodness could the 1869 candidate program his smart phone? "His" was chosen deliberately because the gals had to seek admission elsewhere.

Latin, Greek, Geography, minimal math.... don't solve the problems of 7 billion people. I really don't know how to saddle a horse or hitch a wagon; but I can put up a web page and attach a QR code to document. So there, take that Charles Eliot, phooey on your exam of 1869.

XXXXX

August 30, 2011 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi XXXXX,

You seemed to skip over the question of whether Harvard graduates today should at least be able to do the algebra, trig, and geometry parts of the admission test.

I think much of this debate goes back to the very heated and eventually personal exchanges that went on between professors in Trinity's Math Department regarding whether students in integral calculus should learn how to integrate or learn how to use calculators that perform the integrations. It would seem that the exchanges would not have been so personal and heated if students were simply required to do both. But some math professors no longer see the advantage of knowing how to integrate without using a calculator or computer.

There are of course arguments on both sides --- Jerry/Phoebe and Scott/Bill have long since departed our Math Department.

Few people are more avid supporters of technology in education than me, but somehow scholarship just does not seem the same when students are really good at punching buttons on a calculator and using Google/Bing maps with almost total ignorance of integral calculus and geography.

One respondent to this thread wondered how many students today know the Po and the Ganges are rivers, or where they are, let alone their origins. Perhaps this is useless information in the 21st Century.

And perhaps knowing more than one language will be a useless waste of time in the 22nd Century.

Times do change, but I have a hard time defining scholarship on the basis of computer skills alone.

Eventually I suspect humans will indeed be ignorant slaves to the computers embedded behind their ears.

Respectfully,
Bob Jensen

Question
Could You Pass the 1885 Admission Test for High School?

From the University of Houston
See http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/multimedia.cfm
In particular go to http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/quizzes/highschool_test.cfm


Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.
Simoleon Sense --- http://www.simoleonsense.com/

"Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? The country's achievements in education have other nations doing their homework," by LynNell Hancock, Smithsonian.com, September 2011 ---
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html?c=y&story=fullstory 

. . .

The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on compe­tition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.

Still, there is a distinct absence of chest-thumping among the famously reticent Finns. They are eager to celebrate their recent world hockey championship, but PISA scores, not so much. “We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”

Maija Rintola stood before her chattering class of twenty-three 7- and 8-year-olds one late April day in Kirkkojarven Koulu. A tangle of multicolored threads topped her copper hair like a painted wig. The 20-year teacher was trying out her look for Vappu, the day teachers and children come to school in riotous costumes to celebrate May Day. The morning sun poured through the slate and lemon linen shades onto containers of Easter grass growing on the wooden sills. Rintola smiled and held up her open hand at a slant—her time-tested “silent giraffe,” which signaled the kids to be quiet. Little hats, coats, shoes stowed in their cubbies, the children wiggled next to their desks in their stocking feet, waiting for a turn to tell their tale from the playground. They had just returned from their regular 15 minutes of playtime outdoors between lessons. “Play is important at this age,” Rintola would later say. “We value play.”


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz1WoPzFGVm
 

Jensen Comment
When comparing Finland with other nations in terms of education, perhaps too much stress is being placed upon differences in schools and teachers. There are more important factors to K-12 education than schools, the most important factor being home environment and discipline. Finland has the lowest percentage of single-parent homes. The United States has one of the highest rates of single-parent homes. ---
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/single-parents-around-the-world/

The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancies
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/8Comparison.htm
Teen pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers:

United States   98.0
United Kingdom  46.6
Norway          40.2
Canada          38.6
Finland         32.1
Sweden          28.3
Denmark         27.9
Netherlands     12.1
Japan           10.5

Finland ranks Number 3 in terms of having the lowest overall crime rate.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita
Also see http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/8Comparison.htm
Murder rate for males age 15-24 (per 100,000 people):

United States   24.4
Canada           2.6
Sweden           2.3
Norway           2.3
Finland          2.3
Denmark          2.2
United Kingdom   2.0
Netherlands      1.2
Germany          0.9
Japan            0.5

 

Rape (per 100,000 people):

United States   37.20
Sweden          15.70
Denmark         11.23
Germany          8.60
Norway           7.87
United Kingdom   7.26
Finland          7.20
Japan            1.40
Armed robbery (per 100,000 people)

United States   221
Canada           94
United Kingdom   63
Sweden           49
Germany          47
Denmark          44
Finland          38
Norway           22
Japan             1

 

Like all cold climates, Finland struggles somewhat (certainly not highest among nations) with alcohol abuse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption 
But Finland does not have near the problems of of the United States in terms of substance abuses other than alcohol. And Finland's DWI laws are among the strictest in the world. You just do not drink and drive in Finland.

Added Jensen Comment
While shaving this morning, I overheard Senator Boxer raving in support of a new program to have public funding of online tutors for home-schooled children. This struck me as odd because home-schooled children tend to do much better in scholastics than children who attend public schools, especially urban public schools. It seems to me that rather than provide online support for home-schooled children we should first be putting that money into online tutorials for children attending lousy urban public schools. Of course home-schooled children may be more likely to make use of free tutorial services do to advantages of their home environments and home  discipline.


"Young and Jobless," by Catherine Rampell, Economix Blog in the New York Times, August 25, 2011 ---
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/young-and-jobless/?src=tp 

Jensen Comment
Note how the unemployment statistics are badly understated as of late because so many unemployed young people have simply stopped trying to get a job. Many are going to school, but many are also simply living with parents and wasting what should be the most opportune times of their lives.

Minimum wage levels most certainly have led to dramatic declines in teen employment during times when employers are struggling with revenue declines. Whereas minimum wages are important to low-skilled workers seeking to raise families on low incomes, minimum wage increases can be job killers for teens seeking part-time work and school vacation work. Perhaps more relief should be given to employers who can demonstrate what portion of work on the job is devoted to raising skill levels. Perhaps employers should be allowed to pay less than minimum wage for portions of job time devoted to vocational training.

Many economists argue that minimum wage hikes are not as destructive to the numbers hired as business firms argue --- Click Here
http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/guest-post-minimum-wage-laws-and-the-labor-market-what-have-we-learned-since-card-and-krueger%e2%80%99s-book-myth-and-measurement/
But these studies focus heavily on industries where jobs are not easily exported to lower wage countries, especially fast food hiring. The argument is that the numbers hired at minimum wage in the fast food industry will not dramatically increase if the minimum wage is lowered. This may well be true, but liberal economists tend to shy away from industries like the calling industry where call operators in the U.S. tend to lose their minimum wage jobs to India even though customers would rather have call operators that they can better understand in English.

This happened to me as a customer of both Sears and Dell. I now have to deal with some operators in India that are hard for me to understand on the phone.


"What Ever Happened to the Top MBAs of 1991?," Business Week, August 31, 2011 --- Click Here
http://www.businessweek.com/business-schools/what-ever-happened-to-the-top-mbas-of-1991-08312011_page_3.html

Jensen Comment
I could care less whether you read the above "promo" for elite MBA programs. Sadly, it's articles like this that motivate thousands of college graduates to go deeply into lifetime debt for prestigious MBA degrees that end up having, for them at least, a very negative rate of return.

What I do recommend is that you read the comments following the above article.

I suppose most of us that have been on the inside of administration (in my case only four years as a department chair in a large state university). We've all been guilty of lavishing praise on our successful graduates and never mentioning the ones that are homeless alcoholic embezzlers, syphilitic prostitutes, and/or showing off their motorcycle gang tattoos in prison. In my case, I authored a departmental annual report in which I had a centerfold praising the year's outstanding alumnus, usually one who just pledged the most money that year for our program.

One year I got a the best pledge from an alumnus who owned a horse ranch in Florida. Shortly after I ran a centerfold on him his first pledge check bounced. Soon thereafter a grand jury elected to prosecute him. I think he ended up with a 10-year felony conviction. He never sent us a nickel from the slammer.


Wide Gaps Between Graduation Rates of Football Players Versus Other Males in NCAA Division 1 Universities ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/09/01/qt#269379

Wide gaps persist in the graduation rates of Division I football players and other male students, and these gaps are not limited to "football factory" institutions, according to a report released this morning by the College Sport Research Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study found only two conferences in Division I -- the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference -- in which football players graduated at rates greater than the full-time male student body. The Pac-12 (formerly the Pac-10) had the greatest gap, with football players graduating at a rate 26 points lower than other male students.

Also see
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/big-graduation-rate-gap-looms-between-football-players-and-full-time-male-students/35848

Bob Jensen's threads on athletics controversies in higher education ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Athletics


"Want to Rent out That Spare Room? The Growing Popularity of 'Collaborative Consumption," Knowledge@Wharton, August 25, 2011 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2834

The founders of Internet startup Airbnb were accustomed to rejection. Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk peddled to venture capitalists their idea for using the Internet to help people rent out a room, or even a couch, to frugal travelers. All of the venture capitalists took a pass. But after receiving funding as well as mentoring from incubator Y Combinator in 2009, the startup exploded. Airbnb -- the name was originally Airbed and Breakfast in a reference to the use of airbeds for guests -- has listings in 16,000 cities around the world and has booked more than two million nights.

What those early VCs missed was a burgeoning trend in what is now called "collaborative consumption." At the core of this trend is the idea that technologies like the Internet and smartphones can help consumers monetize assets that they own -- their home or car, for example -- in ways that were previously difficult or downright impossible. "There are two forces converging," says Wharton marketing professor David Bell. "First is the notion that it might be better to have access to something than to own it outright. And the second is the realization that people have slack resources. So that car you own may sit idle for 22 hours a day. The grease that makes the whole thing work is social media and technology, like iPhone applications that can create markets that didn't exist before."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Although there are many ways to collaborate on consumption without loaning out your car or rooms in your house, some good-hearted folks in San Antonio and Houston got taken when letting Katrina victims use rooms in their houses in days following the storm. Months or even years later some of these folks did not want to cease being "guests." 

And evicting a room renter who's no longer wanted can be a troublesome and even dangerous process. It's hard enough getting your freeloading adult "children" to leave home.


"The ProfHacker ‘Open Letter’ Series: For Grad Students, Profs, and Chairs," by Jason B. Jones, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 29, 2011 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/the-profhacker-open-letter-series-for-grad-students-profs-and-chairs/35690?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


I don't quite buy into all the words of advice below, but Millennials should consider this package of advice.
Actually, they hear such horror stories about low hiring rates of college graduates that they probably are following this advice before it was written.
"When Entitlement Meets Unemployment," by Andrew McAffee, Harvard Business Review Blog, August 29, 2011 ---
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/mcafee/2011/08/when-entitlement-meets-unemplo.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date

. . .

Let's dispense with this idea that Millennials are somehow just smarter than all the generations that have come before. When I learn that over one-third of undergraduates these days show no significant gains after four years in vital skills like critical thinking and written communication, I have trouble seeing the broad genius of Gen Y.

Many employers evidently agree; as of March, the unemployment rate among Millennials was, at 18.8%, almost twice that of the general workforce. Given this state of affairs, let me offer some advice to young job seekers that goes against current practices.

Take the first decent job that's offered to you. Stop waiting for one that recognizes all your talents and plays to all your strengths.

Offer your employer superior ROE — return on employee. Compared to your peers, give your employer more and ask less. Trust me on this: it'll be recognized, and you'll come across as a huge breath of fresh air.

Take every chance offered to you to learn a new skill.

Learn to serve, not just to lead. Of course you think you could do a better job running the place; everyone else thinks they could, too. Until that happens, learn to be a good subordinate, teammate, or customer liaison. Humility and selflessness are two of those new skills you've just committed to learn after reading the previous bullet point.

Keep in mind that self-esteem comes from achievement, not the other way around.

You Millennials, through no fault of your own, have been dealt a bad hand; you're just starting out during the worst job market in decades. I wish you luck in the world as you navigate this, and I beg you to stop asking for Pilates rooms. Getting and keeping a job is workout enough these days.

 

Added Jensen Comment
McAffee hires mostly programmers and other tech graduates who are probably more demanding in job interviews (they all want the perks offered by Google). I think most history graduates and MBA school graduates are more grateful if they can just get a job offer.


From the Chronicle of Higher Education ---
The 2011-12 Almanac Issue --- http://chronicle.texterity.com/chronicle/20110826a?sub_id=yf6H2Es7OzfJ#pg1

Here's the latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to browse and read your copy of The Chronicle's Almanac of Higher Education 2011-12. And for the most current job opportunities in all of academe, click here.

The Chronicle's annual Almanac of Higher Education provides an in-depth analysis of American colleges and universities, with data on students, professors, administrators, institutions, and their resources.

The latest Almanac of Higher Education gathers an assortment of key data about the most important trends in higher education.

Quick tips for reading your digital edition can be found by clicking on the HELP icon on the navigation bar found at the top of every page. But if you experience any technical difficulties, please click here.

If you would like a print edition of our annual Almanac, visit The Chronicle's online store. You'll also find other special reports and issues published by The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

pages links

Table of Contents
THE NATION FINANCE
3 Resources and Expenditures  Page 3
Giving 8                                    
College Costs 11
Research  14
THE PROFESSION 16
Salaries 22
The Institution 28
Views of College Leaders 29
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
Enrollments and Population 31
Student Characteristics 34
Degrees Awarded 39
ACCESS AND EQUITY
Race, Ethnicity, Gender 42
Admissions 45
Financial Aid 45
After Graduation 48
TECHNOLOGY
Student Use 51
Attitudes About Tech 51
Campus Infrastructure 52
INTERNATIONAL
Global Trends 54
Trends in the U.S. 58

 

Jensen Comment
Among the 1,601,368 undergraduate degrees awarded,    346,972 were in Business.     That's nearly 22%.
Among the    662.072 masters degrees awarded,              168,367 were in Business.     That's over 25%.
Among the    154,425 doctoral degrees awarded,                 2,123 were in Business.     That's less than 2%.

I'm not certain how the enormous number of for-profit degrees are dealt with in this report. I suspect that for-profit universities are excluded from the report.

Average salaries for new assistant professors in Business ($93,926) were the highest among all disciplines, followed by Law ($91,828) and Engineering ($76,518)
Average salaries for full professors in Law ($134,162) were highest among all disciplines, followed by Engineering ($114,365) and  Business ($111,621)

Average salaries for new assistant professors tend to be higher than averages for associate professors, indicating compression problems in virtually every discipline
Averages for associates are skewed by lifetime associate professors versus those that are only in transition to full professorship promotions

Average salaries for women still lag those of men, but this is skewed somewhat by higher-paid disciplines having much higher proportions of men to women.

Average salaries are much higher in the larger research universities, but these are not set apart in the 2011-12 Almanac.
Average salaries in general are skewed downward by the large number of  lower paying small colleges.

Since lower paying small colleges have no law schools this partly explains why Law salaries appear to be higher than Engineering and Business even though, in universities having law schools, Business and Engineering graduate school professors may have the highest salaries ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/dataandresearch/salaries.asp

The IRS 990 tables reveal that medical professors tend to be the highest paid employees of universities, but the way they are paid is so varied and complicated that medical schools are not included in the above data tables of the 2011-12 Almanac. Medical schools often have their own sources of revenues if their staff members are also serving patients in university hospitals.

For breakdowns of sub-disciplines within the Business category, go the the AACSB database ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/dataandresearch/dataglance.asp
This data excludes many of non-AACSB accredited colleges included in the above 2011-12 Almanac. Hence items like average salaries are not comparable ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/dataandresearch/salaries.asp

Bob Jensen's threads on Higher Education Controversies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm 


"Camden Pays Students $100 Each to Not Skip School:  Anti-truancy program pays Camden high school students to go to school," by Teresa Masterson, NBC Philadelphi, August 24, 2011 ---
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Camden-to-Pay-Students-100-Each-to-Not-Skip-School-128311368.html

To receive the promised $100, each of the 66 targeted students must attend classes as well as conflict-resolution and anger-management workshops until Sept. 30.

Not everyone was happy about the pay-off program at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, according to the Inquirer. Board member Sean Brown voiced his anger that he just learned of the truancy program.

Former board member Jose Delgado said that it was “outrageous” and it sends the wrong message to kids, reports the Inquirer.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Many things are wrong with this, not the least of which is the timing. The payoffs should come at the end of the year so that the kids do not threaten truancy for another $100 every three months during the school year. Better yet the $100 should be paid on the basis of performance improvement rather than just dozing in class.

Worst of all this is an incentive for students not receiving the payoffs to become worse truants and get in on the action.

Also some may get the clever idea that they should also be paid $100 per day not to rob business establishments.

There was a time when getting a school education was considered a privilege.

What happened to the good old days?


Bayes' Theorem --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes_theorem

"A History of Bayes' Theorem," LessWrong, August 29, 2011 ---
http://lesswrong.com/lw/774/a_history_of_bayes_theorem/

Jensen Comment
Some of the classic Bayesian statistics books in business education came out of Harvard in the 1950s, I was weined on Robert Schlaifer's classic ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schlaifer

Business education has gone through various cycles of academic fad. A lot of us in the 1960s pinned our hopes on the Bayesian revolution that proved to be just that --- a passing fad in many ways while most accountics statistical analysis is still rooted in classical inference works of earlier history. Reverend Bayes disappeared from The Accounting Review about the time that case studies and field studies went by the boards, or should I say under the Boards.


Faculty urged not to be “too choosy” in admitting new cash-cow graduate students

"Not So Fast," by Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Ed, August 29, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/08/29/essay_suggesting_faculty_members_should_be_dubious_of_drive_for_new_graduate_programs

. . .

New graduate programs are often proposed and pushed by the administration, not the faculty. Why? Grad students are cash cows. (Remember, we’re talking here about the new professionally oriented programs, not humanities Ph.D.s for which stipends are offered.) Universities often charge more for grad programs and grad students will pay, taking out loans in order to do so. Or, they’ll be used as cheap labor, working on campus, for professors, and maybe even teaching some of those pesky intro classes that no one else wants to. And did I mention the prestige? Rankings reward programs with grad offering.

 

Then there is the issue of quality control. The recently leaked memo from a British university reminding professors not to be “too choosy” in admitting new graduate students illustrates the perils of graduate admissions, particularly for faculty members. How is teaching and supervising underprepared (and possibly unmotivated and disinterested) graduate students a perk? The M.A. (or worse, Ph.D.) will be the new B.A., insofar as students will feel entitled to their degree on the basis of having a) been accepted and b) paid for it. The best and the brightest (and the richest) will continue to go to the "best" institutions, while everyone else will move from one mediocre program to another. You'll be able to say that you supervise grad students, but at what cost?

Continued in article

Bad Habits of Misleading Prospective Students are Hard to Break
"Law Schools Pump Up Classes and Tuition, Though Jobs Remain Scarce," Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/law-schools-pump-up-classes-tuition-though-jobs-remain-scarce/34657

Even as their graduates face a shriveled job market, law schools have raised tuition four times as fast as colleges and enrolled increasingly large classes, reports The New York Times in an article that puts New York Law School under special scrutiny.

Though it ranks in the bottom third of all law schools in the country, New York Law School charges more than Harvard, and in 2009 increased its class size by 30 percent. That same year, its dean, Richard A. Matasar, urged his colleagues at other law schools to change the standard business model and focus more on helping students.

What happens at New York Law School is, “for the most part, standard operating procedure,” writes the Times. “What sets N.Y.L.S. apart is that it is managed by a man who has criticized many of the standards and much of the procedure.”

 

Jensen Comment
When assessing admission standards, accrediting bodies should look first to the biggest cash cows on campus, which are typically colleges of education, law, and business. Traditionally law schools are notorious cash cows due to very high student/faculty faculty ratios, large class sizes, and the tendency to use low cost adjunct practitioners for teaching many of the specialized courses such as advanced taxation courses.

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/08/29/essay_suggesting_faculty_members_should_be_dubious_of_drive_for_new_graduate_programs


"How would students grade their law schools? The notion lingers that teaching practical skills is somehow not their business," by Sheldon M. Bonovitz," The National Law Journal, September 05, 2011 ---
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202513363358&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Jensen Comment
Whereas accounting majors want more help in passing the CPA examination, law students want more help in passing a BAR examination. Teaching to such examinations seems to be negatively correlated with average GMAT and LSAT scores in each graduating class. Schools with the highest admission standards generally do not have to compete as hard to fill their admissions quotas (due to prestige of their universities) and tend to assume their students have the ability to pass the certification examinations without as much certification examination hand holding as schools with lower admission standards that do more bottom feeding to meet admissions quotas. For example, the University of Texas Law School takes pride in having a more philosophical curriculum than a BAR examination curriculum.

Prestigious accounting programs like the one at the University of Illinois at one time taught more toward the CPA examination, including having one of the most popular CPA review courses in the nation. Now the U of I purportedly teaches much less toward this examination ---
http://aaahq.org/AECC/changegrant/chap9.htm

Other change experiments (some of which failed) ---
http://aaahq.org/AECC/changegrant/index.htm


"Receive Files in Dropbox with FileStork," by Jason B. Jones, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 25, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/receive-files-in-dropbox-with-filestork/35567?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

We’ve written before about options for receiving papers electronically outside either e-mail or a campus-based learning management system. (For example, earlier this month I wrote about GoFileDrop, which lets you receive files of any type into your Google Docs account. Also see Send to Dropbox or Dropbox Forms.)

The advantages of such a system are, basically, that it gets files out of your e-mail and directly into a location where you can start to work with them, that it eliminates uncertainty around e-mail receipt, and that it doesn’t get you locked into the LMS. Handy!

A recent entry into the file-receipt market is FileStork (Via LifeHacker). FileStork makes it incredibly simple for Dropbox users to request files from people on either a one-time or more open-ended basis. (This is probably a little easier and safer than sharing a folder with an entire class.) Here’s how it works.

 

 

 

 

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on archiving and storage ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#archiving


"The Beloit College Mind-Set List Welcomes the 'Internet Class'," by Don Troop, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 23, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Beloit-College-Mind-Set/128783/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Jensen Comment
Until today I never knew that Arnold Palmer was a drink.


"7 in 10 Students Have Skipped Buying a Textbook Because of Its Cost, Survey Finds," by Molly Redden, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 23, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/7-in-10-Students-Have-Skipped/128785/

Jensen Comment
Recall the phrase "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
It has an entire different meaning in college than it had in the Second Grade.


SSRN Top 700 Law Schools --- http://hq.ssrn.com/rankings/Ranking_Display.cfm?TMY_gID=2&TRN_gID=1

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings --- http://hq.ssrn.com/Rankings/Ranking_display.cfm?TRN_gID=6&TMY_gID=2

Jensen Comment
From a reputational standpoint it pays to open share scholarship and research.


Reverse Mortgage --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Mortgage

"Reverse Mortgages," by Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, Townhall, August 2011 ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/carrieschwabpomerantz/2011/08/31/reverse_mortgages/page/2

. . .

There are several drawbacks (to reverse mortgages); one of the major ones is cost. As part of the process, you'll pay loan origination fees, appraisal fees and a hefty upfront mortgage insurance fee of two percent of the value of your home (on a $400,000 home that's $8,000!), making this an expensive proposition. To counter this concern, last fall, the FHA introduced a new mortgage product called the HECM Saver loan, which significantly reduces upfront costs. The Saver loan doesn't let you borrow as much, but the reduced cost makes it more manageable.

That's one down, but there's more. For one thing, your debt, plus interest, is constantly rising. For another, while you keep the title to your home with a reverse mortgage, the bank owns a little bit more of it every day.

You're also still responsible for taxes, homeowner's insurance and upkeep. That may not be a problem now, but if there came a time when you couldn't make these payments or keep your property in good condition, it could be considered a default and the loan would come due. If you couldn't pay off the balance, you'd be at risk of losing your home.

If at some point you decide to sell your home, you, or your estate, must repay the money you received from the reverse mortgage, plus interest and fees. Historically, the rules stated that a borrower or his or her heirs never have to pay back more than the house is worth, even if the loan balance is greater than the value of the house.

However, new HUD rules introduced in 2008 say that while the borrower never has to pay back more than the value of the house, a borrower's heirs -- (set ital) even a spouse that isn't a co-borrower on the loan (end ital) -- must pay the full balance if they want to keep the house. That's regardless of whether the home is worth less than the loan. This is currently being challenged in court but -- especially in an environment of dropping home values -- make sure you're both on the reverse mortgage so one of you isn't left hanging should something happen to the other. And you may want to give your heirs a heads-up.

There's a lot to consider. Fortunately, a lender is required to put you in touch with a HUD-approved counselor before going ahead with the loan. Ask questions and make sure you understand the issues. While a reverse mortgage may make sense in some circumstances, especially for those who very much want to stay in their home and who have few other options, it's far from risk-free. Proceed carefully.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's personal finance helpers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/BookBob1.htm#InvestmentHelpers


Teaching Case on the End of the Party for For-Profit Universities

From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on August 26, 2011

Party Ends at For-Profit Schools
by: Melissa Korn
Aug 23, 2011
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
Click here to view the video on WSJ.com WSJ Video
 

TOPICS: Financial Accounting, Financial Statements, Goodwill, Impairment

SUMMARY: For-profit educational institutions are reporting dismal financial results due to declining student enrollments and, in the case of Corinthian Colleges specifically discussed in the linked video, goodwill impairment.

CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article is useful to help students differentiate among types of educational institutions. The need to generate financial performance, the student loan default rates that led to federal investigations of enrollment practices, and the questions about outcomes from educational investment may be new to many students. The article also covers the topic of goodwill write-down during these dire times for these colleges.

QUESTIONS: 
1. (Advanced) What is the difference between for-profit higher educational institutions and ones that are not for profit? Name two types of higher educational institutions that are not for profit.

2. (Introductory) From where has the author of this article getting her information about these companies? What does she mean when she says during the video that the institutions "reported numbers" this week?

3. (Introductory) According to the article, what source of information led to state and federal government investigations of these colleges in 2010?

4. (Introductory) According to the article, what were the problematic recruiting practices that were uncovered via state and federal investigators last year?

5. (Advanced) Access the Corinthian College, Inc. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Form 10-K made on August 24, 2011 and available on the web at http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001066134 Proceed to the statement of operations. What large expense item impacted the company's performance? Explain the meaning of this charge.

6. (Advanced) Proceed to the 3rd footnote, "Detail of Selected Balance Sheet Accounts." What portion of goodwill was written off during this reporting period?

7. (Advanced) What factors led to assessing this goodwill and to the write-off? Explain how those factors leading to this assessment are required by promulgated accounting standards, citing professional sources in your answer.
 

Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
 

RELATED ARTICLES: 
Corinthian Colleges Earnings Down 90%
by Melodie Warner
Aug 23, 2011
Online Exclusive

 

"Party Ends at For-Profit Schools," by: Melissa Korn, The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2011 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904279004576524660236401644.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid

For-profit colleges are facing a tough test: getting new students to enroll.

New-student enrollments have plunged—in some cases by more than 45%—in recent months, reflecting two factors: Companies have pulled back on aggressive recruiting practices amid criticism over their high student-loan default rates. And many would-be students are questioning the potential pay-off for degrees that can cost considerably more than what's available at local community colleges.

"People are just frozen or deferring, delaying decisions to go to school," said DeVry Inc. Chief Executive Daniel Hamburger in a conference call earlier this month. "The average person in the U.S. has become much more risk-averse and cautious when it comes to spending or committing to anything. It's unrealistic for us to think that education would be immune from this."

Undergraduate new-student enrollment fell 25.6% at DeVry's namesake university in the quarter ended June 30. The company—considered by many industry watchers as one of the stronger school operators because of its portfolio of business, technology and health-care courses—had earlier forecast earnings growth for the current fiscal year but now expects relatively flat bottom-line results.

Per-share earnings at Corinthian Colleges Inc. are expected to be down about 72% when it reports results Tuesday, according to analysts' forecasts. The company, with offerings in health care and criminal justice among other areas, has seen its stock sink to 11-year lows, closing Monday at $2.10, off from its 52-week high of $7.35. In early 2009 the stock was trading about $20 a share.

At Corinthian, which implemented changes to its recruiter compensation in April, new-student enrollment declined 21.5% in the first calendar quarter, compared with an 8% decline in the previous quarter.

A representative from Corinthian declined to comment, citing a quiet period before releasing earnings.

Enrollment at for-profit colleges soared during the recession, amid heavy advertising that appealed to suddenly jobless people needing new skills. But while the advertising continues, a number of for-profit schools including Corinthian, Apollo Group Inc. and others have tamped down aggressive recruiting. They've cut back on recruiter bonuses based on factors such as how many students make it past their first term. Apollo, operator of the University of Phoenix chain, has been criticized for targeting injured veterans and homeless adults to fill seats.

Apollo spokesman Alex Clark said the company's policy on such tactics is "clear and unambiguous," and it doesn't allow employees to visit homeless facilities for recruiting purposes. "Any employee who violates this policy faces disciplinary action up to and including termination," Mr. Clark said.

As for military students, Mr. Clark said University of Phoenix "is proud to meet the needs of active-duty military students and veterans of the armed forces."

Some companies are feeling pain not only from students shying away but from their own tightened admissions standards. Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan Higher Education, like Apollo, now requires certain students to participate in a trial program before enrolling and paying tuition. Kaplan reported a 47% decline in new-student enrollment for the June quarter. Even without the orientation program, new-student enrollment would have dropped 36% in the quarter.

Corinthian briefly stopped accepting students without a high-school diploma, but reversed its policy this spring and once again admits students who take the "Ability to Benefit" test intended to show they would benefit from higher education.

Cutting recruiter commissions had a rapid and profound effect at Capella Education Inc., which introduced a new pay structure in January: New-student enrollment dropped 35.8% in the first quarter, compared with a 10.7% decline in the period immediately before the launch.

The specter of a hefty debt load dissuaded Jason Tomlinson from enrolling to study business at Berkeley College, a for-profit school with locations in New York and New Jersey. Mr. Tomlinson, now 25, said he would have had to pay more than $20,000 per year, for four years, for that school's bachelor's degree program.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit universities operating in the gray zone of fraud ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904279004576524660236401644.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid

 


"Enrollments Plunge at Many For-Profit Colleges," by Rachel Wiseman, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 16, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Enrollments-Plunge-at-Many/128711/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

. . .

Bucking the Trend

While some of the biggest for-profit colleges saw declines, a few showed enrollment increases. Total enrollment in the American Public University System, which charges $250 per undergraduate credit—less than many of its proprietary peers do—grew 28 percent in the quarter ending June 30. The system is operated by American Public Education Inc.

With a similarly low price point, Bridgepoint Education saw a slight uptick in new-student enrollment. But whether enrollment will continue to climb is open to question, given the company's revelation in May that New York's attorney general is investigating its business practices.

How for-profit enrollments will trend in the future is "difficult to call," said Robert L. Craig, a managing director of the investment bank Stifel Nicolaus. He says external factors such as the economy and federal student aid will affect how well those institutions fare. He expects the for-profit sector will continue to grow in the long term, as emphasis is placed on expanding higher education to a greater portion of Americans and as traditional options for acquiring a degree reach capacity in some states.

But some analysts are concerned that if institutions do not lower their prices, they risk losing applicants and profits. "A lot of these institutions have a cost system that is going to be untenable for the consumer," said Mr. Safalow, as more traditional universities enter into online education and the number of available applicants plateaus. "This is an industry that is closer to saturation than I think most people realize."

 

Jensen Comment
The big exception is American Public Education (University) Inc. that was bolstered when Wal-Mart elected to heavily subsidize employees who elect to further their educations from APE.

Does this pass the Academy’s smell test?
"Wal-Mart Employees Get New College Program—Online," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wal-Mart-Employees-Get-New/24504/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The American Public University System has been described as a higher-education version of Wal-Mart: a publicly traded corporation that mass-markets moderately priced degrees in many fields.

Now it's more than an analogy. Under a deal announced today, the for-profit online university will offer Wal-Mart workers discounted tuition and credit for job experience.

Such alliances are nothing new; see these materials from Strayer and Capella for other examples. But Wal-Mart is the country's largest retailer. And the company is pledging to spend $50-million over three years to help employees cover the cost of tuition and books beyond the discounted rate, according to the Associated Press.

"What's most significant about this is that, given that APU is very small, this is a deal that has the potential to drive enrollments that are above what investors are already expecting from them," Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group, told Wired Campus. "Which is why the stock is up."

Wal-Mart workers will be able to receive credit—without having to pay for it—for job training in subjects like ethics and retail inventory management, according to the AP.

Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million people in the U.S. Roughly half of them have a high-school diploma but no college degree, according to The New York Times. A department-level manager would end up paying about $7,900 for an associate degree, factoring in the work credits and tuition discount, the newspaper reported.

“If 10 to 15 percent of employees take advantage of this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State Universities,” Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart’s external advisory council, told the Times.

 

"News Analysis: Is 'Wal-Mart U.' a Good Bargain for Students?" by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 13, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Wal-Mart-U-a-Good/65933/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

There might have been a Wal-Mart University.

As the world's largest retailer weighed its options for making a big splash in education, executives told one potential academic partner that Wal-Mart Stores was considering buying a university or starting its own.

"Wal-Mart U." never happened. Instead, the retailer chose a third option: a landmark alliance that will make a little-known for-profit institution, American Public University, the favored online-education provider to Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers in the United States.

A closer look at the deal announced this month shows how American Public slashed its prices and adapted its curriculum to snare a corporate client that could transform its business. It also raises one basic question: Is this a good bargain for students?

Adult-learning leaders praise Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, for investing in education. But some of those same experts wonder how low-paid workers will be able to afford the cost of a degree from the private Web-based university the company selected as a partner, and why Wal-Mart chose American Public when community-college options might be cheaper. They also question how easily workers will be able to transfer APU credits to other colleges, given that the university plans to count significant amounts of Wal-Mart job training and experience as academic credit toward its degrees.

For example, cashiers with one year's experience could get six credits for an American Public class called "Customer Relations," provided they received an "on target" or "above target" on their last performance evaluation, said Deisha Galberth, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. A department manager's training and experience could be worth 24 credit hours toward courses like retail ethics, organizational fundamentals, or human-resource fundamentals, she said.

Altogether, employees could earn up to 45 percent of the credit for an associate or bachelor's degree at APU "based on what they have learned in their career at Wal-Mart," according to the retailer's Web site.

Janet K. Poley, president of the American Distance Education Consortium, points out that this arrangement could saddle Wal-Mart employees with a "nontransferable coupon," as one blogger has described it.

"I now see where the 'trick' is—if a person gets credit for Wal-Mart courses and Wal-Mart work, they aren't likely to be able to transfer those to much of anyplace else," Ms. Poley wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. Transferability could be important, given the high turnover rate in the retail industry.

Inside the Deal Wal-Mart screened 81 colleges before signing its deal with American Public University. One that talked extensively with the retailer was University of Maryland University College, a 94,000-student state institution that is a national leader in online education. According to University College's president, Susan C. Aldridge, it was during early discussions that Wal-Mart executives told her the company was considering whether it should buy a college or create its own college.

When asked to confirm that, Ms. Galberth said only that Wal-Mart "brainstormed every possible option for providing our associates with a convenient and affordable way to attend college while working at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club," which is also owned by Wal-Mart Stores. "We chose to partner with APU to reach this goal. We have no plans to purchase a brick-and-mortar university or enter the online education business," she said.

The Wal-Mart deal was something of a coming-out party for American Public University. The institution is part of a 70,000-student system that also includes American Military University and that largely enrolls active-duty military personnel. As American Public turned its attention to luring the retail behemoth, it was apparently able to be more flexible than other colleges and willing to "go the extra mile" to accommodate Wal-Mart, said Jeffrey M. Silber, a stock analyst and managing director of BMO Capital Markets. That flexibility included customizing programs. APU has a management degree with courses in retail, and its deans worked with Wal-Mart to add more courses to build a retail concentration, said Wallace E. Boston, the system's president and chief executive.

It also enticed Wal-Mart with a stable technology platform; tuition prices that don't vary across state lines, as they do for public colleges; and online degrees in fields that would be attractive to workers, like transportation logistics.

Unlike American Public, Maryland's University College would not put a deep discount on the table.

Credit for Wal-Mart work was also an issue, Ms. Aldridge said.

"We feel very strongly that any university academic credit that's given for training needs to be training or experience at the university level," Ms. Aldridge said. "And we have some very set standards in that regard. And I'm not certain that we would have been able to offer a significant amount of university credit for some of the on-the-job training that was provided there."

Awarding credit for college-level learning gained outside the classroom is a long-standing practice, one embraced by about 60 percent of higher-education institutions, according to the most recent survey by the Council for Adult And Experiential Learning. A student might translate any number of experiences into credit: job training, military service, hobbies, volunteer service, travel, civic activities.

Pamela J. Tate, president and chief executive of the council, said what's important isn't the percentage of credits students get from prior learning—a number that can vary widely. What's important, she said, is that students can demonstrate knowledge. Workers might know how they keep the books at a company, she explained. But that doesn't automatically mean they've learned the material of a college accounting course.

Karan Powell, senior vice president and academic dean at American Public University system, said credit evaluation at her institution "is a serious, rigorous, and conservative process." But will the credits transfer? "Every college or university establishes its own transfer-credit policies as they apply to experiential learning as well as credit from other institutions," she said in an e-mail. "Therefore, it would depend on the school to which a Wal-Mart employee wanted to transfer."

Affordable on $12 an Hour? Then there's the question of whether low-wage workers will be able to afford the degrees. One of the key features of this deal is the discount that Wal-Mart negotiated with American Public.

"Wal-Mart is bringing the same procurement policies to education that it brings to toothpaste," said John F. Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, a distance-learning institution based in New York.

American Public University's tuition was already cheap by for-profit standards and competitive with other nonprofit college options. It agreed to go even cheaper for Wal-Mart, offering grants equal to 15 percent of tuition for the company's workers. Those employees will pay about $11,700 for an associate degree and $24,000 for a bachelor's degree.

But several experts pointed out that public colleges might provide a more affordable option.

The Western Association of Food Chains, for example, has a partnership with 135 community colleges in the western United States to offer an associate degree in retail management completely online, Ms. Tate said. Many of the colleges also grant credit for prior learning. Though the tuition varies by state, the average tuition cost to earn the degree is about $4,500, she said. By contrast, she said, the American Public degree is "really expensive" for a front-line worker who might make $12 an hour.

"What I couldn't figure out is how they would be able to afford it unless Wal-Mart was going to pay a substantial part of the tuition," she said. "If not, then what you've got is this program that looks really good, but the actual cost to the person is a whole lot more than if they were going to go to community college and get their prior learning credits assessed there."

How the retailer might subsidize its employees' education is an open question. In announcing the program, Wal-Mart pledged to spend up to $50-million over the next three years "to provide tuition assistance and other tools to help associates prepare for college-level work and complete their degrees."

Alicia Ledlie, the senior director at Wal-Mart who has been shepherding this effort, told The Chronicle in an e-mail that the company is "right now working through the design of those programs and how they will benefit associates," with more details to be released later this summer.

One thing is clear: The deal has a big financial impact on American Public. Wal-Mart estimates that about 700,000 of its 1.4 million American employees lack a college degree.

Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart's external advisory council, suggests 10 or 15 percent of Wal-Mart associates could sign up.

"That's 140,000 college degrees," she told The Chronicle. "Imagine three Ohio State Universities' worth of graduates, which is huge in American higher education."

 

Jensen Comment
This Wal-Mart Fringe Benefit Should Be Carefully Investigated by Employees
It does not sit well with me!

"Inspector General Keeps the Pressure on a Regional Accreditor," by Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Education has reaffirmed a recommendation that the department should consider sanctions for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major regional accrediting organizations. In a report this week, the Office of Inspector General issued its final recommendations stemming from a 2009 examination of the commission's standards for measuring credit hours and program length, and affirmed its earlier critique that the commission had been too lax in its standards for determining the amount of credit a student receives for course work.

The Higher Learning Commission accredits more than 1,000 institutions in 19 states. The Office of Inspector General completed similar reports for two other regional accreditors late last year but did not suggest any sanctions for those organizations.

Possible sanctions against an accreditor include limiting, suspending, or terminating its recognition by the secretary of education as a reliable authority for determining the quality of education at the institutions it accredits. Colleges need accreditation from a federally recognized agency in order to be eligible to participate in the federal student-aid programs.

In its examination of the Higher Learning Commission, the office looked at the commission's reaccreditation of six member institutions: Baker College, DePaul University, Kaplan University, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Phoenix. The office chose those institutions—two public, two private, and two proprietary institutions—as those that received the highest amounts of federal funds under Title IV, the section of the Higher Education Act that governs the federal student-aid programs.

It also reviewed the accreditation status of American InterContinental University and the Art Institute of Colorado, two institutions that had sought initial accreditation from the commission during the period the office studied.

The review found that the Higher Learning Commission "does not have an established definition of a credit hour or minimum requirements for program length and the assignment of credit hours," the report says. "The lack of a credit-hour definition and minimum requirements could result in inflated credit hours, the improper designation of full-time student status, and the over-awarding of Title IV funds," the office concluded in its letter to the commission's president, Sylvia Manning.

More important, the office reported that the commission had allowed American InterContinental University to become accredited in 2009 despite having an "egregious" credit policy.

In a letter responding to the commission, Ms. Manning wrote that the inspector general had ignored the limitations the accreditor had placed on American InterContinental to ensure that the institution improved its standards, an effort that had achieved the intended results, she said. "These restrictions were intended to force change at the institution and force it quickly."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The most successful for-profit universities advertise heavily about credibility due to being "regionally accredited." In some cases this accreditation was initially bought rather than achieved such as by buying up a small, albeit still accredited, bankrupt not-for-profit private college that's washed up on the beach. This begs the question about how some for-profit universities maintain the spirit of accreditation acquired in this manner.

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

Bob Jensen's threads on For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud

Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives (some for-profit universities have onsite as well as online programs) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm


Misleading Promotional Sites for For-Profit Universities

For-profit universities provide some free Website services in an effort to lure people into signing up for for-profit programs without ever mentioning that in most instances the students would be better off in more prestigious non-profit universities such as state-supported universities with great online programs and extension services.


I'm bombarded with messages like the following one from ---
http://www.paralegal.net/


Then go to the orange box at http://www.paralegal.net/more/
If you feed in the data that you're interested in a bachelor's degree in business with an accounting concentration, the only choices given are for-profit universities. No mention is made of better programs at the Universities of Wisconsin, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, etc.


I've stopped linking to the many for-profit university sites like this.
My threads on distance education alternatives are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
 


Questions
Why is Moody's in big trouble?
Why is it unlikely that Moody's will have the guts to downgrade U.S. Debt?

Answers (SEC Comment S7-18-11-33, August 8, 2011) by
http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-18-11/s71811-33.pdf


"10 risky default settings in social media that you need to check" The New Web, August 2011 ---
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/08/18/10-risky-default-settings-in-social-media-that-you-need-to-check/
Thank you David Albrecht for the heads up.


I keep getting telephoned appeals to give money to the New Hampshire Firefighters Trust. With some effort, I found out that the mailing address is in Brooklyn, New York. This makes me too suspicious to send even a penny to this outfit. But then again, I never send money to solicitors on the phone unless I know them personally.


"A Value-Added Tax Fuels Big Government:  In Europe the VAT hasn't substituted for income taxation. It's merely added to the tax burden," by Ernest S. Christian and Gary Robbins, The Wall Street Journal, August 24, 2011 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576518274100145458.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_t

Jensen Comment
It's hard to get extreme liberals and extreme conservatives to agree on much of anything, but one thing they equally despise as the VAT tax. But they hate it for different reasons. Conservatives hate it because it raises prices and reduces demand for products and services. Liberals hate it because, like sales taxes in general, the VAT tax is regressive in that prices are higher for the poor as well as the rich.

I personally am an advocate of the VAT tax. At a minimum it should replace the corporate income tax which simply is not working in the United States. The corporations making the most profits, like General Electric, are paying no corporate income taxes. I like the VAT tax for the same reason business firms hate it --- it's very easy and cheap to collect just as the sales tax is much easier to collect than income taxes and property taxes.

The conservative protests that a VAT tax will simply fuel bigger government are arguable. Congress could both reduce government and collect a VAT tax to reduce the some of the need for borrowing from China and elsewhere in the world. The liberal protests that it is regressive are hard to refute. But there are steps that can be taken just as many states now take some steps to make sales taxes less regressive. And since nearly half the taxpayers in the United States do not pay any income tax, I think it's time to force people at all income levels to pay for some of the government services that benefit them personally. For example, even the poor people in Canada pay something towards basic services such as health care.


"Academic Job Market for Sociologists Has Rebounded, Association Reports," by Peter Schmidt, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Academic-Job-Market-for/128765/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en


"Was Buffett Right? Do Workers Pay More Tax than Their Bosses?," by Roberton Williams, Tax Policy Center, August 23, 2011 --- Click Here
http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2011/08/23/was-buffett-right-do-workers-pay-more-tax-than-their-bosses/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+taxpolicycenter%2Fblogfeed+%28TaxVox%3A+the+Tax+Policy+Center+blog%29&utm_content=Netvibes

. . .

Warren Buffett may be right when he says that high-income taxpayers could pay more, especially given the extremely rapid rate of income growth at the top of the distribution. And he’s certainly correct when he says that the low tax rate on investment income cuts his tax bill well below that of many Americans. But he’s off base when he suggests that all high-income taxpayers pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than their middle-income coworkers.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Especially note the graph in this article.


"Study Critiques Disproportionately High Grades for Education Students," Inside Higher Ed, August 23, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/23/qt#268520

Students in education courses are given consistently higher grades than are students in other college disciplines, according to a study published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Monday. The study, by Cory Koedel, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Missouri at Columbia, cites that and other evidence to make the case that teachers are trained in "a larger culture of low standards for educators," in line with "the low evaluation standards by which teachers are judged in K-12 schools."

Jensen Comment
Years ago, Trinity University was one of the early universities to require a fifth year (masters degree) program for all majors in the Education Department. More importantly, students now have to major or minor in their chosen disciplines as well. For example, a mathematics teacher must major/minor in mathematics, thereby competing with other math majors. A biology teacher must major/minor in biology and so on. The important point is that there are no watered down major or minor courses geared especially for education majors. In part this move was made to overcome the stigma that majors in the Education Department did not have an easier curriculum in their concentration disciplines.

This is also intended to help minority students who otherwise often have more difficulties on the certification examinations.

More than half of the black and Latino students who take the state teacher licensing exam in Massachusetts fail, at rates that are high enough that many minority college students are starting to avoid teacher training programs, The Boston Globe reported. The failure rates are 54 percent (black), 52 percent (Latino) and 23 percent (white).
Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/20/qt


"The Next Generation of Technology: 35 Innovators under 35," MIT's Technology Review, September/October, 2011 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/article/38322/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-08-23

Selecting Technology Review's yearly list of 35 innovators under the age of 35 is a difficult but rewarding process. We search for candidates around the world who are opening up new possibilities in technology, and then we seek the advice of a panel of expert judges before finally selecting the winners. We look for people who are tackling important problems in transformative ways. Sometimes that transformation comes from developing an entirely new technology, such as graphene transistors that could one day replace silicon devices in microprocessors. Sometimes it means using existing technologies in novel ways, such as creating an effective way for local businesses to advertise electronically or organizing social networks to build up a community of patients suffering from a disease. This is the 11th year we have chosen innovators under 35, and each year the young technologists, taken as a group, present a snapshot of how technology is changing. The 2011 TR35 are already shaping the future. We hope you find as much pleasure in reading about them as we did in writing about them.

See this year's list of winners ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/?p1=TR35

Jensen Comment
A few that caught my attention are as follows:

Xiao Li
Anticipating what Internet users are searching for (like an organization's genuine home page)

Miriah Meyer
Extending data visualization to biology

Ajit Narayanan
Affordable speech synthesizers

Chris Poole
Designing online communities for anonymous collaboration

Maybe someday MIT will discover XBRL.


"What the Catcher Tells the Pitcher," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, August 21, 2011 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-catcher-tells-pitcher.html

Jensen Comment
This is good advice about getting the most from your students like a catcher tries to do for a pitcher with hand signals. But Bob Jensen has a word of caution here. In today's technology with video cameras on mobile phones, it's best to use a more open form of signaling to students. A teacher could lose his/her job by squatting down and sending a hand signal from the groin to a student.


Islamic Accounting

August 24, 2011 message from Mohammad Asim Raza

Hi Robert -
Read your response on the AECM listserv - I think you would find the Thomas McElwain's writing on interest in his Islam in Bible to be interesting. Here is excerpt.

Usury

Islamic banking is well-known in the financial world and is becoming popular as an investment alternative even outside the sphere of Islam. The prohibition of usury or charging interest on any lending is described in the literature of every Islamic school of jurisprudence. In justification of the prohibition Ali (1988, 141a) quotes Qur'an 2:275 `Those who swallow interest will not (be able to) stand (in resur­rection) except as standeth one whom Satan hath confounded with his touch.'

The Bible is also very clear on the matter of usury. It is in perfect harmony with Islam. The Arabic term for usury, raba, is rather neutral, coming from a root meaning to remain over or increase. The Biblical term for usury, neshek, is strongly negative, coming from a root whose basic meaning is to strike as a serpent.

The term neshek itself is used twelve times in the Bible, but related words are used several times as well. All of them either prohibit usury or speak of it in deprecating terms.

Leviticus 25:36,37. `Take thou no usury of him, or in­crease: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.' The Hebrew term for increase here, tarbath, is a cognate of the Arabic riba. The word `or' in the translation of verse 36 is an interpretation of the undesignated copula we-. This is an example of the typical Hebrew habit of pairing synonyms.

Exodus 22:25. `If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.' This text already brings up the question of whether usury in general is prohibited, or merely usury of a brother, that is one under the covenant of God. The Torah has been interpreted to permit usury from unbelievers.

Deuteronomy 23:19-20. 'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury: Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.'

Here the import of the passage in Exodus becomes clear. Usury is prohibited from those under the covenant, but permitted from strangers, that is, unbelieving heathens. Beyond this clarification there is an interesting remark on economy. The strength and well-being of the economic situation is considered to depend on the avoidance of usury.

Psalm 15:1-5. `Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that putteth not out his money to usury...' The prohibition of usury in the Psalms is universal, whether the loan is made to believers or unbelievers.

Jeremiah 15:10. `Woe is me, my mother, that thou has borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.' The words of Jeremiah imply not only a prohibition on lending with interest, but on borrowing with interest as well. The guilt is thus attached to both parties in the transaction.

As part of the divine definition of justice we find in Ezekiel 18:8-9, `He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase... he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.' This is a positive approach to the problem, as well as another affirmation that neshek and tarbith are equivalent.

Ezekiel 18:13 makes the point negatively, `Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.' The context suggests that the abomination of usury is one of the sins provoking the Babylonian captivity. Verses seventeen and eighteen release the innocent children of the effects of their parents' sins in taking usury.

Ezekiel 22:12. `In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou has taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.' The taking of usury is equated here with bribes in judgement resulting in the execution of the innocent, and with extortion. Ezekiel thus defines more carefully what he means by `abominations' in chapter eighteen.

After the captivity the matter of usury arose again, and was put to a quick end by the intervention of Nehemiah. Nehemiah's argument is not based on fear of renewed captivity as a result of usury. Rather, he appeals directly to law and justice. Having authority as governor, his measures were met with success: Nehemiah five.

The Gospel references to usury are neither legislative nor normative. In a parable we find Jesus quoting a master scolding a servant for neglecting his property. Matthew 25:27 'Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.' The same story is repeated in Luke 19:23. Jesus makes no comment here on usury as such. The text does reveal that Jesus' hearers were familiar with the practice and that at least some, those having capital, approved of it. The context might well be lending to unbelievers.

In sum, usury is prohibited in the Torah when between believers. The prophets suggest usury to be one of the factors resulting in the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel uses very strong language against usury, equating it with bribery and extortion. The Psalms seem to apply the prohibition not merely within the context of believers but in general.

Although it appears that the Torah at least might permit usury in some contexts, the sum of Biblical teaching comes down firmly against it. The Islamic form of banking finds support not only in the Qur'an but in the Bible as well.

http://www.al-islam.org/islaminthebible/index.htm 

Regards, Mohammad Asim Raza, CPA
Baltimore, MD 21208

 

August 25, 2011 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Mohammad,

I don't want to get into any religious debates over debt versus equity or how nations of Islam participate in global capital markets today. I think Islamic finance ministers have become masters of structured finance that avoid the terms "interest" and "usury"--- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_finance 

Bob Jensen's threads on Islamic Accounting are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#IslamicAccounting 

I do think a "rose" by any other name is still a "rose" such that a changed definition of lending will not change lending in and of itself. For example, deferred-collection sales contracts are a form of interest-bearing debt even if the word "interest" is never mentioned when negotiating deferred payment prices.

What we do know is that there should be a trade-off between risk and return so as to attract varied investors who are willing to take on varied levels of risk and expected returns. If investors are not allowed to lend (say by buying U.S, Treasury Bonds that earn the closest thing we have to risk free returns) then the governments of virtually all nations will have to find some other way to finance long-term projects and deficits.

If equity investors cannot obtain financial leverage with debt, this will greatly affect willingness to invest in ownership shares.

I totally disagree with Robert Walker about debt if he will not agree to a risk-return variation in investment alternatives. If virtually risk-free investing is still an alternative then I think we just have a rose by another name.

Will Robert Walker also ban deferred collection sales contracts?

What Robert Walker fails to mention is that the modern economic world has entered into the realm of "structured financing" where old definitions of debt versus equity become blended in very complex ways, often with derivative financial instruments and hedging management of risk --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_finance  

Bob Jensen's threads on Islamic Accounting are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#IslamicAccounting 

Respectfully,
Bob Jensen

August 25, 2011 reply from Mohammad Asim Raza

Hi Bob - there is no doubt that Islam prohibit the use of interest - but does allow mark up which in principle is not interest. Interest and interest on interest is prohibited in Islam. My mention of the link was due the fact that other scriptures also are negative or against the use of interest as mentioned by McElwain.

There is an on going debate on the topic of interest whether it is paid on money or capital. Muslim scholars recognize that the loaned funds either create debt or asset. The question is if they are used to create additional wealth then why should the lender only be remunerated a fraction of money, interest in this case, since justice would require that the lender be compensated to the extent of involvement of financial capital in creating the incremental wealth - the point that well made by Dr Abbas Mirakhor.

Ps see the remarkable work on Islamic Economics by Baqir AsSadr (Pls note that there is no such thing as Islamic Economics, wrote it for convenience, in Islam the term is Iqtisad which is derived from qasdis-sabil, i.e., the straigh path. Other meanings of Iqtisad are straight and upright, maintaining a moderate attitude and holding neither less or more). The book covers several important topics and was his original work on the subject.

That said, Islamic finance is still developing (read: not perfect) and there are quite a hurdles to over come from the practical (there are much more traditional banks to work with) point of view - pls see the two attached documents - on Islamic Securitization, and Islamic home ownership in the US. The third attachment is a recent research mostly focusing on Australia, but provides a table indicating the activities of Islamic banking from asset percentage point of view in comparing to regular banking.

Not but least, Islam allows several arrangements as I am sure you must be aware of Mudaraba (commenda) and Musaraka (partnership), Beneficence loans (Al Qard al Hassan, as Quran mentions it) - non interest bearing loans to those who are in need, deferred payment sale (bay Muajjal), deferred payment installment in which the price of the product is agreed to between buyer and seller at the time of the sale and can not be changed for deferring payments, leasing (Ijara), cost plus sale, service charge, just to name a few. My friend Muath is covering some of the developments that have beeen taking place http://islamicfinance2009.blogspot.com/ 

So, Islamic financing is still developing and scholars are working on the alternatives - there is no doubt that interest causes ill and perpetuate greed in general.

Thank you for your reply, Bob, I may not be able to quickly reply to you as you know I am currently working on my dissertation work which is taking a whole lot of time.

Respectfully,
Raza

August 27, 2011 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Raza,

When you invest proceeds of bond debt into "capital," your debt still remains along with the bond debt's cash flow or fair value risk that can never be simultaneously eliminated (shifted) until the debt is paid off. What you do with the proceeds can never shift both types of risk. It's impossible to shift both types of risk even though you keep harping on "risk shifting" with proceeds into "capital investment" without being perfectly clear about what type of risk is being shifted with such an investment.

It's impossible to simultaneously eliminate both a debt's cash flow and fair value risks no matter whether or not you created a "capital" investment with the bond proceeds. And these risks exist apart from insolvency risk. The bonds can be risk-free in terms of insolvency risk and still have cash flow or fair value interest rate risk.

It's also questionable whether you've created capital with some uses of the proceeds?

What if you borrow in U.S. dollars for the purposes of speculating in options on Euros where the bond proceeds go to paying for options on Euros? Is this a capital investment?

What if you borrow U.S. dollars to speculate in U.S. Treasury Bond options on interest rates? Is paying $1 million in option premiums of interest rate options a capital investment?

 

One added point that should perhaps be shared with the AECM is that your supposed risk shifting from debt to capital means that this capital investments must be tied to particular contracts in the capital structure of a firm..

This violates the "capital structure irrelevancy theory" of Modigliani and Miller --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modigliani%E2%80%93Miller_theorem 

This was one of the main reasons Modigliani won the Nobel Prize in Economics. It will be earth shaking if you can convince economists that you've refuted that theory. Keep up the good work even if you can't convince me about the relevancy of capital structure.

 

August 27, 2011 reply from Raza

Hi Bob - you seem still confused (or want to get your last word in, just like in every other post) and harping on the side topics. The money is only a potential capital. For the money to become a capital, there has to be entrepreneurial effort. In other words you get interest on your debt while return on your capital. Debt is unsustainable, interest is bad, and also corresponds to your biblical values considering you are a conservative.

Respectfully,
Raza

 

Jensen Comment
I never mentioned my "biblical values" in this or any other thread in my life.

Added Jensen Comment
The Financial Commercial Bank:  A Saudi Joint Stock Company
For the Year Ended December 31, 2007
www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/IslamicJointStockCompany.pdf  

Somebody sent this to me. Please note that I did not add any of the yellow highlights or comments.
Nor do I have the slightest idea who added these yellow highlights or comments.
Nor do I defend the implication in Footnote 3(f) that Special Income Revenue and Expense and Special Income Rate Swaps are the equivalent as interest as defined in the Western world.
Nor do I have any idea who the counterparties are to these contracts or if they viewed Special Income Revenue and Expense as Interest Income and Expense.

I especially found Footnote B.1-1 interesting on how changes in Special Commission Rates will affect future cash flows or fair values. This is on printed Page 46 (also Page 49 on my reader).

A Rose by Any Name
Islamic Home Finance --- http://guidanceresidential.com/how-it-works


"A Federal Jump-start for Health IT: White House aide leads push to improve health-care IT with billions in stimulus funds," by David Talbot, MIT's Technology Review, September 6, 2011 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38475/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-09-06 

In a landmark government effort to drive American health care into the information age, the February 2009 stimulus bill earmarked about $30 billion in incentives for doctors and hospitals who install electronic medical records—paying up to $63,750 to individual physician and millions to hospitals.

Now comes the tough part: implementing "EMRs" and proving they really can reduce medical errors or get doctors to keep better track of chronically ill people. As National Coordinator for Health IT, Farzad Mostashari coordinates federal efforts to promote adoption of EMRs and to prod reluctant hospitals to share patient data.

Mostashari was recruited to take over the federal effort in February, after leading a patient-records initiative as an assistant health commissioner in New York City. He spoke with Technology Review's chief correspondent, David Talbot, about when we'll start seeing evidence that the technology is working.

TR: What problems are we attacking with this huge medical IT outlay? 

Mostashari: Start with "First, do no harm." Right now we do harm to patients through health care. The estimates, conservatively, are 100,000 to 200,000 people killed each year by things like hospital-acquired infections and adverse drug events. Electronic medical records provide an opportunity to create standardized protocols, to provide decision-support and reminders for doctors, and to tell them about the patient's medications and drug allergies, as well as any dangerous drug interactions, at the point of care. Those are all proven interventions.

What else can software do besides cut back on accidental hospital deaths?

All too often, people come into the doctor's office with high blood pressure which will kill them from stroke or heart attack, but the patient is complaining about something else. Doctors can get distracted and not pay attention to the most important thing—which might be that the patient's blood pressure is out of control, or the flu shot that hasn't been given. Electronic records can make it easy to provide these reminders. It can also make a list of patients who have not come in, who have high blood pressure or diabetes, and must be seen.

Why is the health care industry so far behind other industries?

Unfortunately, the business case often has not been strong enough to support adoption and use of electronic records.  But we have now reached a point where the incentives are turning the other way—with greater emphasis on paying for outcomes and value rather than volume.

Bring us up to date since February 2009, when the bill passed. What is the progress to date on getting the IT installed?

The ice has broken after decades of talk. Back in 2009, only 10 percent of hospitals and 20 percent of primary care providers used basic EMRs. Within a year, the doctors went from 20 percent to 30 percent. I expect it to get to 40 percent this year. We have about 10,000 new providers a month registering for incentives. About $400 million has gone out in payments already, and is expected to hit the $1 billion mark by early 2012.

But this is more than installing software—it's about a concept called "meaningful use." The health IT incentive payments are predicated on very specific criteria. For example, the electronic health record must contain blood pressure readings, height and weight, lab data, the patient's problem list, and allergies; the patients' preferred language will be recorded; and the system must have a whole series of functionalities around sharing information with] patients and public health agencies.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's health care threads are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm


From the Scout Report on August 19, 2011

VLC 1.1.11 --- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ 

There are many media players available for general use, and this iteration of VLC is well worth a look. VLC is an open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files, along with DVDs and audio CDs. The application can also be used to convert various media file formats, and it also plays most codecs. This version is compatible with all operating systems, including Linux.


SketchBook Express 5.2.1 --- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchbook-express/id404243625?mt=12 

For those people looking to explore a free drawing application for the Mac, SketchBook Express is a good place to start. With this version, visitors can use over 65 different painting tools and brushes to create and save images. The palette of colors is quite extensive, with over 400 pre-set colors, and there are a number of finishing features designed to make each image perfect. This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.6.6 and newer.


After a protest in San Francisco, civil libertarians and others raise concerns over BART's actions BART admits halting cell service to stop protests http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-08-13/news/29883195_1_bart-police-bart-service-downtown-san-francisco-stations 

FCC to Investigate BART Cell Service Shutdown http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391168,00.asp 

FCC: Wireless Services: Cellular Services: Operations, Blocking & Jamming http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_2&id=cellular 

BART statement on temporary wireless service interruptions in select BART stations on August 11 http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2011/news20110812.aspx 

BART made right choice to shut cell service to thwart protestors
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/08/bart-made-right-choice-shut-cell-service-thwart-protesters  

Cell Phone Censorship in San Francisco? http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/cell-phone-censorship-san-francisco

 


From the Scout Report on August 25, 2011

Paparazzi! --- http://derailer.org/paparazzi/

Paparazzi! is a small utility program that makes screenshots of webpages. Visitors will find that the program is quite easy to use and there's a very useful FAQ section here. Before selecting a webpage to capture, visitors can crop the desired area as they see fit and also select the desired file format. This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.3 and newer.


Bean 2.4.4 --- http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html 

Are you looking for a simple and easy-to-use rich text editor? This edition of the Bean program may be just the thing. The features of Bean include a live word count, an autosave feature, a floating windows option, and a find panel. Overall, it offers an elegant alternative to other more fussy text editors, and it is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.4 and newer.


Beloit College releases its annual Mindset List
The Beloit College Mind-Set List Welcomes the 'Internet Class'
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Beloit-College-Mind-Set/128783/

Annual Beloit College mindset list will make you feel old
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/128238168.html

The Mindset List
http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

LBJ Library & Museum
http://www.lbjlibrary.org/

A Brief History of the Internet
http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Harvard Entrance Examination from 1869 [pdf]
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/education/harvardexam.pdf
 


From the Scout Report on September 2, 2011

Caffeine 1.1.1 --- http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/caffeine/id411246225?mt=12 

You don't want to spill coffee on your computer, but perhaps it could use a bit of this "caffeine." The Caffeine application prevents one's computer from automatically going to sleep, starting screensavers, or dimming the screen. Once installed, the application icon can be found on the right side of the menu bar, and it just requires a simple click to operate. This version is compatible with computers running Mac OS X 10.6 or later.


IObit Toolbox 1.2 --- http://www.iobit.com/toolbox.html 

While IObit Toolbox is described as being for "computer geeks," even casual computer users will find this toolbox quite useful. The application is web- based and does not need to be downloaded. Visitors should note that the application includes 20 different tools, including a file shredder, a registry defrag, and a startup manager. The program is compatible with computers running Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000.


What's the best way to avoid mental fatigue? A walk in the park, perhaps?
Coffee Break? Walk in the Park? Why Unwinding Is Hard
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576538260326965724.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_health

Why You Can't Make a Good Decision at 5:00PM
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/08/18/why-you-cant-make-a-good-decision-at-500-pm-decision-fatigue/

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? [Free registration may be required]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1

Fatigue: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003088.htm

Video: Need to relax? Take a Break for Meditation
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/MM00623

Sleep Tips: 7 Steps to Better Sleep
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sleep/HQ01387
 


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


Education Tutorials

Annenberg Learner: Monthly Update --- http://www.learner.org/about/news/updates.html

ARTStem [humanities teaching] http://www.artstem.org/

Completion Matters - STEM Earn and Learn --- http://www.completionmatters.org/summary/STEM Learn and Earn

Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory [interdisciplinary collaboration]  --- http://hastac.org/

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

National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth --- http://naehcy.org/

Technology Challenge Grants --- http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/projects/

Sloan Career Cornerstone Center: Podcasts (Over 45 Careers in Science, Medicine, and Engineering) --- http://www.careercornerstone.org/podcast.htm
There are no accounting, finance, or business careers covered at this site


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Sing About Science --- http://www.singaboutscience.org/

National Science Foundation: Education-Research Overview --- http://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/education/

National Science Teachers Association: Lab Out Loud (podcast) --- http://www.nsta.org/publications/laboutloud.aspx

STEMNET (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) --- http://stemnet.org.uk/

STEM Career (science careers)  http://stemcareer.com/

STEM Transitions --- http://www.stemtransitions.org/

Teaching Medical Physics --- http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/collection/565/teaching-medical-physics 

Center for Non-Verbal Studies --- http://center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/1501.html

The Student Source: Medical Resources and Software --- http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/menu/othermeded.cfm

Tough Talk: A Toolbox for Medical Educators --- http://depts.washington.edu/toolbox/

Photography of Homer L. Shantz (botany) --- http://uair.arizona.edu/item/274074

Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame sings "The Elements" ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAaiYKF0cs&feature=youtu.be

Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" animated  ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Much more seriously
The Periodic Table of Videos --- http://www.periodicvideos.com/

American Geological Institute: Educational Resources [included earth science promo videos] ---  http://www.agiweb.org/education/resource/

Genomics in Education --- http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/elgin/genomics/

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

Discover Engineering --- http://www.discoverengineering.org/

Nano.gov --- http://www.nano.gov/

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

Transgender Law and Policy Institute --- http://www.transgenderlaw.org/

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Manufacturing Portal --- http://www.nist.gov/manufacturing-portal.cfm

Discovering African-American History in Rural Ohio --- https://communitywithin.kenyon.edu/

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

Transgender Law and Policy Institute --- http://www.transgenderlaw.org/

National Institute of Standards and Technology: Manufacturing Portal --- http://www.nist.gov/manufacturing-portal.cfm

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


Math Tutorials

Sing About Science --- http://www.singaboutscience.org/

CAUSEweb Resources (statistics education) --- http://www.causeweb.org/resources/

Loci: Constructing Mathlets Quickly Using LiveGraphics3D --- http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/23/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=11

Mathematical Imagery --- http://www.ams.org/mathimagery/thumbnails.php?album=28#galleries

2010 Found Math Gallery --- http://www.maa.org/FoundMath/FMgallery10.html

50 Great Examples of Data Visualization ---
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/

IBM's Website for Data Visualization --- --- http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/app 
IBM's site lets people collaborate to creatively visualize and discuss data on fast food, Jesus' apostles, greenhouse-gas trends, and more.

Bob Jensen's threads on visualization of multivariate data ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm

Bayes' Theorem --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes_theorem

"A History of Bayes' Theorem," LessWrong, August 29, 2011 ---
http://lesswrong.com/lw/774/a_history_of_bayes_theorem/

Jensen Comment
Some of the classic Bayesian statistics books in business education came out of Harvard in the 1950s, I was weined on Robert Schlaifer's classic ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schlaifer

Business education has gone through various cycles of academic fad. A lot of us in the 1960s pinned our hopes on the Bayesian revolution that proved to be just that --- a passing fad in many ways while most accountics statistical analysis is still rooted in classical inference works of earlier history. Reverend Bayes disappeared from The Accounting Review about the time that case studies and field studies went by the boards, or should I say under the Boards.

 

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


History Tutorials

Download Free Courses from Top Philosophers: From Bertrand Russell to Michel Foucault --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/stars_of_philosophy_offer_free_courses_online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of free lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Digital History - Multimedia --- http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/multimedia.cfm

The Search for Cleopatra --- http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/cleopatra/brown-text

Computing History

UCLA's Internet Project --- http://www.ccp.ucla.edu/pages/internet-report.asp 

Timeline of Computing History --- http://www.computer.org/computer/timeline/ 

The History of Computing --- http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/ 

American University Computer History Museum --- http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/ 

The Apple (Computer) Museum  --- http://www.theapplemuseum.com/ 

A History of Microsoft Windows (slide show from Wired News) --- http://www.wired.com/gadgets/pcs/multimedia/2007/01/wiredphotos31

Oldcomputers.com  --- http://www.old-computers.com/news/default.asp

Aesthetics + Computation Group: MIT Media Laboratory --- http://acg.media.mit.edu/projects/

American Presidents --- http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/

George Handy Bates Samoan Papers (and photographs) --- http://fletcher.lib.udel.edu/collections/bsp/

Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) Archives, 1885-1990s --- http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/oaaaarchives/

World War II - Prisoners of War - Stalag Luft I --- http://www.merkki.com/

William P. Palmer III Collection [pre-Columbian and Northwest Coas] --- http://library.umaine.edu/hudson/palmer/

Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory [interdisciplinary collaboration]  --- http://hastac.org/

Miami Art Museum [Flash Player] --- http://www.miamiartmuseum.org/

Spode Exhibition Online (pottery and art history) --- http://www.winterthur.org/?p=824

The Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764-1765 --- http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/sally/

San Fernando Valley History --- http://digital-library.csun.edu/SFV

Discovering African-American History in Rural Ohio --- https://communitywithin.kenyon.edu/

Tse-Tsung Chow Collection of Chinese Scrolls and Fan Paintings --- http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/scroll/

National Portrait Gallery: Asian American Portraits of Encounter --- http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/encounter/

Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages --- http://www.bartleby.com/89/

Burgert Brothers Collection of Tampa Photographs --- http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=86148&sid=640824#

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

 

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

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


Writing Tutorials

Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages --- http://www.bartleby.com/89/

Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries


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

August 22, 2011

August 23, 2011

August 24, 2011

August 25, 2011

August 26, 2011

August 27, 2011

August 30, 2011

August 31, 2011

September 1, 2011

September 2, 2011

September 3, 2011

September 6, 2011

September 7, 2011

 


"Say goodbye to cavities: New gel could help your teeth fix themselves," Mike Wehner, Yahoo News, August 24, 2011 ---
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/goodbye-cavities-gel-could-help-teeth-fix-themselves-163934426.html

 




THE YEAR IS 1911

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!

************ ********* ***********

The year is 1911 --- One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some statistics for the Year 1911:

************ ********* ************

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !

The average US wage in 1910 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, A dentist $2,500 per year,

a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year,

and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at home .

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which

were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month,

and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from

entering into their country for any reason.

The Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4.. Heart disease 5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars...

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada , was only 30!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was neither a Mother's Day nor a Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and only 6 percent

of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter

at the local corner drugstores.

Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion,

gives buoyancy to the mind, Regulates the stomach and bowels,

and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health!"

( Shocking? )

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help ....

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. !

I am now going to forward this to someone else without typing it myself.

From there, it will be sent to others all over the WORLD -

all in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

Jensen Comment
Although my father was not born until 1912, in 1925 his first trip away from the Seneca Home Farm was a Model T trip to Canada ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/vernon.htm




Medication Recommendations from Bob Overn

Disease

Wine

Daily Dose

Acne

Médoc, Cabernet Franc

1 glass

Anemia

Barbera, Dolcetto

2 glasses

Allergies

Pinot Noir

1 glass

Bronchitis

Brunello, Cabernet Sauvignon

2 glasses

Constipation

Chardonnay

2-4 glasses

Cholesterol

Dry Champagne

2-4 glasses

Diabetes

Beaujolais Nouveau

1-2 glasses

Diaherria

Champagne sec

1 bottle

Gerd (Acid reflux)

Burgundy , Santenay Rouge

1-3 glasses

High Uric acid (Gout)

Sancerre , Pouilly Fume

2 glasses

Hypertension

Alsace , Sancerre

4 glasses

Menopause

Grenache, Syrah

4 glasses

Depression

Médoc, Tempranillo

1-3 glasses

Bladder Infection

Sangiovese

1-3 glasses

Obesity

Syrah

1 bottle

Rheumatism

Malbec or Merlot

1-2 glasses

Sleep Apnia

Port

1 glass (4 oz)

Erectile Disfunction (ED)

Any of the above

Doesn't matter

 
 

Cheers!

 
 




 

 


Forwarded by Paula

Libyan Madman Turns Up in New Hampshire

CONCORD, NH (The Borowitz Report)
The mystery surrounding Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s whereabouts was resolved today as the dictator announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in a town hall meeting in Concord, New Hampshire. In announcing his candidacy, the Libyan madman joins a Republican field which is believed to number in excess of seven hundred candidates.

While some New Hampshire Republicans seemed surprised to see Col. Gaddafi shaking hands and kissing babies at the Concord town hall, an aide to the Libyan strongman said his transformation to GOP candidate made perfect sense. “In those final days in Tripoli he was becoming increasingly disconnected from reality,” said the aide. “So I think he’ll fit right in.” Mr. Gaddafi, dressed in his trademark yellow turban and matching robe and riding in on a Republican elephant, got mixed reviews in his first appearance on the campaign trail, with some New Hampshire citizens saying that his six-hour stump speech was badly in need of pruning.

Additionally, some felt that his rhetoric needed to be toned down, especially his closing line about fighting for the Republican nomination “until the last drop of blood.” But others gave him high marks for his grasp of history and geography, which most agreed was stronger than Michele Bachmann’s.

Perhaps underscoring the challenges that lie ahead for Mr. Gaddafi in his quest for the GOP nod, current polls show him in the back of the pack, leading former Senator Rick Santorum but trailing the pizza guy. “Unfortunately for Muammar Gaddafi, he might be out of step with the current crop of Republican candidates,” one pollster said. “There’s a perception that he’s too moderate.”


Forwarded by Auntie Bev

Christian One Liners

Don't let your worries get the best of you; Remember, Moses started out as a basket case.

 

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews..

 

Many folks want to serve God, But only as advisers.

 

It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.

 

The good Lord didn't create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.

 

When you get to your wit's end, You'll find God lives there.

 

People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and back of the church.

 

Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on the front door forever.

 

Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn't belong.

 

If a church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has ..

 

God Himself doesn't propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?

 

Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

 

Peace starts with a smile.

 

I don't know why some people change churches; what difference does it make

which one you stay home from?

 

A lot of church members singing 'Standing on the Promises' are just sitting on the premises.

 

Be ye fishers of men; you catch 'em - He'll clean 'em.

 

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

 

Don't put a question mark where God put a period.

 

Forbidden fruits create many jams.

 

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

 

God grades on the cross, not the curve.

 

God loves everyone, but probably prefers 'fruits of the spirit' over 'religious nuts!'

 

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

He who angers you, controls you!

 

If God is your Co-pilot, swap seats!

 

Prayer:   Don't give God instructions, just report for duty!

 

The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

 

The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect  you.

 

We don't change the message, the message changes us.

 

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him.

 

The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.

 

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.  It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Humor Between August 1 and August 31, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q3.htm#Humor083111 

Humor Between July 1 and July 31, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q3.htm#Humor073111

Humor Between May 1 and June 30, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q2.htm#Humor063011   

Humor Between April 1 and April 30, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q2.htm#Humor043011  

Humor Between February 1 and March 31, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q1.htm#Humor033111 

Humor Between January 1 and January 31, 2011 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/book11q1.htm#Humor013111 

 




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

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

All my online pictures --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/

 

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