Tidbits on June 26, 2012
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
This week I feature
Set 01 of Photographs of Fields Near Our Cottage
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Fields/Set01/FieldsSet01.htm
What is going on in the Franconia Notch
region?
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/138111e306b7a964
This annual series for 2012 begins on Sunday, June 24. The readings take place
in the Henry Holt Barn at The Frost Place, are free and open to the public. The
June readings begin at 7:30 pm. J June 24. Thank you Dawn Potter.
White
Mountain News ---
http://www.whitemtnews.com/
Tidbits on June 26, 2012
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/
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
What Is a Flame?: The First Prize-Winner at Alan Alda’s
Science Video Competition ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/iwhat_is_a_flamei_the_first_prize-winner_at_alan_aldas_science_video_competition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Jensen Comment; This site was disappointing since there's
no explanation that allows me to understand my old flames.
The Transit of Venus in HD Video ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_transit_of_venus_in_hd_video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
In Cuba it's called free housing plus a ration card whether
you work or not
"The Karl Marx Credit Card – When You’re Short of Kapital" ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_karl_marx_credit_-_when_youre_short_of_kapital.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps – Peter Adamson’s
Podcast Still Going Strong ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_history_of_philosophy_without_any_gaps_going_strong.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Richard Dawkins Explains Why There Was Never a First Human
Being ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/richard_dawkins_explains_why_there_was_never_a_first_human_being.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Internet Buys Bus Monitor A Vacation After She's Viciously
Abused By Kids ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet-buys-bus-monitor-a-vacation-after-shes-viciously-abused-by-kids.php#more
Ray Bradbury Offers 12 Essential Writing Tips and Explains Why Literature
Saves Civilization ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/ray_bradbury_on_how_to_write_and_why_literature_saves_civilization.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Magician Marco Tempest Dazzles a TED Audience with “The
Electric Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla” ---
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/magician_marco_tempest_dazzles_a_ted_audience_with_the_electric_rise_and_fall_of_nikola_tesla.html
Worker At Lion Park Gets Hugs From Sweet Lion Cubs ---
http://www.slothster.com/3005-Worker-At-Lion-Park-Gets-Hugs-From-Sweet-Lion-Cubs.html
This ride will turn your life upside down in more ways than one (I'll pass)
---
http://www.wimp.com/russiaride/
Old Radio Shows ---
http://www.oldradioshows.org/
Radio Lovers ---
http://www.radiolovers.com/
Free music downloads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
The Symphony of Science ---
http://symphonyofscience.com/
The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Concert HD
2012 Full - Duration over 200 minutes ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkLk3gaLFAM
The Russian People Are More Westernized Than
Their Leaders
Russian Flash Mob Puttin' on the Ritz ---
http://www.youtube.com/embed/KgoapkOo4vg?rel=0
The Mix: The Songs Of The Summer, 1962-2012 ---
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/20/155132353/the-mix-the-songs-of-the-summer-1962-2012?ps=mh_frhdl1
Carnegie Hall Live: Lang Lang Plays Bach,
Schubert And Chopin ---
http://www.npr.org/event/music/153715008/carnegie-hall-live-lang-lang-plays-bach-schubert-and-chopin
June 14, 2012 message from David Fordham
Some of us are old enough to
remember the names Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire. Those who aren't might
recognize the music of the BeeGees. That two such separated generations
could coordinate timing so well says a lot for, well,... the video editors.
Richard Campbell can probably appreciate the frame-rate adjustments which
might (or might not??) have been necessary to put this together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz3CPzdCDws
Gives "dancin' with the stars" some
nostalgia to enjoy.
David Fordham
June 14, 2012 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi David,
Bob Jensen's threads on free music downloads are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
My two favorite (fantastic) dancing videos are as follows:
Elanor Powell Was Fred's All-Time Most Talented Partner
This video is slow loading but worth the wait
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/Astaire-Powell%20.wmv
My Favorite Boogie Woogie Dance
(the best piano player you never heard of)
For Boogie Woogie Piano Dancers (GREAT!) ---
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26579077
More free Boogie Woogie by Sylvan Zingg (on
piano, Hit the Play All Songs Button) ---
http://cdbaby.com/cd/zinggtrio
Other Boogie Woogie Sites (including free lesson sites) ---
http://www.boogiewoogiepiano.net/piano-jukebox/other-web-sites/other-websites.html
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
Found: Lost Great Depression Photos Capturing
Hard Times on Farms, and in Town ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/found_lost_great_depression_photos_capturing_hard_times.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Mathematics Made Visible: The Extraordinary Art of M.C. Escher
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/mathematics_made_visible_the_extraordinary_art_of_mc_escher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Arizona Regional Image Archive ---
http://aria.arizona.edu
Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge
Parkway in North Carolina ---
http://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/
Edward J. McCauley Photographs (North Carolina) ---
http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/mccauley/
North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online ---
http://www.ncecho.org/
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Digital Library ---
http://www.desertmuseumdigitallibrary.org/public/index.php
Jack Sheaffer Collection (Arizona) ---
http://www.library.arizona.edu/contentdm/jsheaffer/
Leslie Jones Collection (Boston historical photographs) ---
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/collections/72157623971760983/
Digital Library of the Caribbean ---
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/dloc1?n=dloc
Google Now Takes Us to Great Art Works and Art Museums Around
the World ---
http://www.googleartproject.com/
Especially note the "Education" hot word near the bottom of the page.
Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/ita/
Modern Masters: Watch BBC Series Featuring Warhol, Matisse, Picasso and Dali
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/imodern_mastersi_watch_bbc_series_featuring_warhol_matisse_picasso_and_dali.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Ten years of the Louvre online (art history)
Musee du Louvre --- http://www.louvre.fr/
Tate Modern: Mark Rothko ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/markrothko/default.shtm
The Croatian Museum of Naive Art (art history) ---
http://www.hmnu.org/en/default.asp
Princeton Art Museum: Video Archive
http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/resources/video-archive/
Tate Archive Journeys ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/
Tate Modern: Explore (Art History) ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/
The Croatian Museum of Naive Art (art history) ---
http://www.hmnu.org/en/default.asp
Metropolitan Museum of Art ---
http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp
Guggenheim: Interact [Real Player, Flash Player] ---
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact
The Baltimore Museum of Art ---
http://www.artbma.org/
The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore) ---
http://thewalters.org/
Print by Print: The Baltimore Museum of Art [Flash Player] ---
http://www.artbma.org/PrintbyPrint-project/index.html
Explore Art (multimedia) ---
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/
Digital History - Multimedia ---
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/multimedia.cfm
William J. Meuer Photoart Collection ---
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/UW/subcollections/MeuerAlbumsAbout.html
Museums and the Web ---
http://conference.archimuse.com/
Finnish National Gallery: Art Collections ---
http://kokoelmat.fng.fi/wandora/w?action=gen&lang=en
British Empire Exhibition 1938 ---
http://www.empireexhibition1938.co.uk/
2020 Whitney Biennial ---
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial
Cincinnati Art Museum: The Collection ---
http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempCollection.aspx?articleid=124&zoneid=71
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Book Arts Collection ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/bookarts/index.cfm
Greetings from Milwaukee (historical postcards) ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/postcards/index.cfm
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive ---
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery ---
http://www.vggallery.com/
Simon Schama Presents Van Gogh and the Beginning of Modern Art
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/simon_schama_presents_vincent_van_gogh_and_the_beginning_of_modern_art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
NEA Arts Magazine ---
http://www.nea.gov/about/NEARTS/2012_v1/index.html
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
Rare 1930s Audio: W.B. Yeats Reads Four of His Poems ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/rare_1930s_audio_wb_yeats_reads_four_of_his_poems.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Portland State University Digital Repository ---
http://dr.archives.pdx.edu/xmlui/
Dartmouth Digital Collections: Books ---
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/collections/books.html
"Celebrating Bloomsday: Stephen Fry Explains His Love for
Joyce’s Ulysses ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/celebrating_bloomsday_stephen_fry_explains_his_love_for_joyces_iulyssesi.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Pacific Fisherman Journal, 1903-1911 ---
http://content.lib.washington.edu/pacfishweb/index.html
Digital Library of the Caribbean ---
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/dloc1?n=dloc
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
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 June 26, 2012
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2012/TidbitsQuotations062612.htm
The booked National
Debt on January 1, 2012 was over $15 trillion ---
U.S. National Debt Clock ---
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Also see
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
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
Ending Up in Phony (or Worse) Sites With Ever-So-Slight Spelling Errors
The Wolfram Alpha site was amazing from the start and is continuing to do
amazing things. Unfortunately, most of us forget to use it for many things other
than to solve an equation and print the question and answer out in great
mathematical formatting and symbols ---
But this site now does ever so much more ---
Some Things You Might Want to Know About the Wolfram Alpha (WA) Search Engine:
The Good and The Evil
as Applied to Learning Curves (Cumulative Average vs. Incremental Unit)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm
By the way, here is something quite unethical in yet another for-profit
university promotion site.
The real Wolfram Alpha site ---
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
The phony Worlfram Alpha site ---
http://www.worlframalpha.com/
Can you detect the difference in this case?
Phony outfits constantly make very slight spelling differences to take users to
phony sites??
"Microsoft Finally Has a Tablet Business Model with Surface," by Dan
Frommer, ReadWriteWeb, June 19, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft-finally-has-a-tablet-business-model-with-surface.php
Microsoft Launches "Surface" Surface Tablet (two models)---
http://247wallst.com/2012/06/18/microsoft-launches-surface-super-tablet/
Runs on Windows RT or comes with an
upgrade
to Windows 8 Pro.
9.3 mm thin, with microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD
Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
Also see
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/tablets/3364729/microsoft-announce-new-tablet/
Microsoft's 2012 "Surface" Tablet ---
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx
"The Surface: Celebrate the Competition, Question the Premise," by
David Pogue, The New York Times, June 19. 2012 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/the-surface-a-new-tablet-from-microsoft/?gwh=4B88722A8D6F93FC189B50FA50DE70B8
On Monday at a Los Angeles media event that had
been veiled in secrecy, Microsoft announced that it was going to make a
gorgeous touchscreen tablet like the iPad. It’s called the Surface tablet.
Its main differentiators from the iPad: It has a kickstand, it has real PC
ports and it will run Windows 8.
In some ways, the announcement was a departure for
Microsoft, which, for decades, has carefully stayed out of the PC business.
There’s never been a Microsoft-branded computer.
On the other hand, the opening scenes of this movie
sure look familiar. Apple comes up with a hit product (iPod, iPhone).
Microsoft comes up with a rival that’s nicely designed (Zune, Windows
Phone). Unfortunately, it doesn’t add anything attractive enough to lure
people away from the safe choice, and nobody buys it.
There will actually be multiple Surface tablets;
this is Microsoft, after all. There are already two basic models: a lighter,
superthin one, with an ARM processor, that runs a modified version of
Windows 8 called Windows RT, and a Pro version with an Intel chip that runs
the full-blown Windows 8.
There are lots of questions. Microsoft didn’t tell
us the ship date, battery life or price. The Pro version, which Microsoft
hints will cost about the same as an ultrabook ($1,000), will run regular
Windows apps like Office and Photoshop; so what apps, exactly, will be
available for the Windows 8 RT version?
Won’t it anger Microsoft’s traditional “hardware
partners” that Microsoft is now making its own competitive tablet?
Will there be a cellular version? The company
demonstrated a magnetic screen cover that, ingeniously, doubles as a
keyboard with trackpad. Will that be included, or sold separately?
I think that Windows 8 represents some of
Microsoft’s best work. Fluid, fast, useful, easily grasped — and different
from the old iPhone/Android concept of icons-on-black. I’ve been
using a prerelease Windows 8 version on a Samsung
tablet, and it works beautifully.
But the iPad’s been around for two years; it’s
awfully late for Microsoft to begin its pursuit now. (See also: H.P.’s
tablet, BlackBerry tablet, Zune.) To me, the most compelling model is the
Intel version; imagine a gorgeous, sleek, thin tablet that can actually run
Windows software.
Continued in article
Khan Academy for Free Tutorials (now including accounting tutorials)
Available to the Masses ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy
A Really Misleading Video
Do Khan Academy Videos Promote “Meaningful Learning”?
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/expert_gently_asks_whether_khan_academy_videos_promote_meaningful_learning.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
If you ever
wondered whether professional scientists are skeptical
about some of the incredibly fun, attractive and brief
online videos that purport to explain scientific
principles in a few minutes, you’d be right.
Derek Muller completed his
doctoral dissertation by
researching the question of what makes for effective
multimedia to teach physics. Muller curates the science
blog
Veritasium and received his
Ph.D. from the University of Sydney in 2008.
It’s no small irony that
Muller’s argument, that online instructional videos
don’t work, has reached its biggest audience in the form
of an
online video.
He launches right in, lecture style, with a gentle
attack on the
Khan Academy, which has
famously flooded the Internet with free instructional
videos on every subject from arithmetic to finance.
While
praising the academy’s founder, Salman Khan, for his
teaching and speaking talent, Muller contends that
students actually don’t learn anything from science
videos in general.
In
experiments, he asked subjects to describe the force
acting upon a ball when a juggler tosses it into the
air. Then he showed them a short video that explained
gravitational force.
In tests
taken after watching the video, subjects provided
essentially the same description as before. Subjects
said they didn’t pay attention to the video because they
thought they already knew the answer. If anything, the
video only made them more confident about their own
ideas.
Science instructional
videos, Muller argues, shouldn’t just explain correct
information, but should tackle misconceptions as well.
He practices this approach in his own work, like this
film about
weightlessness in the space station.
Having to work harder to
think through why an idea is wrong, he says, is just as
important as being told what’s right.
Jensen Comment
In my viewpoint learning efficiency and effectiveness is so complicated in a
multivariate sense that no studies, including Muller's experiments, can be
extrapolated to the something as vast as the Khan Academy.
For example, the learning from a given tutorial depends immensely on the
aptitude of the learner and the intensity of concentration and replay of the
tutorial.
For example, learning varies over time such as when a student is really bad
at math until a point is reached where that student suddenly blossoms in math.
For example, the learning from a given tutorial depends upon the ultimate
testing expected.
What they learn depends upon how we test:
I consider Muller's video misleading and superficial.
Here are some documents on the multivariate complications of the learning
process:
Salman Khan Returns to MIT, Gives Commencement Speech, Likens School
to Hogwarts ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/sal_khan_returns_to_mit_gives_commencement_speech_likens_school_to_hogwarts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Internet Buys Bus Monitor A Vacation After She's Viciously Abused By Kids
---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet-buys-bus-monitor-a-vacation-after-shes-viciously-abused-by-kids.php#more
Jensen Comment
This is one of the reasons we're going to become more Orwellian with more and
more video cameras watching every move in public places and in some cases
private places when police make arrests, firefighters arrive in a house,
teachers with in classes, dorm lounges, playgrounds, campus trails, streets,
libraries, parking lots, etc.
"Gates Grants for 'Breakthrough Learning Models'," Inside Higher Ed,
June 20, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/06/20/gates-grants-breakthrough-learning-models
Jensen Comment
Note especially the grant to University of the People to help it get accredited.
University of the People ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_People
Mathematics Made Visible: The Extraordinary Art of M.C. Escher ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/mathematics_made_visible_the_extraordinary_art_of_mc_escher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Binary Visions: 19th-Century Woven Coverlets from the Collection
of Historic Huguenot Street ---
http://www.hrvh.org/exhibit/hhsbinary/
50 Great Examples of Data Visualization ---
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/
Bob Jensen's threads on visualization ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm
"Students and Families Miss Out on Millions in Tax Breaks, Report Says,"
by Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 18, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/StudentsFamilies-Miss-Out/132371/
About 1.5 million tax filers in 2009 did not take
advantage of the higher-education tax benefits for which they appeared to be
eligible, according to
a government report
released on Monday.
The report, by the Government Accountability
Office, says students and their families missed out on average tax benefit
of $466. The missed savings totaled $726-million.
Tax benefits for higher education—which include the
American Opportunity Credit, the Lifetime Learning Credit, and deductions
for tuition payments and interest paid on student loans—each year total
about $30-billion. But about 14 percent of the people who were eligible for
the benefits in the 2009 tax year did not use them, the GAO found.
And even among those who did take advantage of some
higher-education tax benefit, the report says many did not use them
effectively. For example, nearly 40 percent of the students and families who
took the tuition deduction could have saved more money by claiming the
Lifetime Learning Credit instead. Filers who didn't maximize their tax
savings paid an average of $284 more than they had to, for a total of
approximately $67.2-million.
The Government Accountability Office says that,
since 2005, it has repeatedly found that millions of filers eligible for
higher-education tax breaks have failed to claim them. In the report the GAO
recommends that the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Education
work together to develop a "coordinated, comprehensive strategy" aimed at
better informing students about the benefits for which they are eligible.
Bob Jensen's tax helpers ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304Taxation
"Exploring Accounting Doctoral Program Decline: Variation and the
Search for Antecedents," by Timothy J. Fogarty and Anthony D. Holder,
Issues in Accounting Education, May 2012 ---
Not yet posted on June 18, 2012
ABSTRACT
The inadequate supply of new terminally qualified accounting faculty poses a
great concern for many accounting faculty and administrators. Although the
general downward trajectory has been well observed, more specific
information would offer potential insights about causes and continuation.
This paper examines change in accounting doctoral student production in the
U.S. since 1989 through the use of five-year moving verges. Aggregated on
this basis, the downward movement predominates, notwithstanding the schools
that began new programs or increased doctoral student production during this
time. The results show that larger declines occurred for middle prestige
schools, for larger universities, and for public schools. Schools that
periodically successfully compete in M.B.A.. program rankings also more
likely have diminished in size. of their accounting Ph.D. programs. Despite
a recent increase in graduations, data on the population of current doctoral
students suggest the continuation of the problems associated with the supply
and demand imbalance that exists in this sector of the U.S. academy.
Jensen Comment
This is a useful update on the doctoral program shortages relative to demand for
new tenure-track faculty in North American universities. However, it does not
suggest any reasons or remedies for this phenomenon. The accounting
doctoral program in many ways defies laws of supply and demand. Accounting
faculty are the among the highest paid faculty in rank (except possibly in
unionized colleges and universities that are not wage competitive). For
suggested causes and remedies of this problem see ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
Accountancy Doctoral Program Information from Jim Hasselback ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoctInfo.html
Especially note the table of the entire history of accounting doctoral
graduates for all AACSB universities in the U.S. ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/XDocChrt.pdf
In that table you can note the rise or decline (almost all declines) for each
university.
Links to 91 AACSB University Doctoral Programs ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/AtgDoctProg.html
October 8, 2008 message from Amelia Balwin
These are the slides from today's presentations.
This is a work on progress. Your comments are welcome, particularly on the
design of the surveys.
I am very grateful for the support of this research
provided by an Ernst & Young Diversity Grant Award!
"So you want to get a Ph.D.?" by David Wood, BYU ---
http://www.byuaccounting.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=So_you_want_to_get_a_Ph.D.%3F
"The Accounting Doctoral Shortage: Time for a New Model," by Jerry E.
Trapnell, Neal Mero, Jan R. Williams and George W. Krull, Issues in
Accounting Education, November 2009 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/iace.2009.24.4.427
ABSTRACT:
The crisis in supply versus demand for doctorally qualified faculty members
in accounting is well documented (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools
of Business [AACSB] 2003a, 2003b; Plumlee et al. 2005; Leslie 2008). Little
progress has been made in addressing this serious challenge facing the
accounting academic community and the accounting profession. Faculty time,
institutional incentives, the doctoral model itself, and research diversity
are noted as major challenges to making progress on this issue. The authors
propose six recommendations, including a new, extramurally funded research
program aimed at supporting doctoral students that functions similar to
research programs supported by such organizations as the National Science
Foundation and other science‐based funding sources. The goal is to create
capacity, improve structures for doctoral programs, and provide incentives
to enhance doctoral enrollments. This should lead to an increased supply of
graduates while also enhancing and supporting broad‐based research outcomes
across the accounting landscape, including auditing and tax.
Accounting Doctoral Programs
PQ = Professionally Qualified under AACSB standards (seldom in tenure tracks)
AQ = Academically Qualified under AACSB standards
May 3, 2011 message to Barry Rice from Bob Jensen
Hi Barry,
Faculty without doctoral degrees who meet the AACSB PQ standards are
still pretty much second class citizens and will find the tenure track
hurdles to eventual full professorship very difficult except in colleges
that pay poorly at all levels.
There are a number of alternatives for a CPA/CMA looking into AACSB AQ
alternatives in in accounting in North American universities:
The best alternative is to enter into a traditional accounting doctoral
program at an AACSB university. Virtually all of these in North America are
accountics doctoral programs requiring 4-6 years of full time onsite study
and research beyond the masters degree. The good news is that these programs
generally have free tuition, room, and board allowances. The bad news is
that students who have little interest in becoming mathematicians and
statisticians and social scientists need not apply ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
As a second alternative Central Florida University has an onsite doctoral
program that is stronger in the accounting and lighter in the accountics.
Kennesaw State University has a three-year executive DBA program that has
quant-lite alternatives, but this is only available in accounting to older
executives who enter with PQ-accounting qualifications. It also costs nearly
$100,000 plus room and board even for Georgia residents. The DBA is also not
likely to get the graduate into a R1 research university tenure track.
As a third alternative there are now some online accounting doctoral
programs that are quant-lite and only take three years, but these diplomas
aren't worth the paper they're written on ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
Cappella University is a very good online university, but its online
accounting doctoral program is nothing more than a glorified online MBA
degree that has, to my knowledge, no known accounting researchers teaching
in the program. Capella will not reveal its doctoral program faculty to
prospective students. I don't think the North American academic job market
yet recognizes Capella-type and Nova-type doctorates except in universities
that would probably accept the graduates as PQ faculty without a doctorate.
As a fourth alternative there are some of the executive accounting
doctoral programs in Europe, especially England, that really don't count for
much in the North American job market.
As a fifth alternative, a student can get a three-year non-accounting PhD
degree from a quality doctoral program such as an economics or computer
science PhD from any of the 100+ top flagship state/provincial universities
in North America. Then if the student also has PQ credentials to teach in an
accounting program, the PhD graduate can enroll in an accounting part-time
"Bridge Program" anointed by the AACSB ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/conferences_seminars/seminars/bp.asp
As a sixth alternative, a student can get a three-year law degree in
addition to getting PQ credentials in some areas where lawyers often get
into accounting program tenure tracks. The most common specialty for lawyers
is tax accounting. Some accounting departments also teach business law and
ethics using lawyers.
Hope this helps.
Bob Jensen
PS
Case Western has a very respected accounting history track in its PhD
program, but I'm not certain how many of the accountics hurdles are relaxed
except at the dissertation stage.
Advice and Bibliography for Accounting Ph.D. Students and New Faculty by
James Martin ---
http://maaw.info/AdviceforAccountingPhDstudentsMain.htm
The Sad State of North American Accountancy Doctoral Programs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
"Assess Carefully: Don’t Be Duped by Bogus Journals," by Brendan A.
Rapple, Inside Higher Ed, June 17, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/assess-carefully-don%E2%80%99t-be-duped-bogus-journals
This blog follows a previous post on a related
theme by Maria Yudkevich, "Publications
for Money: What Creates the Market for Paid Academic Journals."
Numerous evaluative criteria may be used in
determining a journal’s scholarly worth. A common criterion is a journal’s
Impact Factor (IF). However, among the many problems with IFs is that only
journals indexed by ISI’s
Journal Citation Report have them (over 8,000
in Science and 2,700 in the Social Sciences).
SCImago
Journal & Country Rank, a portal showing the
visibility of the journals contained in the
Scopus® database
from 1996, is also useful for assessing journals. Another tool,
Google Scholar Metrics, facilitates gauging the
visibility and influence of recent journal articles and by extension
journals themselves. Yet another instrument, the
Eigenfactor
score and Article Influence score, utilizes
citation data to evaluate the influence of a journal in relation to others.
Of course, strong pointers about a journal’s quality are usually provided by
the status of the body publishing it, the reputation of its editorial board
members, the rigor of its peer-reviewing, its acceptance/rejection rates,
and where it is indexed.
Another factor in assessing a journal’s worth may be author publication
fees. Such fees do not necessarily constitute a red flag as numerous quality
open access (OA) journals employ a system of “author pays". However, there’s
the swiftly growing difficulty of sham journals whose sole rationale is to
make a profit with little interest in disseminating scholarship. Such
journals, often with credible scholarly names, publish most articles
submitted and charge authors high publication fees. It’s a significant
problem that more and more academics are being hoodwinked by these clearly
fake journals. A useful resource for determining some of these phony
publications is Jeffrey Beall's
List of
Predatory, Open-Access Publishers.
Though I’m a librarian I receive numerous
solicitations to submit articles, together with hefty publication fees, to
supposedly scholarly journals and/or to serve on their editorial boards. I
suspect that faculty scholars receive far more of these invitations. It’s an
epidemic. Indeed, it’s probable that the owners of these sham periodicals
when spamming scholars pay little attention to whether the recipients’
academic interests are relevant to the journal’s disciplinary focus. Some
scholars are even placed on editorial boards even though they have not given
their consent. Generally these ersatz journals, with scientific and
technological disciplines being particularly well represented, have
abnormally high acceptance rates with minimal or no peer reviewing. Of
course, this is a rational modus operandi for the journals’ sleazy
operators as genuine peer review that weeds out poor scholarship would
thwart their primary goal of making money. The more articles they publish,
the more money they make with publication fees of $500 or more per article
being common. Moreover, articles are often published with little or no
proofreading and checking. Indeed, authors are often not asked for their
final approval before publication. Little thought is given to digital
preservation. Articles, journals and, indeed, the publishers themselves can
disappear without trace. The result is a proliferation of essentially vanity
press publishing that benefits the purveyors of these spurious journals and
does damage to the academic reputation of the naïve or careless authors who
are conned by these predators.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
We also have some bogus journals in accounting research and education, those
journals of last resort when your paper has been rejected by three or more
legitimate accounting research journals. Sometimes those journals publish
proceedings of bogus conferences. Those are conferences held in very delightful
tourist places in Europe, the tropics, Australia, New Zealand, etc. where your
presentation session will be attended by three "scholars" only because they are
presenters in the same session. These high registration fee conferences are
attended mainly by professors ripping off their universities for a free tourist
trip, and publishing the conference papers electronically is an added bonus of a
line on a resume. Does anybody really read those "published" papers for which
"refereeing" is a fraud?
"The European Atrocity You Never Heard About," by R.M. Douglas,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-European-Atrocity-You/132123/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
After World War II ended, my wife's family was forced off their Czechoslovakia
farm at gun point. Being only five years old, Erika never knew why they were
forced to be refuges walking on the road. She was told that the soldiers
pointing guns at them were "communists." Erika with her mother, grandparents,
and Tante Pepe headed for Germany, but the Germans were blocking Czech
immigrants at border check points even if they were German speaking refuges
seeking shelter. Erika was eventually smuggled across the border to the bombed
out, dark, and cold Regensburg train depot on a Christmas eve.
The rest of the story ---
A Year 2000 message of love from my wife, Erika.
She describes how a Munich street urchin became Cinderella filled with love
and joy ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/erika/xmas00.htm
·
A Year 2001 message of love from my wife,
Erika
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/erika/xmas01.htm
"'Hall of Shame,' Year Two," by Elise Young and Libby A. Nelson,
Inside Higher Ed, June 13, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/13/education-department-focuses-state-role-cost-increases-annual-lists
"The Education of Dasmine Cathey," by Brad Wolverton,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Education-of-Dasmine/132065/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
"Dasmine Cathey Reflects on His Moment in the Spotlight," by Brad
Wolverton, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 12, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/dasmine-reaction/30411
Jensen Comment
This is an article that each of us will probably react differently to
after reading it carefully. Some readers will see this as another case,
in a long list of cases, where a NCAA Division 1 university makes a sham
out of college education of a star, albeit learning disabled, athlete.
By sham I mean where the main goal is to make that athlete able to read
after four years --- whereas the goal for non-athletes in the university
is much higher. As a non-athlete he probably would have flunked out of
the university in the first year. The coaches helped pull him through
courses while he was still eligible to play football only to leave him
hanging out to dry in completing the requirements for a diploma.
Other readers will see this as a case where a learning disabled
student was pushed beyond what he might have otherwise been without
special treatment as an athlete in college. The tragedy is that his
non-athlete counterparts receive no such special treatment from
"coaches."
As a retired college professor I question the commitment of any
student who does not care enough to try by attending class every day and
by seeking help from the teachers.
Personally, I think if Dasmine Cathey gets his diploma it makes a
sham out of that diploma. Dasmine deserves better in life, but why does
it have to be at the expense of lowered academic standards in higher
education?
"Big Sports Programs Step Up Hiring to Help Marginal Students,"
by Brad Wolverton, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 4, 2012
---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/the-fastest-growing-job-in-sports-helping-marginal-students/30171
"Pondering the Rest of the Apple Announcements," by David Pogue,
The New York Times, June 14, 2012 ---
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/pondering-the-rest-of-the-apple-announcements/
In its keynote on Monday at the Worldwide
Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple
took the wraps off enough new features and
products to cover a mummy parade. I
wrote about the highlights, and
reviewed the new laptop — but that wasn’t the end
of the food for thought. Herewith, some further reflections.
MacBook Air.
Only last week, I wrote about my own
personal electronics stash. I noted that I really
don’t need the DVD drive in my current MacBook, and wouldn’t mind shedding
the weight — but my alternative, the MacBook Air, doesn’t have enough
storage for my photos and videos.
Well, surprise: Apple
has updated its MacBook Airs. Now they have a faster chip, faster graphics,
more memory, USB 3 jacks and — here’s the kicker — greater storage capacity,
up to 512 gigabytes. And the price has dropped by $100. Hmmm.
Dictation.
As soon as Apple mentioned that talk-to-type would become a standard Mac
feature in the new Mountain Lion software, I thought of the MacSpeech folks.
These poor guys have been trying for over a decade to bring speech
recognition to the Mac; eventually, their product, now called
Dragon Dictate for Mac, was bought by Nuance. And
now that dictation will be baked into the Mac, who’d buy Dragon?
O.K., well, first of
all, Dragon is still far more accurate, since it tunes to your particular
voice. Second, it works even when you’re not online; the Mountain Lion
dictation requires an Internet connection.
And finally, Nuance
provides the dictation service for Apple’s gadgets — so Nuance is the
beneficiary of this deal, too.
Still, the WWDC
announcements reminded small software companies everywhere that their
efforts could be duplicated by Apple at any time. Think of Growl (very
similar to the new Notifications feature of Mountain Lion); the Classics app
(whose bookshelf design was borrowed for iBooks); Instapaper (now made
obsolete by a new feature in Mountain Lion’s version of Safari); and so on.
I guess that when
you dance around the footsteps of an elephant, you live with the knowledge
that you might get trampled.
FaceTime
over cellular. In iOS 6, the new version of Apple’s mobile
operating system, you’ll be able to make video calls wherever you are, even
over 3G cellular networks; until now, it’s been Wi-Fi only.
Why did it take so
long? Apple points out that unlike voice calls, data transmissions generally
don’t require continuous, steady, uninterrupted connections to the cell
networks. Your data consumption is usually in spurts: a Web page, an e-mail
download and so on. When you use a cellphone, your phone generally hands off
from tower to tower as you move — or even, sometimes, when you stay in one
place; until data connections can be made continuous and uninterrupted,
video calls won’t be satisfying.
In other words, it
took the cellular companies a couple of years to fine-tune their networks to
handle uninterrupted data transmissions. (And by the way, not all of the
carriers have done so — it’s likely that not all carriers will support
FaceTime.)
Mail.
In iOS 6, on the iPhone and iPad, you’ll now be able to attach a photo or
video to an e-mail message you’re writing.
Sounds pretty
obvious, I know. But until now, you had to begin that process in the Photos
app. You’d choose the photos first, tap Mail and then land in the Mail app
with the photos attached to a blank outgoing message. A little backward,
really.
The Mail app can
now open password-protected Office documents, too.
Laptop
backlash. There’s a lot of reaction to the new 15-inch MacBook Pro
— the one without a DVD drive, hard drive, Ethernet or FireWire. A lot of
people are complaining about what’s missing. (And no news of a new 17-inch
laptop, either.)
A lot of people
have noted, too, that you can’t upgrade or service the new laptop yourself.
The memory and storage that come installed the day you purchase it are the
memory and storage you’ll always have.
It’s a movie that
we’ve all seen before. Over and over and over. Remember when Apple killed
off the floppy drive? The dial-up modem? The removable battery?
Trust me — I’m
among the complainers. I screeched when they killed off the dial-up modem;
it was in a day when Wi-Fi was not ubiquitous by any means.
But we, too, are
gnats on the elephant. We have alternatives to Apple stuff; if we don’t like
the package deal Apple offers, we don’t have to buy Apple.
Continued in article
DNS Changer Malware
Forwarded by Jim Martin
These links are in the July 2012 issue
of PC World
For a DNS Changer Check-Up see:
www.dns-ok.us
That site provides a link to the FBI's site at
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/november/malware_110911
For infected systems see
http://www.dcwg.org/fix/
or Avir's repair tool at
http://www.avira.com/en/support-for-home-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/1199
Google warns hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July (July 9 to be
exact) ---
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/25/google-warns-hundreds-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july/
Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center at the University of Rhode
Island ---
http://www.dfcsc.uri.edu/
Bob Jensen's threads on computer and
networking security ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection
“One skill that would be helpful for higher
education employees today is the ability to think about the nonfinancial
metrics. We need people who can think strategically about all the factors to
consider in the decision to, for example, keep or cut a program. Finances are
important, but so are the other metrics that can help to paint a more complete
picture of value.”
"Measuring the ‘Unmeasurable’ June 10, 2012, by Dayna Catropa, Inside
Higher Ed, June 10, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/measuring-%E2%80%98unmeasurable%E2%80%99
Jensen Comment
The main focus of this panel was on the corporatization of education.
When it comes to corporations in general, accountants are experts on
financial measures and quite limited in terms of non-financial measures.
Triple Bottom Reporting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory02.htm#TripleBottom
Intangibles Reporting ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#TheoryDisputes
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit universities operating in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
How to Lie With Statistics ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics
Bill Mahar ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Maher
How to lie with statistics
"Dunce Bill Maher: U.S. Is Fifth Worst in the World in Income Inequality,"
by Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters, June 9, 2012 ---
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/06/09/dunce-bill-maher-us-fifth-worst-world-income-inequality
In this week's "How Dumb Is Bill Maher" segment,
the Obama-supporting comedian actually said on HBO's Real Time Friday that
the United States ranks fifth worst in the world in income inequality.
Actually, we rank 43rd (video follows with
transcribed highlights and commentary):
Shortly after the panel segment began Friday, Maher
asked his guests, “How bad is income inequality going to get when unions
disappear altogether?”
Michael Brendan Dougherty, the politics editor at
Business Insider, replied, “It’s going to get much worse.”
“How could it get much worse?” asked Maher. “I
mean, right now we’re fifth in the world, fifth worst in income inequality.”
Where did Maher get this figure?
Well, that's anybody's guess for according to the
CIA's World Factbook, America currently ranks 43rd.
That puts us better at this statistic than over 30
percent of the nations ranked by the CIA.
Some notables with far worse income inequality
include Thailand, Hong Kong, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, China, Peru, and
Argentina.
So, once again, as he does virtually every time
he's on television, Maher was not only wrong about something he arrogantly
claimed as fact - he was dead wrong.
Keep up the bad work, Bill!
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/06/09/dunce-bill-maher-us-fifth-worst-world-income-inequality#ixzz1xOdEFnDN
Jensen Comment
I think a better title for this would be "Bill Mahar's Dreams of Gini." Actual
Gini Coefficients vary by raters, but the U.S. is in nowhere near the worst
third of 207 sovereign states by anybody's dreams of Gini ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
When comparing nations as to inequality there's a huge problem with
defining "unequal" in terms of what? For example, when Bulgaria and Norway
both have similar Gini Coefficients, we have to question what this really tells
us in terms of where the living is good. Similarly, when the United States and
China have similar Gini Coefficients we have to ask the same question.
Measurement Problems of the Gini Coefficient ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient#General_problems_of_measurement
Comparing income distributions among countries may
be difficult because benefits systems may differ. For example, some
countries give benefits in the form of money while others give food stamps,
which might not be counted by some economists and researchers as income in
the Lorenz curve and therefore not taken into account in the Gini
coefficient. The Soviet Union was measured to have relatively high income
inequality: by some estimates, in the late 1970s, Gini coefficient of its
urban population was as high as 0.38,[19] which is higher than many Western
countries today. This number would not reflect those benefits received by
Soviet citizens that were not monetized for measurement, which may include
child care for children as young as two months, elementary, secondary and
higher education, cradle-to-grave medical care, and heavily subsidized or
provided housing. In this example, a more accurate comparison between the
1970s Soviet Union and Western countries may require one to assign monetary
values to all benefits – a difficult task in the absence of free markets.
Similar problems arise whenever a comparison between more liberalized
economies and partially socialist economies is attempted. Benefits may take
various and unexpected forms: for example, major oil producers such as
Venezuela and Iran provide indirect benefits to its citizens by subsidizing
the retail price of gasoline. Similarly, in some societies people may have
significant income in other forms than money, for example through
subsistence farming or bartering. Like non-monetary benefits, the value of
these incomes is difficult to quantify. Different quantifications of these
incomes will yield different Gini coefficients. The measure will give
different results when applied to individuals instead of households. When
different populations are not measured with consistent definitions,
comparison is not meaningful. As for all statistics, there may be systematic
and random errors in the data. The meaning of the Gini coefficient decreases
as the data become less accurate. Also, countries may collect data
differently, making it difficult to compare statistics between countries.
As one result of this criticism, in addition to or
in competition with the Gini coefficient entropy measures are frequently
used (e.g. the Theil Index and the Atkinson index). These measures attempt
to compare the distribution of resources by intelligent agents in the market
with a maximum entropy random distribution, which would occur if these
agents acted like non-intelligent particles in a closed system following the
laws of statistical physics. Credit risk
The Gini coefficient is also commonly used for the
measurement of the discriminatory power of rating systems in credit risk
management.
The discriminatory power refers to a credit risk
model's ability to differentiate between defaulting and non-defaulting
clients. The above formula G_1 may be used for the final model and also at
individual model factor level, to quantify the discriminatory power of
individual factors. This is as a result of too many non defaulting clients
falling into the lower points scale e.g. factor has a 10 point scale and 30%
of non defaulting clients are being assigned the lowest points available
e.g. 0 or negative points. This indicates that the factor is behaving in a
counter-intuitive manner and would require further investigation at the
model development stage.
How to Lie With Statistics ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics
The Unresolved Debate on Why Inequality of Income is Increasing in the
United States
The Gini Coefficient for increasing inequality in the United States economy
points to dramatic increases in inequality between the wealthy people and the
non-wealthy citizens of the U.S. See the third graph at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
Note that there are huge limitations in interpreting the Gini Coefficient that
over decades that has equated North Korea with Canada and Bulgaria with Norway
in terms of income equality. The Gini Coefficient points to equality without
giving regard to differences in the amount wealth/income being shared among
citizens. Hence people in North Korea may be equal in their starvation existence
to the same degree that Canadians may be equal in sharing a much more bounteous
bag of goods and services.
There's a huge difference when comparing nations as to poverty versus
comparing nations in terms of Gini Coefficients ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty versus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
It is almost impossible to avoid poverty in the most lawless nations (like
Somalia) , whereas some of the nations with the worst Gini Coefficients (like
Brazil) have laws and tough law enforcement.
Thus is it virtually meaningless to compare the Gini Coefficients of
different nations. It is, however, a different story when comparing the trend
lines across time for any given nation. In doing so, huge problems in
measurement must still be taken into account ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
Two of the best known books on the subject of inequiality are as follows:
I find them lacking in making recommendations on how best to a increase
bounteous bag of goods to be divided in a nation. These are not books on
capitalism versus socialism. Rather they are books about unjust economic
inequality.
- Amartya Sen (1992). Inequality
Reexamined. Harvard University Press.
ISBN 0-674-45255-0.
- First Hardcover
- Amartya Sen (1995). Inequality
Reexamined. Harvard University Press.
ISBN 0-674-45256-9.
- Paperback Reprint
Capitalism is given credit in the dramatic reduction of poverty in Chile ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys
Also see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
But capitalism is not given credit for the relatively high inequality in Chile.
Socialism is given credit for the dramatic increase in equality in Cuba. But
it is not given credit for reducing poverty.
In the 21st Century Some Scholars (notably Nobel Laureate
Joseph Stiglitz) Blame the Wealthy for the Increased Inequality in
the United States
This leads to various proposals of increasing the marginal tax rates on the
wealthy (at a time when most other nations have reduced such rates)
"Morning Advantage: The Rich Are Making It Harder for the Rest to Get
Ahead," by Paul Michelman, Harvard Review Blog, June 13, 2012 ---
"
http://blogs.hbr.org/morning-advantage/2012/06/morning-advantage-the-rich-are.html?referral=00563&cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert_date
"The Price of Inequality," by Nobel Laureate George E. Stiglitz,
Project Syndicate ---
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-price-of-inequality
In the 21st Century Other Scholars Are Asserting That the Rise in
Inequality is Much More Complicated Than Pinning the Blame of the Wealthy
Some blame the F grade of K-12 education for failing to prepare our young
people for the demands of working and earning in the 21st Century ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#HomeworkDeclining
On television I watched a middle school teacher complaining that they raised
her "full-time" working hours from three to six hours each school day. My
own daughter gets 16 weeks away from teaching each year while earning more
than she made from her previous medial lab technician job that only had two
weeks per year vacation (and lab techs have lots of on-call time on nights
and weekends).
Some like me claim the biggest disgrace in education is nearly universal
grade inflation K-20 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Our graduates are given false hopes about their abilities to enter the
working world. And many of them eventually become discouraged from even
trying to get skills needed for prosperity in work and future study.
Meanwhile we export jobs or import better educated graduates from outside
the United States.
Some blame the curse of drug addiction and an explosion of crime infested
buying and selling illegal drugs. Most certainly this has led to a rise in
family instability, failing parental responsibility, mental disabilities,
prostitution, and falling motivation to learn and work rather than join drug
gangs. This has added greatly to inequality.
Some blame government interference with mortgage markets (such as forcing
Fannie and Freddie to buy mortgages way in excess of property values) caused
the housing bubble which in turn had ripple effects on destroying the poor
and middle class savings in their homes, their job opportunities, and
business opportunities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#Sleaze
Some blame millions of local, state, and Federal government regulations,
especially EPA, OSHA, ADA, and FDA regulations, for inhibiting business
firms from investing and hiring.
Some blame business firms, local governments, state governments, and the
federal government in good times for agreeing to long-term wage contracts
(e.g., those union wages at GM in the 1980s) and underfunded pension and
disability plans (e.g., unfunded Medicare benefits to disabled citizens) for
creating and unsustainable economy in terms of wages and entitlements ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm
Most noteworthy here is the Social Security drug benefits championed by
President Bush that added enormously to our trillion dollar deficits. This
may seem like a huge move to greater equality except that many of those
retirees like me receiving thousands of dollars of annual benefits can
afford our own medications such that it made us more wealthy when many of us
really did not need the benefits.
It's popular these days to blame our troubles on the sinking economies
outside the United States --- notably those of the European Union
The list goes on and on in the blame game that mostly leads to nowhere
and a gridlocked Congress.
It's clear that economists and politicians are mostly clueless about
how to attack both the inequality, unfunded entitlements, and monumental
spending deficits at all levels of government. It's also clear that just blaming
the wealthy for our rising inequality is a cop out. Inequality will probably get
worse even if we tax away all the wealth of the wealthy, because the fundamental
problems in our society cannot be overcome with mere distribution of wealth.
Everybody claims we need one kind of tax reform or another, but the tax
reform proposals themselves are superficial and may be dysfunctional in solving
any of our inequality problems:
Case Studies in Gaming the Income Tax Laws ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/TaxNoTax.htm
Many claim we need to make a high equality nation like Denmark our ideal
rather than cling to The American Dream. I disagree ---
The American Dream ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
The time has come for virtually all citizens of the United States from the
richest to the poorest to be willing to make the sacrifices that our ancestors
made while seeking The American Dream. We must take responsibility for our
children and be willing to make huge sacrifices on their behalf, including
working longer hours, learning more to improve knowledge and skills, starting
our own ventures, paying more taxes, refusing to let criminals take over our
streets, searching for innovations, etc. The good life will not come from the
Denmark Dream. It will come from The American Dream.
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
"The endangered public company: The rise and fall of a great invention,
and why it matters," The Economist, May 19, 2012 ---
http://www.economist.com/node/21555562
AS THIS newspaper went to press, Facebook was about
to become a public company. It will be one of the biggest stockmarket
flotations ever: the social-networking giant expects investors to value it
at $100 billion or so. The news raises several questions, from “Is it worth
that much?” to “What will it do next?” But the most intriguing question is
what Facebook’s flotation tells us about the state of the public company
itself.
At first glance, all is well. The public company
was invented in the mid-19th century to provide the giants of the industrial
age with capital. That Facebook is joining Microsoft and Google on the
stockmarket suggests that public listings are performing the same miracle
for the internet age. Not every 19th-century invention has weathered so
well.
But look closer and the picture changes (see
article). Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s young founder, resisted going public
for as long as he could, not least because so many heads of listed companies
advised him to. He is taking the plunge only because American law requires
any firm with more than a certain number of shareholders to publish
quarterly accounts just as if it were listed. Like Google before it,
Facebook has structured itself more like a private firm than a public one:
Mr Zuckerberg will keep most of the voting rights, for example.
The number of public companies has fallen
dramatically over the past decade—by 38% in America since 1997 and 48% in
Britain. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in America has
declined from an average of 311 a year in 1980-2000 to 99 a year in 2001-11.
Small companies, those with annual sales of less than $50m before their
IPOs—have been hardest hit. In 1980-2000 an average of 165 small companies
undertook IPOs in America each year. In 2001-09 that number fell to 30.
Facebook will probably give the IPO market a temporary boost—several other
companies are queuing up to follow its lead—but they will do little to
offset the long-term decline.
Companies are like jets; the elite go private
Mr Zuckerberg will be joining a troubled club. The
burden of regulation has grown heavier for public companies since the
collapse of Enron in 2001. Corporate chiefs complain that the combination of
fussy regulators and demanding money managers makes it impossible to focus
on long-term growth. Shareholders are also angry. Their interests seldom
seem to be properly aligned at public companies with those of the managers,
who often waste squillions on empire-building and sumptuous perks.
Shareholders are typically too dispersed to monitor the men on the spot.
Attempts to solve the problem by giving managers shares have largely failed.
At the same time, alternative corporate forms are
flourishing. Once “going public” was every CEO’s dream; now it is perfectly
respectable to “go private”, like Burger King, Boots and countless other
famous names. State-run enterprises have recovered from the wreck of
communism and now include the world’s biggest mobile-phone company (China
Mobile), its most successful port operator (Dubai World), its
fastest-growing big airline (Emirates) and its 13 biggest oil companies.
No doubt the sluggish public equity markets have
played a role in this. But these alternative corporate forms have addressed
some of the structural weaknesses that once held them back. Access to
capital? Private-equity firms, helped by tax breaks, and venture capitalists
both have cash to spare, and there are private markets such as SecondMarket
(where $1 billion-worth of shares has changed hands since 2008). Limited
liability? Partners need no longer be fully liable, and firms can have as
many partners as they want. Professional managers? Family firms employ them
by the HBS-load and state-owned ones are no longer just sinecures for the
well-connected.
Make capitalism popular again
Does all this matter? The increase in the number of
corporate forms is a good thing: a varied ecosystem is more robust. But
there are reasons to worry about the decline of an organisation that has
spread prosperity for 150 years.
First, public companies have been central to
innovation and job creation. One reason why entrepreneurs work so hard, and
why venture capitalists place so many risky bets, is because they hope to
make a fortune by going public. IPOs provide young firms with cash to hire
new hands and disrupt established markets. The alternative is to sell
themselves to established firms—hardly a recipe for creative destruction.
Imagine if the fledgling Apple and Google had been bought by IBM.
Second, public companies let in daylight. They have
to publish quarterly reports, hold shareholder meetings (which have grown
acrimonious of late), deal with analysts and generally conduct themselves in
an open manner. By contrast, private companies and family firms operate in a
fog of secrecy.
Third, public companies give ordinary people a
chance to invest directly in capitalism’s most important wealth-creating
machines. The 20th century saw shareholding broadened, as state firms were
privatised and mutual funds proliferated. But today popular capitalism is in
retreat. Fewer IPOs mean fewer chances for ordinary people to put their
money into a future Google. The rise of private equity and the spread of
private markets are returning power to a club of privileged investors.
All this argues for a change in thinking—especially
among the politicians who have heaped regulations onto Western public
companies, blithely assuming that businessfolk have no choice but to go
public in the long run. Many firms now go (or stay) private to avoid red
tape. The result is that ever more business is conducted in the dark, with
rich insiders playing a more powerful role.
Public companies built the railroads of the 19th
century. They filled the world with cars and televisions and computers. They
brought transparency to business life and opportunities to small investors.
Because public companies sell shares to the unsophisticated, policymakers
are right to regulate them more tightly than other forms of corporate
organisation. But not so tightly that entrepreneurs start to dread the
prospect of a public listing. The public company has long been the
locomotive of capitalism. Governments should not derail it.
TED Video by Richard Wilkinson: The Situation of Inequality
Jensen Preliminary Comment
I'm always in favor in academic settings in trying to show all sides of an
issue, the issue in this case being equality of income, opportunity, health
care, diet, etc.
Firstly, I should state my biases. I'm rooted in The American Dream that
people of all ages should have all-important opportunities for training and
education, which is why I strongly favor tax supported schools, colleges, and
free open sharing of knowledge. In the U.S. we've seen a decline in opportunity
with great variations safety and education in schools say in South Chicago
versus those in South Dakota. Inequality in opportunity in education is
appalling to me.
Secondly, I'm in favor of universal health care (much like the Canadian Model
and not at all like the Obamacare Model) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
I note, however, that America's vast investments in health have not all been
wasted. The entire world has benefited from the U.S. advances in pharmacology,
medical technology, and other discoveries. More people come to the U.S. for
complicated medical treatments than vice versa. But there are gaps in terms of
access where the poorest and the richest people have better access than some of
the people caught in the middle who cannot afford good health insurance.
I could go on about my liberal (progressive) biases in many areas, but it may
be better for you to watch the following very moving video about inequality
around the world.
TED Video by Richard Wilkinson: The Situation of Inequality ---
http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/the-situation-of-inequality-2/
Jensen Comment
Some might conclude that this video is just the opposite of what I've been
urging about The American Dream ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
I agree with much (actually most) of this video.
There are some comments in the video that I most certainly must register
disagreement.
For example, Wilkinson at one point asserts: "If you want The American
Dream go to Denmark."
In the context of universal educational opportunity in the 21st Century this
sadly correct.
However, in other contexts this is not correct. The Denmark Dream of free
education, health care, retirement pensions, etc. has in retrospect had impacts
that run counter to the American Dream. The American Dream inspires ambition,
whereas the Denmark Dream destroys ambition --- Danes are provided for
cradle-to-grave with equality no matter how hard you work. Studies show that
Danes usually aren't interested in overtime work opportunities. They don't have
to save for their children or their old age.
Danes have less incentive to invent and innovate since the tax structure
takes most of the rewards for success to the government. They are less likely to
do such things as go heavily into mortgage debt and invest their savings in a
risky investment that takes 16 or more hours a day of hard labor to bring to
long-term fruition when the mortgages are paid off ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
What is the most misleading to me in Wilconsin's video is that simply
redistributing the wealth in America to make us more like Denmark would bring
about dramatic improvements in all the problems of inequality that he addresses.
However, he simply avoids more complicated questions. For example, Denmark does
not have millions of very poor and uneducated people from other parts of the
world sneaking into and squatting for the long-term in Denmark. Denmark does not
have anywhere near the crime issues with drugs and gangs that are raising havoc
in U.S. schools, medical clinics, families, neighborhoods, and prisons. For
example, putting the highest paid and best teachers in urban schools in our
largest schools is not going to solve the problem of neighborhood gangs, fear,
intimidation, extortion, rape, prostitution, and murder that interferes with
equal opportunity education in America. I think Wilkinson knows all these
problems but selectively does not want to poison his conclusion that
redistribution of wealth is the magic bullet of society.
The Scandinavian countries, Japan, and South Korea all are countries of low
diversity and minimal immigration. They do not experience many of the problems
(as well as benefits) that comes from diversity. Where they've experimented with
slight amounts of immigration they've encountered huge problems such as a spike
in rapes in Norway attributed to immigration. The "happiest nations" if the
world have the least legal and illegal immigration ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
The underlying theme of the Wilconson video is that increasing the top
marginal tax rates to achieve inequality will have nothing but good outcomes for
developed countries (he makes an exception for undeveloped countries). But this
does not explain why even his most favored equality-bent countries like
Scandinavia and Japan discovered that very high marginal tax rates were
dysfunctional to their economies:
Data that Wilconson does not show is that nations benefitting (in his eyes)
from high top marginal tax rates have actually been lowering this rates and
creating greater inequality in their nations. Wilconson makes no attempt to
explain why all these nations are lowering their top marginal tax rates ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/TaxNoTax.htm
Marginal Tax Rate Declines in the Rest of the World ---
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html
Table 1 Maximum Marginal Tax Rates on
Individual Income
*. Hong Kong’s maximum tax (the “standard rate”) has
normally been 15 percent, effectively capping the marginal rate
at high income levels (in exchange for no personal exemptions). |
**. The highest U.S. tax rate of 39.6 percent after 1993 was
reduced to 38.6 percent in 2002 and to 35 percent in 2003. |
|
|
1979 |
1990 |
2002 |
Argentina |
45 |
30 |
35 |
Australia |
62 |
48 |
47 |
Austria |
62 |
50 |
50 |
Belgium |
76 |
55 |
52 |
Bolivia |
48 |
10 |
13 |
Botswana |
75 |
50 |
25 |
Brazil |
55 |
25 |
28 |
Canada (Ontario) |
58 |
47 |
46 |
Chile |
60 |
50 |
43 |
Colombia |
56 |
30 |
35 |
Denmark |
73 |
68 |
59 |
Egypt |
80 |
65 |
40 |
Finland |
71 |
43 |
37 |
France |
60 |
52 |
50 |
Germany |
56 |
53 |
49 |
Greece |
60 |
50 |
40 |
Guatemala |
40 |
34 |
31 |
Hong Kong |
25* |
25 |
16 |
Hungary |
60 |
50 |
40 |
India |
60 |
50 |
30 |
Indonesia |
50 |
35 |
35 |
Iran |
90 |
75 |
35 |
Ireland |
65 |
56 |
42 |
Israel |
66 |
48 |
50 |
Italy |
72 |
50 |
52 |
Jamaica |
58 |
33 |
25 |
Japan |
75 |
50 |
50 |
South Korea |
89 |
50 |
36 |
Malaysia |
60 |
45 |
28 |
Mauritius |
50 |
35 |
25 |
Mexico |
55 |
35 |
40 |
Netherlands |
72 |
60 |
52 |
New Zealand |
60 |
33 |
39 |
Norway |
75 |
54 |
48 |
Pakistan |
55 |
45 |
35 |
Philippines |
70 |
35 |
32 |
Portugal |
84 |
40 |
40 |
Puerto Rico |
79 |
43 |
33 |
Russia |
NA |
60 |
13 |
Singapore |
55 |
33 |
26 |
Spain |
66 |
56 |
48 |
Sweden |
87 |
65 |
56 |
Thailand |
60 |
55 |
37 |
Trinidad and Tobago |
70 |
35 |
35 |
Turkey |
75 |
50 |
45 |
United Kingdom |
83 |
40 |
40 |
United States |
70 |
33 |
39** |
|
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers;
International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation. |
My conclusion is that Wilconson's TED video is very thought provoking and has
changed my thinking on a lot of things. But as a magic bullet for issues
threatening sustainability of the United States his implied solutions are
superficial and misleading. The U.S. is an immensely more complicated than
Denmark. Denmark solutions in the U.S. might very well indeed spell complete
disaster by destroying ambition, savings, risk taking (business loans), and
innovations.
All the sophomores of the world will buy into Wilconson's TED
video hook, line, and sinker. Hopefully, their teachers and professors have more
good sense. We need more ambition and innovation in the world rather than the
complacency of the Denmark Dream not suited for mass immigrations and cultural
diversity conflicts. We need to face the reality that most of the people of the
world are still greedy and tribal and conflicted with differing religions. For
them the answers are so simple.
"CUNY biz school fixed Wall Streeters' GPAs to keep receiving tuition:
sources," by Susan Edelman, Cynthia R. Fage, and Candice Glove, New York
Post, June 17, 2012 ---
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/is_on_at_cuny_fvNDXnweTy7guoYG9K8hQP
Thank you Marc Dupree for the heads up.
While teaching how corporations cook their books, a
CUNY business school was fixing grades.
An administrator at Baruch College’s prestigious
Zicklin School of Business forged professors’ names to raise the grade point
averages of students seeking master’s degrees to become dealmakers and
corporate leaders, The Post has learned.
An internal CUNY probe found the course grades of
“approximately 15 students” were falsified to keep their GPAs high enough to
stay in the programs, Baruch officials acknowledged.
The trickery prevented enrollees, including many
mid-level Wall Streeters whose firms picked up their tabs, from flunking out
— and kept their fat tuition checks flowing in.
The accelerated “executive programs” in business
and finance allow students to earn a master’s degree in 10 to 22 months
while working full-time.
The tuition: $45,000 to $75,000.
“It was done for money,” an insider said of the
scam. “They get a lot more money from those students. They don’t want to
lose these people, so they changed their grades.”
Baruch has referred the matter to law-enforcement
agencies, the college said in a statement. Spokeswoman Christina Latouf
would not say if students knew their grades were being changed or were
complicit in the scheme.
But Baruch has started calling some recent
graduates with disturbing news: Their sheepskins are invalid.
“What do you mean? My diploma’s on my wall. How can
you tell me I don’t have a degree?” one grad said, according to a source.
Chris Koutsoutis, a top administrator of the
executive programs, allegedly forged professors’ signatures on “change of
grade” forms, CUNY sources confirmed.
“I won’t have a comment about that,” Koutsoutis
said when confronted by The Post at his home in Flushing, Queens.
Professors submit students’ final grades
electronically. Any change requires the submission of a “change of grade”
form in which a professor gives a reason for the revision and signs his or
her name. The form also requires the approval and signature of supervisors.
The CUNY probe also found “forged contracts,”
officials said. Koutsoutis inked contracts with vendors who made travel and
other arrangements for class trips to cities such as Milan, Copenhagen and
Rio de Janeiro.
Koutsoutis would not comment on the forged
contracts except to deny he profited from them.
“All I will say is whatever allegations that I did
it for financial gain, they are false,” he said. “No students, faculty or
administrators gave me any money. I never took any freebies. I was offered
trips but never took any.”
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize
At the University of Wisconsin
"Online Degree Program Lets Students Test Out of What They Already Know,"
by Angela Chen, Chronicle of Higher Education,June 20, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-degree-program-lets-students-test-out-of-what-they-already-know/37097?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
The University of Wisconsin plans to start a
“flexible degree” program online focused on allowing undergraduates to test
out of material they have mastered.
The new program, geared toward working adults with
some college education, operates under a “competency based” model, said
Raymond Cross, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and
University of Wisconsin-Extension. This model is similar to the Advanced
Placement program, in which high-school students take AP tests to pass out
of college-level courses.
In the university’s new program, college courses
will be broken down into units. For example, a higher-level mathematics
class could include units such as linear algebra and trigonometry. Students
can then test out of certain units (instead of full courses) and spend time
learning only material that is new to them. Eventually, the units will build
into courses, and then a degree. The flexible-degree program and
traditional-degree program will have identical course requirements, and
since each flexible degree will be associated with a specific campus, the
student will receive a diploma from the originating campus and not from the
system.
“We’re trying to find ways to reduce the cost of
education,” Mr. Cross said. “Implicit in the model is the idea that you can
take lectures online from free sources—like Khan Academy and MITx—and
prepare yourself for the competency test. Then take the remaining courses
online at UW.”
The biggest challenge, he says, is determining how
to best test competency. Some units will require tests, while others may
require written papers or laboratory work. The difficulty of measuring
“competency’” for any unit will affect the program’s pricing structure,
which has not yet been determined.
The idea of competency-based credentials is common
in technical and health fields, Mr. Cross said, but it is rare at
traditional universities. The program is part of a push to encourage
Wisconsin’s 700,000 college dropouts to go back to a university.
“With higher ed now, people often have a piece or
two missing in their education, so we are responding to the changes in our
culture and helping them pull all these pieces together,” Mr. Cross said.
“Students already interface with a lot of different institutions and
different classes and professors, and this will help that process. I don’t
think this diminishes traditional higher ed at all. I think it’ll enhance
it.”
The first courses in the flexible-degree program
will be available starting in fall 2013. The university is still developing
exact degree specifications, Mr. Cross said. Likely degrees include business
management and information technology.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment (including distance education
assessment issues and competency-based testing) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
Udacity to Launch 5 New Courses on June 25. Shooting for Largest Online
Class Ever.---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/udacity_to_launch_5_new_classes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, lectures, tutorials, videos, and course
materials ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"3 Colleges' Different Approaches Shape Learning in Econ 101," by Dan
Berrett, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 18, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Econ-101-From-College-to/132299/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
"A Descriptive Study of Institutional Characteristics of the Introductory
Accounting Course," by Jonathan E. Duchac and Anthony J. Amoruso, Issues
in Accounting Education, February 2012 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.2308/iace-50089
ABSTRACT:
Introductory accounting has historically been a foundational course in most
undergraduate business curriculums. In many cases, the course serves as a
prerequisite for all upper-level business and accounting courses. However,
no current public data exist on the structure and characteristics of
introductory accounting across a large sample of institutions. This study
begins to fill this void by providing descriptive data on institutional
characteristics of the introductory accounting course. Data are collected on
seven different dimensions of the course suggested by the recommendations of
the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) and recent trends in
higher education: course size and staffing, pedagogical orientation/teaching
approach, standardization of course elements across instructors, the
textbook selection process, use of technology-based course management tools,
off-site course delivery, and transfer credit acceptance. In some cases, the
current data can be compared to previous research that examined similar
characteristics. The resulting data can provide instructors, administrators,
and researchers with a useful benchmark for developing teaching plans,
curriculum, and future academic research.
"Improving Student Satisfaction in a First-Year Undergraduate Accounting
Course by Team Learning," by Evelien Opdecam and Patricia Everaert,
Issues in Accounting Education, February 2012 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.2308/iace-10217
ABSTRACT:
This paper discusses student satisfaction and course experiences of
firstyear undergraduate students in an introductory financial accounting
course where team learning was implemented during tutorials. Course
experiences and satisfaction, as perceived by students in the team learning
condition, were compared to those in a traditional lecture-based control
condition. A post-experimental questionnaire, with open and closed-ended
questions, was administered. Students reported significantly higher levels
of satisfaction in the team learning condition and a more positive course
experience compared to students in the lecture-based condition. The
increased time spent on accounting in the team learning condition resulted
in increased learning, as evidenced by higher grades on the final exam in
the team learning condition. An analysis of open-ended questions revealed
that both learning conditions fit for particular students. High pre-class
preparation was considered a strength of the team learning condition, while
the comprehensive explanation by the teacher was the most frequently
mentioned advantage of the lecture-based condition. This paper further
contributes to the practice of accounting education by illustrating a way to
implement team learning in a large undergraduate accounting course.
"A Half Century of Close Encounters with the First Course in Accounting,"
by Doyle Z. Williams, Issues in Accounting Education, November 2011 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.2308/iace-50070 :
ABSTRACT:
This paper describes the author’s encounters with the first course in
accounting in his half century of study, teaching, and service on five
campuses, as a student, doctoral teaching assistant, lecturer, professor,
accounting department administrator, business dean, and senior scholar. Also
described are his encounters with issues surrounding the first course in
accounting in a variety of leadership roles with the American Accounting
Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Accounting
Education Change Commission, Association for Advancement of Collegiate
Schools of Business, the Accounting Programs Leadership Group, and the
Federation of Schools of Accountancy. Changes in the nature, content, and
teaching of the first course in accounting are discussed. Observations for
the future of the first course in accounting are offered.
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
A Heads Up on "Tenacious" Barter Accounting and Bookkeeping
"Al Qaeda Offshoot Offers Camels for Obama's Head, Hens for Hillary
Clinton's," Yahoo News, June 8, 2012 ---
http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaeda-offshoot-offers-camels-obamas-head-hens-165924543--abc-news-topstories.html
Jensen Comment
I think the promise of 78 virgins in the hereafter is more effective when
recruiting tactic to attract suicide bombers. What good are camels and hens if
you blow yourself up?
From an accounting standpoint these are barter transactions. It might be
interesting in accounting courses to envision these three types of barter
journal entries, but that probably would not be viewed as a politically correct
assignment in most universities. Do we capitalize or expense human heads under
Al Qaeda accounting standards? In theory, preserved heads have long-term
earnings potential as tourist attractions, but what if some of the tourists are
Navy Seals? That is one big contingent liability that's hard to book in the
ledger ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#TheoryDisputes
"Barter bookkeeping: A tenacious system,"
by Dale L. Flesher, Accounting Historians Journal, 1979, Vol. 6, no. 1,
pp. 83-86 ---
http://umiss.lib.olemiss.edu:82/articles/1000211.225/1.PDF
"Barter: Development of accounting practice and theory," Silliard E.: Stone,
Accounting Historians Journal, 1985, Volume 12, no. 2, pp. 95-108 ---
http://umiss.lib.olemiss.edu:82/articles/1000438.694/1.PDF
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting history ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Going Global With Laws and Regulations is Often a Disaster
"The Absurd International Criminal Court: After 10 years and
hundreds of millions of dollars, it has completed precisely one trial," by
Eric Posner, The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577452122153205162.html?mg=reno64-wsj#mod=djemEditorialPage_t
Ten years ago, on July 1, 2002, the International
Criminal Court (ICC) opened its doors. The treaty that created this new body
gave it jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and other
international offenses committed anywhere in the world, by anyone against
anyone. Supporters argued that it would put an end to impunity for dictators
and their henchmen, and usher in a new era of international justice.
The court has been a failure. Although it has a
staff of more than 700 and an annual budget in excess of $100 million, the
ICC has so far completed precisely one trial—that of Thomas Lubanga, a
commander in the civil war in Congo. It took three years and ended with a
conviction on March 14, 2012. The appeals have not begun. A few other trials
are ongoing or set to begin.
Even by the low standards of international
tribunals, this performance should raise an eyebrow. What went wrong?
As with any international organization, the court's
ability to operate rests on the consent of states. One hundred and
twenty-one nations have agreed to the treaty, a number that sounds
impressive. But the 121 include few authoritarian countries that employ
repression or conduct military operations. Mostly democracies with some
semblance of the rule of law have joined. Since the ICC gains jurisdiction
over a defendant only if domestic legal institutions fail to investigate
international crimes in good faith, most member countries are those least
likely to be subject to its jurisdiction.
Yet where the ICC has exercised its authority, its
actions have been controversial. Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo
and the Central African Republic have asked the court to investigate crimes
committed by various rebel groups. In all these cases, the court has been
careful not to offend governments willing to cooperate with it—but the
upshot has been that it has pursued rebels only and not government officials
who might be responsible for atrocities committed by the military.
Even when the court has acted with more
independence, it has caused more harm than good. The court's involvement in
Uganda's civil war in 2004 may well have helped persuade rebels to
temporarily lay down their arms. But the refusal to withdraw its indictments
has so far interfered with attempts to make peace with the rebels, who
demand amnesty.
The ICC has also intervened in Kenya, on its own
initiative, in the wake of violence that accompanied elections in 2007.
Criminal investigations of top-level Kenyan politicians, conducted at a
snail's pace, have inflamed tensions in that country but without producing a
resolution.
The ICC indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
in 2009 did nothing to bring peace to that country. Other African countries
continue to welcome him to their capitals in violation of their treaty
obligations.
The court also indicted Moammar Gadhafi, whom
Libyan forces murdered, and his son Saif Gadhafi, who is being held by one
of the many rebel factions in that unhappy country. An impasse has arisen
because Libyans have no desire to yield Saif Gadhafi to the comforts of a
Dutch jail and would much prefer to execute him. (The ICC cannot impose the
death penalty.)
Meanwhile, African countries accuse the ICC of bias
against Africans, as it has never indicted people from any other continent.
And few countries have shown much inclination to capture indicted suspects
and hand them over to the court.
Why does the International Criminal Court have such
difficulty? Unlike a national court, the ICC must constantly convince
governments to support it while at the same time avoiding the impression
that it is a tool of governments. For all the talk of the "global rule of
law," this is an intensely political process and essentially contradictory.
The court focuses on Africa because African
countries are weak. It operates with incredible slowness because it needs to
give the impression to suspicious audiences that it is fair. But because it
moves so slowly, it cannot react in a timely manner to fast-changing
international events—and it does little to deter dictators, whose life
expectancies tend to be short in any event. The upshot is that the court is
both distrusted and ineffectual.
Continued in article
"Are We Living in Sensory Overload or Sensory Poverty?" by Diane
Ackerman, The New York Times, June 10, 2012 ---
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/are-we-living-in-sensory-overload-or-sensory-poverty/?emc=eta1
. . .
I’m certainly not
opposed to digital technology, whose graces I daily enjoy and rely on in so
many ways. But I worry about our virtual blinders. We’re losing track of our
senses, and spending less and less time experiencing the world firsthand. At
some medical schools, it’s even possible for future doctors to attend
virtual anatomy classes, in which they can dissect
a body by computer — minus that whole smelly, fleshy, disturbing human
element.
When all is said and
done, we exist only in relation to the world, and our senses evolved as
scouts who bridge that divide and provide volumes of information, warnings
and rewards. But they don’t report everything. Or even most things. We’d
collapse from sheer exhaustion. They filter experience, so that the brain
isn’t swamped by so many stimuli that it can’t focus on what may be
lifesaving. Some of their expertise comes with the genetic suit, but most of
it must be learned, updated and refined, through the fine art of focusing
deeply, in the present, through the senses. Once you’ve held a ball, turning
it in your hands, you need only see another ball to remember the feel of
roundness. Strip the brain of too much feedback from the senses and life not
only feels poorer, but learning grows less reliable. Subtract the subtle
physical sensations, and you lose a wealth of problem-solving and lifesaving
details.
As an antidote I
wish schools would teach the value of cultivating presence. As people
complain more and more these days, attention spans are growing shorter, and
we’ve begun living in attention blinks. More social than ever before, we’re
spending less time alone with our thoughts, and even less relating to other
animals and nature. Too often we’re missing in action, brain busy, working
or playing indoors, while completely unaware of the world around us.
One solution is to
spend a few minutes every day just paying close attention to some facet of
nature. A bonus is that the process will be refreshing. When a sense of
presence steals up the bones, one enters a mental state where needling
worries soften, careers slow their cantering, and the imaginary line between
us and the rest of nature dissolves. Then for whole moments one may see
nothing but the flaky trunk of a paper-birch tree with its papyrus-like
bark. Or, indoors, watch how a vase full of tulips, whose genes have
traveled eons and silk roads, arch their spumoni-colored ruffles and nod
gently by an open window.
On the periodic
table of the heart, somewhere between wonderon and unattainium, lies
presence, which one doesn’t so much take as engage in, like a romance, and
without which one can live just fine, but not thrive.
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of technology ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
One of My Heroes in Michael Lewis ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis
Michael Lewis Tells Princeton Graduates How Moneyball Rules Apply to Real
Life ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/michael_lewis_princeton_graduation_speech.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Jensen Comment
You can read more about the books and videos of Michael Lewis by scrolling down
at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
Breaking the Bank Frontline
Video
In Breaking the Bank, FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk
(Inside the Meltdown, Bush’s War) draws on a rare combination of high-profile
interviews with key players Ken Lewis and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to
reveal the story of two banks at the heart of the financial crisis, the rocky
merger, and the government’s new role in taking over — some call it
“nationalizing” — the American banking system.
Simoleon Sense, September 18,
2009 ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/video-frontline-breaking-the-bank/
Bob Jensen's threads on the banking bailout ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
I'm suspicious that Andreas Hippin, in the above tidbit, was inspired by "The
End" by Michael Lewis
"The End," by Michael Lewis December 2008 Issue The era that defined Wall Street
is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s
Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?tid=true
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm#TheEnd
Inside the Wall Street Collapse (Parts 1 and 2) first shown on March
14, 2010
Video 2 (Greatest Swindle in the History of the World) ---
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6298154n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
Video 3 (Swindler's Compensation Scandals) ---
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6298084n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
"Michael
Lewis: The Economic Crisis -When Irish Eyes Are Crying," Vanity Fair via
Simoleon Sense, February 2, 2011 ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/michael-lewis-the-economic-crisis-when-irish-eyes-are-crying/
This is a must read to understand what went wrong on
Wall Street --- especially the punch line!
"The End," by Michael Lewis December 2008 Issue The era that defined Wall Street
is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s
Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?tid=true
To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street
investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense
investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old,
with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and
bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street
is to allocate capital—to decide who should get it and who should not.
Believe me when I tell you that I hadn’t the first clue.
I’d never taken an accounting course, never run a
business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job
at Salomon Brothers in 1985 and stumbled out much richer three years later,
and even though I wrote a book about the experience, the whole thing still
strikes me as preposterous—which is one of the reasons the money was so easy
to walk away from. I figured the situation was unsustainable. Sooner rather
than later, someone was going to identify me, along with a lot of people
more or less like me, as a fraud. Sooner rather than later, there would come
a Great Reckoning when Wall Street would wake up and hundreds if not
thousands of young people like me, who had no business making huge bets with
other people’s money, would be expelled from finance.
When I sat down to write my account of the
experience in 1989—Liar’s Poker, it was called—it was in the spirit of a
young man who thought he was getting out while the getting was good. I was
merely scribbling down a message on my way out and stuffing it into a bottle
for those who would pass through these parts in the far distant future.
Unless some insider got all of this down on paper,
I figured, no future human would believe that it happened.
I thought I was writing a period piece about the
1980s in America. Not for a moment did I suspect that the financial 1980s
would last two full decades longer or that the difference in degree between
Wall Street and ordinary life would swell into a difference in kind. I
expected readers of the future to be outraged that back in 1986, the C.E.O.
of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund, was paid $3.1 million; I expected them
to gape in horror when I reported that one of our traders, Howie Rubin, had
moved to Merrill Lynch, where he lost $250 million; I assumed they’d be
shocked to learn that a Wall Street C.E.O. had only the vaguest idea of the
risks his traders were running. What I didn’t expect was that any future
reader would look on my experience and say, “How quaint.”
I had no great agenda, apart from telling what I
took to be a remarkable tale, but if you got a few drinks in me and then
asked what effect I thought my book would have on the world, I might have
said something like, “I hope that college students trying to figure out what
to do with their lives will read it and decide that it’s silly to phony it
up and abandon their passions to become financiers.” I hoped that some
bright kid at, say, Ohio State University who really wanted to be an
oceanographer would read my book, spurn the offer from Morgan Stanley, and
set out to sea.
Somehow that message failed to come across. Six
months after Liar’s Poker was published, I was knee-deep in letters from
students at Ohio State who wanted to know if I had any other secrets to
share about Wall Street. They’d read my book as a how-to manual.
In the two decades since then, I had been waiting
for the end of Wall Street. The outrageous bonuses, the slender returns to
shareholders, the never-ending scandals, the bursting of the internet
bubble, the crisis following the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management:
Over and over again, the big Wall Street investment banks would be, in some
narrow way, discredited. Yet they just kept on growing, along with the sums
of money that they doled out to 26-year-olds to perform tasks of no obvious
social utility. The rebellion by American youth against the money culture
never happened. Why bother to overturn your parents’ world when you can buy
it, slice it up into tranches, and sell off the pieces?
At some point, I gave up waiting for the end. There
was no scandal or reversal, I assumed, that could sink the system.
The New Order The crash did more than wipe out
money. It also reordered the power on Wall Street. What a Swell Party A
pictorial timeline of some Wall Street highs and lows from 1985 to 2007.
Worst of Times Most economists predict a recovery late next year. Don’t bet
on it. Then came Meredith Whitney with news. Whitney was an obscure analyst
of financial firms for Oppenheimer Securities who, on October 31, 2007,
ceased to be obscure. On that day, she predicted that Citigroup had so
mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust.
It’s never entirely clear on any given day what causes what in the stock
market, but it was pretty obvious that on October 31, Meredith Whitney
caused the market in financial stocks to crash. By the end of the trading
day, a woman whom basically no one had ever heard of had shaved $369 billion
off the value of financial firms in the market. Four days later, Citigroup’s
C.E.O., Chuck Prince, resigned. In January, Citigroup slashed its dividend.
From that moment, Whitney became E.F. Hutton: When
she spoke, people listened. Her message was clear. If you want to know what
these Wall Street firms are really worth, take a hard look at the crappy
assets they bought with huge sums of borrowed money, and imagine what
they’d fetch in a fire sale. The vast assemblages of highly paid people
inside the firms were essentially worth nothing. For better than a year now,
Whitney has responded to the claims by bankers and brokers that they had put
their problems behind them with this write-down or that capital raise with a
claim of her own: You’re wrong. You’re still not facing up to how badly you
have mismanaged your business.
Rivals accused Whitney of being overrated; bloggers
accused her of being lucky. What she was, mainly, was right. But it’s true
that she was, in part, guessing. There was no way she could have known what
was going to happen to these Wall Street firms. The C.E.O.’s themselves
didn’t know.
Now, obviously, Meredith Whitney didn’t sink Wall
Street. She just expressed most clearly and loudly a view that was, in
retrospect, far more seditious to the financial order than, say, Eliot
Spitzer’s campaign against Wall Street corruption. If mere scandal could
have destroyed the big Wall Street investment banks, they’d have vanished
long ago. This woman wasn’t saying that Wall Street bankers were corrupt.
She was saying they were stupid. These people whose job it was to allocate
capital apparently didn’t even know how to manage their own.
At some point, I could no longer contain myself: I
called Whitney. This was back in March, when Wall Street’s fate still hung
in the balance. I thought, If she’s right, then this really could be the end
of Wall Street as we’ve known it. I was curious to see if she made sense but
also to know where this young woman who was crashing the stock market with
her every utterance had come from.
It turned out that she made a great deal of sense
and that she’d arrived on Wall Street in 1993, from the Brown University
history department. “I got to New York, and I didn’t even know research
existed,” she says. She’d wound up at Oppenheimer and had the most
incredible piece of luck: to be trained by a man who helped her establish
not merely a career but a worldview. His name, she says, was Steve Eisman.
Eisman had moved on, but they kept in touch. “After
I made the Citi call,” she says, “one of the best things that happened was
when Steve called and told me how proud he was of me.”
Having never heard of Eisman, I didn’t think
anything of this. But a few months later, I called Whitney again and asked
her, as I was asking others, whom she knew who had anticipated the cataclysm
and set themselves up to make a fortune from it. There’s a long list of
people who now say they saw it coming all along but a far shorter one of
people who actually did. Of those, even fewer had the nerve to bet on their
vision. It’s not easy to stand apart from mass hysteria—to believe that most
of what’s in the financial news is wrong or distorted, to believe that most
important financial people are either lying or deluded—without actually
being insane. A handful of people had been inside the black box, understood
how it worked, and bet on it blowing up. Whitney rattled off a list with a
half-dozen names on it. At the top was Steve Eisman.
Steve Eisman entered finance about the time I
exited it. He’d grown up in New York City and gone to a Jewish day school,
the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School. In 1991, he was a
30-year-old corporate lawyer. “I hated it,” he says. “I hated being a
lawyer. My parents worked as brokers at Oppenheimer. They managed to finagle
me a job. It’s not pretty, but that’s what happened.”
He was hired as a junior equity analyst, a helpmate
who didn’t actually offer his opinions. That changed in December 1991, less
than a year into his new job, when a subprime mortgage lender called Ames
Financial went public and no one at Oppenheimer particularly cared to
express an opinion about it. One of Oppenheimer’s investment bankers stomped
around the research department looking for anyone who knew anything about
the mortgage business. Recalls Eisman: “I’m a junior analyst and just trying
to figure out which end is up, but I told him that as a lawyer I’d worked on
a deal for the Money Store.” He was promptly appointed the lead analyst for
Ames Financial. “What I didn’t tell him was that my job had been to
proofread the documents and that I hadn’t understood a word of the fucking
things.”
Ames Financial belonged to a category of firms
known as nonbank financial institutions. The category didn’t include J.P.
Morgan, but it did encompass many little-known companies that one way or
another were involved in the early-1990s boom in subprime mortgage
lending—the lower class of American finance.
The second company for which Eisman was given sole
responsibility was Lomas Financial, which had just emerged from bankruptcy.
“I put a sell rating on the thing because it was a piece of shit,” Eisman
says. “I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to put a sell rating on
companies. I thought there were three boxes—buy, hold, sell—and you could
pick the one you thought you should.” He was pressured generally to be a bit
more upbeat, but upbeat wasn’t Steve Eisman’s style. Upbeat and Eisman
didn’t occupy the same planet. A hedge fund manager who counts Eisman as a
friend set out to explain him to me but quit a minute into it. After
describing how Eisman exposed various important people as either liars or
idiots, the hedge fund manager started to laugh. “He’s sort of a prick in a
way, but he’s smart and honest and fearless.”
“A lot of people don’t get Steve,” Whitney says.
“But the people who get him love him.” Eisman stuck to his sell rating on
Lomas Financial, even after the company announced that investors needn’t
worry about its financial condition, as it had hedged its market risk. “The
single greatest line I ever wrote as an analyst,” says Eisman, “was after
Lomas said they were hedged.” He recited the line from memory: “ ‘The Lomas
Financial Corp. is a perfectly hedged financial institution: It loses money
in every conceivable interest-rate environment.’ I enjoyed writing that
sentence more than any sentence I ever wrote.” A few months after he’d
delivered that line in his report, Lomas Financial returned to bankruptcy.
Continued in article
Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker: Playing the Money Markets (Coronet, 1999, ISBN
0340767006)
Lewis writes in Partnoy’s earlier whistleblower
style with somewhat more intense and comic portrayals of the major players
in describing the double dealing and break down of integrity on the trading
floor of Salomon Brothers.
Continued at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the Lehman Examiner's Report ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud001.htm#Ernst
You can read more about the books and videos of Michael Lewis by scrolling
down at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
Definition of New Hampshire --- A state where residents from Canada,
Vermontax, taxachusetts, and Maine come to shop
Canadians come for lower prices on liquor, cigarettes, beer, and some big ticket
items like air a new set of tires. I think there are limits to how much
Canadians are allowed to bring back to Canada, and their cars are subject to
searches at the border. However, unless narcotics are suspected, I doubt that
inspectors look under seats and at all five tires.
U.S. residents can cross back from New Hampshire with virtually zero risk of
car inspections. Hotels commonly locates near a Wal-Mart for shoppers that want
to spend the night and shop for two or more days.
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on June 18m 2012
Canadians Crowd U.S. Airports. Why? Taxes
by:
Jack Nicas
Jun 08, 2012
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
Click here to view the video on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Foreign Currency Exchange Rates, sales tax, Tax Policy,
Taxation
SUMMARY: 'Canadians have discovered a cheaper way to fly to the
United States: drive there first." The taxes imposed on airline tickets and
the fees charged by Canadian airports to fund major overhauls and
expansions-items funded by the federal government in the U.S.-lead to much
higher prices in Canada than in the U.S. The result has been a surge in
border airline traffic that is mostly due to Canadian passenger travel to
and from other U.S. locations "while overall air traffic in the U.S. has
fluctuated over the past decade."
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: The article can be used to describe the
economic and behavioral effects of tax policy. It also mentions the impact
of foreign exchange rates between the U.S. and Canadian dollars.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) Summarize the conclusions in the recent Canadian
Senate Committee report on the economic effects of Canadians migrating to
U.S. airports to then fly elsewhere in the U.S.
2. (Introductory) What are the different governmental policies
affecting the difference in taxation of U.S. and Canadian airport
operations?
3. (Advanced) According to the online video and the table entitled
"Stacking Up", which shows one airfare example, what two factors increase
the price of Canadian airline tickets relative to U.S. ticket prices?
4. (Introductory) How have smaller airlines in smaller airports
along the U.S. border taken advantage of business opportunities from these
pricing differences?
5. (Advanced) Why does the author note that "the Canadian dollar
has also remained largely on par with the U.S. dollar over the past two
years..." What effect does that exchange rate have on the issues in the
article?
Reviewed By: Judy Beckman, University of Rhode Island
"Canadians Crowd U.S. Airports. Why? Taxes," by: Jack Nicas, The Wall
Street Journal, June 8, 2012 ---
http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303506404577448523616941712.html?mod=djem_jiewr_AC_domainid&mg=reno64-wsj
Canadians have discovered a cheaper way to fly to
the United States: Drive there first.
Rising flight taxes and a strengthening Canadian
dollar are pushing Canadians to begin their U.S.-bound trips on U.S. soil.
Now airlines are rushing to meet the demand, adding service at small
outposts along the border.
Discount carrier Allegiant Travel Co. ALGT +1.54%
first stumbled onto the strategy in 2004 when it began service from
Bellingham, Wash., a city of 81,000 an hour south of Vancouver. The carrier
quickly found that more than half of its passengers were driving there from
Canada.
Since then, Allegiant has unlocked a new customer
base by filling planes with Canadians at a dozen lower-cost airports strung
along the Canadian border.
For the border airports, the Canadian passengers
have meant new life. At the three where Canadians make up more than 60% of
the passengers—Bellingham, Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Plattsburgh,
N.Y.—departing passengers have more than tripled to a total of 750,000 since
2007, and major expansions are planned or under way.
In Plattsburgh, just 60 miles south of Montreal,
city officials in 2007 turned the former local Air Force base into an
airport and nicknamed it "l'aéroport américain de Montréal." The airport's
website and all of its signs are bilingual, and employees are offered French
classes.
"We knew it was going to be successful," said
Michele Powers of the area chamber of commerce, "but we had no idea it was
going to grow this quickly." Passenger traffic has tripled since 2008, and
officials are now planning to double the size of the terminal just five
years after its opening.
Taxes and fees on a flight from Canada to U.S.
cities can be four times higher, or nearly $100 more each way, than on
flights to the same destinations from U.S. airports located just miles
across the border. Canadian airlines say that gap has made it nearly
impossible to compete.
The tax-and-fee gap between the two countries is
the result of differing governing philosophies.
Canada views air travel as best paid for by fliers
themselves, requiring them to fund airports' capital projects, said
Daniel-Robert Gooch, president of the Canadian Airports Council.
That strategy has made Canada home to some of the
best aviation infrastructure in the world without burdening Canadian
taxpayers as a whole, he said.
The U.S., however, subsidizes many airports,
especially in rural areas, betting they can drive economic activity.
Canadian airports and airlines, meanwhile, are
trying to plug the passenger leak. They recently commissioned studies on the
exodus to lobby the Canadian government to lower taxes on flying.
They found that U.S. airports near the border
handled roughly 4.8 million Canadians departing or arriving last year—15%
more than 2010, when it was first tracked. That is enough passengers to fill
64 Boeing Co. 747s per day, or more traffic than Ottawa International
Airport, Canada's sixth-largest airport.
"Everyone in Quebec is talking about how airline
tickets are (less expensive) here" in the U.S., said Caroline Gallant. The
Canadian woman made the 2½ hour drive to the airport in Burlington, Vt.
because the $400 round-trip flight to Chicago was half the fare from
Montreal, which is 20 minutes from her home.
Friends told her about the Burlington, Vt. airport
a year ago, and she has flown from it three times since. "I know it isn't
good for our airports, but they should decrease the tax, what can I say?"
On Tuesday, a Canadian Senate committee released a
study on the migration, urging the government to stop charging local
airport-operating authorities rent for airport land, and to lower taxes on
flying, such as a fee to use the country's navigation system that can run as
high as 20 Canadian dollars (US$19.50).
"Our position is blown out of the water by all the
taxes and fees," said Gregg Saretsky, chief executive of WestJet Airlines
Ltd., WJA +1.78% Canada's largest discount carrier. If every Canadian who
drove to the U.S. for a flight last year instead flew from Canada, Mr.
Saretsky said WestJet's $149 million net profit would have increased by
roughly half.
"But this isn't just a question for the airlines;
it is a question for the whole Canadian economy."
Canadian airport officials estimate the preflight
migration costs the country nearly 9,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in gross
domestic product a year. They also say there are also countless Americans
who fly to U.S. border airports and then drive to Canada to save on fares.
On Wednesday, instead of flying directly to
Montreal to visit his parents, Jean-Francois Brossoit and his family flew
from their home in Indianapolis to Burlington, and then rented a car and
drove to Canada, saving them hundreds of dollars.
In the past two years, Canada and the U.S. have
raised taxes by about $10 on flights south across the border.
But more increases have come from individual
Canadian airports which, unlike those in the U.S., rarely receive government
funding and must rely on passenger fees for capital projects. In Calgary,
for example, one fee on fliers is increasing to $30 from $20 to pay for a
new $1 billion runway.
In the U.S., however, the federal government is
paying for a new runway at the airport in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where workers
say they count, on average, eight Canadian license plates out of every 10
cars in the parking lot.
Continued in article
"Why Siri Matters," ReadWriteWeb, June 19, 2012 ---
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why-siri-matters.php
The revolution in
voice-controlled computing is advancing slowly and quietly, with Apple's
Siri personal assistant leading the way. Apple didn't invent the idea or
even the technology Siri is based on. It purchased Siri through an
acquisition, polished the user experience and baked it into the iPhone
4S. The
launch of that device last October kicked off
a new era in computing: one in which people command data, content and
services using their voices.
Siri rolled out with
deliberately scaled-back features and compatibility. Now we're beginning
to see how Apple plans to expand it. Last week, the company announced
Siri support for more languages and availability on the iPad,
representing an expansion in terms of both geography and cross-device
compatibility. These new features are incremental, but they represent
important steps toward an era of voice-activated computing that's just
around the corner.
Last week's
announcements suggest that Apple wants to establish a meaningful
presence in automobilies, and Siri is at the middle of it all. By fall
2012, Siri will land not only in tablets (and presumably a second
smartphone, the iPhone 5), but also in cars from Audi, BMW, Chrysler,
GM, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover and Toyota.
The Power of
Apple
Apple isn't the only
tech giant dabbling in voice control. Microsoft already has built it
into the XBox 360 via the Kinect, and there's reason to believe it will
be integrated with the company's other platforms. Google has its own
impressive voice search technology. But Apple's success at getting voice
control into the market for mobile devices sets it apart.
Continued in article
From the Scout Report on June 8, 2012
DataLocker ---
http://www.appsense.com/labs/data-locker
Personal cloud services are growing rapidly and
they can be quite useful. However, they open up various security concerns
and people can be a bit wary of using them. The DataLocker suite of products
is free, and it can encrypt and store secure files in any local file system
or cloud storage system, including Dropbox. First-time visitors can check
out a tutorial on this website to decide whether they wish to download the
application. This version is compatible with all operating systems.
DefinePlug ---
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cfaknacboecanofknlibmefckmanhjnh
Perhaps you are reading along with some text and
you'd like to know the meaning of an unfamiliar word. You may not want to
switch over to another webpage to look up the word, and this is where
DefinePlug comes in handy. DefinePlug incorporates word definitions from
abbreviations.com, allowing visitors to click on a word and see its
definition. This version is compatible with all computers running the Google
Chrome browser.
From the Scout Report on June 15, 2012
FastStone Screen Capture 7.1 ---
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
If you're looking for a well-designed and
easy-to-use screen capture program, you may wish to give this version of
FastStone Screen Capture a look. It allows users to capture and annotate
anything on the screen, including windows, objects, menus, freehand regions,
and scrolling windows. Additionally, visitors can also choose to send
captures to editor, file, clipboard, or email. Version 7.1 is compatible
with systems running Windows 2000 and newer.
You-Twit ---
http://www.you-twit.com/
You-Twit is appropriately named, as it brings
together the videos from YouTube that are trending on Twitter. It's a nice
effective tool for those who love social media. Visitors to the site can
sort through videos that are currently trending, or look through the
previous day’s trendsetters. This version of You-Twit is compatible with all
operating systems.
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Education Tutorials
"Mentor - Redux," by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, June 5, 2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/06/mentor-redux.html
A Master List of 500 Free Courses From Great Universities ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/a_master_list_of_500_free_courses_from_great_universities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, tutorials, videos, and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives (most are not free) ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
What Is a Flame?: The First Prize-Winner at Alan Alda’s Science Video
Competition ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/iwhat_is_a_flamei_the_first_prize-winner_at_alan_aldas_science_video_competition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Jensen Comment; This site was disappointing since there's no explanation
that allows me to understand my old flames.
Teachers' Domain: Earth System, Structure, and Processes ---
http://www.teachersdomain.org/browse/?fq_hierarchy=k12.sci.ess.earthsys
Water Resources Center
http://wrc.umn.edu/
Ohio State University College of Pharmacy Teaching Resources ---
http://www.pharmacy.ohio-state.edu/academics/teaching_resources/index.cfm
The Astronomy Center ---
http://www.astronomycenter.org/index.cfm?
The Transit of Venus in HD Video ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_transit_of_venus_in_hd_video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Richard Dawkins Explains Why There Was Never a First Human Being ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/richard_dawkins_explains_why_there_was_never_a_first_human_being.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
NOVA: Venom: Nature's Killer ---
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/venom-natural-killer.html
Bill's Design Talks (Cities and Living Spaces) ---
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/billsdesigntalks
Biosecurity at the National Academies ---
http://nas-sites.org/biosecurity/
Doing Biology ---
http://www1.umn.edu/ships/db/
The Human Heart: An Online Exploration from The Franklin Institute ---
http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/index.html
The Whole Brain Atlas ---
http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html
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
Federal Reserve Education ---
http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Center for Pacific Basin Studies
---
http://www.frbsf.org/economics/pbc/
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Teacher Resources Index ---
http://www.frbsf.org/education/teachers/index.html
Digital Forensics and Cyber Security Center at the University of Rhode Island
---
http://www.dfcsc.uri.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
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Law
Math Tutorials
Mathematics Made Visible: The Extraordinary Art of M.C. Escher ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/mathematics_made_visible_the_extraordinary_art_of_mc_escher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Binary Visions: 19th-Century Woven Coverlets from the Collection
of Historic Huguenot Street ---
http://www.hrvh.org/exhibit/hhsbinary/
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
History Tutorials
In Cuba it's called free housing plus a ration card whether you work or not
"The Karl Marx Credit Card – When You’re Short of Kapital" ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_karl_marx_credit_-_when_youre_short_of_kapital.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps – Peter Adamson’s Podcast Still Going
Strong ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_history_of_philosophy_without_any_gaps_going_strong.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
George Washington Carver Digital Collection ---
http://www.lib.iastate.edu/preserv/cdm/gwcarver.htm
Rare 1930s Audio: W.B. Yeats Reads Four of His Poems ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/rare_1930s_audio_wb_yeats_reads_four_of_his_poems.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Found: Lost Great Depression Photos Capturing Hard Times on
Farms, and in Town ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/found_lost_great_depression_photos_capturing_hard_times.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Driving Through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North
Carolina ---
http://docsouth.unc.edu/blueridgeparkway/
National Preservation Institute ---
http://www.npi.org/
Preservation Directory ---
http://www.preservationdirectory.com/HistoricalPreservation/Home.aspx
Binary Visions: 19th-Century Woven Coverlets from the Collection
of Historic Huguenot Street ---
http://www.hrvh.org/exhibit/hhsbinary/
Mathematics Made Visible: The Extraordinary Art of M.C. Escher
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/mathematics_made_visible_the_extraordinary_art_of_mc_escher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Google Now Takes Us to Great Art Works and Art Museums Around
the World ---
http://www.googleartproject.com/
Especially note the "Education" hot word near the bottom of the page.
Arizona Regional Image Archive ---
http://aria.arizona.edu/
University of Connecticut Student Yearbook, 1915-1990 ---
http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/collections/nutmeg/index.htm
Leeson's History of Montana, 1735-1885 ---
http://www.lib.umt.edu/node/336
Electronic New Jersey (history for teachers and students) ---
http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/njh/
New Jersey History ---
http://njh.libraries.rutgers.edu/
New Jersey Digital Legal Library ---
http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/
The New Jersey Historical Society ---
http://www.jerseyhistory.org/
Leslie Jones Collection (Boston historical photographs) ---
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/collections/72157623971760983/
From the Scout Report on June 8, 2012
Remains of Shakespeare-associated Curtain Theatre found in London Early
theater of Shakespeare is unearthed in London
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/early-theater-of-shakespeares-is-unearthed-in-london/
Does the rediscovery of Shakespeare's Curtain theatre matter? Absolutely.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/07/rediscovery-shakespeare-curtain-theatre-matters?newsfeed=true
Developers plan 'performance space' near remains of Shakespeare's Curtain
Theatre
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/developers-plan-performance-space-near-remains-of-shakespeares-curtain-theatre-7827694.html
Curtain up on Shakespeare's lost theatre
http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/news/curtain-up-on-shakespeares-lost-theatre.htm
Shakespeare's Globe virtual tour
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/about-us/virtual-tour
Shakespeare Online
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/
Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/ita/
Ten years of the Louvre online (art history)
Musee du Louvre --- http://www.louvre.fr/
Modern Masters: Watch BBC Series Featuring Warhol, Matisse, Picasso and Dali
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/imodern_mastersi_watch_bbc_series_featuring_warhol_matisse_picasso_and_dali.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Tate Modern: Mark Rothko ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/markrothko/default.shtm
The Croatian Museum of Naive Art (art history) ---
http://www.hmnu.org/en/default.asp
Tate Archive Journeys ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/
Tate Modern: Explore (Art History) ---
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/
The Croatian Museum of Naive Art (art history) ---
http://www.hmnu.org/en/default.asp
Metropolitan Museum of Art ---
http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp
Guggenheim: Interact [Real Player, Flash Player] ---
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact
The Baltimore Museum of Art ---
http://www.artbma.org/
Princeton Art Museum: Video Archive
http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/resources/video-archive/
The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore) ---
http://thewalters.org/
Print by Print: The Baltimore Museum of Art [Flash Player] ---
http://www.artbma.org/PrintbyPrint-project/index.html
Explore Art (multimedia) ---
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/
Digital History - Multimedia ---
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/multimedia.cfm
William J. Meuer Photoart Collection ---
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/UW/subcollections/MeuerAlbumsAbout.html
Museums and the Web ---
http://conference.archimuse.com/
Finnish National Gallery: Art Collections ---
http://kokoelmat.fng.fi/wandora/w?action=gen&lang=en
British Empire Exhibition 1938 ---
http://www.empireexhibition1938.co.uk/
2020 Whitney Biennial ---
http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial
Cincinnati Art Museum: The Collection ---
http://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/absolutenm/templates/ArtTempCollection.aspx?articleid=124&zoneid=71
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Book Arts Collection ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/bookarts/index.cfm
Greetings from Milwaukee (historical postcards) ---
http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/postcards/index.cfm
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive ---
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery ---
http://www.vggallery.com/
Simon Schama Presents Van Gogh and the Beginning of Modern Art
---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/simon_schama_presents_vincent_van_gogh_and_the_beginning_of_modern_art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
NEA Arts Magazine ---
http://www.nea.gov/about/NEARTS/2012_v1/index.html
Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Also see
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Language Tutorials
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
The Symphony of Science ---
http://symphonyofscience.com/
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
Writing at Colorado State University ---
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/index.cfm?guides_active=engineer&category1=41
Ray Bradbury Offers 12 Essential Writing Tips and Explains Why Literature
Saves Civilization ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/ray_bradbury_on_how_to_write_and_why_literature_saves_civilization.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
"Finding Joy in Writing," by Eva
Lantsoght, Inside Higher Ed, June 11, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/finding-joy-writing
This is great advice to give on a syllabus for students in courses that have
major writing components. The title maybe should be changed to "Finding Work in
Writing."
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Updates from WebMD ---
http://www.webmd.com/
June 12, 2012
June 13, 2012
June 14, 2012
June 16, 2012
June 18, 2012
June 19, 2012
June 20, 2012
June 21, 2012
July 22, 2012
June 23, 2012
"When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind," by Jeneen Interlandi,
The New York Times, June 22, 2012 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/magazine/when-my-crazy-father-actually-lost-his-mind.html?_r=1&hpw
Forwarded by Dan Gheorghe Somnea
Jewish taxi driver A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi
in New York City.
The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the
woman. He made no attempt to start the cab. The woman glared back at him and
said, "What's wrong with you, honey? Haven't you ever seen a naked woman
before?"
The old Jewish driver answered, "Let me tell you sumsing, lady - I vasn't
staring at you like you tink; det vould not be proper vair I come from."
The drunk woman giggled and responded, "Well, if you're not staring at my boobs,
sweetie, what are you doing then?"
He paused a moment, then told her... "Vell, M'am, I am looking and I am looking,
and I am tinking to myself, 'Vair in da hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay
for dis ride?!'"
YES, I'M A SENIOR CITIZEN!
I'm the life of the party..... Even if it lasts until 8 p.m.
I'm very good at opening childproof caps..... With a hammer.
I'm awake many hours before my body allows me to get up.
I'm smiling all the time because I can't hear a thing you're saying.
I'm sure everything I can't find is in a safe secure place, somewhere.
I'm wrinkled, saggy, lumpy, and that's just my left leg.
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Yes, I'm a SENIOR CITIZEN and I think I am having the time of my life!
Forwarded by Eileen
There was a bit of confusion at the store this morning. When I was ready to
pay for my groceries, the cashier said, "Strip down, facing me.."
Making a mental note to complain to my congressman about Homeland Security
running amok, I did just as she had instructed.
When the hysterical shrieking and alarms finally subsided, I found out that
she was referring to my credit card.
I have been asked to shop elsewhere in the future.
They need to make their instructions to us seniors a little clearer!
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/
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
-
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
- With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors
Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
- With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of
Accountancy Ignores TAR
- With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research
into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.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.
Accounting and Taxation News Sites ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
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://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
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.
Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for
accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting
education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial
accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing,
doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics)
research, publication, replication, and validity testing.
|
CPAS-L
(Practitioners)
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ (Closed
Down)
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] |
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog
Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB
and the International Accounting
Standards Board on this financial
reporting blog from Financial Executives
International. The site, updated daily,
compiles regulatory news, rulings and
statements, comment letters on
standards, and hot topics from the Web’s
largest business and accounting
publications and organizations. Look for
continuing coverage of SOX requirements,
fair value reporting and the Alternative
Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such
as the subprime mortgage crisis,
international convergence, and rules for
tax return preparers. |
|
|
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker
[lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as
well as a practicing CPA)
I found another listserve
that is exceptional -
CalCPA maintains
http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/
and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.
There are several highly
capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and
the answers are often in depth.
Scott
Scott forwarded the following message from Jim
Counts
Yes you may mention info on
your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any
CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is
possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not
have access to the files and other items posted.
Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in
top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and
in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I
will get the request to join.
Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage
people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then
via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in
your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the
inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.
We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in
California.... ]
Please encourage your members
to join our listserve.
If any questions let me know.
Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk
|
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
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.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